Vladimir the Sublime, Donald the Magnanimous, Perhaps

IT IS NOT ALWAYS NECESSARY to be negative, cynical, defensive. Even amid all our troubles there comes a time to be lighthearted. There comes a time to assume the best in people, to give others the benefit of the doubt. Out of the blue, Vladimir Putin appears to have ascended to a higher level of awareness, a higher level of being. In response to Obama's sanctions, Putin will do, nothing. No retaliation of any sort, contrary to what his advisers had strongly suggested. What kind of a trick is this? Is it simply a way of waiting for Trump? Or has Mr. Putin risen to a higher level of thought? has Vladimir the KGB man come to know the real Jesus ? And if so, wouldn't it be wonderful if the rest of us could do the same? Maybe Mr. Putin could show us how. Einstein once suggested that a good way to end warfare once and for all and to end militarism would be for everybody to refuse military service. Everybody in the world, refuse to serve in the military. That'd do the trick, all right. Or the United Nations could agree to establish a single, all purpose, United Nations military, in which all nations participate. But you just know that Putin's peaceful approach to Obama has some kind of hidden trick behind it, and that when Trump takes over in the U.S., Putin and Trump will get along splendidly at first, and it may even continue for awhile, but that, eventually, sooner or later, problems are going to start developing. Wouldn't it be wonderful if Trump the chump suddenly acquired the wisdom of Solomon, the love of Christ, and the genius of Einstein, and became known as the greatest leader of all time, bar none? Or maybe Trump will inform us that his comment about building more nukes was a joke. Instead, probably, problems are going to start developing, grow worse, and result in a complete angry break down in communication and relationship, between Putin and Trump, between Russia and the U.S., and between Trump and heaven only knows who else. Maybe Putin is evolving into an enlightened being, and maybe, somehow, miraculously, Trump will do likewise, and all will be well, but somehow, it just doesn't seem likely.

Obama Strong, Trump Weak

PRESIDENT OBAMA, in his continuing attempt to "Trump proof" the White House, finally punished the Russians for their perfidious and nefarious computer hacking during the election campaign. Actually, of course, the target is Putin and his ruling gang of thugs, not the Russian people proper, who are far different and better than their government, as it is in America too. What will Donald Trump do? He says he thinks we should just forget the thole thing, and move on. Is he going to reverse Obama's sanctions and other punitive measures? Congress, including republicans, agrees with Obama, and says that Obama's actions were long overdue. The republicans said further that the actions are necessary, only because of Russia's aggressive and bad behavior, and that this behavior never would have happened if Obama hadn't been weak and indecisive. So, you see, all bad Russian behavior is Obama's fault, or blame, or cause. As if Barack Hussein Obama is so powerful as to be able to turn Russia into an aggressive country. The American conservative community generates more insane conspiracy theories than all other wacky organizations combined. Who is really the weak one? When China stole an American drone, Obama got it back. Trump said he would have told the Chinese to keep it. The problem with blithely overlooking Russia's cyber attacks on American cyberspace and "moving on" is that it will provide perfect incentive for Putin and his gang to keep doing the same thing, and maybe more aggressive things. Obama keeps being strong in dealing with china, and Russia, Trump keeps talking like a weakling. We'll see how he behaves, when the chips are down.

Replacing Real Life With Screen Time

IN MOST PUBLIC PLACES in America, everyone is staring at their smart phone, tapping at it with both thumbs. Even I've noticed that, and I don't get out much. I go to the senior center everyday, where only about a fourth of the people are staring and tapping at small screens, which is probably the lowest percentage of any age group in the country. The millennials, I've noticed, are particularly attached to their phones. It may not be possible to tell children and force children to reduce their screen time, get out and exercise a little, live some real life, while we the adult population simultaneously walk around like zombies, staring and thumb tapping. On campus at the major university near me every student, yes, every student walking across campus is walking while staring, and tapping. And their walking pace is fast. Very fast. Even a steady jog for me is slower than the millennial's walking pace on college campus. Amazingly, nobody ever runs into anything. They never run into each other, amazingly, and they don't get hit by cars, or tun into telephone poles, water fountains, or trees. Its almost as if they have some sort of built in radar. Either that, or they've had a lot of practice. The average American spends an incredible amount of time in front of a screen, if you include smart phones, laptops, and television. Something like between seven and ten hours a day. So, anytime you're wondering what somebody, anybody, might be doing, there's a decent chance the answer involves a screen. One wonders how that all bodes for the future, our future. Will we all eventually have chips implanted just under the skin on our foreheads, through which we can see and use a virtual computer screen anytime we want? Why not? It would appear that there is no limit to the computer gadgets people want. That's the scary part, our apparent willingness and even desire to replace real life with screen time.

Trump Supporting Israel, Really?

THE FACT THAT JEWS EXIST is good evidence that there is something to the Old Testament, although we really don't know if Moses existed, or whether Jehovah did away with fifty thousand and seventy Philistines as punishment for someone taking a peak inside a sacred wooden box. Nor do we even know whether the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948 was such a good idea, considering the number of non Jewish people who were already living there at the time, and the sheer number of wars and acts of violence the establishment of Israel engendered, compared to pre Israeli statehood. Its questionable. Opinions vary. But here it sits, and is another in a long list of questions over which the United States disagrees with most of the world. The U.S., which is a great military power, tends to pick and choose which United Nations resolutions, actions, and organizations it approves of and supports, and whether and when and how much to contribute. If every nation behaved like the U.S. in U.N. matters, there would be no U.N..Right at the end of his second and final term, Obama grows a backbone, and tries to Trump proof the future, to the extent that he can. He declares huge new protected wilderness areas, destroys lists of Muslims, preserves scientific research concerning global warming, and takes one final parting shot at Israel. Obama wanted to withhold support for Israel one more time, for old time sake. Thus, the United States condescends to allow the United Nations to condemn Israel's community construction activities, its notorious and infamous building of new settlements on disputed land. Or maybe the Israelis are simply being kind enough to build cities and towns for the incoming Palestinians. But somehow you have to doubt it. Now comes Trump, already talking as if he is going to be the savior of the entire situation. No matter how much hot air Trump blows out avidly supporting Israel, the rest of the world does not seem to agree, and there may just be a limit to how much Trump and the United States can continue to impose its will beyond its own borders........PLEASE TELL OTHERS ABOUT THIS WEBSITE. THANKS!

Drawing the Line At Stupidity

I LIVE IN A very small town in a very small state in a very large country, the United States. Unless there is a progressive neighborhood around my house that I don't know about, I am one of the few people in my town who believes in evolution, climate change, and I am one of the few if not the only person in town who does not believe that the Bible is the Word of God. So, it gets lonely. I cannot accept people who do not believe in evolution or climate change as my intellectual equals, I cannot take them seriously, I cannot respect their opinions. Evolution and climate change are not matters of opinion, they are not opinions, they are clearly demonstrated fact, like calculus, relativity, or nuclear physics, and to not believe in them is worse than ridiculous, no matter where you live. Evolution is not a bad guess, as Anthony Scalia said, it is proven fact. Climate change is not a hoax, as half of all American conservatives insist, it is right in front of our faces. If you can't accept that, sorry, but I can't hang out with you because no matter what you have to offer me, great as it may be, I cannot accept people who cannot accept simple, obvious reality and truth. You have to draw the line somewhere, and the survival of life on earth seems as good a place as any. And, by the same token, I simply cannot understand how anybody could have paid attention to the recent election campaign for over a year, and listened to what the candidates said - and then voted for Trump. I can't respect the mentality or the thought process of anyone who did that, sorry. It became obvious t me very early what a horrible candidate trump was, even though at first I supported him. It should have become obvious to everyone, later if not sooner. Now, its too late, and we are doomed. There's going to be a nuclear war, and the earth's environment is going to become unsuitable for life. All because of a few thousand votes in a couple of swing states.

Making America Great Again

THERE IS A PATTERN HERE. Western military powers dominate the middle east and Africa for decades, through colonialism, for the purpose of exploiting resources, such as oil, and, instead of helping developing countries, destabilize them, impoverish them, destroy them. Then a flood of refugees issues forth from the devastated countries, much of it directed at the very imperial powers which facilitated the misery which precipitated the refugee crisis. Inundated by a flood of refugees, people with dark skin and the wrong religion, anti-immigration, anti-free trade, pro nationalistic political movements emerge throughout Europe and the United States, advocating for closed borders, reduction in public welfare programs, nationalism, and racial and ethnic inequality. Its ugly, and its here, in America, with the election of Trump and the republicans. Block out Mexico with a wall. Keep out the Muslims. Build more nuclear weapons. Do not take any action to protect the environment if it slows the growth of corporate capitalism. Anger. Aggression. Astute academicians are beginning to recognize that the conservative movement in America, and particularly the republican party, is the most dangerous organization in world history, because it advocates for policies which will lead to the extinction of the human species. Extreme right wing political ideology is currently gaining popularity, and we can only hope and assume that it will run its course soon, and return to the abyss whence it came. We do not need another nuclear arms race, or a trade war, or a fortress America with no cultural exchange. Nor do we need the high security police state we have been building since nine one one, and, with right wing encouragement, continue to build today. This is a military-industrial monstrosity in which the corporate oligarchy knows everything about everybody, mainly by merely keeping track of Facebook, and the government uses its powers under the Patriot Act to surveille us all. Your best bet to stay safe is to end each and every phone conversation, email, or tweet with a hearty "God bless the NSA!"

