Doing The Guilt Trip thing

I HAD SOME MONEY in a money market fund, under the management of my stockbroker, who gets paid by me, but not much, since I don't have much money. I told him that I wanted to move some of it into a more aggressive, more lucrative investment. He presented me with three possible options: a real estate fund, a financial services fund, and an investment involving an eighteen wheel truck broker. All three looked appealing. The transportation investment appealed the most to me, since it involved less of a time based commitment, and yielded higher dividends more rapidly. My broker agreed. So enthusiastic was he in fact that he offered to invest in a truck with me, fifty fifty. Meanwhile, his broker-dealer parent company found out about his participation, informed him that it was not permissible according to his contract with the firm, and proceeded to investigate him. He denied all involvement, hired an attorney, resigned from the brokerage firm, and continued with the investment. He began conducting all business in cash, in order to avoid leaving a money trail and to hide his participation in the forbidden investment. He borrowed three thousand dollars from me, in cash, to assist in his participation. Ironic, my stockbroker, borrowing money from me, and laundering it. Then, the investment collapsed. The trucking broker absconded with our money, claiming no fault of his own, claiming that there was simply a money flow problem, and that it would shortly be resolved. It wasn't. My broker and I decided to file a police report, hoping the D.A. would file criminal charges. I suggested to my broker that he himself might share some responsibility for my financial disaster, by virtue of his having introduced and recommended the flawed investment to me in the first place, asked him his opinion, and he and his wife threw me out of their house, rudely, I thought. Violence, directed at me, for asking a simple, straightforward, and perfectly relevant question. Then, my guilt kicked in. How dare I question my broker, a friend of mine, and his professional competence! How dare I even suggest that his professional conduct might have been less than perfect, that he might have introduced and recommended to me an investment without knowing enough about it and the person offering it! My cup runneth over with guilt. Cat guilt, blood guilt, and now, financial guilt. All of it unwarranted, all of it nonsense. (see articles pertaining to cat guilt and blood guilt below) Where will it ever end? Alas, it ends with girl guilt, in a forthcoming article.

Removing The Ten Commandments, Automotively

ON THE CAPITOL GROUNDS of the great albeit a bit benighted state of Arkansas, USA, there quite briefly stood a six foot tall hard rock monolith upon which was chiseled the Ten Commandments, patterned after the Charlton Heston Cecil B. Demille version. Homage to Judeo Christianity in the deep dark American south. Privately funded, state sanctioned, clearly unconstitutional, litigation awaits to ensure its ultimate permanent removal. A mere day after its erection, into it smashed an auto, reducing it to rubble, driven by a man who proclaimed Jesus Christ to be his personal Lord and Savior, but objected to violations of the separation of church and state. He believes that religion should be practiced privately, away from the government. Smart man. The man had done the same thing in Oklahoma a few years back, and was not charged with a crime, but instead given a bit of psycho therapy and let go. In Arkansas, a state even more conservative as Oklahoma, he faces charges. All the man had to do was to wait for the judicial system to remove the rock, but was unwilling to do so. Everyone else who worships the Judeo cdhristian god is perfectly convinced that the statue not only is constitutional in a country they mistakenly imagine was founded on Judeo-Christian principles, (it was founded on secular enlightenment principles, actually) but also believe that its erection is absolutely crucial to good government, and a virtuous society. They are, of course, sadly mistaken. The man who played demolition derby with the thing has real principles; he does not let his devotion to Christianity blind him to constitutional law. Supporters of the big grave stone shaped rock vow to replace it, unsurprisingly. When they do, it will last longer, but not long. And it will bear the same Ten Commandments, the ones which reveal a petty, insecure, angry, jealous deity.

Guilt As Bullshit, Part Two

IN AN ARTICLE BELOW, the term "bullshit" was used to describe unwarranted guilt. A more delicate description might be "nonsense". Consider this. I started donating blood forty two years ago, because a gorgeous blonde girl friend suggested it. What better reason? I enjoyed the experience, lying and bleeding next to my love, and kept at it, having recently reached the lofty level of two hundred and sixty five donations, making me a member of the blood donors Hall of Fame. The girlfriend married somebody else, but I kept bleeding, year after light headed year. My best guess is that she did the same, wherever she went. Thousands of other, better people are still ahead of me on the home run list, and I demure to them, with enormous respect. Both my arms are scarred at the inner elbow, like those of a heroine addict, my badge of good citizenship. Somewhere along the way it was discovered that I have "CMV" negative blood, which means my juice is free of all viral matter, making me one in a thousand. My blood can be given to infants. So, they started calling me on special occasions. Then the blood bank suggested I become a platelet donor, because I am overrun with antibodies. Must be all the beer in college, which at once destroyed my brain but possibly enriched my blood. Hell, who knows? I can scarcely count the number of times I have been yanked out of a high school classroom, depriving the kids of their teacher, to drive like mad across town and bleed. One time I was halfway through a thirty minute drive only to be called and told that they discovered that I was ineligible, owing to too many recent donations. Driving towards the blood bank, knowing that stress will elevate blood pressure and result in being thrown out of the joint without helping the distant infant in ICU. That's pressure. So, I decided to retire, and turn it over to the next generation. That's guilt. Blind, unreasoning, nonsensical guilt. True bullshit.

Reelecting Trump, With Dark Money and Pricey Dinners

ALMOST UNBELIEVABLY, Donald J. Trump is launching his reelection campaign, presumably assuming that he will complete his first term, which considering the prodigious litany of corruption emergent within his administration during its first five months, he indeed might not. The kickoff event is an upcoming thirty five thousand dollar a plate fund raiser at the Trump hotel just down the street from the White House. One might hope that the actual dinner will include a sprig of fresh mint on the plate's periphery, a finger bowl, and perhaps cloth napkins monogrammed "DT". Maybe even silverware wrapped in pretty paper with a ribbon wrapped around it. Certainly one could expect nothing less. Is this crazy corrupt, or what? the purchasing of the presidency. the conflicts of interest. the list seems endless. Add a few more lawsuits to the more than four thousand in which the chief executive is presently embroiled. Wasn't it the Donald himself who, upon commencing his latest political campaign, declared his intention of financing the entire process with personal funds? Thanks to "citizens United", the supreme court decision of 2010 which opened the spigots for big, dark money, our public offices are more for sale than ever. Pensively frustrating is the thought that the solution to the ownership of our country by billionaires consists in a mere seven words: "the purchase of political advertising is prohibited." The argument would be that prohibiting paid speech does not impinge upon free speech, but only on paid speech. the next problem would be how to convince a right wing money is speech supreme court that such a law would not only save the country, but would be thoroughly constitutional. good luck with that.

