Choosing To fight, While We Unite

WE DEMOCRATS are not as down and out as some might have us believe. The fact that Hillary won the election by three million votes is a good sign. Also, there is mounting opposition to this corrupt business of political parties gerrymandering every damned congressional district in the country to make most of the 435 races every two years for the House of representatives moot, a foregone conclusion. Some fine day soon we might actually have house congressional districts all across America which are fairly and reasonably designed, designed by impartial people, for the benefit of the electorate, the citizenry, rather than one particular political party or another. The most auspicious indicator of all for the democrats is the simple fact that, issue after issue, the American people, by a clear majority, favor the progressive, not the conservative position. Man made climate change? Two thirds of Americans accept the reality. Reproductive rights? Most Americans, slightly more than half, are pro choice. Most Americans support state sanctioned gay marriage, and most believe transgender people should be allowed to use the restroom corresponding to their gender identification. Most Americans want to raise minimum wage, and most Americans want to keep Obamacare, a fact which will become increasingly, painfully obvious to Trump and the right wing, soon. So, progressives across America, hold you heads high, but be ready to duck the crap Trump and the right wing are going to be throwing at us. Not only is the fight not over, it aint even begun. Rarely if ever has the United States of America been a "united" country. Perhaps we can unite now, and fight at the same time. It may be our only choice.

Surviving Trump

I HAVE A RIGHT WING FRENIMY who says things are going really well. He is referring, believe it or not, to the Trump administration, which is at war with the news media for reporting that Trump's organization kept in touch with Russian spy agencies during the presidential campaign, riddled with an amazing amount of corruption, and which is inspiring more resistance and protest by the day, but which has managed to install a right wing cabinet and engage in some loud, tough talk. Conservatives are emboldened by Trump's loud nationalistic bombast, particularly the racist, religiously zealous ones. Several billion U.S. dollars will be spent patching together some more fencing on the Mexican border, and adding cameras and boots on the ground, allowing Trump to claim victory in his building of his great wall. What a laugh. Each state will now have to decide for itself whether transgender people can use the restroom of their choice, or the one corresponding to their birth certificate. Just a quick hint: all transgenders want to use the restroom corresponding to their gender self identification, which really angers right wingers, who would prefer that transgenders either go away, or stop whimsically changing their gender. Likewise, right wingers would prefer to ignore climate change, by pretending that it has nothing to do with human activity, and that therefore there is nothing we can do about it. Might as well get rid of all environmental protection regulations, and let corporations do whatever they want in pursuit of profit and prosperity for all. What a bold, constructive, realistic attitude. The only remaining question is how long the Trumpian societal illness will endure until its either thrown into history's dustbin, or the world comes to an end.

Protesting For Science

VERY CLOSE TO EARTH is a small, dim star with at least seven planets orbiting around it, all of them roughly the size of the Earth, all of them orbiting at a distance which should make liquid surface water possible. For all we know, they all have advanced intelligent life evolving upon their surfaces, on in their oceans, and the cool thing is, we are going to find out, soon. This is a recent discovery. It turns out that every star you will ever see in the night time sky has planets orbiting around it, which makes the probability of intelligent life in the universe very high. Such is the marvel of modern science, that we have only recently discovered these things. Perhaps someday soon the human species will send a spacecraft towards this close dim star to explore. Most likely you won't see much about this in the mainstream media, which, of course, is currently occupied in reacting to every tweet tweeted by our twitter tweeting president. This new planetary discovery is, or should be the most exciting and interesting current event, bar none, in the world right now. With that in mind, this coming Earth Day, April 22, thousands upon thousands of scientists will march boldly and scientifically down Pennsylvania Ave. in the U.S. capitol, attracting attention, hoping to convey the message that science deserve attention, support, and respect from the body politic and the American government. In doing that, they'll need all the help they can get. We live in an age when high school drop outs think they know more about climate change that folks who have doctorates in the field, an era of incredible narcissism, phony intellectualism and fake knowledge, and lack of respect for real expertise and science. Maybe a bit of scientific protesting in the streets, complete with slogans and hand painted signs, can turn this alarming trend around.