Overthrowing Our Masters and Reversing Sick Societal Trends, Online

ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO, in the middle of World War One, people were predicting the end of western civilization, for what appeared to be good reason. Read "The Wasteland" by T.S. Eliot. Two hundred years ago, in the aftermath of the devastation of the Napoleonic wars, people were doing the same thing. It may well be that you could go back a hundred years in history, over and over again, and keep finding dire warnings of the end of civilization, of the end of the world, of time itself. Now we come to 2017, and this time it may be true. If you keep predicting something long enough, eventually, it comes true. All across Europe there is a right wing, nationalistic, call it a political movement, although it has social and economic features as well, and it has now, horror of all horrors, spread across the Atlantic and is even now infecting the United States of America. Many people are noticing this, and also noticing how alarmingly remindful this movement is to what happened in the nineteen thirties, leading to World War Two. Two of the most prominent symptoms are, of course, Brexit and Trump. A reactionary, backward looking, anti-foreign nationalistic response to globalism and perhaps general cultural diffusion as enhanced by the internet. The world is changing, and people sometimes respond to change by resisting it in anger and fear. Enhanced global communication is here to stay, we might all agree, and we'll have to learn to live with it. Fundamental human equality is a global value which, with mass support, will and must increase economic, political, international, gender, ethnic and racial equality. Both ends of the political spectrum claim to hate autocrats and plutocrats; the conflict may boil down to the rich and powerful versus the poor and excluded. The internet can create billions of pen pals. Imagine the teeming unwashed masses, online, overthrowing their masters, reversing this sick backward looking conservative brand of "populism" which leads to tyranny.(hint: a good place to start might be the overthrow of our modern versions of Napoleon, Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin)

Tweeting To Save the World

NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO (NPR) is a great alternative to television. It has great programming twenty four seven, and costs nothing. It does not so much embody a liberal slant as it avoids echoing the conservative viewpoint found so pervasively throughout much of mainstream American media. For this reason conservatives tend to despise national public radio, great treasure that it is. One clever conservative called NPR "National Panhandler Radio", a reference to the on the air fund raisers used to support the network. As usual, a conservative got it wrong. A panhandler begs for money without offering anything in return. NPR inundates people with what it gives in return. NPR, the commentators who speak on it, don't seem too fond of either Trump or Putin, and yet, at least one commentator expressed a hopeful, optimistic attitude towards the forthcoming relationship between the two large egos with strong power bases. They point to the fact that both men seem to want to have a reset, to begin Russian - American relations anew, to have good relations, and, perhaps even friendship. Trump has for months openly admired Putin, and Putin appears to like Trump. Indeed, Putin appears to have rigged the election in the U.S. to ensure Trump's election. Friends help friends get elected. Regrettably, it will take much more than exploratory desire by Trump and Putin to make the wonderful dream of American-Russian friendship come true. It will take people, many people, other than Trump and Putin; namely, new, saner political leaders, and hundreds of millions of good hearted people, ready to build bridges. The latter exists, and is in fact already in place, latent, but full of promise. We the people are getting stronger, better educated, and more aware of each other and the need for a sustainable world. The leaders, regrettably, are all wrong. A pair of angry, paranoid, aggressive ego maniacs will not do the trick. If anything, Putin and Trump will end up at each other's throats, and take the rest of us with them, to destruction. We the masses in Russia and America must take control of the situation, before its too late. as you log on to twitter today, compose a clever one hundred and forty letter message urging the world to rid itself of nukes, climate change, and the nightmarish leadership of Putin and Trump together. Since everyone in the world logs on to twitter, this might be a tweet filled day. And don't forget national Public Radio. Its better than television.

Giving Trump A Chance (To Come To His Senses)

NOT LONG AFTER ELECTION DAY, I pledged to give Donald Trump a chance, like a good American. I have been doing that ever since. Meanwhile Trump has made one disastrous decision after another, and has put the country, and the world with it, squarely on the road to ruin. Now, a mere six weeks after his election, one month before he becomes president, "giving Trump a chance" means utilizing any and every possible means to convince him to change course, and reverse nearly every decision he has made since election day. Undoubtedly just about everyone realizes that there's a fat chance of that, although Trump has indeed displayed a flexible willingness to change his mind, to reverse his own decisions. So, we can, we must have hope. A case in point is his insane statement that he wants to increase the number of atomic bombs in the possession of the United States. alarming as that is, nearly as alarming is Newt Gingrich's agreement with it, and the likelihood that most of Trump's supporters and everyone in his administration will express agreement with and support of this horrible insanity. A little knowledge of America's conservative community is enough to tell you that. Perhaps there is the faint hope that some or all of the christian segment of the conservative community, which is mot of the conservative community, will oppose beating plowshares into swords. The time to add nukes is long since passed. We tried mutually assured destruction and arms racing decades ago, found it didn't work well enough, and moved on. For several decades now we have been slowly but steadily reducing the world's stockpiles of nuclear weapons, and we must at this point continue this reduction until there are none left. Thirty years ago Gorbachev made a proposal to Reagan to eliminate all nuclear weapons; Reagan turned him down. Now e must support Trump and give him a chance to come to his senses, and stop talking like some cold war monger from the nineteen fifties. Would somebody please post a tweet saying something like "no more nukes", and get two other people to do the same, then get those two people to get two other people each, until everybody in the world has so tweeted? Nothing short of a global twitter revolution will compel the world's leaders to behave responsibly.

Trusting In A Saner God

WE ALL WANT GOVERNMENT to be just big enough to have teh opportunity to do what we think best for ourselves and to impose our will on others. Any Christian conservative worth his or her salt morphs into a big government type at the mere mention of drugs, or crime, or abortion, or especially gun rights property rights and religious freedom, all of which are big government. Save the planet! Save the unborn! Save whatever I personally deem worthy of salvation, through whatever means necessary, including big government. Let's place limits on what a person can do with her own body, and her reproductive freedom. Get those drugs off the streets. Lock 'er up. Big government comes in very handy, at least once, in everyone's life. If abortion isn't murder, its too close for comfort. Do we want murder to be illegal? One way to legalize murder pro choice is to believe in God, devoutly. There is a decision to be made, since aborting a fetus is theoretically within the realm of possibility, like drinking or driving too fast. Abortion is a more important issue, the most important issue. Too important to be decided by humans. Let God decide. Leave it as a decision to be made by God, with the woman's agreement, and puny human government cast aside totally. God is perfect, therefore his creation is perfect, and his decisions, and since God makes all decisions by giving free will to humans, all outcomes are perfect. People who believe in the Christian version of God might wish to consider the possibility that their Judeo-Christian favors abortion, at least in some cases. On at least one occasion in the Bible, and in fact upon more than one, God orders people to dash out the brains of infants against boulders. One is loathe to imagine how many of the over forty million abortions that have taken place in the United States since 1973 were ordained by the Judeo-Christian God, and wept over by less powerful, saner ones. Some enlightened form of future humanity shall perhaps transcend the necessity of government. But not us.

Criticizing Trump For Free

RIGHT NOW, OBAMA could win an election against Trump. Trump's cabinet picks, and his statements since his election have enhanced buyers remorse, while Obama is leaving popular, mainly because he's been a good president who did a lot of good things for the country, including Obamacare. His only big foreign policy mistake might have been taking too many troops out of Iraq too soon, and allowing the Islamic State to fill the vacuum. Its possible that nothing would have worked, that Iraq was and is a lost cause. Obama's critics have to invent complaints against him, like accusing him of having been born in Kenya. All Trump's critics need do is quote Trump's words, which speak volumes in exposing Trump's clever sounding idiocy. Kellyanne Conway issued a threatening warning against Trump's critics, hinting that people who cross the line in criticizing Trump might face legal action, lawsuits, charges of libel and slander. What a joke. What a bimbo. Kellyanne Conway may be a genius, a genius who guided Donald J.Trump to a seemingly unlikely election victory, but she sounds like a bimbo when she speaks, which, as Trump's main spokesperson is often. But it'll take a room full of super computer geniuses to guide this reprobate Trump, who has an emotional intelligence of a third grader, through more than a few minutes of his sure to be sham of a presidency. Trump wants to change the libel laws in America to allow him to go after people who criticize him. Trump, himself a smear merchant who verbally attacks anyone he chooses with extreme viciousness, is whining that people should not be allowed to slander him. What a joke. Its all too funny, these stupid, narcissistic people who are so terribly sensitive and fearful of criticism. Trump hasn't even begun hearing criticism, and there isn't a damned thing he can do to stop it. It has already begun, and it is increasing every day, and will increase every day as long as Trump is president, if he ever become president, if nothing happens to him beforehand. Sometimes helicopters crash and burn. Every day Trump says or does something so stupid or so mean and vicious that millions of people have long since gotten tired of him, and are getting more tired of him daily. All criticism of Trump is valid, and he brings it on himself by his words and actions. Trump has a big mouth, and he can dish it out, but he cannot take it, like most bullies, and his inability to handle criticism is going to be his downfall.......THANKS FOR VISITING. PLEASE COME BACK!

Saving The World From Trump

AMONG THE MANY CREEPY THINGS Donald Trump and his transition gang are doing is survey questioning government employees to find out whether they believe in climate change, racial and gender equality, abortion, and whatever else the little darlings will soon conjure up. The purpose? To make sure that, after January 20, all undesirables are purged from government employment. Under Trump, nobody who wants to save the environment will be allowed to work at the Environmental Protection Agency, and nobody who is willing to fight for civil rights and racial equality shall set foot within the hallowed confines of the Department of Justice. Welcome to Trumps world, 2017. You could not make this up, and its better than any science fiction story. You'd better get used to it. When I mentioned to a friend that a nuclear war is coming, he shrugged and said that we'll just have to pick up the pieces afterward and build a better world. Now, that's resignation, if ever there were such. Either that, or extreme optimism. Nobody seems to care. Nobody seems to be worried. Am I the only bastard in this country who is not addicted to opioids? It is widely believed and feared that Trump will cut off all government funding for climate change research, and destroy the stockpile of government date so far accumulated, and gather no more. For real. California Governor Jerry Brown, old "moonbeam" himself, swears by god that if that happens, he and his great state will launch their own weather satellite and preserve and expand all American climate change science, and carry on the glorious fight to save the species and the ecosystem in spite of America's right wing lunacy. And just think. From the conservative point of view, Jerry Brown is the crazy one......PLEASE SHARE THIS SITE WITH OTHERS. GET INVOLVED. THANKS!