Being Politically Incorrect On and Off the Court

JOHN McENROE might not be a familiar name to to the untennised. Mac is now pushing sixty, and the former tennis champion has a new book out, like everyone else these days. During a recent book tour interview he was asked about Serena Williams, the current tennis champion who is the obvious best female player in history. McEnroe agreed, she is the greatest woman to ever play the game. This drew the overly politically correct out of their lairs, and onto the field of battle. Best "female" player ever? Why the qualifier? Why not simply the "best player ever"? Well, John tried to explain, the sport of tennis, like the sport of life, is divided into two categories: men's, and women's. In professional tennis, men always compete against men, and women compete against women, and they tend to do the same in public parks all over the world. Just the way we roll. So, Mac explained, were Serena to break the mold and start competing on the men's professional tour, she would not be number one in the world, but probably right around number seven hundred. His estimate might be a bit high, it might be a bit low. But his point is valid: men are, as a general rule, bigger, stronger, faster than women, and the professional world of tennis, and the tens of thousands of amateur tournaments all over the world are the same: there is a men's tournament, and a women's tournament. Both genders use the same kind of rackets, balls, nets, and tennis courts, but the genders are separated for purposes of serious competition. And really, its that simple. There is a reason for this dichotomy. If men and women were always lumped together into a single tournament, professional or amateur, the women, for the most part, would never win, or have a chance to win. The same is true for basketball, and many other sports. Size matters. But this did not assuage the highly sensitive advocates of absolute gender equality. On twitter-tweet-Trump, and all across the desolate and vacuous landscape that is social media, out came the overly zealous politically correct, forgetting their biology, and their manners. How dare he express gender bias, the misogynistic bastard! How dare he tell the damned truth! I never liked McEnroe, for the same reason a few other people never liked him: he behaved horribly when he was among the world's greatest players, when he was young and foolish. But, truth is truth, even when it comes from the mouth of a former brat. Here's another dirty little secret: McEnroe can't compete on the men's tour anymore either, because he's just too damned old, and can no longer move his body well enough, although he does quite well on the men's senior tour, which includes men fifty and over. Your local amateur tennis tournament does the same thing; it has different categories for people of different ages. The United States Tennis Association has national rankings for sixty year olds, for seventy year olds, and for eighty year olds. After that, I lose track. For those of us obsessed with political correctness, this is called "age-ism". Growing old is tough enough; must we be segregated as well?

Proving That Guilt Is Bullshit

STIPULATED IN THE ARTICLE BELOW ("The war Against Emotion") is that guilt is bullshit, which it is, when it is unfounded. It is unfounded when intentions are good. "Noble be man, compassionate and good" said Goethe, an assertion of questionable applicability... Bought a lot, built a house, moved in. Oh, that clean new house aroma and ambiance! (or is that cars?) No animal shall ever sully my pristine furr free abode! But wait. Not so fast. A stray kitten shows up, day after infernal day, cute as a button, hungry, homeless. How could I refuse? I couldn't. She moves in, Mandi and me. Twice more the scenario repeats. Jake and Shylow join the gang. Three cute kittens, living inside with me, since I am a cats belong indoors kind of guy. Coupla years go by, here comes a fourth. Same song, fourth verse. She can't come in, because the other three won't allow it, so I name her "Cassandra", (isn't "Cassandra" some sort of ancient mythological temptress?) and move her into the garage, with free accesss the the great outdoors. Inside, Jake, Mandi, and Shylow are supspicious, curious. We are a family of five, me and my four cats. They grow into marvelous beasts. Coupla years later, and two more arrive, and, yes, you guessed it, I start feeding them; they look underweight. But Cassandra's behavior changes. She loses her appitite, starts spending way too much time away from home, and I begin to worry. Finally I realize I must not allow this to continue, so I start shooing the new two off. I try to figure out a way to feed them without their knowing its me doing the feeding, and as that unlikely endeavor continues, I'll post results. The upshot is: I have a terrible burden of guilt over this. For the first time in my life, I have failed to welcome into my home a stray cat! Now, that's bullshit if ever there were such. If I notice that these two strays are losing weight, you know as well asI do what I will do, dont you?

The War Against Emotion

A WISE MAN ONCE SAID that guilt and fear are both bullshit. Actually, he was a fellow graduate student, so his wisdom is questionable. But he had a point. Necessary that guilt and especially are to human survival and civilization, they get in the way more often then they seem to be worth, as if they are becoming outdated in our evolutionary journey. We live in an emotional world. Do cell phones have something to do with that? Unless I'm dreaming, we still haven't precisely identified the effect of extensive cell phone use and ambient microwave radiation on long term human health. It may be that cell phone radiation jammed up against your head for hours upon end each day eventually causes not only cancer, but hyper emotionality. For that matter, it may well be that having a huge flat screen TV in your living room with perfect definition and reception, and five hundred channels full of angry violent stressed out people has some impact, and watching it several hours every day might have some small, or large impact on someone's or everyone's attitude, stress level, anger level, emotional level. This, however, seems certain: we need to find out about all this, this question of the exact impact of our electronic saturated environment on ourselves. Its worth knowing about, because if indeed we are suffering ill effects from it, we must find a way of eliminating the ill effects. Looking back on a long life,its always been the other person mad at me. I, the maddee, never the madman. It makes me mad when someone gets mad at me. I have long since grown tired of other people's anger, extended anger, and grudges. But as much as I despise fear and anger, I am full of both. I just try not to show it. I'm also tired of my own guilt and fear, almost all of which is unreasonable and unjustified. Maybe its caused by other people's cell phones. (I don't have one). On the day I die, I plan to be free of fear and anger. Sometimes you think it just might be a better world without all this emotion - this hatred, this anger, and all the rest of it - with which we seem so obviously currently inundated. We could banish all emotions from the human mind, and becomes like Mr.Spock and the Vulcans. Or, if not something that extreme, it would at least be desirable to stop pouring fuel on the fires of our passions with our electronic social media and other means. We seek a less violent, less angry, calmer, gentler global civilization, don't we?

