Taking Heat, And Dishing Out Warmth

ALEXANDRIA OSTACIO-CORTEZ did not enter politics for the purpose of engaging in bitter partisan backbiting. Assuming she ins't naive, she knew that sharp criticism and hostile verbal engagements would be part of the package, but perhaps not to the degree of bitterness she has encountered in her brief time on Capitol Hill. She has shown strength in her ability to take the heat, but no hesitation to respond, no indication that she is shy in the face of withering fire. Her harshest critics, of whom there is a veritable caravan of conservatives constantly on the attack, are learning to expect a timely, measured, intelligent response to their hateful, often dishonest accusations. She is often accused of being no more than an air headed bar tender, an immature, ignorant little girl who entered politics on a lark, and isn't prepared to hang with the big boys. Far from it. Cortez has a degree in a rigorous, demanding field of study from a prestigious institution, which she obtained with high marks. She has been interest in current events and societal concerns for a long time, and has shown such perception and thoughtful insight in her interactions with those who know her best that she was strongly encouraged to run for Congress by many people, including those with knowledge of political reality and what it takes to succeed in the political arena. So far, so good. She has suitably impressed her congressional colleagues, with her attire, demeanor, and well reasoned responses to all circumstances and questions. Already she appears poised to climb the ladder of party hierarchy among the Democrats. Grudgingly, behind the scenes, her opponents respect her, even though they seem not to like her, you can tell. So lacking are they for real, tangible material which to use against her that many of them have taken to slinging gratuitous mud at her, as if thinking and hoping that some of it might stick. It hasn't. At one of Donald Trump's recent circus style mob rallies, Donald Junior, no more noble nor less vile than his mud slinging father, lead a chant of "OAC sucks", in which the throng of all white all angry mostly middle class drop outs eagerly participated, their angry facial expressions filling the cameras. Take a look at them. The hatred and anger and despair radiates from their twisted faces, and they must either not fully realize how emotionally ill they are, or not care, or enjoy it. Cortez is among those who has the audacity to insist that everyone has as a basic human right access to good health care, whether or not one can afford it. That, too the conservative capitalistic crowd, is blasphemy. She sees the great disparity in income and wealth in America, as do most progressives, as a very real threat to democracy and economic stability, a problem urgently in need of correction. Equality, gander, racial, and economic, she views as a goal worth pursuing actively, rather allowing to either happen or not happen based upon the vicissitudes of an unregulated society. Opinions such as these will arouse the ire of the right wing every time, and are the main reason why they sink so low into their anger and hatred that they scream obscenities at her in unison. they go low, she goes high. Cortez has let it be known that she fully intends to fight for health insurance for all, and that by "all", she means those opposed to people helping each other, people who yell the obscenities at her, the supporters of Donald Trump. Few things in life are more difficult than taking the high road while being unfairly, viciously attacked. Alexandria Cortez has a difficult road ahead. Chances are, though, that she will meet all forthcoming challenges head on, and prevail against her enemies, maybe even by doing what Abraham Lincoln suggested, by turning them into friends.