Helping Mitch McConnell Figure It Out

ALL ACROSS THE FRUITED PLAIN, opponents of Trump's crazy agenda are making themselves heard loudly and clearly, and this angers Trumpists, who perhaps are forgetting that loyalty, patriotism, and support for one's government in a modern democracy often entails vehement disagreement with and opposition to government policy, rather than blind, arrogant, strident, fascist conformity. The social media and real time real people town hall meetings throughout freedom's land are being swamped with complaints about the Trump administration's apparent determination to weaken America's public schools, health insurance, and environment, among other important things. Senate moronic majority leader Mitch McConnell arrogantly, stridently informs us that "winners make policy, and losers go home", revealing his complete lack of understanding of the American political system, American society, and american values. No, sorry Mitchie boy, losers don't go home, not in this country, not in America, the land of the free and the home of the brave. In america, losers, as you arrogantly call patriotic Americans in the political minority, remain engaged with the process, and actually help make policy, by contributing their insights and viewpoints to the policy formation process. In america, your so called "losers" regroup, wait, prepare, and kick ass the next time around, and become winners once again, because, after all, they are Americans. Its just too damned bad that our Senate majority leader is too damned stupid to figure that out for himself.

Deregulating Cautiously, If At All

THERE USED TO BE a rule that if a big American corporation made a payment, aka bribe, to a foreign government, the payment must be divulged. Transparency, baby. Now, that rule is gone. It got Trumpified. As of now, a big American corporation can bribe any foreign government it wants, possibly influencing the foreign policy of the foreign government towards the United States, without anyone knowing about it, without any legal requirement that the payment be divulged to the U.S. government. That's an example of deregulation. Getting rid of a burdensome government regulation, an unnecessary, tyrannical law placing and undue hardship on business, profits, virtue, and the American way. Exactly how this happens is never explained. Exactly how it places a huge bureaucratic burden and mountains of paperwork on a company to inform the government about a transfer of funds is, arguably, impossible to explain. Nearly all business people complain about the massive amount of government paperwork imposed upon them by an overbearing, overreaching government. It makes you want to weep while playing your violin softly, gently. As a retired teacher, I know all about paperwork. It doesn't take a mountain of it to get me to complain about it. Under Obama, the EPA issued a ruling that companies have to repair their own pipeline leaks. Sounds reasonable. Not according to Trump and his massive horde of wealthy corporate capitalists and wealthy corporate capitalist wannabes. Before we get all fired up about deregulating the economy to inspire enormous prosperity, we'd better take a long hard look at each end every regulations we want to eliminate, because, chances are, it was put in placed for a reason, and that reason still exists. The new director of the EPA wants to balance environmental and economic concerns, apparently quite oblivious to the simple fact that, without the environment, there is no economy. It used to be illegal to dump tons of cola ash waste into rivers and streams. Enter Trump and the radical deregulators, and it no longer is. No problem. By the time the air is too dirty to breathe and the water is too filthy to drink, we'll all be so rich we won't even care.

The Great American Leader-Media War

THE GREAT LEADER, who is soon going to start restoring national greatness, yells yet another big lie, which his smiling supporters either ignore or lap up, while the news media identify and correct the lie. Furious, the great leader condemns the media, accusing it of horrible crimes, the worst being opposition to the great leader. Cleverly, the great one tries to ignore all media members who ask fair questions, expose his lies, and fail to be obedient followers. The glorious thing about the United States is that, in a war between the media and the president, hypothetical or real, you'd have to put your money on the media, and for that, let us thank the dear lord, or in the case of progressives, the divine cosmic force. Between the two, you want the media to bring down the president; they are far more replaceable. Everyone complains about the media at one time or another. My personal favorite is to complain about the number and length of commercials on television. Sure, Clinton and Obama complained about the media. And, as we all know, everyone tells lies. Its hard wired into humans to tell lies. But we do, usually, have limits of tolerance. Trump the great leader wanna be tells way too many ridiculously obvious lies, and complains about the media way too much, almost as if he were whining like a pre school brat. The media brought down Nixon, it can bring down Trump. Ultimately, of course, Nixon brought himself down, and only Trump can de-Trump Trump. A few too many outrageous lies, conflicts of interest, illegal overreach of his powers as chief executive, or collaboration with the Russians to steal the election from Hillary will do it every time.

Replacing With What?