Dealing With Drugs

THE WORD "OPIOID" is new to me, but I have no problem with it. I always thought the word was "opiate", but I know better than to diss the latest word fad. All I know is that when I injured my hamstring about five years ago, hydrocodone came in handy, too handy, and I got away from it just in time. About three million other Americans didn't, according to the facts. Let the blame game begin. Who's to blame, doctors, patients, pharmaceutical firms, or all the above? We still haven't figured out to adequately deal with mind altering chemicals, which we so dearly adore. Societal responses to drugs range from sipping them at the kitchen table before going off to work, to using them with but only with a doctor's permission, to purchasing them at a drive by window, to scoring small amounts on the street, and sharing with a few select friends behind drawn shades. All that seems a little chaotic, a little inconsistent. Do we lock up all the doctors, corporate execs, and addicted patients? or do we let all the crack cocaine dealers and users out of prison? To be consistent and fair, it would be necessary to do one or the other. Fairness and consistency might not be our aims. We understand that people want to have a good time, want to escape, and will do so, one way or another. We also realize that drugs and drug research and development saves lives. It may well be that the concept of "punishment" might not have any place in dealing with all this, from a logical, scientific point of view. A whole new approach would appear to be called for.

Deposing, Exposing, and Disposing Of Donald Trump

THE TRUMP FOUNDATION announced that its going to shut down, and since Trump doesn't seem to worry much about conflicts of interest, but does seem to care a great deal about avoiding indictments, criminal convictions, and jail time, the Trump Foundation is most likely trying to vanish before the law catches up with it. Problem is, the law has already caught up. The New York Attorney General announced that the foundation will not be allowed to close down until the state completes its investigation of it, which might take some time and appears quite serious. The Trump Foundation appears to be corrupt and criminal, like its namesake. It lacks transparency, and cannot show many if any actual charitable contributions made by it. Trump mumbled something about helping police officers and veterans. People do not need charitable assistance for being police officers and veterans. They need it for being jobless, poor, sick, hungry, and homeless. Instead it seems the Trump Foundation's funds, which come almost all from wealthy donors other than the Trump family, have been and are being used to purchase luxury items for Trump, and to pay his legal bills, which is a clear violation of law, and could well result in Trump himself being indicted on criminal charges. When you consider the indictments against Trump for racial discrimination in housing, the closing of Trump university amid charges of fraud which Trump paid heavily to settle, the many lawsuits against Trump for cheating workers, Donald Trump has an extremely corrupt and sordid history as a business person and as a human being. Don't forget the sexual assault charges, which are only now just beginning. His election is a real mess for the country, a disaster on so many levels, that we would be better off if he would resign before he is sworn in. How ironic. You will recall how Trump repeatedly accused the Clinton Foundation, which is entirely transparent, and saves millions of lives annually, of being corrupt. The great right wing attack machine tried in vain to connect Hillary Clinton with giving favors at the state department to her foundation's foreign donors. It was a full scale assault of lies against Hillary and her Foundation, and it failed miserably, having produced no evidence. Crooked Hillary doesn't exist. Crooked Trump is all too real, a real criminal, and must be prevented from ever taking to oath of office, by being impeached in advance if necessary. How does that work, anyway?

Protesting Pluto and Improving Our Planetary Paradigms

SOME YEARS AGO, maybe twenty, a group of the world's astronomical planetary scientists gathered together and decided by vote that the planet Pluto is no longer a planet, even though there were not enough people in the room to technically take such a binding vote. This action engendered immediate and vehement reaction. Most folks, it seemed, hated it, and believed that Pluto had been dealt with dirtily. Lay people got involved, by the googol. Petitions were written and circulated. Protests sprang up on America's street corners and around the world. In Flagstaff, Arizona, the home of Pluto's discovery in 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh, the street corner protesters held signs like: "Bring Back Pluto" and "Free Pluto" and even goofier ones. There were two sides to this story. The Plutonic pro-planetary eviction people held strong, with the strong argument that in Pluto's part of the solar system there are thousand of rocks as big as Pluto in similar orbits; if Pluto is a planet, so are thousands of other smallish orbiting planetoid rocks. Assigning planetary status to Pluto in the first place, and even naming it, has proven to have been a bit, shall we way, premature. Key here is the fact that the action taken by the International Astronomical Union triggered a backlash, when one might not have even been expected, including near revolutions in the streets, especially here in the land of superfluous revolutions, the U.S. of America. In this country not only do we argue about anything and everything, we'll fight over it and revolt against it, and that fact makes us beautiful, bigly, to quote Trump. Jesus himself brought a revolutionary approach, although he said he didn't want to rebel against any existing authority, but merely to add improvements to existing institutions. Then so be it. Let's do the same here and now. Let us revolt against the world the way it is, and start the process of building a better one. Out into the streets with us, or onto the internet, whichever works best and is more convenient, with our hand painted signs reading "No More War", "End Hunger", "Cure Disease", "End Poverty", "Equality Now", and all that kind of good stuff, even if nobody carries a sign defending the dignity of the late great planet Pluto.

Uniting the Workers of the World

OUR READERS IN RUSSIA must surely by now have noticed just how terribly clever their leader and our soon to be leader are, taken together, as a whole. Putin and Trump, who have either never met in person or have done so only fleetingly, are going to be extremely entertaining together, you just know it. And, dear Russian readers, we the Americans now have the very same problem as you; namely, a crazy leader, who must be disposed of post haste. Agreed? Its time for matching regime changes. Both Putin and Trump are arrogant through insecurity, and they both think they are the most clever guys in the world. Trump thought he was very clever when he suggested the Chinese be told to keep the stolen drone, and Putin pretends that he doesn't give a shit about Trump's desire to build more nukes. He will, soon enough. Soon enough, worse things will happen. Putin and Trump is a friendship which is tailor made to self destruct, explode and go up in smoke. Two volatile, psychotic liars, pretending for the sake of momentary expediency to be friends, when in fact together they can only lead our two great countries to the path of hatred and mutual assured destruction. Therefore we the people of Russia and the United States, we the common people, the teeming hordes of poor working class peons, must unite in an enormous army of protest against our mutually mad rulers, and rid ourselves of Putin and Trump, before Trump takes office. Or, after he takes office, which ever works best. No need to be picky. We need a huge avalanche of online activity, emails and social media and so forth, particularly Facebook and Twitter posts by the hundreds of millions, to insist on a change in leadership in both countries. All Russians and Americans, go immediately to your Facebook and Twitter accounts, and twitter tweet tellingly titillatingly, and tell Vladimir Putin and Donald J. Trump to rescind their fame, egos, and vanity, resign their political positions, and retire to a tropical paradise somewhere, together if they wish, but immediately, before the two of them together get us all killed collectively.

Our Ever Evolving Christmas Holiday

THE CHRISTMAS SEASON lasts so long anymore that when Christmas Day itself finally arrives, it seems like somewhat of a shock, as if, is all this really coming to an end? No, it isn't, not quite, because we are learning how to improve that nether nether week between Christmas Day and New Year's Day and enhancing it as part of the Christmas season, and New Year's Day is maybe the last hurrah, although early January seems a little Holiday like as well, rather than return to work like. But, we're working on it. Christmas, always evolving. We know, for instance, that the traditional Christmas tree motif, as well as the winter solstice date of Christmas Day were created to bring the northern Europeans into the church in the early centuries. In 1843 the Charles Dickens short story "A Christmas Carol" triggered a wave of changes that made our modern Christmas. In particular all the festive trimmings, including the songs, parties, celebratory observances, gift giving and commercialism got a kick start, all with a single, popular short story. Before Dickens, in colonial times, Americans barely acknowledged Christmas. Christmas is tradition, but always changing by evolving. And may it always be so, for it must be so. Let's not resist the gradual change which only upholds and enriches tradition. Let's embrace it, because its inevitable, as change of some sort always is. Maybe we could even evolve some new and improved institutions. We need a new holy book, for instance. The Bible is out of date. God's word must be updated, which means that somebody needs to speak to God, to get the new word. The Bible doesn't even talk about Christmas, other than the nativity story, which much later became part of our modern Christmas holiday. The Bible needs to tell us when Christmas Day should be, at the very least, which it does not now do, at least not yet. Nor does our current Bible say anything about evolution, climate change, or nuclear physics, all of which are important enough to be mentioned in any holy book. Perhaps the task of receiving the new and improved Word of God could fall to the world's best computers. Or, perhaps an international college of clerics, philosophers, and scientists. Or maybe a big international contest, in which people everywhere are encouraged to send in entries, their versions of a better Bible, to be judged and chosen by a panel of computers and.......THANKS FOR SHARING THIS WEBSITE WITH OTHERS!

