Sentencing Trump

WITHIN A FEW DAYS, lord willing, Donald J. Trump will finally, at long last, be sentenced for a crime, or, more specifically, thirty four crimes, all felonies. The New York judge is scheduled to do this before the inauguration. Trump will become president, again, not only as a convicted felon, but as one who has been sentenced. The sentence will, it is being speculated, most likely be some sort of suspended non-sentence, involving no prison time, and perhaps no financial penalties or fines, but merely, some form of probation...essentially... nothing. Perhaps an appropriate sentence would be four years of publically supervised probation, beginning January 20, of this year, and ending on January 20, 2029, the day Trump, assuming he is still president then, supposedly, in the absence of any coup, leaves office. That, in effect is the sentence under which he, Trump, or any president, serves, and should serve, as president. Since the incoming president is a convicted criminal, and a known lifelong criminal, it is of paramount importance that we the American people pay close attention to absolutely everything Trump says or does, beginning yesterday, and continuing for as long as he remains president, even more than usual. The best explanation as to why it is legal for a convicted felon to be president of the United States since there is nothing in the constitution nor any law against it, is that the founders simply could not and did not even remotely imagine a situation in which a convicted felon would ever be elected president in the United States. Our, America's founding fathers had such little respect for the intelligence of the American people that they did everything in their power to prevent we the people from having real political power in this, our representative republic. And yet, they may have alsso overestimated the wisdom of the Amerian people two hundred years in their future. They also seemed to have assumed that in the event that a totally unsuited reprobate ever got elected by the teeming masses of land owning white gentlemen, that the electoral college would come voting to the rescue, and overturn the bad choice. As it tunrs out, the only attempt so far to use the electoral college to overturn a presidential election results was Trump's insurrection four years ago today. Clearly, neither the electoral college, nor perhaps constitution itself, works as well as the founders might have hoped, and should, arguably, either be altered or scrapped entirely. As the sun rose over frigid, snow bound Washington D.C. on January 6th, 2024, there was not the slightest indication that the eletoral college was prepared to overturn Trump's election, and to install Kamala Harris as president, on the grounds that Trump is a convicted criminal, and therefore unfit to serve. "Equal justice under law", the words which are chiseled into the front of the U.S. Supreme Court building, which has always been an observable sham, is now a demonstrable one. The American president is above the law. A person who should be in prison now and should have been in prison years ago, is set to become the nation's forty seventh president, with the power to commit many more crimes and to wreak havoc upon our cherished but allusive American democracy. Even worse, he apparently has the full support of a high percentage of the Amerian people, perhaps as many as half. Trump's lawyers will doubtless appeal the sentence, whatever it is, all the way to the SCOTUS, a total of two appeals. This will have the beneficial effect of regularly reminding the country of Trump's criminality, and inspire his followers to continue falsely claiming that Trump is being treated unfairly. At the end of the day, as we like to say, Trump will not be remembered for having made America great again, nor so much for having served two non consecutive terms as president, but for his criminality, and for the tragic ways in which that criminality directly harmed the country, perhaps irrepairably.

Checking Out Churches

GOING TO CHURCH has value,and I am glad I started a few months ago. I wish, and would like to have a few more folks in our congregation. One thing seems apparant: I should probably stick with the most "liberal" denomination I can, for compatibility. It may be that, with regard to the conservative, fundamentalist denominations, my disagreements with them and abhorrance of them stem more from politics than religion. It utterly appals me that more than eighty percent of American evangelical Christians evidently still support Donald Trump. It seems to me that they should support Bernie Sanders, AOC, or both. Jesus and Trump? Gimme a break, as they say. I'm not willing to argue with these people, but I am willing to hammer them with facts. Social Security is socialism, facts like that. Donald Trump is a convicted felon. Facts like that. There is simply no way to argue against facts like this, so, I refuse to do it. The twenty twenty election was not stolen from Trump, his claim that it was has always been and remains a big lie; no argument. I am unwilling to accept or respect anybody's beliefs which blatantly contradict proven reality, and embrace demonstrable falsehood. This includes the two most important facts which conservative fundamentalist Christians tend in large numbers to deny; climate change caused by human activity, and human evolution by natural selection. Anyone who denies either of these bedrock scientifically factual phenomena is simply self delusinal, by willlfully, willingly embracing falsehood. Whether and precisely how much social interaction I should have with such people is an entirely another question. As I have mentioned previously; many of them tend to be "wonderful" people; kind, nice, intelligent, and so forth. Religion becomes a problem when accepting its doctrines requires one to deny observable, provable reality, and to embrace nonsense and lies as fact, no matter how nice and kind you are. I find it very interesting that in America the people who support Donald Trump and the people who deny climate change and evolution tend to be the same people, and that they tend to have much less formal education than people who despise Trump, and accept the reality of climate change and evolution. College educated people tend to be against Trump, uneducated people tend to support him. Trump loves uneducated people, and said so, for a reason. Liberals, and college educated people tend to understand and acknowledge climate change and human evolution; less educated people more often do not. And no, all opinions are not equal, and whereas we are all entitled to our own opinions, we are not entitled to our own facts. Thus, there is a certain body of facts upon which everyone should agree, simply because they are facts. Another of these often inconvenient but unassailable facts is the fact that there are thousands of different religions in the world, that all religions are invented by people, and that books, all books, are written by human beings, not gods. Religious people who believe and claim that only their own specific religion that they embrace is valid and true are, it seems evident to me, arrogant, dishonest, self deluded. The Catholic Church, once upon a time, condemned Galileo to house arrest for looking through a telescope. Today, the church pays for and maintains a large investment in science, including astronomy, and owns and operates at least one very large, very useful telescope, with which our knowledge of the universe expands. This proves that any religion can change, grow, evolve. Arguably, those that do stand a much better chance of long term survival those those which do not.