EVERYTIME THE REPUBLICANS mention repealing Obamacare, they say "repeal and replace", rather than merely "repeal". Why? Why do they always say replace? If they think Obamacare is a disaster, which they claim they do, then they must think the health insurance system was much better before Obamacare. So why don't they advocate going back to the way it was before, by repealing Obamacare, without bothering to replace it with anything? The reason, of course, is that the republicans know very well that the American people would never stand for it. that's because most Americans like Obamacare, and don't want it repealed at all, let alone replaced. Some minor tinkering is all it needs, most people know, but the republicans, ever hatful of Obama, will not rest until they see his name erased from every building, all traces of his legacy destroyed. Obama himself suggested that republicans would embrace Obamacare if it were renamed "Reagancare" or "Trumpcare", and you know he's right? So, why not? Why not fix it, and rename it, rather then repeal it and replace it with something more free market and less effective? It is obvious that even the republicans understand that Obamacare is a vast improvement over what existed before - corporate controlled health care insurance. They may never have the chance to present replacements plans, because we the American people may never give them the chance to repeal the good system we already have, thanks to president Obama.

Letting The Evil Die

I STOPPED WONDERING WHY I seem to have lost half my friends since the election; the great American divide impacts everyone. The internet is filling up with pro Trump and anti-Trump dating sites, so, I'm not alone. I am also perfectly willing, ready, and able to forgive, forget, and reunite with my right wing ex friends, since I see no reason to remain angry at people who are so obviously in big, big trouble, bigly. Trump, Trumpism, and especially that horrid God awful extreme right wing Christian conservatism, a disease which currently afflicts the culture, is destined to go the way of the Edsel and the 8 track. You call only call yourself a Christian and support banning Islamic immigration so long, and you can only call yourself a Christian and embrace neo-liberal economics to a point. When it comes to paying taxes and redistributing wealth from the rich to the poor, Jesus was hard core. big government wasn't an issue with Jesus; but concentration of wealth was. Many scholars have speculated that the Nazarene was actually a revolutionary urging rebellion against Rome; others see him as having accepted the inevitability of earthy human tyranny in one form or another and thus having taught followers to think more in terms of heavenly authority. But the one thing Jesus preached was sharing, by whatever means available, including government. No matter who sits on the Supreme court, it shouldn't matter to progressives, because the court will, at the end of teh day, issue progressive rulings when such ruling are needed. John Roberts, after all, voted for gay marriage. Progressives need not concern themselves too much with the downfall of Trump, his ideas, and the extreme right wing in American politics; it will all collapse beneath the weight of its won insanity.

Reconsidering Trump

THE SPIRIT OF PROTEST is again in the air. Its vaguely remindful of those halcyon anti-Viet Nam pro gender equality pro racial equality anti-establishment protest days of the nineteen sixties and seventies, before Reagan came along and assured us that everything was just fine. Once again, everybody seems to be protesting everything. The day after the election, hundreds of thousands of good patriotic Americans took to the streets to protest the results. On Trump's first day in office, one million women descended on Washington in protest, while millions of other women and their male friends did likewise in cities all across America's fruited plain and around the world. Then came the immigration ban on Muslims and many more protests at many airports. Its been one damned thing after another, like a famous historian once described history itself. And it promises to get worse, or better, depending on how you look at it, as Trump shows no signs of easing up on his crazy, provocative twitter tweeting or easing up on any of the other self destructive forms of behavior in which he daily engages. Opposition to Trump shows no sign of abating, and every sign of growing and intensifying. The next big protest may be a world wide demonstration, including Russians, demanding the president's impeachment and removal from office, depending on what ongoing investigations reveal about Trump's and Trump's campaign and organization's actual relationship with Russia and Vladimir Putin. It looks worse by the day. Now we know, for instance, that Trump's people were talking extensively to high ranking Russian spies during the campaign, and that those same Russian spies were trying to help Trump defeat Hillary. As Trump himself might tweet: "Not good. Bad, Very very bad, so totally crooked". And, by the way, anybody who actually believes that Trump is some kind of "populist", some kind of advocate for the working poor, and anything other than a member of the "establishemt" (aka the wealthy corporate elite) should reconsider, and any Trump supporter who believes that Trump is working for them rather than himself and his wealthy powerful friends, like Wall Street billionaires and Vladimir Putin, should also reconsider.