Knowing Thyself, Finally, Conservatively

ON BALANCE, I DON'T LIKE HUMAN BEINGS, though I art one, and must make do. One hundred million combat dead in the twentieth century is enough to convince me. Billionaire investor and firm Trump supporter Robert Mercer got it right: he prefers the company of cats over people. That's almost enough to make me appreciate and support Donald Trump as president, but not quite. The American people are angry, and getting angrier. That's why Trump was elected, the same reason Hitler was elected in 1933. I've never had so many people angry at me, personally, in my life. All you have to do is spend several months praising the political savvy of, say, Hillary Clinton and denigrating the republican candidate for president, and, wo, your right wing high school classmates get mad, and stay mad, holding a grudge presumably all the way up to Trump's seeming inevitable from office, which might cut the grudge short, or sustain it even longer. with modern spoiled arrogant upper middle class conservative white Americans, you just never know. I've just about had enough of all anger directed against me, so I choose to laugh at it. Let those who knowingly voted for a self proclaimed sexual predator for president decide how to deal with their own obviously warped emotions. American returns from North Korea dead, Trump fulminates. Russian and American jets playing chicken in the shies above the Baltic and Syria. How's this big friendship between Putin and Trump workiing out now? Two schoolyard bullies, about to break their evil phony mutual admiration non aggression treaty, and go at each other, instead of weaker prey. Those of you who voted for Trump, behold our vanishing prestige around the world, and the conflagration of prolific conflict. behold the military police state with bloated budget, sinking working class, and widening inequality with tax cuts for the wealthy and less health care for the poor. A real populist, a man of the people, our president. A criminal to boot, who may have conspired with the Russians to steal the presidency. we'll see, as the investigators do their work. No wonder you right wing Trump voters are all so angry. you are starting to realize how harmful you are, and what idiots.

Showing Character Through Words

WHEN TRUMP FIRED JAMES COMEY as FBI Director, Comey indicated that he had written down every conversation he had with Trump, and gave some details of the conversations, fearful that Trump would lie about their meetings. Trump responded by bombasting loudly that Comey had better hope there is not a taping system in the White House, because it would reveal Comey to be a liar. Remember that? So, people, including congresspersons, started getting interested in whether there was indeed a Trump recording system, and asked him about it, whether he had one, and would he release the tapes. Trump said yes there indeed was a taping system in the White House, and that he would talk about it later. Then, later, he said that if there was a system, he would reveal it at a future date. There may be one, and there may not be one, he said. And now finally Trump says that there is definitely absolutely no such recording system in the White House. This is exactly the sort of situation which plainly reveals Trump to be a liar, a manipulator, a person of low morality and a con artist of the most sordid sort. A president of the Untied States, creating all this needless confusion and drama, misleading us deliberately, behaving like a child, just for his own amusement, or some bizarre psychological narcissistic need. Every day it becomes increasingly obvious that this administration is a joke and a disaster. What are the odds of this buffoon surviving an entire term in office?

Addicting

THE GREAT AMERICAN SMART PHONE is the second most successful selling product in the entire history of corporate commercial capitalism, followed closely by cigarettes. Ten years ago yesterday Steve Jobs had his cute and famous smart phone coming out party press conference...this is an internet device...and a phone...since then over a billion have been sold; a staggeringly high percentage of humans have one. Smart phones and cigarettes seem about equally addictive, and both can kill you, usually slowly. I've never smoked a cigarette, and I don't have a flat screen TV or a smart phone; I avoid addictions like the plague. Life in these United States of Addictica. When I was nine the government suddenly announced that ciggies are lethal, and I took their word for it. I lost interest in television when "Gunsmoke" went off the air, and smart phones simply frighten me, like cocaine. The smart phone is among the most influential inventions in history, right up there with the wheel, campfires, cars, television, booze, and so forth. They seem to be changing the way people communicate with each other in a fundamental way. More people claim to be noticing a decline in the ability of average people to carry on an intelligent conversation face to face. I may someday acquire a flat screen TV and a smart phone. I seriously doubt I will ever smoke a cigarette.

Being A True Christian By voting For Trump, Somehow

I REALLY SHOULDN'T BE SURPRISED. The number of possible states of mind, atomically, is so infinite that nothing anyone ever does should surprise us, mentioned the late great Carl Sagan. In a small town in America's deep south, one really shouldn't expect the senior citizens to be worldly, sophisticated, intelligent, or even wise with age. One might expect a touch of provincial traditional, and resistance to change. Dumber'n doornails is what they often are. If you don't believe in evolution or man made climate change, excuse me, then you're dumber'n,... Consider, for example, the eighty year old who is one hundred pounds overweight, lives one block from the senior center, yet has the center send a driver to pick him up and take him home very day. There's no way this guy can live much longer, considering all that, so I need to go easy on him. He hates me, but I need to make sure I don't waste the time and energy hating him, even though he allegedly said that any true Christian would have voted for Trump. A very reliable source told me that he actually said this, and I believe it, knowing him. He's like that, as many of them are, and they all hate me, like true Christians, because they know I spurn their phony religion and phony politics. They tend, overwhelmingly, to believe only that which is in the Bible, a truly disastrous choice, in terms of factual awareness. Why are extremely right wing conservatives who also happen to be extremely devout Christians always so extremely stupid? All you true Christians out there who voted for Hillary, Ted Cruz, or anybody other than Trump, be advised; you are not a true christian, according to Big Harold in Northwest Arkansas. If I were a devout Christian and a democrat, I'd be offended. OMG, can you just imagine how many other similar buffoons there must be in the United States of Abject Ignorance? Judging by the fact that Trump got elected; millions, mostly evangelical Christians. Trump, the embodiment of Christian values. The christian billionaire, who neither renders unto Caesar nor gives unto the poor. The Bible tends to teach us to treat women like chattel property, and yet, somehow, bragging about being a serial sexual predator seems not very,..Jesus like....way to go, big Harold. You're so brilliant.