Suddenly Socializing On New Years Day

NW YEARS DAY, I was happily ensconced at home, doing precisely what I had planned to do on this important holiday; sit at home, avoid all human contact, and enjoy the heck out of the day, with a combination of productive activities and pleasant recreational ones.I tried this formula on Cristmas Day, it worked like a charm, so I decided to do it again. Suddenly, at about ten o'clock in the morning, my door bell rang, and it was my good neighbor and friend, Jose, hard working family man from Guatemala. I greeted him, and warmly he invited me to come to his church, which is two blocks from my house, for a lunch time chili cook off, an event in which people sample various chile recipes from various crok pots, and voted on their favorite. I've been to a couple of those before. They're fun, so I told him I would be there. Every true American should attend a chili cook off, with or without an entry. I suspect that every true American already has. It was great timing. The previous day,New Year's Eve, I had undergone, quite successfully, my first ever and last ever colonoscopy, and was primed to return to my normal eating habits following a couple of days of miserable fasting and gut cleansing. Throughout my life I have generally been willing to accept invitations to church related events, but had never been a regular church goer until a few months ago, when I found a little church I like. I stil attend, but only a handful of other people attend my church, so, I am beginning to wonder what I would or will do if and when my little church ceases to function, and goes "out of business". Would I find another church? Or would I reert to my non church going ways? At the moment, I have no idea. For this reason, I am also inclined these days to visit other churches, churches which seem to have enough of a congregation to exist into the forseeable future, just to check them out, to see what's going on, and what the people are like. As we like to say, you never know. I believe, if I am not mistaken, that the "First Assembly of God" church, a nice big, brightly painted white building which seems to include a dormitory, is a Pentecostal church. If so, then there is a good or at least a decent chance that its members speak in tongues, handle snakes, and all that. All that is not for me, that is certain. But the people I met were very pleasant to me, and I am glad I had the chance to meet them. Pentecostals also ten to be, if I am not mistaken, politically, socially, and economically conservative, which is not for me either. Then too, if I am not mistaken, a high percentage of them, nationally, support Trump, insist that the Bible is the perfect, innerant Word of God, believe that the United States was extablishedtobe a Christian country and should be a Christian country now. They are often "Christian dominionists", and, as you might suppose, I have a hard time with that. In truth, I staunchly oppose it. I not only find many of their basic religious beliefs appalling, I find many if not all of their political beliefs even more so. I met and got into a conversation with a very attractive lady a couple of years older than I, whom I would like to see again. We talked about several things, including Social Security. At oen point she suggested that we change the subject, since everybody has their own opinions. I acceded to her request, but made it perfectly clear, that Social Security is socialism, pure socialism, and that any American, right wing or left wing, who receives Social Security is participating in and benefitting from socialism, no matter whether and how strongly the social securitiy recipient hates "socialism" and wants to "keep it out of America", as most conservatives indeed claim that they do. As if socialism weren't already here, everywhere, deeply imbedded, indispensible to all of us... I'm glad I made that point, and I hope to have a chance to make it again... and...again.

Ringing It In

I DON'T CLAIM to live the world's most exciting life. As far as I can remember, I was asleep at the stroke of midnight, the moment 2024 became 2025, another science fiction year. I haven't celebrated New Year's Eve in nearly forty years, as best I can remember. But I had a wonderful New Year's Eve this year. I had a colonoscopy. Seriously. Just like my doctors and everybody else told me in advance, the actual procedure isn't bad at all, its the prep which is horrible, drinking that vile liquid, going to the bathroom what seemed like thousands of times, not eating for nearly two days. It was wonderful when it was all over, and I coud begin eating again. I haven't stopped since. Its probably healthy to have your digestive system "cleaned out" once in a awhile. This was my first colonscopy,and my last. The doctor was a nice young man in his forties, and he asked me, "You're sixty nine, and this is your first?" When I said "yes", he said "better late then never", or something like that. I don't have to do it again for ten years, since I had no polyps, and I can use the home "Colon Guard" method then, which I think I will. I spent my Christmas Day without even a single word of human contact, and I spent New Year's Eve having a colonoscopy, and I enjoyed the holiday season enormously. I have just about decided that being happy, under all circumstances is largely merely a matter of choosing to be. For all appearances, we and the entire world are in a desperate situation, what with all the wars, economic disasters, natural disasters, and so forth. Plus, on top of all that, Donald Trump and his criminal gang, by which I mean him, his associates, advisors, supporters, and the entire Republican party and MAGA organizatsion, is on the verge of coming to power, real power. The only recourse is to pay close attention to anything and everythign they do or try to do, and react accordingly. "Accordingly" will, undoubtedly, for the most part, consist inactive, indeed strenuous opposition. However, on the other hand, it might not. Like I told a dear friend and fellow Trump hater, we must always give credit where credit is due. If, for instance, for some incredible reason Donald trump awakens one fine day and is suddenly a good person, all the better, embrace it. Somebody told me quite recently that Trump has seid something about letting workers, good hard workers, remain in the country, even if they are undocumented, "illegal" immigrants, rather than automatically deporting all of them, all eleven million of them. I hope this is true, that he is reconsidering. If he follows through on mass deportation, it will seriously harm our economy. If he fails to carry out his mass deportation of illigeal Hispanic immigrants, as he repeatedly has promised , many of his most ardent anti-immigrant MAGA members might not be happy. Also, Trump has indicated that he would not sign into law a national ban on abortion. That might not make his ultra socially conservative evangelical religious fanatics happy. Throughout the MAGA ranks there are many who want to completelly ban abortion in the United States, and many more who want to deport all eleven million illegal immigrants. These are not the only issues on which there is likely to be a split in the MAGA Republican ranks. Climate change, the most pressing issue of all, is gaining acceptance by a growing number of conservatives, who want to address it, and yet, Trump has chosen to cast his political lot with the climate denier crowd, which will soon prove to be a serious mistake. The year twenty tewnty five must be the year in which we all agree that we have serious problems, but that if we all work together, they can be solved.