Creating Our Own Worlds, Like Gods

I HAVE A FRIEND (believe it or not) who is very interested in the paranormal, as are many, as am I. But my friend and I have trouble getting along, because we have radically different, and apparently irreconcilable viewpoints. My favorite topics are UFOs, ghosts, crop circles, and cattle mutilations. My friend seems to trend towards conspiracies, alien and terrestrial. Our difference is that I freely admit that I have no idea what's going on, and I even take pride in it. Call it "proud ignorance". My friends seems to have more definite answers than I, far more. Maybe too many for my taste. For my friend, The conspiracy theories and aliens and alternative parallel dimensions are proven, indisputable facts. For me, they are mystery, wonder, and splendid, fascinating ignorance, which for me inspires inquiry, which is a blast, intellectually. Maybe my friend lives in a more interesting universe than I, but I like mine. I like my ignorance of whether aliens exist, because this very ignorance makes me want to read, study, and learn, which keeps my off the streets, and out of trouble. It fascinates me how many Americans there seem to be who are like my friend; people with fascinating theories and explanations about various aspects of the the world and the universe which to them are absolute fact, but to me nothing other than unproven speculation. We live in a nation in which nearly everyone has the facts, the truth. Its almost as if we form opinions, then morph them into a belief, then into a set of facts, and finally into something resembling dogma, even religious dogma. A warm cozy bubble of self inflicted personal truth, into which we strictly limit input to that which fortifies our bubbular belief system. Post it all on twitter, see if any of it sticks to the wall. Three million illegal votes for Hillary. An invasion of terrorists, on its way here, thanks to liberal judges. The media, trying to destroy America, for a fact. Evolution and global warming are liberal hoaxes, or perhaps Chinese, do doubt. Its true because I say it is, because I want it to be true. Obama did nothing while in office, and was born in Kenya, but somehow managed to destroy America, miraculously, which must and shall be made great again. At the rate we're going, we're all going to end up with our own value for pi. I'll be trying to decide whether to keep mine in the ballpark by starting it out with three point one four, and maybe go rogue, think outside the box, and twist my universe into an unrecognizable shape with a an exact, finite, dead even integer for pi.

Promoting Products, Presidentially

UNLESS I'M DREAMING, which I'm not, the Trump administration, after only three weeks of existence, is falling flat on its face, careening towards total destruction by means of impeachment and removal by due constitutional process. That is, unless circumstances change drastically. During the campaign, Trump, as nobody can forget, constantly screeched about the utter necessity and his determined intent to, upon his presumed assumption of the American presidency, prevent all Muslims from entering the country. Inevitably, that particular bold big mouthed talk, like all the rest, is coming back to haunt our alternative-fact president, because his claim, and the claim of all conservatives, that his recent executive order is not a ban on Muslims, falls flat, an obvious lie. You might be aware that Rudy Giuliani, who advised Trump to ban Muslims but to do so in a cleverly deceptive manner so as to make it appear that Muslims were not being banned, revealed having given his advice recently on national TV. So, that advice from The Rudy-man, and Trump's acceptance and implementation of it, is a matter of public record, a fact, not an alternative fact. The federal court system says that all this is relevant, and that therefore Trump's seven Muslim country hit job is, well, illegal. Next stop is the Supreme Court, and not only does Trump repeatedly verbally attack the American judicial system in general, but, during his presidential campaign, repeatedly condemned Chief Justice John Roberts for having voted to uphold Obamacare. How likely is it that Trump would get a favorable ruling from the Supreme Court concerning his anti-Islamic executive order, which has already been ruled illegal by two conservative and two liberal federal magistrates in two different federal courts? For that matter, how likely is it that anything that Trump does in terms of executive orders will be met with mass nation wide protests, judicial intervention, ridicule throughout the narcissistic Trump's media nemesis-es, and/or extreme congressional resistance? Frankly, quite. And can anybody say Kelly Anne Conway, covert corruption, and conflict of interest? I mean, hell, why doesn't the President just go whole hog, and turn the Oval Office into a public relations and advertising agency for Trump Enterprises, Inc., with a special emphasis on the elegant, sophisticated, stylish line of Ivanka Trump shoes and accessories?