Destroying The Right Wing Hate Machine

IN 2010, a massive earthquake devastated Haiti, and the Clinton Foundation began to send help. Out of nowhere came a five hundred thousand dollar donation from the government of Algeria, which the Clintons rapidly rushed into service, without putting it through the customary ethics review at the State Department. In kicked the vast right wing hate and smear machine, suggesting that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was intending to give favors to Algeria to "pay for" the donation. The right wingers wanted so badly to turn Hillary into a crook that they accused her of accepting bribery from the Algerians, with no evidence to back up their crazy accusation. Soon after the money was spent in Haiti, Hillary, still Secretary of State, instead of favoring the Algerians with any favors, vigorously attacked the Algerian government, in writing, for human rights abuses and violations, and for having a generally poor human rights record, including repression of women, and the use of harassment against political enemies. Many middle eastern Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, also contributed to the Clinton's charitable foundation, an organization which has save millions of lives, and even though each donation from foreign governments was thoroughly examined by ethics lawyers, the attack from from right wing hateful America persisted. When Hillary left office in 2013 and became a private citizen, the state department no longer examined all foreign contributions to the Clinton Foundation, and that fact alone set the right wingers off on another killing spree smear campaign. Strangely, even after twenty five years of hateful scandal mongering, inventing accusations against the Clintons, the Clintons remain, just for the record, clean. Feel free to check the facts. Conservative America has emerged as the single most powerful gang of thugs in the country. It all started when, in 1992, after twelve years of Ronald Reagan and George bush, Clinton was elected president, and the right wing of American politics through a tantrum, and organized itself into a hate filled attack machine, which is more powerful today than ever. Its a smooth operation consisting of right wing billionaires, media outlets, and foundations and think tanks, which spew out a never ending avalanche of attack messages, the sort of hatred and dishonesty which Donald Trump exploited to be elected president. The machine must be destroyed.

Christian Socialistic Reconciling At the Yuletide

YET ANOTHER STUDY reveals that inequality of income and wealth are only getting more extreme in America, if that's even possible. Get the study at CNN. And no, this is not a hoax by a liberal propaganda media outlet. This is hard core fact based research conducted by professionals seeking only truth, who found it. The truth is frightening. Any conservative worth its salt will tell you that the phrase "redistribution of wealth", or "confiscation of hard earned wealth in the form of taxation by the government" is as dirty as the phrase "liberal", and maybe come close to making you believe it. But don't be brainwashed by the slick right wing propaganda machine. Rather, render unto Caesar, unlike the president elect. Its what Jesus said to do, and Jesus had the answers. By redistributing wealth from the very narrow top to the very broad bottom we stimulate the economy by increasing demand by expanding the market by creating a whole new group of consumers with spendable money. Socialism and capitalism work beautifully together, as Jesus understood. As we prepare to celebrate, and in fact are already celebrating the birth of the central figure and savior of the Christian religion, let us take to heart his words "render unto Caesar", and "go thy way, and sell whatsoever thou hast, and give unto the poor", not only because Jesus said to and it makes us feel good, but because it is sound, intellectually sold economic strategy to heal the economy and our society and to bring prosperity to all. As we wish each other a very merry Christmas, let's envision Trump and Bernie Sanders, in front of the fireplace with egg nog, together plotting for future prosperity for all, with economic creativity, and truthful reconciliation.....PLEASE SHARE THIS ARTICLE WITH OTHERS.THANKS!

Pushing the Nuclear-Trump Panic Button

I GOT HOME from a Christmas light tour, went online, and noticed that Donald Trump tweeted that the United States should, or must, or whatever it was, strengthen and build up our nuclear bomb arsenal until the world comes to its senses about nuclear bombs. I swear to God, that's what he said, or basically what he said. Go look it up. If anybody needs to "come to their senses", its we the United States, and building still more atomic bombs would only prove it. Disclaimer: I don't go twitter. But Trump, like any good healthy adolescent, does, and his spewings are always reported, right away. When you read it, you won't believe it. Its worse than I thought. For several months now Trump has reminded me of Hitler, and this proves or at the lest provides further indication, that I was right. We are in terrible danger, as a nation, as a world, and we must prevent Trump from taking office. We the American people already have more nuclear bombs than all the other countries in the world combined, and the last thing we need or want to do is build and have more. Trump is bending over backwards to message that he likes Putin, and wants better relations with Russia. where do the new nuclear bombs fit in? Does that make any sense? Putin responded with this quote: "This is not new. Trump already said he wanted a stronger military. Our (Russia's) military is stronger than any aggressor"... Isn't there something a bit ominous about this? Does this sound like a friendship that is going to work long term? We need a president with good judgment, and maybe just a pinch of sanity, not one who would have told the Chinese to keep the drone, not one with no trace of a sane game plan. We need to send about three hundred millions messages to Trump, by email, tweet, snail mail, megaphone, whatever it takes. As you know, building more nukes will only start an arms race with many other countries, and lead to nuclear war and total human annihilation. Trump doesn't see that, the idiot. We must make him see it, before its too late. One does not prevent violence by accumulating weapons, contrary to traditional conservative ideology. Only by the elimination of weapons are weapons put aside, and peace preserved.

A Christian Conservative Cat Killer, and I

I HAVE A NINETY YEAR OLD friend who, although a Christian conservative, is a great guy. He buys into all the Jesus, guns, and Money crap, but still, seems nice. He told me he once brought home a young black cat, named it "Satan", and had only had the pet for about a week when, one day, he pulled a pot roast out of the oven, and set it on the kitchen table. He turned around for a minute, and when he looked back, he saw the cat tearing into the pot roast, unsurprisingly. he told me he shot to cat. For real. He told me he shot the cat. I damned near freaked. I did freak, but kept it inside, and didn't show it outwardly. Just sat there. You stupid bastard, you should have shot yourself, for being so stupid, so stupid as to leave a hot steaming pot roast sitting on the kitchen table and turning your back with a wild animal in the house. Like, I am so totally sure. Fucking dumb ass. Just shoot yourself, if you have to shoot somebody, and save yourself the eternal damnation of turning yourself into a cold blooded killer. Christian, conservative, eh? Career military man to boot. Have a plan, execute it, survey the environment, adjust, accomplish objective. Isn't that the military way? Get it done, and don't blame others for your mistakes. And what about Jesus? WWJD? But I didn't say any of that, and for that, I'm proud of myself. Why anger and lose a friend, just by telling the truth? I guarantee you, if I approach him at lunch at the senior center and suggest that maybe he should have simply turned the cat out into the street all those years ago, or given it to someone else, to at least give it a chance, my friend, being a damned Christian conservative, will not own up to the fact that I am right, and say "yeah, I shoulda done that". Oh no. Instead, he'll have some convoluted, twisted, pseudo intellectual Rush Limbaugh sounding bullshit of a reason why he actually did the right thing. I guarantee it. We'll see. I'll find out, and report the results. America, hold your breath.

The Head Scratching, Jaw Dropping Putin-Trump Relationship

THERE IS SOMETHING ROTTEN in the state of Russia about Donald Trump's relationship to Vladimir Putin and the Russians. There is more, possibly much more than meets the eye, all conspiracy theories aside. Trump has been to Russia, couple of years ago, when he arranged to have his miss universe sex show take place in, um, perhaps it was St. Petersburg. He sent out a pandering, sniveling twitter tweet to Vladimir Putin, inviting him to the show, and Trump actually said: "will you be my best friend?" If you don't believe it, look it up. Putin neither responded nor attended, if memory serves. For years Trump has tried to invest in Russian real estate, but has been denied the opportunity, due to the failure of Russian government officials several floors below Putin to give their approval. Putin could have easily overridden his bureaucratic subordinates and opened the door to Trump, and still could, but has not, and still does not. Now, its too late. If the two autocrats, one real and one potential, actually tried to pull a stunt like that at this point they would both be run out of town and country. Trump does not like NATO, neither does Putin, and every time Putin has pulled one of his aggressive land grabbing maneuvers, like Crimea and the Ukraine, Trump has been down with it, all the way. Could it be that the Russian leader has the goods on Trump, that he has done more than hack into Hillary and the democrats, and has in fact gotten incriminating information on Trump as well? We know that Putin hates Hillary Clinton, and this goes back decades, back to when Hillary and Bill cozied up to Putin's predecessor, the alcoholic Russian leader Boris Yeltsin, an arch rival of Putin. While Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton expressed support for the thousands of protesters who took to the streets of Moscow several years ago in opposition to Putin's return to power after he had been briefly term limited out, but had, like a bad penny, shown back up. That's why Putin and his gang of thugs tried to assist in the election of Trump: to defeat his hated Hillary, and to install as American head of state a pandering, simpering sycophantic fool whose strings Putin obviously and strangely pulls. What, exactly, does Putin have hanging over the red head of the hapless Trump? Trump, who once squawked daily about the election being rigged, even before the election was held, is in denial now that we know that it actually was rigged, in his favor, as has been forcefully asserted by every American intelligence gathering agency on the planet. The upshot is: the more barbarically Putin behaves, the more Trump excuses and even defends him. Stay tuned. When the Russian tanks and infantry come rolling across the plains of Eastern Europe, how will President Donald J. Trump respond? By praising the brilliance of his conquering hero?-------------------------PLEASE SUPPORT FREE THINKING BY SHARING THIS WEBSITE WITH YOUR COMRADS! THANKS!

Backtracking A Bit On Bigotry

THROUGH AN INFUSION of right wing money, North Carolina, like Wisconsin, has lately leaned farther to the right than previously, but money can only do so much. Even the mighty Koch brothers run up against limits. Sometimes, people don't stay bought. American cities are liberal, the rest of the country is conservative. Charlotte, North Carolina supports transgender rights, in particular the right to use whatever restroom corresponds to a person's gender identification. The republican dominated state legislature does not, or rather, did not. That is, until the power of the almighty dollar finally kicked in, but good. Corporate plutocracy, like God and man, can giveth, and they can taketh away. It is a wonder what a few hundred million dollars of lost revenue can do to a principled conservative capitalist. You lose an NBA All Star game, and a few corporate conventions and expansions here and there, and its back to ye olde drawing board. Cold hard cash trumps, no pun intended, core conservative sexual mores and moral values, it would seem. So, this very morning, back into the state capitol swaggers the conservative end of the political spectrum, to repeal that which should never have been passed in the first place; the hilariously discriminatory state law proclaiming that all must use the restroom corresponding to the gender on the birth certificate, known as the "bathroom bill". How long must we wait until our conservative colleagues realize that a transgender person is not merely someone cleverly and perniciously disguising as a member of the opposite gender, presumably just for shits and grins? No, we are not risking an epidemic of men encroaching upon women's restrooms. Sexual predators as a rule are not transgender people. Transgender people are like caterpillars; living beings who are inexorably impelled to become something other than what they have been, once were, but can no longer remain. They aren't playing around. They go to an enormous amount of time, trouble, and effort to transform themselves, and let us assume for the sake of argument that there is a better reason for it than twenty four seven three sixty five Halloween costuming.