Lusting After Women, In One's Heart

NEARLY FIFTY YEARS after the fact, it is amazing how much fuss the American media, and indeed the American people made of the fact that president James Earl Carter confided to Playboy magazine, in an interview, that he had indeed commited the sin of lusting after women, in his heart, as he put it. He was sort of tricked into it, in a way. The interviewer was talking about Carter's "Born Again" religious status, implying that Carter considered himself perfect becasue of it. The future president quickly dismissed the suggestion by giving an example in which he had indeed been less than "perfect". This was the fall of nineteen seventy six, Carter was running for president, in the middle of the campaign against Gerald Ford. Ford was considered a weak and vulnerable president, in office only as a stop gap until the nation could purge itself of the discredited Richard Nixon by voting Ford out of office. Carter was way ahead in the polls, until the interview. Then, he dropped about fifteen percent, and the election turned out to be much closer than expected. Being sexually attracted to women other than his wife, was by all accounts, just about the only thing even remotely sinful that Carter ever did. That assessment holds up and intensifies among historians as the decades pass since his administration. Prominent historians today consider Jimmy Carter to have been among the most decent and intelligent people to ever have been president. Also, many historians are pointing out that the Carter presidency was characterized by accomplishments, more than by failures. Amazing, that a simple, harmless, obvious and honest statement, that he, as a heteroxexual male, was attracted to women, could almost end a presidential campaign. Contrast that with today, in which we the American people recently elected to the presidency a person who has been convicted of multiple crimes, who was witnessed by millions of people trying to overthrow the American government by inciting a violent mob, and who at the beginning of his political caeer bragged openly about being a sexual predator, a comment which was heard by millions of Americans. Trump has also been convicted of sexual harassment, and has paid big bucks because of it. It almost seems that the American people, in voting for Jimmy Cater, were looking for a saint, a saint perhaps as a cure for the criminal Nixon. Trump, on the other hand, seems to gain more support from his supporters the more criminal activity is divulged and made known by him. Trump supporters seem to support Trump because he is a criminal and reprobate, not in spite of it. Have our moral standards really declined that much in fifty years? People, as they grow older, often tend to complain that moral standards throghout society are declining, that in bygone decades, way back when they were children, that the world and the country was a more moral place. It seems as if a sizeable percentage of every generation for the past several thousand years have maintained that attitude. Plato, in the fourth century B.C., twenty four hundred years ago, complained that the young people in ancient Athens were morally deficient compared with previous generations of Greeks. The Bible deals with this theme. Obviously, there is more to civilization than a continuous, downward spiral in societal moral standards. Whether there is any truth in this alleged chronic moral societal decline, other forces must be at work as well. If there weren't, then by now humanity would have disintegrated into nmitigated, uncivilized savagery, which, some might argue, it indeed very nearly has. That we have devolved from Jimmy Carter to Donald Trump in a mere half century, however, is not a positive indicator of where we are headed, and does not bode well for our future prospects.

Killing Cows

THIS PARTICULAR FACEBOOK POST got my attention. The truth is, many of them do. Its almost as if some vast intelligence, perhaps of artificial origin, has been monitoring my behavior, learning about my personal tastes, and feeding me exactly what I want to see on Facebook, all for corporae profit, for the profit of a few billionaires. Come to think of it, that wouldn't be a bad science fiction movie. It was a picture of a cow, obviously entrapped by a metal barrier, being herded forward by machinary to her doom. Within moments of being beheaded for beef, she stands there, surrounded by metal walls. Her head is turned towards the camera, looking behind her, and there is a wide eyed look of sheer terror in her eyes, as if she suddenly has realized what is happening, about to happen to her. The caption says something like: "This was her last moment". It made an immediate and profound impact on me, as I am sure it did many people. I hope it has, does, and will continue to have such an impact, on millions of people, in the near future. I shared the post, ane hope it keeps being shared, by many people. I don't even remember if the post said anything further, which I am sure it did. I don't even remember the name of the organization which posted it. It must be some animals rights or humane treatment of animlas group, like the SPCA or PETA, or some such. As long as we humans are going to slaughter and eat millions of animals every day, it certainly doesn't do any harm in thinking an talking about it a little. It might even help. Its highly relevant, and appropriate a matter to discuss. I used to have a good freind who was a small scale cattle rancher. He had a couple hundred acres, a lot of grass, and he raised a few dozen head on it. He called himself a "grass farmer". A couple fo times I helped him load a calf into a pick up truck so he could take it to town, to sell, at several hundred dollars a calf. I never thought much about what I was participating in. The question I still ask, and have always asked, is, precisely: What's going on in the minds of these head of cattle? How smart are they, how aware of their situation as they approach their death in the factory beef industry? I had been told that they are too stupid to understand what is going on. And, I have heard they they are indeed smart enough to realize what's happening, and to be terrified of it. And still, I have no idea. Perhaps the answer is some subtle combination of both: of awareness, and ignorance. Either way, whatever the truth is, one truth is, or seems to be, that sooner rather than later we the human species is going to have to stop breeding and raising these large animals merely for our own consumption, because of economic and environmental considerations. In recent years corporate capitalism,in its genius, has developed synthetic meat substitutes which are delicious, indistinguishable, economic, and healthy. The people who deny this reality are the same people who deny climate change. Cattle ranching, on a small or large scale, is destined to go extinct, happily. We humans tend to read ourselves into everyting, to see ourselves in every situation. Hence, we invent religions which have anthropomorphic gods, made in the image of human kind. We tend to assume that all stray cats are wandering forlornly around, hoping against hope to be "adopted" and cared for by a human family. But is this really true? How can stray cats possibly have any idea what people are really like? I have personal evidence that it is. On several occasions stray kittnes, feral, with no previous experience dealing with humans, have shown up on my doorstep, obviously wanting to come inside my house with me. As you might guess, they all made it in, and they all stayed, for years. The same thing has happened to many people; it happens every day. Obviously, feral kittens are smart enough to understand, or to at least suppose, that we humans are good sources of food and protection. In almost every situation in which the intelligence of a non human animal is in question, we eventually learn that the animal is far more intelligent than we humans ever supposed or would have guessed. I don't feel good about what I will probably discover about cows, lined up at the slaughter house.

