A bulletin board has been added to this website. The primary goal is for political discussions.
There will certainly be additional topics such as blogs and opinions on various science topics.
Please visit that board here:
Forums
And please be tolerant of my lack of skills in its creation and maintenance.
If you might be interested in being part of, and even guiding some political conversations,
then please contact me and join this board.
A new email was created for this site and bulletin board: webmaster at mbkelly dot net
There have been quite a number of town hall meetings for elected Republicans, none good for the Republicans. But, these meetings may not be as advantageous as we might hope. The meetings show our rage, but I suspect do little to our advantage. We can do better. We need to skip the outrage and organize our responses. Please read more about this Damper on Outrage
Much has been said about corporate taxes and how little tax many of the larger corporations pay. Here are some very simple suggestions for laws that might ensure more fair taxes for corporations, meaning more fair to the government and to average citizens. Please have a look here and see what you think. Comments and improvement suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
A new page has been added presenting some proposals for constitutional amendments.
One quite important topic is what might be done when the Supreme Court is wrong.
This is not a new topic as noted by the Anti-Federalists and this specific web page:
here
Further, adding methods to correct the Supreme Court will require an amendment to the Consitition.
Anything less can simply be declared unconstitutional by the Court.
Please visit that page for additional thoughts on needed amendments. here
All that I previously wrote about Constitutional Amendments is, as of Feb 2025, no longer relevant for current thoughts and events. With the Republicans in office, in the majority of both houses, and with their outright goal of the destruction of democracy, amendments simply will not happen. That said, if our democracy survives, the need for some of these amendments will not only remain and be valid, but far more important. This work needs to be continued.
We, meaning this country, are at a fork in the road. Well, we are always at multiple forks
in our roads, but this one is rather more ominous. The fork of concern is a multi-path
fork. A few paths lead us and keep us on the several paths of democracy. (There is not
a single path of democracy, not a single path that destroies democracy.) Several of them depart
that path of democracy and take us places we do not want to go. Please read that essay here:
Our Fork In The Road
Politics seems to be composed, in large part, of conflict. This is not a new trend but
can be seen in almost all history of politics. This essay about Socrates reflects upon
the conflicts present in his time that continue to rage today. The conflict then?
Conservatives versus Liberals / Progressives
Please read about how this conflict worked out in the time of Socrates
here
A new page is under development, the heading says it all. We, meaning the citizens of
these United States, have a significant cadre of dangerous people holding political office.
In Jan 2023 the politics section of these pages was modified with great worries about the
political state of these United States. In March 2025, the situation has become nothing
but much worse.
This page is definitely short and lacking. There is a significant list of people to add.
More will be added as I can.
That page is
Dangerous People In Office
The political battles of the day can be loosely, very loosely, divided into a cultural
clash: conservatives -vs- liberals/progressive. This is not a new conflict. Indeed,
it is as old as politics. Yes, it really is that old. Some of this conflict came to a
head during the age we now call The Enlightenment. The conflict was not
resolved then, it continues today, but huge, and hopefully irrevocable, steps were taken.
Steven Pinker wrote a book dedicated to those concepts:
“Enlightenment Now, The Case For Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress”
This essay is titled after the era of the same name. Please read the essay here:
The Enlightenment
Update: It is now clear that the gains of The Enlightenment are not irrevocable. Indeed,
there is quite a list of politicians who are, today, striving to reverse those gains.
The best, and maybe only way to prevent that, is to understand what "The Enlightenment"
was and what it means today.
We have all heard the old saw stating you are not allowed to shout fire in a crowded theatre. Its still true. But, some elaboration is needed. We need to bring this up to date in our ever more connected world. We need to establish and implement some actual rules about this bad behavior. The essay is here
Over the last two years we have written over 1000 letters and postcards to elected officials and to members of the news media. That does not mean a bunch, it means count them one at a time to get more than 1000. Only one representative has responded with a generic form letter that did not address the topic of the letter. We have an idea that might take the concept of letter writing to a new level. Maybe even two or three levels up.
That level is in person visits. This is easily achievable for our representatives in the House and for state legislatures. But it is quite difficult for Senators. And even there, it is difficult to get an acknowledgement much less a specific response.
Here might be a new approach. We need to find someone in our district who is near to,
or regularly travels near, where our representatives have an office. We can send our
letters to those people. They can hand carry the letters to the representative’s office.
When there, they can state to the office staff something to the effect:
These are letters from your constituents. Each of these is about (some topic).
I will return in one week and will expect a reply that addresses these topic. Your reply
will be shared with all those who wrote these letters.
We suspect that this has a much better probability of getting their attention and a reply than any letter sent via USPS.
But wait! It might get better. We need to get in contact with people at a Democratic headquarters in or near Washington DC. Maybe we can get one or several people there to act as our representative. That person, or people, would receive the letters to federal representatives, senators and representatives, from the constituents back in the states and districts. Those people can then hand carry the letters to the appropriate offices and insist upon a specific reply to the letters.
It can get even better. If our representatives don’t respond, we can go to our local news media with out story and maybe get something published or even shown on local TV. If we can get enough excitement, maybe even some national coverage.
What now? All this looks like a good idea, but the most critical part is implementation. We are unsure of how to do that. One thought is to implement a forum, a bulletin board, or maybe a page on something like Facebook. If you have any suggestions, they will be very appreciated.
A look through history will turn up major events in which millions of people died.
Or stated more accurately, were murdered. The definition of murder is “the unlawful
premeditated killing of one human being by another. Some named people are Hitler,
Stalin, and Mao. But how many people did those individuals actually murder?
Nowhere close to a million. Almost certainly not even in the hundreds.
But why write this now? Because if we look at the paths taken to get to the point
of mass murder, some political leaders and many citizens of these United States are
now on that path.
Please visit that article
here.
This is a work in progress with many more changes meritted. Please visit again. This is the web site of an individual person, not a corporation with a nameless face. Comments will be read and appreciated. face. Comments will be read and appreciated.
Bryan Kelly, March 2025 email to webmaster at mbkelly dot net
Please put the word action in the subject line. I get so many newsletters and the such
that it is difficult pick out the sent to me the person as opposed to a member of the public.
I have a rule that sends everything with the word action to a specific folder in my in-box.
Thank you.