Owning Up To Tradition

THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION has always enjoyed a dominant position in american society, we can agree, although considerably less today than previously, and still declining. Today approximately seventy percent of the american people self identify as Christian, down from about eighty five percent a mere two decades ago. In the nineteenth century, the percentage was undoubtedly even higher, though exact statistics are unavailable. The essential fact is that Christianity is the most powerful cultural force in America, traditionally, unless one considers capitalism, which enjoys an equally elite status. The two are intertwined. Overwhelmingly Christianity and capitalism are intertwined; both as core value traditions, and attract the same people, conservatives, for whom traditional values are the basis of their political and religious ideology. Liberalism, on the other hand, is associated with religious diversity, non religion, and socialism, all of which represent a departure from tradition, and may be generally classified as "non traditional", or change oriented. or anti-establishment. Because of its dominant position, nothing of any importance has ever taken place in the United States without the explicit or implicit permission of the Christian community. With a religious orientation embraced by well over four fifths of the population, how could it be otherwise? This includes all the unsavory traditions, the core American values of which we so love to expediently omit mention, including white male supremacy, economic inequality, subordination of ethnic minorities and women, slavery, and racism. As proof of this consider the Ku Klux Klan, and the new alt right, both white Christian organizations which value tradition, including capitalism and racism. There existed an abolitionist movement, but it wasn't strong enough. Consider the fate of John Brown, who could have, if given sufficient assistance, led the way in the abolition of slavery. There exists resistance to racism today, but it isn't strong enough. It is not an exaggeration to say that the Christian based community could have, with the wave of a hand or the snap of a finder, eliminated slavery before the year 1800, could have ended racism before the year 1900, or could end racism today. Again, merely with the wave of a hand from the pulpit. We do not hear racism being condemned from the pulpit in modern American churches. The fact that it does not demonstrates clearly that modern racism is the product of long standing tradition, is a traditional, or conservative value, and has been and still is supported, if only tacitly, by the modern conservative Christian community. Since we all seem to agree that racism is an undesirable tradition which should be eliminated, the question arises: "of what value is the contemporary conservative Christian community"?

Exercising Good Judgment

IF CHARACTER DOESN'T MATTER in the selection of the American president, and it certainly doesn't seem to, then judgment certainly does. On this account, the red flags are already flying high, a mere month before the new president assumes office. A piece of American property is stolen by a foreign power in international waters, and the president elect tells them to keep it. There are at least two problems with this suggestion. First, criminal activity should not be rewarded. The bank robber must return the stolen money. When criminal activity is unpunished, it only increases. Aside from that, to have told the Chinese to keep the "aqua drone" would not only have made America appear weak, it would have revealed America to be weak. Besides, can we say "reverse engineering"? Obama's solution was better: demand the return of the property. Then there is the matter of Russian hacking into American computers, attempting to influence the election. For an incoming president to publicly disrespect his nation's intelligence gathering agencies before even assuming office is arguably poor judgment. At the very least, Trump should have said: "although we do not yet know for certain whether the findings of the CIA and other agencies are correct, we must take them seriously, and further investigations and deliberation are called for, and, in the event that indeed Russian hacking activity is confirmed,must be dealt with firmly." Surely, that statement would have been preferable to calling the findings "ridiculous". One can only wish the new president the best of luck in securing the respect and full cooperation of the intelligence gathering community over the next four years. Being given a thorough briefing by national security experts each day seems, for the president of the United Stats, perfectly reasonable. No, the daily briefings are not the same every day, as Trump alleges; each day there are new developments, according to former national security officials, and the president needs to and should be briefed daily, not just when he sees fit, or when he suspects that there is something new to report. It may not matter whether an American president is a sex offender, or a scam artist, or assumes office with an entangling set of conflicts of interest, as it apparently does not, but it matters whether he or she has good judgment on matters of national security and international diplomacy.

Faking the News

IN RETROSPECT, it seems inevitable that the current explosion of fake news would proliferate sufficiently to attract enough attention to, at long last, widely be considered a problem. How could anyone expect that the internet, then the advent of social media, followed by participation by millions of people, many of them Americans, have any other result? Fake news, like the internet itself, is a drug, a means to escape reality, the latest in a long line of escape mechanisms which have made human life a bit more bearable for thousands of years. Life is tough, always has been, and we have always wanted our palliatives. Like any other drug, social media magnifies what is already there; often, anger and hatred. Sober minded people always step up to combat the drugs, and they always fail, as they will this time. Facebook has finally seen its way clear to offer token resistance; fact checkers will be employed, members will be urged to report suspicious activity, which, when enough red flags are raised, will trigger fact checking and deletion. And guess who vehemently, strenuously objects to the Facebook initiative? Why, the very people who most dwell in the realm of the made up, the same folks who brought you Hillary Clinton's imaginary scandals, President Obama's Kenyan birth, Michelle Obama's transgenderism, and Donald Trump's fantasy fabricated election campaign; the hard core conservative right. Every conservative website in America and abroad is up in arms about the new resistance to fake news. Why? Because they are the creators of it, that'w why. Hillary Clinton was selling state department secrets to America's enemies, and profiting personally from charitable contributions to the Clinton foundation, and planning to socialize the entire economy; Donald Trump's real life real time scandals were considered quite enough unto themselves by the liberal press, which waited, and is still waiting, for his dues to be paid. Angry, hallucinatory, far right extremism is sweeping across Europe and the United States, and with it, a complete world of the imagination. Combating fake news will result in censorship, and control of the internet by a biased liberal viewpoint, seems to be the raison d'tre. In truth, if the right wing onslaught which brought Donald Trump to power is to be sustained, the truth must not be. So, from the point of view of the conservative community, its better to read about Hillary Clinton killing babies and the Pope endorsing Donald Trump than the purge our lives of such garbage. After all, freedom of expression is at stake.

Purchasing Political Power

WEALTHY PEOPLE TEND to be politically conservative. We all see the world through our own filters, and when we like what we see, we have less desire to change it. Its far easier for the affluent to look around and like what they see. With so many more poor than wealthy people in America, its somehow surprising that the liberal conservative split is about fifty fifty. You might expect a higher percentage of the population to favor fundamental change, progressivism. All political scientists have always known that the masses of poor in any democracy have the potential to make the rules and the slant them to the benefit of the poor, and the fact that they have not done so to any great degree demonstrates that people who are not affluent often do not advocate for their own best interests. Since 2010 we have entered an era in which money purchases political power more easily and directly then ever, and its always, to a degree, been for sale. Most conservative members of the nation's legislative bodies were elected by paying for their election with the money of extremely wealthy benefactors. In a free market economy it is not always fair or intellectually sound to criticize the wealthy merely for being wealthy. If you work hard and make good decisions you should have the right to enjoy the benefits of your own efforts. But under no conditions should a person of great wealth have more political power, or access to political power than anyone else, and that is the overarching problem with America society; not that the rich have more wealth, but that they have more political power, if they choose to use it, than those with less wealth. And this is never how it was intended, or, if it was intended, is not how it should be. The founders of the American political system were wealthy men who believed that since the wealthy had more at stake in society, had more to lose, that they should have more influence in the political process. but the founders were not perfect, and they may have overlooked one important fact; even the poor have their own lives at stake, and their own well being to protect, just like the wealthy.

Fighting the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy

WELCOME TO THE GREAT AMERICAN fun house, where nothing is as it seems. The standard election narrative is that millions of hard working, ordinary, middle class Americans got fed up - fed up with the government, the economy, the establishment, the whole ball of wax, because they realized they are going nowhere, fast. They wanted a change. So, they looked for an outsider, someone different, someone with new and different ideas who would drain the swamp and say the things many Americans feel. Like many a standard narrative, this one is nothing but fecal matter. Instead, let's try this, the truth: There is, as Hillary Clinton said long ago, a vast right wing conspiracy in America, led by a small number of billionaires and their associates, who have spent hundreds of millions of dollars over the past thirty years or so building a massive, ubiquitous infrastructure of media and advocacy organizations to brainwash the American people with right wing dogma, extreme right wing dogma, the kind favored by people such as Charles and David Koch, and to gain control of local, state, and national governments to implement their bizarre, backward agenda. This machine has been seeking to destroy the Clintons, the government social safety net, and liberalism in general for thirty years, and it caught up to Hillary, just in the nick of time. The Tea Party, Fox News Channel, the Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute, right wing talk radio, the Spectator, are all manifestations of this well oiled and very effective right wing machine, but merely the tip of the iceberg. You see it beautifully manifested in the election of Donald Trump, the people he is appointing to government positions, and the agenda his administration thus far espouses. Outsider, my foot. Drain the swamp, my ass. Fortunately, mainstream America is not as extreme right wing as the American Christian conservative community, and in fact has a strong progressive orientation, as witnessed by Hillary Clinton's huge victory in the popular vote. The fact that the millennial generation is highly progressive is also encouraging for those on the side of sanity. We the people have not yet begun to fight. Trump'll never know what hit him in popular opposition, and just think how sensitive he is to criticism. He aint seen nuthin' yet. Maybe we'll get lucky and avoid millions of women aborting their fetuses in back alleys, and squads of volunteer citizen alt right militia stepping down our city streets, seeking illegal aliens and dope smokers, and handing out guns and Bibles.