Killing Ourselves With Trump

BT NOW EVERYBODY KNOWS, or should know, that Donald J. Trump possesses absolutely no redeeming qualities, not a single one. Its been written about in books by people who know him well, repeatedly. You can listen to him speak, and read what he tweets, and tell. Trump is obviously mentally ill in a variety of ways that only the experts could ever help us understand. The pathological lying, the grade school level discourse, all of it. Not surprisingly, nearly all of his stated beliefs and policies are not only wrong, but terribly wrong, as if deliberately the diametric opposite of good reason and choices. His blatant favoritism towards the ultra wealthy and complete contempt for the poor are so transparently obvious that one wonders why on Earth or in hell any sane semblance of a good citizen who happens to be anything other than wealthy would ever even consider voting for and supporting the wretch (Trump). His policy of deporting eleven million people, millions of whom are gainfully employed, is the exact opposite of common sense, because it will seriously harm the American economy, including greatly exacerbating food inflation. So much better it would be to simply station the military at the border, monitor every square inch of the border, and conduct immigration on an orderly, organized basis. People already living in the United States undocumented, illegally? Provide for them a pathway to citizenship, based on hard work, obeying the law, and paying taxes. These millions of undocumented immigrants already generate great prosperity for the country, and can generate much more. Why throw it all away, other than because of petty racism, which is mainly Trump's motive, and the main motive of his followers? The list goes on, and is long. Trump if wrong, dead wrong, on every issue, and no more so than on the only issue which really matters; climate change. The time has come to double down, triple down, trillion down on the progressive point of view, the correct point of view, that climate change is real, is caused by human activity, and is becoming a disaster rapidly, and we must do somehitng about it, now. Trump and his tens of millions of MAGA supporters, by choosing to ignore climate change or pretend that it does not exist, are attempting to commit suicide for the human species, and for all life on Earth. Even if they are unaware that they are doing it, which evidently they are, they are still doing it, killing themselves, and the rest of us along with them. If the United States actually follows Trump in his insane climate beliefs, the planet may become a complete carbon inundated wasteland by the time he leaves office, if he ever does. Fortunately, it is clear that there will be, all across our lovely land of liberty, concerted efforts, at the local, state, and regional levels, to combat climate change by relacing fossil fuels with sustainable energy sources, and by improving manufacturing and agricultural practices, making then "greener". This will occur, with or without Trump. We who oppose Trump must begin now to repeat and echo the dire urgency of fighting climate change, rather than increasing it, as Trump's pro fossil fuel policies promise to do. We the American people must raise such an outcry agaisnt Trump's climate change approach that we force him, by a sheer act of mass coercion, to completely reverse it. Electing Trup, allowing him and his MAGA mob to come to power, was and remains a national and planetary act of suicide, if only because of the climate change threat, because of the dire, urgent reality of impending doom which we currently face. As for those who support Trump? Fine. Go for it, as we like to say. But if you want to live, if you want your children, grand children, and great grandchildren to live, start fighting climate change now, and pursuade your cult icon, Mr. Trump, to do likewise. Our lives, all or our lives, literally depend on it.

Lighting Up the House

AS THE SUN ROSE behind dark clouds and heavy rain Christmas Eve, I realized that, so far, I have had perhaps the most pleasant christmas seasons of my life, or close to it. In fact, I cannot remember even a single unhappy Christmas season in my entire life, which will reach seventy years in April. As far as I can recall. They've all been joyful, including this one. Not one single, dark, depressing Christmas. I consider myself very fortunate. I bought my own presants this year, for the most part. That's fine. A brand new beautiful wooden floor in my house to replace the twenty year old worn out permanently stained pest infested carpet. Forty three hundred dollars, worth every penny. They did it all in a single day, amazingly. A new set of tires. A nice new air mattress which a lady at the senior center blew up for me, and on which I am now comfortably sleeping, and, last but certainly not least, a brand spankin' new forty three inch flat screen TV, whci to me seems huge, on accounta it is replacing a thirty three. Also,some other nice gifts, for others. A shiny new trinket shaped like a dragon, for my keychain. A plastic drinking container filled with trail mix. A plate full of delicious cookies. Some Christmas cards. I am grateful for all of it. Not long ago, while dining, having lunch, as I do daily during the week at the my local senior center, where the kitchen staff is excellent and the food delicious, I mentioned to some friends that as far as I can remember, I have never had a bad meal in a restaurant, ever. As I keep thinking about it, I think that is true. About a month ago I ate at a nice family restaurant with the entire congregation of my chucrh, about fifteen people, a gift from the cuhurh, which I thought was very nice. I thought the chicken fried steak might have been a bit tough, and might have tasted a bit like licorice. But, overall, no problem. It was still a delicious meal, and free to boot. During our daily meals at the senior center, my friends and I spend a fair amount of time discussing the meal at hand and food in general, which is easy to do when in the middle of a delicious meal. As I extend my reasoning and reflection to other aspects and portions of my life, I seem to arrive at the same basic conclusion; that, on the whole its all been good, very good. I don't have any serious regrets about my education, my career, my tennis game, or my love life, over the course of my life. This Christmas season is moving along fast, like they all do, and will be over soon. I started early, with the house lights, as always. I strung some of them up on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, and added some more every day for about a week, until the house became very brightly lighted up. I became quite proud of them. In my neighborhood, only a few houses decorate for Christmas. So proud was I of my artwork that when the senior center loaded up the bus for the annual Christmas lights tour, I requested, believe it or not, that they drive by my house, which they dutifully did, twice. The only problem was that two other members of the tour, perhaps thinking themselves being slighted, insisted on the spot that we drive by their houses as well. I thought it was a boring waste of time, but at least I learned my lesson. I will probably begin to take it all down shortly before New Year's Day. My childhood Christmases were a beautiful Christmas tree, with many presents under it,school plays and concerts,food and friends. In 1968, when I was thirteen, I watched on television as three astronauts circled the moon on Christmas Eve, while I was sick on the couch with the flu, until Christmas Day, when, miraculously, I awakened very early, fully recovered, feeling great, ready to start opening all those beautiful, brightly wrapped presents.