Upholding The Dead law

EVERY WORD of the United States constitution is sacred, inviolable, and immutable, including, presumably, the part wherein black people are deemed to be three fifths of a human being apiece. This according to conservatives, who have a distinct penchant for elevating imperfect documents to the status of perfection. Both prohibition and the repeal of prohibition are to be interpreted in exactly the same way that the founders did. James Madison never stated which alcoholic amendment he preferred, but was known to have enjoyed the occasional glass of Madeira. We must never harbor the thought of interpreting the founding document in a way which is relevant to our modern circumstances; we are forever framed by the framers, inheritors of a dead document, or, as justice Scalia - who considered evolutionary biology to be nothing more than a wild guess - preferred, an "enduring" one. Thus the second amendment guarantees every currently living American citizen the right to bear a muzzle loading musket, but says nothing about AK47s or BB guns. What other choice or intent could they have had? How could they have known about modern firearms? Originalism carries the day, and the inevitable appointment of Mr. Gorsuch to the high court reaffirms our devotion to the original document, and its original intent. Precisely how did we arrive at the point wherein we are able to add an originalist to the nation's highest bench? Why, by interpreting the constitution exactly the way we wanted to, and ignoring the original intent of the founders. The founders wrote, in the sacred text, that the president shall nominate a person to assume a position on the supreme Court in the event of a vacancy, and the Senate shall give advice and consent, after a full hearing, according to due process, and shall vote to either confirm or deny the nominee. It does not say that this shall take place unless the president of the United States is in the last year of his second term, or is a non conservative, or an African-American. Those who insist that only the original intent of the constitution is acceptable for purposes of interpreting the organic law, are, we find, surprisingly more flexible and capable of inventing their own constitutional interpretations than we had thought, capable themselves of reinventing the sacred document, but only when doing so in the name of upholding the sacred and original intent of the founders.

Becoming Kinder, Gentler

MY LOCAL SMALL TOWN LIBRARY is a favorite hangout of mine. new, clean, with a lot of glass and sunshine, I don't care that it isn't often quiet, or that it has on a few thousand books. With computers and amazon, who cares? In every community in America the local public library is a favorite hangout of people with no other place to go, a favorite place for homeless people to spend their days. In most towns, this causes problems. Those imbued with a sense of superiority would prefer that the homeless simply disappear; they are annoying, they don't always show up redolent with expensive perfumed fragrances, they don't dress appropriately in clean, starched shirts. They are easy to spot. Everyone who uses a public library regularly can pick them out; unshaven, with soiled clothes and imperfect teeth. We are not a culture of homeless-friendly folk. But that may be changing. Dallas is blazing the trail towards a more inclusive, caring approach to the homeless. they are welcome in the library, and even are offered a chance to participate in activities, such as music lessons and book club membership. Job training programs are being instituted. Some urban libraries are hiring community outreach professionals, and mental health specialists, since many if not most of america's homeless suffer from mental illnesses and disabilities. They are offered coffee, and maybe a snack or two. No, they can't spend the night, but if they can make it through the night, under whatever bridge, the Dallas library is waiting the next day. The concept is spreading to other cities. A kinder, gentler America may be just around the corner. And maybe, just maybe, there will come a time when the homeless are provided an actual place to live.

Explaining Trump to Iran

I GREET YOU, officials of the government of the sovereign state of Iran, an the Iranian people, from the united States of America. My message is this: please feel free to disregard any and all communications you receive from the administration of Donald Trump. The agreement you reached with president Obama and other heads of state concerning your nuclear weapons program remains in effect, and will long beyond the life of the Trump presidency. Trump's threat to disavow the agreement and to replace it with a new one is ludicrous and laughable, and will never take place, because Mr. Trump is destined to remain in office for only four years, or less. Similarly, the administration's proposal to add to the nuclear stockpile of the United States is also a bogus threat, since the United States is, and has long been, committed to the continued reduction of the world's nuclear weapons, as it has been since the days of Reagan and Gorbachev. The current administration is the least popular since that of Abraham Lincoln, and will most likely continue to decline in acceptance by the American people, as its credibility withers away amid an avalanche of poor policy decisions and outrageous false statements. Your recent testing of a ballistic missile is no threat to American security nor anyone else's, but merely a demonstration of your intent to pursue your own defensive capabilities, in accordance with the policies undertaken by nearly every other nation state in the world. It is ironic that the only nation in world history to ever murder hundreds of thousands of innocent people with nuclear weapons has the audacity to presume to serve as a global enforcer of other nation's nuclear capabilities aside, the United States will eventually come to understand that it alone cannot and h ould not assert itself as the authority over the affairs of any other sovereign nation. We the people of the United States shall continue to strive to ensure that our country behaves in an appropriate fashion on the word stage, but will have difficulty doing so while the current administration, which is arguably illegitimate, remains in power. It is to be hoped that this unfortunate circumstance will be remedied soon enough, but until it is, we can assure you that its every action is highly questionable, and quite likely, if we are fortunate, only temporary.