Getting To the bottom Of Trump (it aint pretty down there)

REPORTEDLY THERE WERE seventy thousand ballots cast in Detroit on which there was no vote for president. Its hard to imagine even one person being smart enough and capable enough to get to the polling place and cast a vote on every race and issue, but leave the "president of the U.S." blank. Why do that? Its even harder to imagine seventy thousand doing so in one city, or precinct. Particularly in this election, where most Americans voted for the lesser of two evils for president anyway. You can always vote against someone, if you don't like anyone. Surely, those seventy thousand people hated one of the two candidates for president enough to vote against him or her, just like the rest of us. Just in theory, if, by chance, all seventy thousand blank presidential ballots were Hillary Clinton votes that got deliberately erased, it cost her the state of Michigan, and maybe the election. If the Russians did it, and Putin and Trump knew about it, Trump must be prevented from becoming president. It might be worthwhile to find out. Just today it came out that Putin indeed knew about it. Did Donald? What about the computer science professor at the University of Michigan who first suggested the election was rigged in Michigan? Is he possibly planning to check into the computers in Detroit? Every day more information is coming out concerning Russian hacking during the election, Putin, and Trump, and what they know about it. It would seem that people are determined to get to the bottom of it, as they say. Throughout the campaign Trump insisted that the election was fixed, or rigged, against him. Meanwhile, he cozied up to Putin. Then, the CIA announces that the election was indeed rigged, or interfered with, by the Russians, and that they were trying to help Trump. Then, a state court in Michigan controlled by republicans stopped the recount, for a phony reason, after computer scientists suggested the state might have been rigged, and a recount had applied for, for good reason. This is all very fishy, and becoming fishier. But it looks like we have a chance to find out the truth, if only a remote one.

Conservatives, Kicking and Screaming About Climate Change

ALL UP AND DOWN the east coast, its the same story. In Miami Beach, it floods every day at high tide, rain or shine. Along coastal Carolina, flooding is becoming way too frequent. The Pentagon says that the naval base at Norfolk VA will have to be relocated, or end up underwater, which is a lot for a building to say. Along Chesapeake Bay, landowners are noticing their shoreline is being encroached upon by rising water, and the New York City subway system is getting damp. Also, we know about those islands in the south Pacific, vanishing beneath the waves, like Atlantis. Can we all agree that there is a pattern here, a trend, and that its only going to get worse, not better? Only an American conservative could possibly think that the rising sea level will "go away", or stop happening, or isn't really happening at all. That, in a nutshell, is why we need a leader for the Environmental Protection Agency who accepts the reality of human made climate change and wants to protect the environment at all costs, rather than one who wants to protect it only if doing so doesn't limit corporate profits or cost too much money. Take a wild guess as to which kind Mr. Trump intends to appoint. The time has come, long since, to push the panic button on climate change, and organize the whole of humanity to fight it, tooth and nail, and either sink or swim, knowing we did our best - "Swim" here means survival of life on earth long term, "sink" means imminent extinction, which at this point seems more likely, due to the regrettable fact that we are not doing our best, yet, to prevent it. But there are positive signs, notwithstanding the seemingly disastrous election of Donald Trump and his right wing anti-environment administration. American conservatives are starting to catch on, belatedly. They're only about forty years too late, but hey, for conservatives, that aint bad. Now, instead of saying that man made climate change is a Chinese and liberal hoax, they are starting to say equally lame but less insane things like "all the data on climate change is still not in". God, how brilliant. All the data is still not yet in, either, on evolution, calculus, relativity, nuclear physics, and planetary astronomy, Sherlock, but we know they exist, right? No, we cannot predict with exact certainty how many millimeters of sea level rise will take place on Christmas Day 2020, that's true. Yet, sea level rise is really and truly happening, right before our very eyes. Even American conservatives understand that eventually they must accept reality, but you can count on them to do so only with the greatest reluctance, kicking, screaming, denying.

Letting The Whole Pack In

YOU HAVE TO GIVE PEOPLE A CHANCE. Absolutely, under nearly all conditions, you have to. Especially if you happen to be convinced the your new president elect is unsuitable. But unless I'm dreaming, and I assure you I hope I am, the president elect is appointing people to the leadership of government agencies and departments whose only intention will be to either weaken considerably, or destroy entirely the very agencies and departments with which they are entrusted. The new head of the Environmental Protection Agency, for instance, has been waging a war against the EPA for years, filing lawsuits against it, advocating a reduction in its regulatory authority, receiving financial assistance from the fossil fuel industry while advocating government support for the fossil fuel industry and dismissing sustainable environmentally friendly technologies such as solar and wind energy. Does that sound like the kind of EPA director we want? Shouldn't whoever heads the EPA be at least open to the possibility of saving the environment, if not a zealous crusader for protecting it at all costs? Similarly, Trump's labor secretary appointee does not like labor unions or raising minimum wage, Trump's selection to head the department of education does not like public education, and wants to support charter schools, publicly funded private schools, which in general do not work well. Trump's choice to head the department of justice has a history of racism, and his future secretary of the interior has no problem with drilling and mining on government land. The president elect's choice to head the department of energy is a person who has always believed that the department of energy should be eliminated, and couldn't think of the department of energy's name during an iconic presidential debate moment. Public housing will be in the surgeon's hands of a man who does not believe in government assistance for the poor, Dr. Ben Carson. And the beat goes on. Not only is there a wolf in the hen house, there is an entire pack of them, in all the hen houses, ravenous, ready to kill. All because Trump hates these departments, and wants them to fail. This could be described as treason, working for parts of your own government to fail. It might be nice if the president elect for once would appoint someone to a job which the person is interested in doing, rather than destroying.

Bringing Sanity To the Swamp, By Draining It, From the Top

OUR DEAR RUSSIAN FRIENDS must not take this personally, but, yes, its true, Russian sources tried to influence the American election in favor of its eventual winner, the infamous Donald J. Trump. Not the Russian people, but rather, their corrupt and oppressive and power hungry government. For that, the Russian people and indeed the world in general ought properly to be peeved at Vladimir Putin. Too many independent computer people have been noticing a pattern for a long time, and the American spy agencies confirm it. Russian hackers are messing with America, as if American hackers don't do their fair share. But that's another matter. From Putin's point of view, it was worth a try, whether or not it worked. Donald Trump likes to invent his own reality, and dwell in it safely and without apology, which bodes ill for the world, Mr. Putin included. If we're not careful, we'll end up in America with a congress, a military, an intelligence community, and a general population of American citizens angry about Putin's behavior, wanting to do something about it, and a president Trump who calls all politically incorrect comments about Putin and his government a liberal democratic conspiracy hatched by Hillary Clinton and her crooked cohorts, or a Chinese conspiracy to rival in audacity the one concerning climate change, or both. If I were involved in any way, shape, or form with the American intelligence gathering community, which is always a possibility due to the sheer size of said community, I would be, to put it mildly, a tad miffed at Mr.Trump for throwing us under the bus, along with the American people, and the nation as a whole. Hell, why not just let the Ruskies have it all! What we the American and the Russian people really should do, is to unite in a relentless effort to bring sanity to our respective governments, by, as an infamous American once said, draining the swamp, starting at the top.

Trump Self Destructing Early

WOULDN'T IT BE HORRIBLE to constantly crave attention, to hate being alone so badly that you felt as if you were constantly alone, even when in a crowd, to desperately need positive reinforcement, from friends and strangers alike, and to be so sensitive that the slightest negative criticism or comment was a stab in the back making a gaping emotional wound. Sometimes the very people who are the most aggressive, the most vicious at lashing out and slashing at others, are the most sensitive to negative criticism about themselves. People like this must live in an ever present emotional vortex, with their own energy swirling around them, threatening to engulf them at the slightest provocation. For a very long time now, many people have noticed that Donald Trump simply does not have the temperament necessary to be president of the United States, that he is way too aggressive and angry, way too spontaneous and thoughtless in his speech, and way too sensitive to criticism directed at himself. He threatens to sue anyone who dares make an unpleasant comment about him, no matter how accurate and true it is. Trump viciously attacks anyone and everyone on twitter, where he is perceived as popular, and he has a barrier between him and the world. Then, when people call his lies lies, he lashes out verbally. But how many press conferences has he had recently, looking straight at people asking hum touch questions which he can't control? Trump shows the typical behavior of bullies; and, like all bullies, is really a sissy, and frightened little coward hiding, who knows very well how to hide. His presidency is not going to be a pleasant one for him, because he will alienate too many people, invite too much justified criticism through his careless words and actions, and respond too strongly to the criticism. He has already begun doing this by his attitude towards the CIA, and the Russians, and members of congress. Stay tuned. There's much more to come.

Stealing the Election For Trump

PRESIDENT ELECT DONALD TRUMP only receives one intelligence report a week, rather than the usual presidential one a day. You can actually understand his wanting to do it that way, and doing it, but the question remains: is it a good idea? Get in touch with me when you have something new and different, he says. I don't want or need to hear the same thing every day. Is it a good idea to take a short cut on intelligence briefings? Doesn't Trump need all the intelligence he can get? We must bear in mind that according to the entire intelligence community, especially the CIA, Russia used cyber warfare to influence the outcome of Trump's election, in favor of Trump, and that Trump denies it. Trump does not relish the prospect of his friend Vladimir Putin begin caught in the act, because it makes Donald look bad, very bad, as if he is part of the election hacking. That seems suspicious, Also, Trump is dismissing the entire CIA report as just another excuse being circulated by people, presumably democrats, angry about the election's outcome, which Trump, apparently living in some self manufactured dream land, calls a "landslide". How you can win an election landslide while losing the vote by nearly three million votes he does not explain. This election was far from a landslide. 1932 was a landslide. 1964 was a landslide. 1972 was a landslide. 1984 was a landslide. bit not 2016.Trump got 306 electoral college votes, if they all actually vote for him, which they will not. that is not a landslide. Nor it is a good idea to ignore or deny warnings by the CIA, unless you. yourself are part of the crime being investigated. This lame accusation being made by Trump that the CIA is wrong, and that charges of Russian hacking are only a loser's excuse do not add up, they make no sense, unless Trump is guilty. Did the Russians really hack into the election? Did they influence it? How? What exactly did they do? Did Trump know about it? We'll find out the answers to all these, and more questions, and soon, we hope.