Trump, Breaking Bad

THE PRESIDENT ELECT attended and spoke at one of those right wing extremist conservative pep rallies of which he and they are so terribly fond, something called "Turning Point", an annual gathering of a conservative organization. Why aren't there left wing groups and pep rallies? These things can get pretty freaky, with chanting, screaming, speaking in tongues, fainting, especially when the great demagogue himself is on hand to gin up the gang. The soon to be president again thinks that it costs too much to use the Panama Canal, that Panama is charging too much to let ships go through. Also, he wants the United States to take possesson of the Canal it built, for the most part, and to once again own and operate it, as ia did for decades before President Carter signed it over to Panama in 1977, which took effect in 1999. Panama, unsurprisingly, has already declined the offer, and expressed opposition to it. Some older folks might remember that at the time Carter made this deal with Panama, many if not most Americans were against it, against handing over the Panama Canal to Panama. It shouldn't be beyond Trump's abilities to incite the conservative portion fo the American public into once again expressing outrage over Carter's handling of the situation At that point, who knows what he would do? Also, once again Trump's desire to annex for the United States the huge island of Greenland rose to the surface. Greenland is a colony, in effect, of, of all places, Denmark, and is still partially governed from Copenhagen. Trump at one point apparently wrongly believed that the United States already owns Greenland, and still thinks it should. Trump has also indicated his belief that Canada should possilby be a fifty first state of the United States. He has never, as far as is known, expressed any similar interest in Mexico or Cuba,possibly because of hs racism,and the darker color of Mexican and Cuban skin generally. Trump won't even be president for nearly almost another month, and yet, his craziness is manifesting full bore, rearing its ugly head, as if it ever failed to rear. Before even becoming president, Trump is testing his power, asserting control over Congress, or trying to. Thirty eight Republicans defied his demand for an unlimited spending account for himself, which is a good sign. The impending Trump presidency portends to be crazy, with an unabashed Trump, unlimited by any traditional constraints of decency and protocal, surely is preparing to go all out to implement his bizarre, destructive agenda. The absolutely worst part of it, hands down, is Trump's refusal to acknowledge the reality of devastating human made climate change, and to take action against it. Instead, Trump is going to encourage climate change, by encourageing fossil fuel use. Trump's plan is suicidal for the planet and the human species, to increase climate change. His slimate insanity seems to have the support of most of his MAGA gang,many in Congress. We the remaining sane must, absolutely must stop Trump's pro fossil fuel agenda, because if enacted, it will kill us all. At the state and local level, among msot American citizens as individuals, and throughout the corporate business community, there will undoubtedly continue to be more and more action against climate change. But it isn't enough. The United States government, the USA as a nation, must lead the world in combating and reversing climate change, before its too late, which it soon will be, if it isn't already. The Trump administration and his MAGA minions, and the conservative community in general and the Republican party in partiualr must do an about face, and get on board with dealing with climate chagne, instead of denying it, before its too late, if it isn't already.

The Trump Wolf, In the Coop

EVERY NOMINAION TRUMP has named so far, and he has named nearly all of them, is distinguished by being antithetical to the organization, department or agency which she or he has been nominated to lead. The wolfpack is inside the chicken coop. The EPA will be led by a person oposed to government regulation of the environment. The Department of Education will be headed by a lady who wants to destroy it, the FBI will be headed by a man who wants to weaken and diffuse it, and the Department of Justice will be led by a person who wants to use it for injustice, as does Trump. Trump wants to use the D.O.J. to attack and destroy his political enemies, not to oversee the nation's legal matters and represent the interests of the American people. Trump wants to dismantle, disable, destroy the federal government bureaucratic apparatus. Its a long list of agencies he wants to eliminate or impair, and it gets longer. Trump wants to replace all this eliminated federal power, to replace the authority vested in all the federal government agencies he intends to do away with, with himself, in true authoritarian fascist style. They claim the purpose is to enhance state's rights and state control over the states, to simplify and streamline an alleged "out of control" federal government, and, especially in education, to return power and authority to the states, to local leaders, and to parents. All these suspicious sounding reasons and excuses are, of course, complete nonsense, lies, a hoax, intended to cover the real reason for the dismantling of government by America's right wing extremists. The goods and services these government entities provide, and the vast array of services and benefits, are all progresssive, idealistically liberal, antithetical to the go it alone, dog eat dog ideology of conservatism. If all this takes place, which is highly doubtful, it will be a complete, unmitigated disaster. It will be such a disaster that its almost tempting for the Democrats to just sit back, let it happen, let the nation experience the disastrous consequences of it, and then be ready to pick up the pieces and repair the damage in another four years or so. Tempting, but not desirable. Better to oppose, resist, and defeat this blatant, attempt at authoritarian power and control by Trump. Shockingly but not surprisingly, it is supported by almost all of his MAGA gangster mob, in and out of Conpress and political leadership - but not by all of it, not by all conservatives. Trump is a true fascist authoritarian figure, both in his own mind and in the sparsely scattered little minds of his brainwashed sycophants, the "MAGAts". Indeed, over the decades there has been and continues to be a considerable expansion of the size and duties of the federal government, as the nation has grown. As the nation has grown, so has the bureaucracy needed to effectively operate it, at the federal, state, and local levels. What the Republicans either simply do not understand or willfully choose to ignore is the provable, demonstrable fact that all this government expansion has been and continues to be for a reason, a good reason. Also, it works. The American government, by and large, works, and provides the services, benefits, and results for which it was and is intended. The Republicans, Trump and his MAGA mob would have you believe that not only are all the various appendages of the federal government bureaucracy inefficient and expansive, but that they are downright dead weight, or worse, they are harmful to America, deliberately destroying the nation with a misguided, malevolent conspiracy to inundate the nation in bad policy, deliberately draging down the country for some vague, ampophous, nefarious left wing liberal scheme to gain control of the entire nation. Simply paying attention to what the Trumpublicans think and say and do shows their crazy insanity, and they are about to start trying to implement their insanity, and impose it on the whole country. We the remaining sane must vigorously, strenuously oppsoe, resist, fight, and defeat it, all of it, with whatever help we can muster from disenchanted newly awakened formerly brain dead ex-Trumpers.