Rallying, Attacking, Distracting

WHY, when one has been president for more than two years, and the next election is a year and a half away, does a president need or desire to have campaign style rallies, other than excessive narcissism, an excessive desire for immediate adoring attention from a mob, an extremely insecure, sensitive ego constantly in need of emotional nourishment? Another possibility is that the president is aware that his reelection chances depend entirely on some mixture of sensational behavior on his part and prefabricated events, combined with some sudden emergency crisis to be determined later, owing to historically low approval ratings and diminishing chances of reelection. Trump's mobsters like the rallies. Trump rants, they rant back, and everybody vents anger. Now that Hillary is old news, and quite obviously going to neither be indicted, tried, nor imprisoned for anything, the mob and its mob boss must find other prey. The perfect target is Alexandria Ostacio-Cortez, for several reasons. Primarily, she's a progressive, what we used to call "liberal", and that alone makes her a prime target for Trump, who would himself be quite happy to be a progressive, if is furthered his advancement, and in fact has at various times has been one. Secondly, Cortez is a woman, and one with whom Trump could definitely not get away with sexually molesting, notwithstanding his fame and fortune. Those kind bother him, in more ways than one. Then too, she is highly intelligent and well educated, properties Trump lacks. One of his former professors as the University of Pennsylvania recently described him as the dumbest student ever to set foot on campus. Cortez is outspoken, and obviously not afraid of Trump and Trump's gang, ready to trade shots any old time. None of that endears her to the misogynist in chief. Throw in her attractiveness, and the die is cast; she will be attacked by Trump, and his spawn. Cortez's response to the "Cortez sucks" chant at the mob gathering in Michigan was a bit disappointing: that Trump, in the absence of Hillary, is looking for a new women to abuse, and has now found one. She left out the part about Trump being a self proclaimed proud sex offender who has abused all three of his wives either by cheating on them or marrying them, that the president is a painfully insecure and overly sensitive damaged soul which can probably be accounted for by having been raised by an overbearing, impossible to please father. Trump has troubles ahead. Mueller did more than exonerate him of collusion with the Russians. He investigated a number of different avenues of criminality, and including substantial evidence gathering, then turned them all over to state law enforcement agencies whose eventual criminal indictments will be beyond the president's power to pardon. Manafort and Cohen, names which may still ring a bell, talked to the law about things other than collusion to win an election; they talked about all manner of Trump family shadiness, mostly having to so with money matters, all serious in nature, all felonious. Trump supporters are generally behaving as if their icon's legal troubles are over, and as if its told you so rub it in time. They are quite mistaken. Many investigations continue, and will have damaging results for Trump. There will be no retaliation for teh trauma and insult of Mueller by Trump and his adoring mob, against the media, the Democrats, against the fictitious deep state, or anybody else. There are no available targets. Mueller's investigation was above board, perfectly, legal, perfectly appropriate, and there exists no conspiracy against Trump, other than the law and the truth. All this tough talk about getting even with the instigators of the Mueller investigation serve the same purpose as attacking Alexandria Cortez; distraction. The inevitable demise of Trump and his mob movement,, at the hands of justice according to due process, not only will not be deterred, it will not even be delayed.

Helping The Trump People

ABOUT TWENTY YEARS AGO, in a magazine article, a much younger looking and more perceptive Donald Trump said, roughly paraphrased; "If I ever run, I'll do it as a Republican, because Republicans are the dumbest people in the world. They believe everything they hear on FOX news. I could lie all the time, and they would believe me." Anyone who doubts that he actually said this is cordially invited to do the necessary research. Trump, it turns out, is quite the self fulfilling prophet. One wonders whether his opinion of Republicans is as pejorative now as it was at the time of the interview. Why wouldn't it be? Republicans have responded to him, and continue to respond to him, in precisely the manner he long ago predicted, accepting or believing all his lies. Numerous sociologists, psychologists, and Barbara Bush have tried to understand why those who support Trump do so, considering his truly deplorable behavior and lie mongering. The lies are blatant, undeniable, and constant. So far research has focused on actual differences between the progressive and the conservative mind, involving different reactions to external stimuli, such as fear and anger. Conservatives, it seems, are more responsive to perceived threats with stronger fear responses, and Trump expertly exploits that. Anyone who suspects that this generalization is a fabrication to insult conservatives or Trump supporters, again, is invited to do the necessary research. One fact emerges unscathed. Trump supporters support him not in spite of his lies, and his vicious slanderous remarks about other people, but because of them. Throughout his long life Trump has alternately been an independent, a Democrat, and several other political affiliations. He has been pro choice, pro life, an interventionist, and isolationist, this, that, and the other, a veritable chameleon, changing his color with the vicissitudes of momentary expediency. This is the characteristic of a survivor; flexibility, a willingness to travel through life unanchored to any set of core principles, other than his own advancement. Personal advancement for Trump, as revealed by his behavior, has always meant fame and fortune. Sexual conquests have been a priority, almost as if each one serves as more validation of his worth, which, perhaps, is one reason why men, even those with beautiful adoring wives, often stray. I have been aware of Donald Trump much longer than I should have been, considering that for most of his life he was merely another very wealthy very ambitious high rolling New York investment and money monger. This is because he has gone to great lengths to insinuate himself into the public eye, onto the front pages of scandal sheets, always chasing cameras and tabloids, offering himself as fodder for gossip, in exchange for the attention he so desperately craves. His behavior is that of the consummate narcissist. Nobody in the mental health profession disputes this. Not long after his election as president tens of thousands of mental health professionals signed a letter warning us about his excessive narcissism and other mental instabilities. Trump's political enemies, who consist of nearly sixty percent of the American people, took heed. His supporters, predictably, did not. Trump's supporters are masterful at ignoring and dodging any evidence of malignancy in Trump's behavior or mental state, of which there is a prodigious amount. They have to be. Conversations with Trump supporters invariably frighten me, so twisted does their reasoning seem. The evangelicals emphasize forgiveness of sin. When reminded that forgiveness requires repentance and atonement, they shrug their shoulders. When reminded that one can forgive anyone anything, without electing as president someone unfit for the job, they fall silent. Trump supporters are magicians at avoidance of addressing Trump's lies and erratic behavior, partly because they do not see it, nor wish to, partly because they do not mind it, party because they approve of it. And, this, above all else, is the frightening part, the part which is so eerily remindful of Hitler and his mind numbed minions. People who support Trump as president are themselves afflicted with a complex array of mental and emotional disturbances, ranging from alienation, anger, and fear, to resentment at the direction of their rapidly changing world, which they see as spinning out of their control. Rather than excoriate and despise them for their folly, the best approach for the rest of us, the majority, might well be to reach out in friendship and compassion, and offer, sincerely, to do everything we possibly can to help.

