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    NEW PUBLICATION ANNOUNCEMENT

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    I just submitted Sundering of the Species--Conserving Humanity at the Dawn of Posthuman Technology--, to my publisher, Palgrave Macmillan, 400 pp. The challenge I set for myself was to write a creative non-fiction about new science and technology and our changing role in what will prove to be a new order of social and aesthetic engagement. I have researched and thought through the consequences of the recent turns in science that has created two genetically altered humans, and brought us advances in implantable bio-computers, enabling communication between the brain and the digital world. These..
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    PEACE

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    Happy Easter to my Christian friends, happy Pesach to my Jewish friends.  Since Trump is a non-sectarian blight upon the country, I’d like to say a few words that men and women of all faiths might think about. Let me tell you a little about why I feel empowered to say what I am about to. First, I’ve practiced law 40 years, and know something about it. I know what the law is on Obstruction of Justice. I know what the law is on crimes of Attempt, Solicitation and Conspiracy—I spent years defending clients accused of crimes, years traveling to all corners of the world, dodging people who would br..
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    LEXINGTON AVENUE SCENE 1

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    [audio mp3="https://carvalko.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/LexingtonAvenue1946-Scene1.mp3"][/audio]..
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    LEXINGTON AVENUE 1946

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    [audio mp3="https://carvalko.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/LexingtonAvenue1946.mp3"][/audio]..
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    DIANE

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    [audio mp3="https://carvalko.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/DIANEVIBES3.mp3"][/audio] "Diane" I'm in heaven when I see you smile Smile for me, my Diane And though everything's dark, all the while I can see you, DianeYou have lighted the road leading home Pray for me (my Diane) when you can (my Diane) But no matter wherever I roam Smile for me, my Diane(Smile for me, my Diane)But no matter wherever I may roam (wherever I roam) Smile for me, my Diane..
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    100TH YEAR REMEMBRANCE OF WWI-3 poems

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      Few of us can say they knew someone who fought in WWI. Tuesday, May 8, 1945, VE Day, when war ended in Europe for the second time in a quarter century, my mother rushed me out of the apartment to join a mass of people, who cheered as soldiers from WWI paraded down Main Street. My grand-uncle George, who fought in WWI and suffered the long effects of being gassed, had recently died. A couple years later our neighbor Mr. White, a WWI vet, France in 1917, gave me his gas mask, jacket and helmet. I still have his jacket; it’s over 100 years old.     NONESMANNESLOND You ask when’d..
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    An Interview, Joe Carvalko, Author of DETRÁS DEL ACERO

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      A few weeks ago, I, Jonathan Marcantoni, Editorial Trance, was turned on to poetry collection Detrás del Acero by Joe Carvalko. His book examines life in 20th century America, placing special emphasis on the working class and the evolving relationship racial minorities have had with the greater society over that time. The book is both socially conscious and personal, as Mr. Carvalko uses aspects of his own life, his family history and his wife’s culture to influence his poetry. The language in his book is simple yet dense with emotion and ideas. The work has a haunting effect on the rea..
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    SELF-ABSORPTION

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    Looking back on my early experience as a young engineer, I am reminded how little my colleagues and I appreciated that what we did would change the world, for good and for bad. I am also reminded how Marcel Golay, one of my early mentors understood the duality of technology and how this feature plays large in its application for the right purpose.     Born in Switzerland 1902, Golay received his engineering degree from the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, the same college from which Einstein graduated. He is best known for the invention of the Golay cell used in gas chromat..
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    TRUMP AND THE REALITY OF CLIMATE CHANGE

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    We are on the eve of the potentially deadly Hurricane Florence hitting the Carolinas. In a few days, the government will once again, methodically assess its cost, in lives and property damage. The U.S. with its immense depth for undertaking huge scientific/technical projects might help to stave off these kinds of destructive storms, not today or tomorrow, but in time to reverse the rise in ocean tides, the melting of the poles, the burning of forests, the excessive temperatures experienced here and abroad, and yes, the save the planet for our grand-kids. President Trump’s decision to abandon t..
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    You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet

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    I got an email from a friend wringing his hands over what’s wrong with America. Too liberal, he says, too diverse, suggesting that if it were more Trumpian, America could be great— and white again. I wrote back that it’s more than black and white. He called me an old man casting his worn out and liberal ideology on others. He may have a point. But words never stopped me, so here I go. The Trump forces believe they have the power to change things, now that they’re in office. But to be fair, every administration does. Many of us think we have the power to change things. But, that too is a myth...
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    Do We Stand in Outrage or Complicity