Seeking A lower level

THE SAME PEOPLE who elected Donald Trump also elected this wack job in Montana who beat up a journalist the day before the election, and still won. What, if anything, does that tell us about the state of American politics, or the state of the American people, or of America itself? Nothing good, one would think. In the United States, we elected a new president about three weeks after he was seen and heard widely, in an old recording, praising himself for his ability to commit sex crimes without consequences. We actually did that, bless our little hearts. Of course, lest we forget, Thomas Jefferson was elected in 1800 even after his opponents made it clear to anyone who would listen that not only was Mr. Jefferson an atheist, but an adulterer as well. Well, in truth he was both, but still had a pretty decent first term, if not second. Jefferson described the presidency as "splendid misery", which, you might think, Mr. Trump will also eventually do. A rough beginning for Mr. Trump. The difference between Trump and Jefferson, other than intelligence, is that Trump seems to thrive on controversy, conflict, and scandal, whereas Jefferson was horrified by all three, and avoided them like the plague. It may well be that the more chaotic, criminal, and incompetent the Trump administration becomes, the more the big guy will enjoy the job. After all, he invests in gambling and golf, so he obviously has a taste for human misery. Perhaps we can at least hope that our newly elected pugilistic congressperson from the great conservative state of Montana will refrain from further violence while on the Hill. Auspiciously, he has already called for more civility in politics. We hope he's including himself.

Remembering

IN MY LATE TEENS my father decided I deserved to have some fun, so he started taking me places, cool places like new York and San Francisco and New Orleans. My theory is that dad just happened to be looking for a new drinking buddy, since all or most of his earlier ones had drifted away, as we do in America, and hey, I was approaching adulthood anyway, and could be nurtured as a chip off the old block. I had no objections, since I was so inclined in any event. So, we drank together, my father and I. I still can't decide whether I prefer being at the top of the Empire State building in the daytime or at night. Either way, its awesome, but totally different, depending on the time of day. I recall buying a six pack in times Square, and walking towards the World Trade Center while drinking it, and being very happy by the time I reached Battery park. I can't seem to remember where I stopped to go to the bathroom. That was forty years ago. Probably wouldn't do that again. I made sure to visit the observation deck on both the eighty sixth and the hundred and first floor; I'm not sure why, but I would probably do that again, for some reason. In 1975 it cost me three dollars, as I remember. Unless I'm dreaming, someone told me that now it costs about a hundred dollars to go to the top of the Empire State building. Surely that can't be right. I don't think I would be willing to pay that, but I was definitely willing to pay the three dollars forty two years ago. I would love to see the new trade center. It seems strange that its construction and opening were not covered in the media more prominently. As if we were trying to avoid calling attention to it, because we know that its another target for terrorists. The last time I was in Washington D.C. you could walk right up to the white House fence and look in. Is it true that you can no longer do that, or drive past the White House? If so, that's too bad. At the end of our days we have little left besides our memories, but we are fortunate to have even that. They become more expensive as we age.

Stupidly Reversing Cuban-American Progress

WHEN CUBA HAD A BRUTAL DICTATOR who welcomed American capitalism to the island, the United States was Cuba's dear friend. Then, when Castro's successful revolution replaced Batista with a socialist dictator who wanted to either control all American investment in Cuba or force it to stop, it stopped, as the United States decided to turn its back on the suddenly very evil, non-capitalistic, suddenly unavailable-for-American- exploitation Cuba. The United States shunned Cuba, so Castro turned to the soviet Union, and the rest is history. The american embargo against Castro's Cuba was never a good idea, indeed a stupid idea from day one, as all of America's crusades against socialism, all around the world, ongoing for decades, are stupid ideas. America would be better off to respect socialist governments and their idealism, and to emulate them in their tendency to strive for economic equality, instead of trying to overthrow them all and replace them with capitalistic dictators. We can oppose dictatorships, and promote democratic socialism, like we have in America. Obama was the first president to see the light regarding Cuba, and lifted the embargo, ushering in a new potential golden age for cuban-American relations. Now Trump, seemingly determined to be the stupidest president in American history, is considering reversing Obama's pro-Cuba policies, and making Cuban-american relationships more difficult, with renewed travel and trade rrestricitions. All because of one reason; whatever Obama did must have been bad, because obama did it. No American conservative ever invented ever truly gave a damn about freedom in other countries, including Cuba, but opposing a liberal president, Obama-hatred, by all means, is their sacred duty. What lunacy.

Sensibly Dealing With Food

TWENTY PERCENT OF AMERICAN CHILDREN, roughly, might or might not get enough to eat on any given day. No one disputes this. America throws away half of its food, roughly. Nobody disputes this either. Its widely known. In our era of alternative facts and personal bubbles, these two facts are reality in America. they are either a horrible indictment of the country as a whole or at the very least of its economic system. Take your pick. For God's sake, you're asking, why can't we do something about this? It would appear that the free market, that the immutable laws of supply and demand which make capitalism allegedly work so very well - is an utter failure, food wise. Oh sure, the government has a farmer subsidy program, and has for years. And, then too, we have food stamps and the government free school lunch program for poor children. In America we have a mixture of socialism and capitalism in the food industry, like many other industries. But since those who produce and provide food, such as giant food companies, farmers, restaurants, and grocery stores, overwhelmingly do so for profit, it is capitalism which controls the industry. All of the capitalism is designed to enhance profit, all the socialism is designed to redistribute food to the poor, so its hard to see how the misappropriation of food in America is anything other than a capitalistic problem. At my local senior center, of which I am a member, every day leftovers from lunch are thrown away, pounds and pounds of perfectly good food; because the law says it must. That's socialism gone astray. Heaven forbid that leftover food should be given away to those who need it. Our nonfunctional food system in the United States is inherent in the system, and is not fixable without fixing the system. It is interesting to note that the distribution of food in America tends to match the distribution of money. The difference, of course, is that we all need approximately the same amount of food.