Banning Books, Bearing Arms

WHAT WITH ALL the school shootings and all, you might think that even here, in the United States of Side Arms, we would by now have done something to stop them, or to at least reduce them. And, supposedly, we have. Armed cops in the hallways. Armed teachers in the calssrooms. Volunteer parents roaming the hallways and guarding the doors daily. Ten foot high barbed wire fances surrounding the school. Bullet proof doors, always locked. Cameras monitoring everything, everywhere. Student I.D.s, Visitor I.D.s, and identification badges while in the building. And perhaps, indeed quite likely, all this has contributed to deter and thus reduce the number of mass school shootings, in schools, and other places. But is it enough? A high percentage, perhaps even a majority of American citizens love firearms so much that the second amendment has become a sacred, holy scripture, indespensible to American freedom and safety, inviolable, untouchable. Whether it makes sense to equate a constitution with holy scripture is debatable. And, not coincidentally a majortity, a significant majority of Americans evidently own firearms, in many if not most cases, more than one, many more than one. In every society, every country in which firearams have either been eliminated or largely eliminated from public possession, the crime rate, the shooting rate, has dropped drastically. Especially good examples are Great Britain, Australia, and Japan, in which there are only a handful of shootings a year, while in the United States there are tens of thousands of shootings per year, a veritable blood bath. If the United States regulated firearms the same way these other countries do, there is absolutely no doubt whatsoever that the number of gun shootings in America would decrease drastically, and would keep decreasing, year after year. No doubt whatever. The United States could practically eliminate school shootings, but, refuses to. The reason given by gun enthusiasts is that a country in which the general population is well armed is much safer than one in which only criminals are armed. This, of course, is sheer nonsense, demonstrably, provably so. Its an outright lie, a blatant, transparent lie. And yet, it works. This bogus argument suffices to capture enough minds to paralyze any possible action to regulate and remove guns from society. The real reason why gun lovers resist gun control so passionately is that they love guns. The same people who want to defend America's schools by arming them and turning them into impregnable fortresses are the gun lovers, the opponents of gun control, and they are conservative Republicans, evangelical Christians much of the time. Quite naturally they want to stop school shootings by injecting more gusn into the equation, insanely. These are the same people who ban books like "The Diary of Anne Frank", "The Grapes of Wrath", and the writings of Martin Luther King, because, ooh horror, they disuss progressive values. These are the same far right wing extremist religious fanatic Trump supporters who prohibit any mention of racism in history classes in American public schools, scrub all signs of gay and LGBTQ culture from society, and falsely claim that the United States of America was founded on Christian values, is a Christian country, and should be a Christian country. And, last but not least, they tend to deny climate change the reality of it, the cause of it, the urgency of it. The worst news of all is that they are about to come to power in the U.S., and in a way already have. And yet, a majority of Americans support none of this insanity. Since we the remaning sane Americans must resist all of it ferociously, beginning now, this fact might be auspicious.