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    During a court hearing, Friday, July 27, a government attorney argued that the court-ordered reunification deadlines to reunite children with mothers and fathers did not apply to parents who have been deported. Thankfully, the judge ruled that deported parents are included in the order. Health and Human Services Secretary, Azar, indicated that of more than 11,800 children being held by HHS, fewer than 3,000 were separated from parents. The rest are unaccompanied minors—, or so they tell us. He said about 100 of the separated children are 5 or younger. I call them babies.     I ask ev..
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    FATHER’S DAY

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    I couldn’t be in my wife’s skin when she carried our child for nine months. I couldn’t feel the embryo transform into a fetus that stretched her belly and burdened her body, but that day by day revealed more and more the marvel that would grant me fatherhood. When she gave birth, my bystander status ended, I had to learn much, but the one thing I knew instinctively was that for as long as I lived, I’d do whatever it took to keep my child safe. I’m sure this sense of responsibility comes to all parents, in the same way at about the same time. So it’s no surprise we see this commitment acting it..
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    July Resonates

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    July resonates for lots of reasons, and, this year because I find it incredulous that President Trump praises Putin, expresses faith in Kim Jong-un’s willingness to denuclearize, while trashing our NATO allies. I’m left of center politically, yet, I believe all Americans should contribute to our democracy. For some, they choose get involved in the political process, others in civic activities, still others teaching their children the values we hold dear in a democratic way of governing. Still others choose military service. The past 4 generations of my family served, including my currently ser..
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    Gross Misunderstanding About Immigrants

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    There seems to be a gross misunderstanding about the rights of the families being ripped apart along the border, so I thought I’d provide some definitions of whom it is we are referring to, that is the children we are now incarcerating and separating from their mothers. The word incarcerate seems harsh, but I’d spent too much time with men and women locked behind bars, not to know what a prison looks like. An asylum-seeker is someone who is seeking international protection abroad, but hasn’t yet been recognized as a refugee. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 14), of which the..
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    AN EMPTY EXECUTIVE ORDER

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    President Trump signed an executive order today mandating for children to stay with their parents in detention while their asylum claims are processed. This executive order seeks to modify the Flores Agreement, which states that children should not be held in detention for more than 20 days. Denise Bell, refugee and migrant rights researcher at Amnesty International USA, issued this statement: “Over the last few weeks, we have seen an outcry from people around the world denouncing the cruel and unnecessary separation of more than 2,000 babies and children from their parents. In response, the T..
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    HAPPY 4TH OF JULY

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    What the hell did the Patriots fight for anyway? To end up flushing social justice down the toilet? Every day 14 million kids, representing 19% nationwide, go to bed, and school, hungry; health insurers estimated $25 billion in profits, up 30 percent from 2016, while 35 million remain uninsured; 2.2. million incarcerated, many in for-profit prisons working for 20 cents an hour; children ripped from asylum seekers protected under international law, and put into prison as young as 1 year old; a fascist leaning leader who debases the presidency, enriching himself, and fawning over Russian and N...
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    Defending Against Opaque Algorithmic Meddling in Free Elections

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    Democracies need both a free Internet and free speech, and judging from the election tampering that has occurred recently throughout Europe and the United States, time has come to consider instituting standards and global policies.This is the subject of my new paper in this Quarters Technology and Science. If you want to read more, click here to read the full essay "Defending Against Opaque Algorithmic Meddling in Free Elections"..
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    Storms and Self-Evident Truths

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    Every day, Americans struggle against one or both natural and man-made disasters. President Trump personifies not one, but both--, natural in the pathological sense, because his behavior, presumably outside his control, defies normality, and in the man-made sense, because he chooses bigotry, offensive sexual behavior, and ignorance, as a way of life. If he chooses ignorance, it’s his prerogative. Choosing to accost women is not, it’s actionable. The “Me Too” movement may finally put a stop to what the law has long overlooked. Trump’s racist remarks during this past week’s belittling of Haitian..
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    WHO SHOULD OWN IN-THE-BODY MEDICAL DATA IN THE AGE OF EHEALTH

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    Within the next decade, reactive medical practices will evolve into what has been popularly coined “P4” medicine – predictive, preventive, personalized, and participatory – where examinations will take place at home, where devices connected to the body, externally and internally, will send medical data into the cloud, where expert systems will analyze and determine wellness and disease, as well as tweak, in real time, personalized electronic prescriptions for medical treatment and anatomical enhancement. Patients should own this data, and here is why. (more…)..
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    REMINDERS OF THE NEXT ROUND