Scamming Us All, With Right Wing Populism

THIS HYPER PATRIOTIC nationalistic anti-global right wing populism which has been sweeping through Europe and the United States is beginning to wear thin, and is finally running its diseased, pathological course. The English regret Brexit, the tories are out, labor is in. The Americans regret Trump. He is crashing fast, and soon the Trump faithful will begin to jump ship. The French version of Trump was easily defeated by a moderate progressive. The poor working class people who wore red caps and screamed "make America great again", with their narcissistic leader, will, at some point, figure out that Trump has done nothing for them, will never do anything for them, does not care about doing anything for them. Without investing in clean energy, raising minimum wage hugely and bigly, and creating a partnership between business, labor, and government, America's workers will not advance, whether they support Trump or not, and these things Trumpers, and right wing top down populism, will not do. International cooperation to go solar and stop global warming, international trade, culturally diversified countries, cooperative, green economics are the future of the world, and you deluded Trump folk cannot stop them. To resist or oppose them in any way is sheer folly, brazen stupidity. Trump and this right wing populism is led by the wealthy, and preaches supply side neo-liberal trickle down economics, which has been proven to be a sham, a trick played by the wealthy elite on the working masses. We must build prosperity from the bottom up, starting with the workers on the bottom. That, for the benefit of dense Trump supporters, means increases in worker's wages, taxes on the wealthy, greater prosperity and equality. See Denmark, where socialism and capitalism cooperate well, and prosperity is plentiful and shared throughout society.

Reexamining Ourselves

DONALD TRUMP TRIED to get the FBI to stop investigating him, to stop the investigation into Russian cooperation with the Trump campaign. To the FBI Director Trump said: "I hope you can see your way clear to drop this investigation". That's petty obvious. Pretty straight forward, pretty clear cut. The president trying to interfere with justice, as Director Comey, who was shocked and horrified, saw it. Whenever one person says to another "I hope you can see your way clear", about anything, person number one is definitely trying to get person number two to do something. This is not a mere expression of hope, as one clever republican tried to claim. It is, in fact, an attempt to influence another person's behavior, in all cases. In this case, its obstruction of justice by the president of the United States, and very possibly, its betraying the United States to a foreign power which is also a traditional enemy of the U.S.. Very serious stuff, as Trump himself might tweet. Very very serious. Huge. Impeachable. Indictable. Imprisonable. Speaker of the House Ryan forgives Trump because Trump didn't know any better. Great excuse. Imagine, if you can, Hillary Clinton as President. Hold your nose if you have to. Whatever works. Imagine her telling the FBI Director: "I hope you can see your way clear to stop investigating me". If you're a conservative republican, how would you react? What would Speaker Ryan do? What would you do? What you would do is obvious; you'd pitch a fit. You'd have a cow. You'd raise holy hell. You'd put on your bright red "make America great again" ball cap, gather together with other Trumper-Tea party types, and chant "lock her up!", until you were hoarse and the cows came home. Hell, you'd do that if Hillary Clinton ever got a damned parking ticket, which she hasn't. That's exactly what you would do, and you know it. So, um...where are you now? Conveniently ignoring or lamely justifying the criminal behavior of the criminal you voted for? The same way you sanctimonious evangelical conservative types ignored or dismissed Trump's proclamation of sexual molestation as "locker room talk"? What would you have done if Obama or Bill Clinton had bragged on tape about getting away with serial sexual molestation? You'd pitch a tizzy. Maybe its never occurred to you right wingers, and maybe it should, that you Trump voters need to reexamine your character, moral values, and moral consistency just a wee bit.

Building A Better Internet, With Good Government

THE INTERNET, most would agree, is still, if not in its "infancy", then certainly in early childhood, perhaps a toddler. It has grown and changed much since the early nineties, and its growth and rate of change are only accelerating. Internet culture is in its raw neophyte phase, crude, rough, with little organization or regulation. Its been compared to the lawless American wild west of the nineteenth century. And we know that will change. The wild wild world of the internet will be tamed, regulated, controlled, soon enough. The future internet will not resemble the current one. In America, and probably in the rest of the world, we seem to have two choices in internet regulation: corporate control, or government tyranny. Take your pick. A third option might be some combination of the two, with the United nations and the world's cartels having a voice, and both responding to the wishes and ideas of the world's over two billion internet users. Friendly, cooperative internet anarchy might be the ultimate answer, on and off line, with citizen control and limited central governments and corporations, but we're not ready for that, and we're a long ways from it. Believe it or not, there is, in political science theory, a type of government called "socialistic anarchy", and there is a huge body of literature discussing it. Famed M.I.T. professor and scholar Noam Chomsky advocates this form of government. We do not want a small elite handful of huge corporations owning and controlling the internet. Nor do we want any national government or group of national governments controlling it. We want the people of the world to democratically own and control it, do we not? Well, that's socialistic anarchy. Its a grossly inefficient way to govern, this mass democracy, as we in America know only too well. But to us Americans, its worth it, the chaos, the confusion, the anarchy - if that's the price we have to pay to keep both the government and the corporate establishment off our backs and out of our lives and pockets.

Trump, Messing America Up?