Reducing Conflict, With, Or Without Trump

THE SHEER AMOUNT of conflict in the world is appalling. The wars, strife of various sorts, not to mentnion disasters, mass migrations and hunger, are shocking. Any decent person wants to help mitigate all of it. Spending the next four years opposing, resisting, and trying to get rid of Donald Trump hardly seems like an avenue to that end. It sounds more like conflict than reduction of conflict. And yet, it is the way to reduce conflict, because Trump is a one man conflict factory, which must be shut down. Look...even if, even in the highly unlikely event that Trump's policies as president are beneficial to the country, the world, and the American people, it is a simple, basic moral fact that nobody, but nobody, as morally depraved and legally challenged as Trump should ever be allowed or elected to be president, much less dog catcher. Anybody currently involved in more than four thousand lawsuits and who has been convicted of dozens of felonies hardly seems qualified to lead the world's most powrful nation in the directinon of peace, law, an order, peace within itself, and peace with the rest of the world. However, while opposing Trump, one must offer a better way, a more cooperative, peaceful way. For instance, one might advocate for providing a pathway to citizenship for all undocumented, illegal immigrants who work, and obey the law, rather than deporting them. Reduce conflict, stress, and economic hardship, for the whole nation. Oppose Trump, offer and provide a better way. It should be interesting to see whether Trump actually ends the Russian war against Ukraine his first day as president like he promised. Trump presents himself as a great man who brought peace to the world in his first term, and will do it again in his second.. We certainly hope he can and does, but,to put it mildly, we are skeptical. It is extremely important for those who oppose Trump, the millions who hate Trump and want Trump gone, to give him credit if and when he says or does anything which is true and makes sense, or which is beneficial, beneficial to the country and the world, not merely to himself. Deciding in advance that everything somebody, including Trump, says and does in the future will be stupid, false, and harmful, merely because you passionately hate the person and everything he or she has ever done is stupid, false, and harmful, is counterproductive. Loss of objectivity, loss of open mindedness and tolerance, is never beneficial, to anyone. What if Donald Trump suddenly, inexplicably turns into a morally pure and noble well educated honest articulate genius, and just as suddenly ceases to be the criminally insane pathologically narcissistic and dishonest reprobate that he is and has always been? Unlikely, yes, but not impossible. Alien abduction and mind altering intervention, maybe. In such an unlikely but remotely possible scenario, pretending that Trump hadn't changed would be nonsensical, denial. One can simultaneously oppose Trump, working to end his political career, poste haste, while working for the improvement of the world. Those two objectives are not only not mutually exclusive, they are highly compatible. There are two people on this planet who, arguably, could do the world a lot of good merely by passing away. They are Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. The arguments are well known to all, and are not hard to make or difficult to articulate and explain. Opposing Trump will probably become an exercise in identifying false assertions and harmful actions by him, protesting vehemently against them, and, lord willing, mitigating or even reversing them and their harm caused. If Trump starts trade wars, deports millions of people, lowers taxes on the wealthy, shrinks the national parks and leases federal land for oil and coal production, cuts social spending, he'll hear about it from millions of people, stridently. The damage Trump is soon to do will be shocking, staggering. If protesting with words doesn't help, there will be many people, probably millions, willing to stage mass protests against Trump in the streets. Trump will doubtless be extremely very active from his first day in office, while he has Republican majorities in both houases of Congress. All of the above policies, which Trump has openly advocated and promised, would be harmful to the United States, the world, and the American people, and should, and will be strenuously opposed. Preisely how he intends to end the war in Europe on his first day in office is a fascinating question, which will soon be answered, one way or another. One thing is for sure: if he fails to keep this promise he should be excoriated vigorously by the American people, and the rest of the world.

Still Trying To Understand the Trump Phenomenon

SOMEONE SAID ON FACEBOOK that he still can't believe that January sixth, 2021, Trump's Capitol insurrection, wasn't, as he put it, a "deal breaker". In other words, how in the hell did the insurrection not bring Trump's political career, and much else, maybe his freedom, and even his life, ultimately, to an end? How indeed did it not result in Trump's incarceration and or execution, at least? To many and to me, the fact that Donald Trump will soon be, once again, the president of the United States, is absolutely, utterly, amazing. Well beyond mere crazy. Trump conceived of and planned his entire election denial insurrection scheme weeks in advance, and planned it down to the last detail. He is guilty as hell, and everyody knows it. He is guilty of treasonous incitement to insurrection, and is not fit to be president, but fit only for imprisonment, and perhaps execution. This is not wild, crazy, anti-Trump hate speech, based on hatred, anger, and emotion. Not at all. This is perfectly logical, legally sound reasoning, based on solid, irrefutable evidence, base on proof. I recall that I, and many other people, thought that the "Access Hollywood" tape, in early Octover 2016, would be the end for Trump, and it probably should have been, so damning was it in terms of revealing Trump's true, malignant character. What it boils down to is that the Trump policial movement has truly morphed, evolved, turned into a cult, with Trump a cult figure, cult leader, a situation he has encouraged all along. Trump's supporters, in and not in Congresss, are as dangerous as he is, because of the likelihood that they will support everything he says and does, no matter how harmful, no matter how crazy. Including, undoubtedly, his trying to remain in office as "president" (fuhrer?) for life when his term expires in 2029, assuming he is still alive and in power then. Again, this is not idle, unhinged speculation. This is based on Trump's own words and prior actions. On Inauguration Day, Trump will enter office trying to make a big splash, doing dramatic things, attracting attention, which he craves, does, and has. He will probably sign multiple excutive orders ordering all illegal immingrans out of the country, immediately, or else, and placing tariffs lord knows how high on heaven only knows what coutnries, maybe China, Mexico, and Canada. He might sign one reinstating his infamous ban on Islamic people entering the United States, and maybe another disbanding the EPA, other environmental protection agencies, and eliminating environmental regulations. The actual constitutionality of his actions, on day one or on any other days, will most probably not even be on the radar screen of President Trump's twisted, injured mind. And it may get crazier than that, much, much crazier. In his early days in office, like the first day, Trump will undoubtedly try to do as many dramatic things as possible to rev up his base, get attention. and anger progressives. He will take actions and make staetments worthy of strenuous oppostion, if not impeachment, removal, indictment, trial, conviction, and incarceration. For that reason, those who oppose Trump, about half the country if not a bit more, will need to remain involved, attentive, and ready to, as we say, "rock n roll" on Inauguration Day. Ready to speak out, write, and get out into the streets, in group and mass protests. Only mental illness of varying sorts explains Donald Trump. His MAGA mob may be explained in terms of the psychology and sociology of human power and influence dynamics, gang and cult formation. Gangs, groups, and Cults form fast and furious among humans, we now know, just as religions do. We must be very careful as individuals and as a society in choosing which ones to allow, which ones to tolerate, which ones to encourage and join, and which ones to oppose vigorously and destroy.