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    It’s past midnight and I have put the pen down to scan the four framed pictures hung over my desk—, two abstract, colorful geometric figures; two portray boxers with an uncertain fate. I wonder why I chose to hang them where I spend most days and nights. (more…)..
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    THE MUSIC LESSON

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    My granddaughter sat next to me at the piano waiting to start her first lesson. On the rack in front of us, the music for “Some Enchanted Evening,” stared back, which, but for Amy’s question, “Poppie, when did you learn to play the piano?” would have been unremarkable. When I didn’t respond, she insisted, “Poppie, who . . .?” “My aunt played and she showed me. Now, you know your alphabet, so let’s start there.” Amy wasn’t finished. “Does she still play?” “I don’t think so….” “Why?” “Well, I don’t know.” Sometimes we hide the truth because, as in this case, my student needed to hear the harmoni..
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    APPOINTMENT OF THE PLANET’S NEXT POLICY CUSTODIAN

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    Scott Pruitt, President-elect Trump’s selection to run the Environmental Protection Agency by all accounts believes that global warming doesn’t involve human activity, such as coal burning, driving or deforestation. We should admire his skepticism. After all, for centuries scientists have proposed countless theories, widely accepted at the time, but later proven false. Perhaps he knows some newly discovered facts or explanations that would lead to a plausible theory that humankind isn’t the driving factor behind global warming. I look forward to his upcoming congressional confirmation hearings..
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    Crossing the Evolutionary Gap

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    "...Someday,  only remnants of the Homo sapiens will remain. Some predict not beyond the twenty-fourth century. By then what was once a life form that tracked its origins back 2.5 million years, will have completely disappeared." (more…)..
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    How Trumpism Slipped into Our Political Zeitgeist

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    How did Trump, a man with so little substance, become the prospective leader of the free world. Why did sixty million Americans vote him in, in full view of the man’s expressed biases, prejudices (alt-right wing ideals) and false beliefs about the world (from climate change to ethical norms)? The answer is buried deep in the socio-psychological drivers of a nation’s dominant population, which on some level refuses to fully integrate, ethnically, religiously or racially, and on another level resents how life has turned out, economically at least.  When these two drivers converge, scapegoats app..
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    REVISITING THE DIATRIBES OF THIS PAST ELECTION

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    I make it a practice to look back on what I write, especially when what I’d written takes a social or political stance. It helps me reflect on my arguments and emotions, and whether I would have expressed myself differently, had I known how the future unfolded. Today I revisited an open letter I posted seven weeks ago as the nation was in the throes of the presidential election. As one who remains unconvinced that President-elect Trump was this countries best choice, I am prepared to let the next few months play out, and then reconsider his administration’s achievements, for better or worse. I..
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    WRITE LIKE IT’S YOUR CLOSING ARGUMENT

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    A recent ABA Journal article called to mind the similarity between writers of fiction, politicians and trial lawyers. Particularly,  our susceptibility to believing in a story, when told by a master narrator, even when we may have witnessed the event giving rise to the plot or when the underlying facts about an incident are abhorrent to our political ideology. This happens in part, because we remain open to alternative accounts.  In the matter of disputes giving rise to a trial, lawyers know that after observing an important event, witnesses will remember it based on its impact, and their actu..
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    DÉJÀ VU Dateline: July 27, 2016, Redux

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    Last week I wrote an essay about why the date July 27, rang a bell. It was about why Trump’s nod to the Russian’s to infiltrate U.S. politics was barren of any sense of history or the sacrifices made by Cold War veterans. Then I listened to Khizr Kahn’s assertion that Trump “sacrificed nothing and no one,” and I saw how these two themes converged. This is a long-winded way of saying I decided to restate my case in summary form. For those of you that know me, I am left of center on the subject of the country’s militaristic bravado and Pentagon budget. Yet, I believe all American’s  should contr..
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    DÉJÀ VU Dateline: July 27, 2016

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      DÉJÀ VU Dateline: July 27, 2016   For some reason the date yesterday kept bouncing around in my head. Maybe because it was that one year ago I gave a keynote address at a local ceremony, in Las Vegas, New Mexico to honor Korean War veterans, on the 62nd anniversary of the Armistice. I have always had a special place in my heart for these veterans, for lot’s of reasons, first having been an impressionable paperboy during that war, where I read headlines every day about its brutality, or because I served with dozens of G.I.s, who had served in Korea. These guys, mostly my NCOs and Of..
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