GERMAN CHANCELLOR ANDREA MERKEL @ US Prez DJ Trump do not, we suspect, get along very well, do not like each other. Can you imagine that? First, Trump accuses NATO of being obsolete, a bunch of loser moochers, and demands more membership money. Then, he accuses Germany of unfair trade practices, particularly successfully selling too many cars in America. Imagine that, making Merkel mad. Making her love Trump less? She certainly is sensitive. Can she help it if Americans love Volkswagon all the more because it tried to cheat? American values. Meanwhile, on the other side of the other ocean, the Philippine dictator receives a congratulatory phone call from the American President, as Trump praises the dictator on murdering thousands of drug users in his war on drugs. Our president, friendly to a monster, mean to a progressive, loyal ally like Germany. Is this guy nuts, or what? Trump, like many conservatives, seems attracted to brutal brutal right wing dictators, and frightened by progressive democratic leaders who are his intellectual superior.. Maybe Trump thinks he can make a better deal with Germany by being tough with them, somehow, and can have more influence over the Philippine dictator by kissing his evil ass. Knowing Trump, who knows? Trump has a history of ruining more relationships and making more enemies than friends, and his bankruptcies are legendary, so, its not as if he is some kind of master business person, able to lead people and make good deals consistently. In fact, he has never demonstrated any such talent. His real strength seems to be bullying, lying, and cheating. With Trump, only the dramatic failures, especially in businesses and marriages, are consistent.

Correcting Ourselves, Using Science

SCIENCE MAKES MISTAKES. Many mistakes. Scientists, being human, go astray. But it corrects them, always. And that is exactly why science works so well, and should replace religion as the object of our loyalties. A revealing new book "Pandora's Lab" details seven striking examples of science gone wrong. In 1962 Rachel Carson published the seminal book "Silent Spring", which overstated the dangers of DDT, which got the chemical banned, after which and ever since which there has been a global malaria epidemic. I can remember, back in the fearless old days, as a very small child, running behind a big white truck as it sprayed DDT on the streets of my town, bathing me and all the other kids in a refreshing cool mist. somehow, we survived it. Until world war two or so, lobotomies, holes in the head, were considered effective medial practice. Science is the best method for making progress because science corrects its mistakes. Far more harmful than repairable scientific error is abuse of science by people in power who do not understand science. An interesting new book "Not A Scientist" discusses this. A good example is climate change denial in the Trump administration. Science has been used by people in power, and by society in general, to justify slavery, eugenics, forced sterilization. Science, in a way, is like money and marriage. it can be either extremely pleasant an beneficial, or extremely harmful. Being human includes the responsibility of deciding what to make of powerful forces like marriage, money, and science. Our choices make the world what it is, or isn't. Considering how science permeates our modern lives, we are not living in a scientific age. Many Americas seem to regard science as just another opinion, which it most certainly isn't. Science is a system designed to arrive at truth, such as the size of the world or the boiling temperature of water. many Americans seem to think they can to use their own personal science to build their own realities. We can indeed do these things, but it isn't science. I remember my friend's words, which which saddened and disturbed me. "There are many species of intelligent life in the galaxy genetically related to us." Oh, really? How exciting! How did you find out? Show us your method, please! There are many ways to know things, he said. Even if there are billions of ways of knowing things, all of them must ultimately pass the scientific method muster; verifiability, and reproducibility. All roads lead to the scientific method. Religion defends error. Science corrects error. It may well be that the galaxy is indeed full of life whose blood types match our own. Some day we may find out for sure - using science.

Classifying America

IN AMERICAN GRADE SCHOOLS we have traditionally been taught that America is a class free society in which everyone is equal. This of course has never been the case, isn't the case now, and most likely never will be. In American public schools, pro-American history spin, or "hagiography" rather than factual history has been the tradition, from which we only recently have begun to vary. History teachers who teach painful truths, such as America's massive inequality, thomas Jefferson's un-Christian religious view, the needless nuclear bombing of Japan in World War Two, systemic racism in America, and so forth, have traditionally put their jobs at risk. America was founded as a class based culture, and remains one today. During the middle of the twentieth century the American middle class was extremely inclusive, and class distinctions in America ware less extreme than ever, but that state of affairs has rapidly devolved back into a highly segregated, class based society, as described by Richard Reeves in an excellent new monograph "Dream Hoarder's". We have become accustomed to referring to the "One percent" and the "ninety nine percent", but Reeves talks about the upper twenty percent, upper middle class America and beyond, as constituting the true upper class, disproportionately occupying positions of power, and possessing and keeping for themselves a disproportionate amount of the opportunities for advancement. Like nearly all economists, Reeves is convinced that the current high concentration of wealth in the country is detrimental to America's overall health, and must be to some extent reversed. He sets out to prove how economic inequality is harmful to everyone in the long run, and offers solutions to it. He includes the usual suspects, such as increased pay for unskilled and low skill workers, and a more progressive taxation system. Although most of us do not seem inclined to listen to people like reeves at the moment, that may soon change, by necessity.

Fading Dreams

MOST OF OUR INFORMATION we obtain through the sense of sight, right? Tall people and pretty people make more money because they are tall and pretty. People tend to be physically attracted to people whose facial geometry is similar to their own. Among humans, appearance is paramount. It influences one's personality. Certainly personality types tend to pursue certain careers. Strong and stolid officious types become police officers. Teachers tend to be detail oriented, priggish, anal. Same for librarians. These generalizations all contain more than a kernel of truth, according to research. Consider the overweight middle aged married woman. She was once attractive to her husband, but has been forced to adjust to a cooler relationship. She's horny as ever, but hubby won't put out as much. He goes to be early, and sleeps deeply. She tends to treat younger attractive men with condescending, dismissive contempt, secretly wanting, knowing she can never have them. They don't bother to look at her anymore. Once a year she joins the local gym,but her membership lapses by mid January. No matter. She deceives herself that she is still attractive, and has another nacho. Her only recourse is to drag her henpecked husband hither and yon, and long secretly for the long departed flattery of younger men. they will never come again.... Editor's Note: the preceding piece, repugnant that it may be, was submitted as spontaneous creative writing, not social commentary.