Aborting A Presidency

THE UNITED STATES HAS SIXTEEN or seventeen spy agencies. Its easy to lose count. You can be sure that every single one of them is absolutely necessary to protect our nation. Or, they are absolutely necessary to simultaneously monitor our global empire against clandestine threats to American corporate imperialism and to safeguard the national security state, take your pick. Indeed they dropped the ball on weapons of mass destruction, as Trump points out, but this time, there is no mistake. They all say the same thing; the Russians hacked into computers during the election to try to help Donald Trump win. All of them, including the CIA, say that straight out, and many members of the Senate, including republicans, are calling for an investigation, and saying that all Americans should be alarmed. I can show you one who sure as hell is. President Obama has already ordered an investigation, and wants it completed before he leaves office. President elect Trump denies the Russians did anything wrong, and claims that there is no proof of any hacking or election tampering by the Russians, as if he would have any way of knowing. Furthermore, the president elect is now accusing the democrats of inventing the whole story to cast doubt on the results of the election, in a display of bad sportsmanship. Believe it or not, that's what Trump is saying. Don't you find that alarming, that he would say something so dishonest, outrageous, stupid, and harmful to national security? Donald Trump is going to be one reckless, frightening president, if he actually gets sworn in. During the campaign, Trump constantly alleged that the election was fixed, and he encouraged the Russians to hack into Hillary Clinton's computer to find emails she had deleted. Trump also repeatedly expressed his admiration for Vladimir Putin, who has the power to and apparently used his power to do exactly what Trump wanted. Therefore, it may well be that the election was stolen for Trump, and that Trump and the Russians worked together to steal it. We may be about to find out. If Trump is proven to have collaborated with the Russians in stealing the election, he may be impeached, indicted, tried, convicted, and executed before he is inaugurated.

Forcing Racial Equality Down Our throats

I ONCE ASKED MY MOTHER whether she voted for Roosevelt. "No, and hell no" were her two answers, as I recall. And neither, by god, did anyone else in our family, including my grandparents. Definitely, a family of hard core republicans, dairy farmers without the slightest interest in or use for New Deal government socialistic intervention. The first time my mom was eligible to vote against FDR was 1944, and by then people knew whether they liked him. My uncle, a ninety two year old lifelong conservative and racist, has owned many businesses, may not be finished owning them yet, and does not like labor unions. His racism he has learned to largely conceal over the years, as it has become less fashionable, but its there, lurking. The fact that he tries to hide it from me and my sister I find enormously humorous, and charming in its own way. Can't he see how transparent he is? On the phone recently, he remarked that the white population is rapidly becoming a minority in America. I decided to trap him. I said, yes, but so what? Who cares what skin color people have anymore? Race no longer matters, people no longer care about race, right, dear uncle? He replied "I sure don't". I had to roll my eyes with my phone clinging to my left ear. Fifty years ago dear old uncle wasn't a bit shy about showing his racism. Not very many people were. And they all had one thing in common, other than racism: conservatism. Racists were conservatives then, and they are conservatives now, the only difference being that they have become adept at concealing their racism. Racism is, and always has been, a traditional, conservative American value. You don't actually believe that the Ku Klux Klan is a Bunch of liberals, do you? What about this "alt right" monstrosity? Liberal, or conservative? During the nineteen sixties, during the civil rights struggle, it was the conservatives, both democrat and republican, who resisted change, resisted using the government as a tool to end racism and racial discrimination. The only problem with not using the government to end racism and letting society evolve naturally, is that it never happens, society doesn't evolve naturally, certainly not enough to end racism and racial injustice naturally, on its own, without having the government force it down our throats. In America, the government must force racial equality down our throats, or we will never have it. If you don't understand that, you're delusional. Either that, or very conservative.

Fearing Social media

I'VE ALWAYS BEEN AFRAID of social media. Even though I somehow sense that social media can be a good way to promote a website or blog, I still don't do it. Actually, I think I signed up for both Facebook and Twitter one fine day a while ago, but I never used either account, which, as far as I know, are still siting there, doing...nothing. Facebook is evidently a great way to rediscover old friends you haven't seen or heard from in forty years, so, I really should give it a try, since there are many such people in my life, or rather, not in my life. But still. Social media, unless I am greatly mistaken, is somewhat of a cesspool, isn't it? A quagmire of anger, hatred, vulgarity, and enmity, isn't it? How do people put up with that, by ignoring it? Social media has become the primary way to spread fake news, of which there is currently an explosion, engendered party by the recent election, and by the fact that the election resulted in the election of a president who uses social media especially twitter, to spread fake news. Its almost as if Donald Trump is single handedly inspiring an outpouring of lies, and fake news, merely by setting the example. The United States of Amnesia has always been a culture fond of escapism;perhaps all the fake news on social media is nothing other than the latest form of escape. Once upon a time there was a popular form of social media called "chatrooms", unless chatroom are not considered to be a form of social media. But they were once far more popular than they are now. Chatrooms were often nasty places where people argues and developed actual hatreds and feuds. That might be in part why people lost interest in them. Will twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, and the rest, someday lose their popularity and be replaced by something else? Probably. Maybe I should say, "hopefully".

Putting A Wolf In The Henhouse

THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY was established during the Nixon administration for the purpose of protecting the environment. Anyone who has ever been to Beijing or New Delhi, or lived in Los Angeles in the seventies, or is at all conversant with the history of the treatment of the environment by American corporations if left unregulated, can easily understand the need for the EPA. In 1970 America was dirty, and getting dirtier, due largely to unregulated environmental polluting. The EPA has improved, indeed saved the American environment, and should and must be strengthened, not weakened, in order to proceed with the salvation. It has done a remarkable job for over forty years, particularly under Obama. Now, however, it is in jeopardy of being rendered inert by virtue of Donald J. Trump's choice, Scott Pruitt, to serve as its leader. Common sense would seem to dictate that the leader of the EPA always be a person who is extremely committed to protecting the environment, and Trump and his new choice would doubtless both argue that this will indeed be the case, but, alas, they would be dishonest in doing so. Trump's pick, the current attorney general of Oklahoma, isn't even sure he believes in mad made climate change, and that in itself is alarming. Nor does he wish to use all possible means, including government, to move towards sustainable energy sources and away from fossil fuels, equally alarming. Then too, he is closely associated with the fossil fuel industry, having been elected due in large part to its assistance. Very alarming. it is obvious that the president elect was looking someone to weaken the regulatory power of the EPA, to render the agency as ineffective as possible, rather than strengthen it. Trump said something typically banal, to the effect that he wants to EPA to return to its original purpose, protecting clean air and water, as it it had ever abandoned that purpose. What Trump, the new EPA director, and good Americans conservatives everywhere want is to remove all environmental protections which slows down or adds inconveniences and extra expense to manufacturing, industry, or interferes in an way with corporate profit.

Making America Healthy

IN AMERICA, we have Medicaid, medicare, and Obama Care. Three huge government programs, all ostensibly intended to do essentially the same thing; provide health insurance for all. Evidently, Obamacare will soon either be repealed, replaced, or revised. We shall see. A lot of people like Obamacare, a lot of people depend on it, and a lot of people, even if they don't like all of it, like certain features, and this includes the president elect. If Obamacare vanishes, over twenty million Americans will need something as good or better to replace it with. Even the most bureaucratically liberal person might be tempted to ask: would it be possible to combine these three programs into one good one? Or maybe consider adding Social Security to the pile, burning the whole pile, and replacing it with a guaranteed minimum income, or whatever its called, for all Americans? That idea is being floated in some circles. Studies are being done, presumably, to determine how much money would be lost or saved, and by whom. it make take awhile to figure it all out, and to determine how much of an income could be provided without losing money. It would simplify the system, you would think. some people would be happy to provide a basic guaranteed income for everyone, but would want to keep the other programs as well, which could get expensive, unless the United States decided to stop funding its armed force, and start relying entirely on NATO, Mexico, Canada, and Japan for its protection, which might not set too well with a whole host of independent minded Americans.

Mr. Trump, Drawing the Line

FOR DONALD J.TRUMP, albeit without authority, to have summarily canceled a government contract with a large corporation is auspicious. But he'll want to start getting his facts straight. Either way, we the people do not need to be spending four billion, or anything close to that amount, on a flying oval office and vacation spa. Donald, the corporation slayer. Donald said, and this is a Quote heard by millions: "we want Boeing to make a lotta money, but not that much money." So there you have it. Donald J. Trump comes right out and says there is a limit to how much money a business should make. What is the limit? Something less than four billion, evidently. This requires a limit on how much money individuals can make, because obviously there cannot be people making more than businesses produce. Now we have to decide what that limit should be. Donald Trump, pragmatic and flexible, leaning socialistic! How much do golf courses, casinos, and luxury hotels really contribute to the economy, to society, to the world? Or should first grade teachers be the billionaires? Business and people should each earn exactly as much as they contribute to society, and would, if the general population, and the norms and values and morals it creates, made any sense at all, had anything whatsoever to do with social value, or were in the least sane. So long as our society places more value on entertainment than education and health, we'll get what we create, billionaire entertainers and impoverished teachers, caregivers, and artists. But at least we have a president elect who draws the line at four billion dollar airplanes, and that's a start.