Ending Poverty

"POVERTY EXISTS not because we cannot feed the poor, but because we cannot satisfy the wealthy". So goes the provocative assertion. First and foremost, it provokes the question: Is it true? The second question, provoked by the first, is: If it sn't, then, what is? And, if it is,then, what can we and should we do about it to change it? Because, beyond a doubt, nobody but nobody wants anybody else to live in poverty. We can assume that, correct? WE need to eradicate all poverty, but, how? Is it really caused by the wealthy, and, could the wealthy really remedy it, presumably by sharing their wealth? In other words, is economics a zero sum game,or not? It certainly is, if one considers only a moment in time, if one takes a snapshot of a certain moment,and mesaures the amount of and distribution of wealth, at that precise moment. But reality is, of course, more than a single precise moment, more than a certain number of precise moments in time; life is an endlessly flowing succession of moments, an unbroken river of time. Two undeniable facts emerge: There is in fact enough food, water, clothing, and money on Earth for everyone. And, the elite wealthy few, on a global basis,own and control a huge percentage of the wealth, an entirely disproportionate share of it. The top one percent own forty percent of the wealth of the world, or something even more hideous, grotesque, and extreme than that. But the question is: could the huge majority of poor people, about half the world or more, "catch up" with the middle class, without disturbing or taking much of the wealth of the wealthy? And, Do the wealthy actually prevent billions of other people from getting wealthy, or even from having a decent standard of living, or having enough to eat? Often overlooked is that Adam Smith said that in the absence of all economic externalities and distortions, then a truly free market should naturally distribute the wealth essentially equally among everyone, including workers, managers, and owners. Assuming this is true, then obviously our current supposed"free market" capitalist system is not working, and/or is very heavily, deeply distorted and fraght with externalities and corrupting factors. Some of these are easy to see. Monopoly formation, and a political system which not only does not prevent monopoly formation by law, as intended in the U.S. and other countries by law, but actually tends to encourage it. In the U.S., virtually every major industry is a virtual monopoly, with only a few, a handful of corporate participants, few enough for them to eschew actual competition in favor of unspoken, unwritten, informal de facto coopertation, acting as a single cartel, cotrolling the makrdt, setting prices, price gouging at will, and exploiting labor. There are many other corrupting, "external" factors, such as the obvious fact that in the United States, the corporate oligarchy which actually governs us, "our corporate masters" as Gore Vidal called them, own and control the political system by virtue of having long ago purchased all the politicians, and keeping them under control, over the decades. In the United States, and throughout the world, much, much greater economic equality is needed,for a wide variety of reasons. Our current system in which a tiny fraction of the global population possesses a huge portion of the world's wealth and power is harmful, destructive, and unsustainable for many reasons. Some of the moe obvious reasons include widespread pvoerty, starvation, ad a political tyranny of the wealthy. Some obvious remedies include a progressive income tax system, progresive property taxes, and wealth taxes. But when the wealthy sue their wealth to purchase political power, which they are doing now, and hae alwasy doen in the United State of America, even these basic remedies, these fundamental solutions to a major problem, are impossible. The wealthy simply will not allow it. Before the world's poor gain a fair share of the wealth, they must gain a fair share of the power, by whatever means necessary.

The Burning Earth

THE BASIC PURPOSE of history, most might agree, is to help us understand the world we live in, how it came to be this way, and so forth. How to understand ourselves, and our lives. A seminal, new, magesterial work which accomplishes precisely that aim is "The Burning Earth; An Environmental History of the Past Five hundred years", by Sunil Amrith, an Ivy League scholar who writes brilliantly, compellingly. He eloquently weaves together a factual narrative including wonderful stories, characters, descriptions, and explanations of how human history and the environement are interconncted. Humans have been transforming their environment for thousands of years, and, of course, the Earth's natural environment, the ecosytsem, has shaped and influenced human development and history. Paleolithic and Stone Age humans altered the environment, and their lives were almost completely controlled by their environment. The more technologically advanced we have become, the more drastic the degree of our influence, and the more harmful and dangerous have become the environmental changes we have made. And the situation is not good. The impact, and the effects of that impact, that humans have had on the environment have never been clearer or more obvious than now, and are about to become much more obvious, and severe. Climate change is now apparent to all, and only the most devout climate deniers still dare to deny. The daily weather,everywhere, is so strange so consistently, on a daily basis, that not only is it obvious that the climate, everywhere, has changed, but also that the change is ongoing, will continue, will increase in speed, and will not stop. Its here, and its going to get worse, fast. This is the conclusion that the book inevitably, irrevocaibly points to, the same dire warnings we are now constantly, appropriately, exposed to and receiving. We simply have not acted and are not acting fast enough to prevent climate change from becoming severe, for us,in our lifetimes. In my lifetime, and I'm sixty nine. I wouldn't be surprised, for instance, if within the next five years, 2025-2030, we don't have a summer in my area in which the temperature rises above a hundred on June first, and remains there until Labor Day. I sure hope not, but, we'll see. But there is still hope for an eventual, ultimate solution. In fact, such a solution is clearly possible, within the laws of science. In a way, its no big deal, but we just have to do it. We have the knowledge and the technology, but, so far, not enough mass political will. We The People need to put more pressure on our leaders to lead, and to lead us to undo the damage we have done, before its too late. We have filled the air with carbon and other poisons, have devastated and poisoined the Earth, land, air, and water, and have almost succeeded in killing the Earth, including ourselves. But carbon can be removed from the atmosphere, and poisons can be cleaned up, removed from oceans, the land, and our bodies. Precisely how to remove the plastic and the radioactive atoms which evidently inhabit our bodies currently eludes me, but, it is to be hoped, not our scientists. As I move closer to the end of my life, I keep hoping that before I die I will have some idea of how its going to go: whether humanity is going to destroy itself and die, or repair and reverse climate change and environmental destruction, and thrive indefinitely into the future. As of right now, I'd have to say that its "nip and tuck", that it could go either way.