Comprehending Causal Connections

EVERYTIME YOU DRINK a glass of water or cup of coffee, you are drinking dinosaur urine, many times over. The amount of water on Earth remains fairly constant, and thus is used over...and over...again. Every day a few tons of fresh ice come crashing in with comets hitting the outer atmosphere, but that is negligible. Every atom in your body was created in the center of a star billions of years ago, and has circulated through generations of beings, with many more to come. We really are all connected to each other, and to everything else. No need to invent religions: nature is the doctrine. Nor need we fear death. We have experienced it billions of times already, with many more to come. Since there are ample lifetimes for everyone, and plenty of resources of us all, it makes you begin to wonder a bit about our behavior, doesn't it? By "behavior", is meant mainly violence, and all that contributes to it. The Prime Minister of England says that the English are way too tolerant of extremism. She should point out that 'tis better to be too tolerant of self expression, including extremist viewpoints, than too intolerant of it. Another thing the British might possibly be too tolerant of, and this does not come from the Prime Minister, is empire building and maintaining, especially the war of conquest and perpetual occupation part of it. It may be that we in the western world are in general far too tolerant of western imperialism, especially England's and America's. England and America are in fact both very class conscious traditional conservative conformist cultures which have historically run the risk of being too intolerant of alternative culture, not too tolerant of it. 'Twould be a sad day indeed if Britain or America ever started preventing people of certain religions to enter the country, or enslaved people of a certain color, of imprisoned people for advocating social change. We must remember how all humans are connected, and ask ourselves whether we are really surprised that our attacks, invasions, conquests, and occupation of other countries sometimes angers people sufficiently to motivate them to fight back? For various reasons, technological, economic, military, over the past hundred and fifty years it has been the west which has abused the middle east. Everything is connected, from the air we breathe, to the actions we take. But at least we have the comfort of being reincarnated. What a wonderful interconnected world!

Drop everything, Listen To Comey

WHATEVER YOU'RE DOING this coming Thursday morning, cancel it, buy a new pop corn popper and a bag of ready-to-pop popcorn, settle in in front of the flat screen, and turn on, oh, CNN. Not FOX, because you never know, on FOX some man attired in business attire is likely to be staring down the dress of some scantily-clad-by-corporate-law thirty year old hottie. (You know about that lascivious network's reputation for sexual predatory behavior by its powerful men.) Former FBI director James Comey is scheduled to testify before congress, at long last, and he's reportedly ready, able, and willing to talk. One can imagine that Comey isn't terribly fond of Donald J. Trump 'long about now, and would like nothing more than to harm the president with facts. Within days after Trump took office, he was calling the FBI and America's intelligence gathering community all kinds of bad names, then, of course, Trump fired Comey for no apparent reason. Comey might indeed testify that at one point Trump asked him (Comey) to stop the FBI's investigation of him (Trump), the one concerning probable contact between the Trump campaign and Russian trouble makers wanting to influence the presidential election. If this actually happened, and Comey testifies to it under oath, Trump could be guilty of obstruction of Justice, the crime for which Nixon was forced out of office and Clinton was impeached. If Trump happens to be removed from office by a congress selflessly trying to save America, we still have the option of urging Trump to continue his middle of the night tweeting, to keep us entertained and laughing. No reason to throw out the baby with the bathwater. Just the other day I heard some people on the radio trying to figure the meaning of a new word they had heard, "confefe". I figured out that it appeared in a nocturnal Trump tweet, which said something like "the news media confefe..." then just stopped, as if the President had confused himself, lost his train of thought, and just given up, a truncated tweet. Not a good idea. Presidential spokespeople have been trying to provide cover ever sense, spinning tall tales having to do with ancient Arabic words and short hand sophisticated political code. Actually, it was a combination typo and brain freeze, presidential. He needs an editor on twitter, a "tweetitor." To help Trump save face, let's define the new word "confefe" as either "nonsense", or "a bit stink about nothing.", accent it on the second syllable with a short "E", and leave it at that.

Loving On Kittens

MY SISTER STOOD at the fenced in enclosure at the big cat sanctuary, admiring a magnificent tiger. Sis was in a group of tourists, well attired upper middle class types. In retrospect, I wish I'd been there. Without warning the tiger lifted a leg and sprayed down the whole group, but good, missing nobody. Pandemonium ensued. Shrieks of horror and disgust echoed off nearby mountains. My sister just stood there, a smile of satisfaction revealing her contentment. She later said she felt honored. She told me she wanted to slap some sense into her anal companions, who valued their clean clothing more than a magnificent gesture from a magnificent being. It made me jealous to think about it, jealous of her. The others, forget 'em. Typical Americans, needing a better life. So I visited the sanctuary myself, thinking I deserved at least as much tigerly attention. I never got it. No spray for me. The group I was with had dispersed by the time I came to the tiger section, and I alone was evidently insufficiently worthy to attract attention. But I had no intention of leaving without something special happening to me. I looked around. I saw nobody. Fine with me; everybody there was a stranger to me, and we all know that Americans do not like strangers. So I felt safe, confident I wouldn't be caught and arrested or chastised. I slipped under the fence, and walked up to the iron bars, which were spaced far enough apart to permit a huge paw to poke through. The tiger knew I was there and rolled over on his back, belly in the air. I assumed he wanted belly rubs. He was four feet long head to butt, four hundred pounds. His fur was coarse and brittle, not soft like a house cat's. But he got his belly rubs, and I could swear, and I swear to this day, I could hear him purr. Lions and tigers can interbreed. when they told me that, I freaked. I had no idea. Then, they showed me a few "ligers", bred evidently by human idiots. In the wild, they seldom if ever interbreed. If they did, there'd be more of them. The ones I saw were huge huge. They look more like tigers than lions, and they don't stop growing. They have all kinds of physical problems; misformed bones and jaws, other health issues, and they don't live long. There are just over three thousand tigers left in the world, or something like that; extinction appears inevitable. Maybe we can all get together and prevent it from happening; nobody wants to lose this magnificent animal. You almost wish there were too many tigers and not enough humans, instead of the other way around.