Seeking Justice, Not Political Bias

FRIGHTENING, the number of people who said they voted for Trump because of the Supreme Court. The idea being, of course, that with Trump there will be a conservative court, and with Hillary there would have been liberal one. What horrible thinking, what a horrible attitude, and we must get rid of it. We must stop thinking about good judges in terms of whether they are liberal or conservative, and start thinking about their quality. If anything, we should be seeking out the most verifiably moderate and flexible judges, not the most ideologically biased. Like just about everything else in America, we have it backwards. There even exists, incredibly, an organization entirely devoted to the encouragement of, the advocacy of, the placement of conservative justices on the bench at every level. "Judicial Watch" should be called Judicial Conservative Advocates", and it should be mercilessly ridiculed out of existence. The idea that its better to have conservative judges is nearly as stupid as the idea that all decisions should be rendered based on what we think the framer's of the constitution intended, as written literally in the constitution. What really matters is how we interpret the constitution, not people who have been dead for two hundred years. The criteria for appointment to a judgeship, including and particularly the U.S. Supreme Court, should be the difficulty with which a nominee can be ideologically classified. the more ideologically enigmatic, the better.

Being Too shy To Try

I WAS NEVER much of a ladies' man, although I sometimes thought I wanted to be. When I was young I was shy, and the older I get, the more paranoid. Aggressive sexual behavior on the part of men is evidently increasing in America, according to surveys which might not be entirely accurate. I've always been afraid to smile, wink, wave, whistle, or touch a stranger, particularly an attractive lady, for fear of possible consequences, like a slap in the face, or a visit from the police or an attorney at law. Altogether, a rather reasonable approach. That's one reason why that recording of Donald Trump, released late in the election campaign, in which he talks about how often he has and does touch women in sexually aggressive ways, without permission, which can only be classified as sexual assault, so very totally freaks me out. Freaks me out that anybody could behave like that. Freaks me out that somebody who does behave like that would talk about it on a recording, and then brag about being so famous and important as to never experience any negative consequences from this type of behavior. What freaks me out even more is that this is quite evidently perfectly true. In fact, if anything, Donald Trump seems to be experiencing good consequences, being rewarded, for sexually molesting women, or at least saying he does. He certainly has not paid any price yet, that I know of. Guys who cat call and whistle at women, or smile, wink, blow kisses or pat asses all seem to think that there's nothing wrong with it, that they are actually being complimentary, flattering the target, and that rarely do women object to that sort but behavior, but, quite the contrary, are usually quite flattered by it. That's all nonsense, of course. Nearly all women fear and abhor being flirted with and treated in this manner, surveys clearly reveal. But you'll never convince any male sexual predator of that. They tend to see nothing wrong with a little harmless sexual aggression and molestation. They will defend their behavior without hesitation. Even the slightest trace of a positive response from a victim is enough to give encouragement for further wolfishness, further mashing, as it used to be called. Ultimately, its probably better to be shy and paranoid, and out of jail.

Cooperating, by Communicating

REGARDLESS OF HOW ONE FEELS ABOUT, say, Donald Trump, one must strive to be fair and reasonable. In this spirit, was it a good idea for Mr. Trump to engage in a telephone conversation with the president of Taiwan recently, even though no American president has done that since 1979, and to do so violates an agreement the U.S. has with China? A fair and relevant question, if ever there were one. Since Mr. trump is not yet president, it could be argued that no agreement was violated, because the phone call involved the president of Taiwan, and a private American citizen, albeit the president elect. That argument might hold a very limited amount of water. The reason for this agreement with China is that China has a "one China" policy, in which Taiwan is not an alternative China, but rather, a breakaway province which should and shall one day be reunited with the mainland. China insists that the U.S. respect and acknowledge its one china policy. The Taiwanese government and people might beg to differ, as might the United States and the rest of the world. Its all about self determination, isn't it? Abraham Lincoln didn't recognize the CSA either; maybe he should have. Trump's bombastic twitter tweet arguments that he didn't need permission from China to speak with Taiwan because China didn't get his permission before building military bases in the south Pacific or devaluing its own currency is really stupid, in the best Donald Trump fashion. What he should have said is: "international cooperation and progress requires communication.", and just leave it at that. No need to be rhetorically aggressive when plain common sense logical will do just fine. Effective communication and deal making, that should be Trump's motto, and that should be his justification for talking to people, including the Taiwanese head of state......SUPPORT CREATIVE WRITING. SEND IN A COMMENT, OR SUBMIT AN ARTICLE! THANKS!

Going Too Slow

WHEN I WAS A KID, way back in the nineteen sixties, the worst insult one kid could hurl at another was the word "queer". I knew that word as an insult long before I knew what it meant. The other curse of choice was "queer bait". I still don't know what that one means, and somehow I'm still happy, so I figure I really don't need to know. To accuse someone of being gay as an insult was perfectly natural, back in the day, since American mainstream conservative Christian society detested homosexuals. It was illegal in all fifty states to engage in homosexual behavior, punishable by time in prison. Homosexuality was also formally listed as and considered to be a mental illness. Gay people often ended up in nut houses. So, you can see why the word "queer", meaning weird or different and therefore horrible, made a good insult. Back then nobody was gay, or admitted to being gay. Nobody dared. Gay people back then were deeper in the closet than Christmas decorations in August, terrified to be honest about themselves. You can imagine why. So, you could say things have changed. You could also probably say things haven't changed fast enough, or completely, that its taken way too long, and required way too much effort and acrimony to bring even a modicum of dignity and respect for gay and lesbian human beings. It almost makes you wonder what's been holding us back, what forces have encouraged society to resist social equality, to resist change, to resist treating gays and lesbians equally, and what forces have fought for or encouraged societal change, what we have achieved, and what we still need to achieve. Never, for instance, have I ever heard a Christian minister say anything about gays and lesbians deserving equal treatment, or condemning their traditional persecution by mainstream society. Never. Not once. But I have heard many a minister either insinuate or come right out and say straight up that homosexuality is a sin, which probably does not help the cause of equal rights for all. To assert vociferously and incessantly from the pulpit that sexual orientation is not a sin, and that God doesn't care if you're gay, might be a far preferable endeavor strategically, purely from the perspective of nurturing a happy, healthy, harmonious culture and furthering the sacred cause of equal civil rights for all citizens. Right?

Obstructing the Truth

DONALD TRUMP AND HIS "PEOPLE" are trying to do everything in their power, everything humanly possible to prevent a recount in Michigan and Pennsylvania, having already tried and failed to do the same in Wisconsin. They are attacking the courts with an army of attorneys and motions. Large ominous black helicopters bearing the solitary word "TRUMP" stenciled in block letters are rumored to be hovering over every county clerk's office in every county in all three states, ostensibly searching for aliens. Doesn't that fact by itself make you wonder why? Their effort has reached Biblical proportions; they are trying to prevent the recount with a savage, desperate intensity, trying any way possible, trying way too hard. What does that seem to indicate? That they want to prevent a recount very badly, and that they might have a good reason for feeling that way? The Trump campaign has been saying for months that the election is rigged, and is still making that claim, without any evidence. Its been rigged in and by the pro Hillary liberal elite mainstream media, at the polling places, all for Hillary, and it was rigged by millions of illegal aliens voting for Hillary, asserts the questionably stable Trump. Why would people who so strongly believe the election was rigged resist a recount intended to find out? Hell, why not make an election vote recount mandatory, and automatic, just to verify the results and guard against cheating? Time and expense be damned! We must have confidence in our democratic institutions and processes, and more attention to and transparency in the voting process would greatly facilitate it. Trump simultaneously accuses the election of being rigged, and tries to avoid having anyone find out if it is. Does anyone smell a rat? The reason for the recount is that a few computer science professors looked in detail at the results from Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, smelled a rat, and advised a recount. They think some computers could have been hacked. Who would object to a recount other than the people how did the hacking, if there was any? Trump's attorney at law army is making every stale argument in the book against it. Its too expensive, takes too much time. The election is over, already. Let's move on. It won't change anything. Hell, you'd think they could think of better arguments than that, for the money they're getting paid. Maybe the recount will reveal millions of illegals who voted illegally for Hillary. Let's find out, Mr. Trump!

Losing Friends Over Politics

SEVERAL MONTHS AGO i was sitting at home, minding my own business, with either one of my cats or a laptop on my lap, I forget which. Suddenly, in rings an email. Its from a high school classmate ('73 rules!) I had not heard from in awhile, and the email began with outraged expressions of anger towards Bill Clinton. Clinton had recently walked across the tarmac at a major metro airport, and chatted with Attorney general Loretta Lynch. It made the news. What unspeakable temerity! How outrageous!, barked my friend. Clinton's wife under investigation by the FBI, again, and here's big bold Bill Clinton, and what else could he be doing besides trying to influence or bribe the A.G.? Hilarious, continued my friend's email, that Clinton is so brazen, arrogant, thoughtless and stupid to do this in broad daylight in a busy public place. That was the entire email. No hi, howdy, good bye, or kiss my ass. Just anger at and contempt for Bill Clinton's bad judgment, low morality, brazen attitude, and low I.Q.. Obviously, I should have just chuckled, and deleted the email. But no. Hell no, not me. I responded by suggesting that maybe Bill Clinton is indeed not stupid enough to engage in criminal conspiracy in front of hundreds of folks carrying smart phone cameras, and that therefore maybe he wasn't doing that, but instead was just saying hello to someone he knows and saw at a busy airport. Before I typed all that I at least said hello to my friend, which was more than he did for me. I further suggested to my buddy that maybe he himself was angry at his political opposition, and looking to impugn it, any way possible. He replied, as I expected, but made no mention of my proposed theory explaining Bill Clinton's behavior, based on my brazen assumption that bill Clinton isn't an idiot. Instead, my buddy sharply excoriated me for my "faux anger" as he put it, showing off his French, and retaliated that if he is angry, I am a maniac. I thought that was a bit extreme, and I suggested that he take a pain killer. I haven't heard from him since, and I do not expect to. That exchange happened in the final frenzied weeks leading up to the election, a period of time when millions of Americans lost friends and strained relationships. This divided country may well heal, eventually, but you somehow sense that its gonna take a whole lot more than a dismissive command from a new commander in chief.