Trump, Failing Us All, And Our Environment

THERE ARE TEN TIMES MORE clean energy jobs in California than there are coal industry jobs in the entire country. Clean energy, i.e. solar and wind, is the future. Coal is going away, or rather, staying in the ground, right where it belongs. Coal industry spokespeople tell us otherwise, that coal is still the world's main fuel source, and that it will continue to be for a long time as our demand for it increases. Future coal will be clean, they say. All of this is, obviously, pure manure. In fact China and India will continue and for a time increase their current cola use, as they rapidly invest in and grow their clean energy economies, transitioning away from dirty air and water to a clean future. The entire world is doing this, as solar and wind energy explodes in growth and coal stagnates, slowing down its growth rate as a business and starting to shrink. the future is bright, and environmentally clean. There is ample time for everyone to divest, change careers, and reinvest. Trump's claim that the Paris climate agreement is unfair and financially punitive to the United States, and will cost millions of American jobs is pure bull manure. State by state the United States will implement the Paris climate agreement, and Trump and his ilk will be cast aside and ridiculed. Trump is grandstanding and showboating for his shrinking base of support. Not only most Americans, but most of the world will soon realize how pathetically unfit to lead the United States Trump is. His performance in office thus far clearly shows this. He is being given the chance he deserves, and he is failing, fast.

Shedding A Tear, Almost, For White Hide and Deny Nut Jobs

LABRON JAMES SAID IT BEST, after some idiot spray painted the "N" word across his house. It doesn't matter show much money you have, how famous you are, or how many people admire you and root for you. Its tough being black in America. And he, as much as any of the rest of us, should know, right? Poorly educated white conservatives don't agree. They think, or pretend to think, that its no more difficult being black than being white in America, the land of opportunity, because racism has been eliminated long ago, and that its time to move on, and quite complaining about it. Labron is simply whining about nothing. All these hate crimes, including our current epidemic of them, is a fluke. (how many flukes does it take to make a pattern? What's a little vandalism and graffiti between friends, right?) Fifty years ago, these same people were openly racist. It was the proper way to be, accepted. Then the rest of us shamed them into hiding it. When it became less visible, they began claiming that it no longer exists. To this day, they still do both; hide, and deny. We're talking about mainstream conservatives here. Mostly christian, most pro capitalism, anti socialism, pro gun. Racism, they say, is gone from America. Hide, and deny. If, by chance, you do not believe in human carbonated climate change, or evolution, but you do believe that racism still exists, or you voted for Trump, or you believe literally in the divinely inspired Bible and are an evangelical Christian political and economic conservative, you might be a moron, and you might want to question your core belief system. No offense, I'm just sayin'...These tend to be the same people who wonder whatever on Earth Labron James has to complain about, what with all his fame and money. Liberals aren't like that. liberals are applauding Labron's comments, egging him on, wanting to use the government as much as possible to enforce equality, and to create programs for minorities which conservatives see as special treatment. Conservatives see programs to enhance opportunity for minorities and to create equality for them as racist and elitist, unfair to the downtrodden conservative Christian caucasian. white Christians, under assault. How horrible. Insane as that notion is, they pretend to believe it, these right wing nut jobs. Makes you want to shed a tear for them, almost, but not quite.

Trump, Deciding.....

WILL HE, OR WON'T HE? Trump, of course, and the Paris climate change treaty, of course. As of this writing, Trump will make his grand reality TV style announcement, floodlights beaming, within hours, and, whatever his decision, he will use simplisitic hyberbolic vacuous rhetoric, reapeating key words. Sound fmiliar? How could he ever do otherwise, right? Also, he will most definitely remove the United States from the climate treaty, which will result in his getting viciously, verbally attacked by most of the world, which ought to really freak him out, what with his super sensitivity to criticism. He could, on the other hand, shock and pleasantly surprise the civilized world by announcing that America will remain true to the treaty, and commence a massive clean energy anti-climate change program, but that would enrage his core souporters, who prefer fast money and bad air, and who are violent and irrational enough to storm the White House and thrash their leader. The ironic, and vaguely humorous aspect of all this is that what Trump does on this issue, as powerful as he likes to consider himself, really doesn't matter, not in the least. With or without him, America and the world will go right on converting from fossil fuels to clean, sustainable economic policies and energy strategies, reversing global warming, saving the planet, and providing a blissful and prosperous life for all our descendents. Wind and solar energy are becoming more cost efficient every day, sweeping the world, saving us from ourselves. And the glorious news is that this wonderul process s going to continue, and come to successful fruition with or without Donald J. Trump and the lunatic American consrvative ecommuinty, which will be left behind, doubtless lamenting the vanished fossil fuel industry, convinced that global warming, climate change, the destruction of living habitat and life on Earth were never real threats or possibilities in the first place.

Putting People In Prison Under Trump

A WAR ON DRUGS, of some sort, has probably, like drugs themselves, been going on for some time, from time immemorial. People love drugs, and they love to hate drugs. Our modern version began with Trickie Dick Nixon, around 1970. Nancy Reagan came along with her brilliant "just say no", and now, our latest incarnation of conservative futility, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, enters the fray, who wants to ramp the whole crazy War on Drugs back up again, after eight years of Obama sanity, during which we tended to regard drugs as a medical, rather than a legal or criminal problem. Among humans, sanity can only last so long before we start trying to solve problems by doing crazy thing again, instead of rationally. Sessions wants to reinstate irrationally punitive sentences for all manner of drug offenses, mandatory minimum sentences, for crimes from sampling, to addiction, to dealing. Most local, state, and federal judges oppose the war on drugs, because they know, from long experience, how insane, destructive to society, and impossible it is. The United States of Incareration already has the highest rate of imprisonment in the world, thanks largely to drug laws, with what seems like about half of all young African-American men behind bars. Isn't that enough? Haven't we, at long last, after all these years, learned anything? Apparently not, at least not from the socially conservative perspective. Let's decriminalize drugs, and medicalize them, regulate them, like alcohol and tobacco, and do some real educating. Over the next four years, or few weeks, or however long Trump and Sessions are in power instead of prison, the U.S. is going to go on a real witch hunt, and millions more of us will get locked up, along with who knows who else - maybe climate scientists, transgenders, liberals and socialists will be next in line to the privately operated federal pen.