Abusing the Bible, the Right Wing Way

ONE OF MY CONSERVATIVE CHRISTIAN FRIENDS, of whom I have a few to keep up appearances, posted something interesting on Facebook recently. She cited a bit of scripture from the book of Deuteronomy, I believe it was, a passage which, according to her, said: "a wise man turns to the right, and a fool turns to the left." Then, not content to let scripture be scripture and leave well enough alone, she offered the annotation: "Yep, that's right! That proves it, conservatives are wise, and liberals are fools". I could not, and still cannot, ascertain the degree, if any, to which she was attempting to be humorous. Since I know her to be a devout albeit poorly educated christian conservative, I guessed, with a certain degree of sadness, that she intended no humor. Alas, it would have made her look better if she had. At first I accepted her scriptural quote as accurate, because I recalled that in both the Old and the the New Testaments, on several occasions, being on the right was presented as better than being on the left. Jesus himself, if memory serves, even said something to that effect. Since only about fifteen percent of people are left handed, left handedness, and leftness in general, has always suffered from negative bias. There is power in sheer numbers. A vague feeling of disquiet prompted me to gather together my bible, and check the scripture she cited. What it actually said was: "A wise man does what is right, and a fool does what is wrong." Quite a discrepancy. Leave it to the bible to make much more sense than those who inaccurately misquote it. obviously, her butchered use of teh Bible was intentional, a feeble attempt to use what to her is the Word of God to promote her personal political agenda. alas, what won't conservative Christians do to promoter their contradictory religious and political ideology? for verily, the central message of Jesus, the central message of the Christian faith, i t precisely the opposite of the central agenda of the modern American conservative movement, from attitudes about money, to attitudes about gay rights, and any number of contradictory beliefs. Jesus said "give unto the poor". He did not say "welfare makes people irresponsible". Jesus said "judge not". he did not say "condemn homosexuality as a sin or a sickness". The list of contradictions between Christianity and conservatism is long and loud. One must misquote the Bible to turn it into a politically conservative document, as my friend tried to do. i wondered, and still wonder, did she ever stop and consider the fact that most people have their own copiers of the bible, and that if you deliberately distort what it says, and name the chapter and verse you are allegedly quoting, other people can simply go to their copies, and expose your misdeed? Maybe she thought everyone would take her at her word, and nobody would bother. She was wrong. Not only did I bother, I responded to her Facebook post with the corrected passage, thus exposing her perfidy. predictably, she unfriended me, and hasn't been seen online since. I have recently been wondering whether she felt, or feels, the slightest twinge of guilt for her abuse of her sacred book. I would guess not. her willingness to commit such a sin against the sacred spirit of literary integrity would seem to preclude any possibility of guilt. or, maybe she reconsidered her behavior, like many criminals, only after getting caught. In any event, the world is relieved of one right wind religious reprobate, at least for the time being. I fully expect her to be back in action all too soon, spreading the false, nefarious doctrine of right wing Christian conservatism. For in fact, fools lean to the right. The only problem is, there are millions more where she came from, and they are not likely to be easily vanquished to the murky, swampy wilderness of social isolation. Not with folks like Jerry Falwell polluting American society with claims that god almighty ordained Donald Trump to be president. Like the poor, the righteous right wing religious reprobates will always be among, us. what remains to us is to ignore them correct then when we can, and, by all means, vote them out of elective office.

Getting The Facts

WITHIN MOMENTS after JFK expired at Parkland General, or wherever, assuming he expired, conspiracy theories started multiplying like stray cats in a small southern town. The list of people who done it came to include LBJ, the CIA, Castro, the ubiquitous, always available Russians (Russian scapegoatery has a long and distinguished pedigree, long predating the now confirmed election interference and Trump's alleged collusion therewith), the mob, et al. As the years turned into decades, the list of conspirators lengthened, Culminating in the Oliver Stone film in the early nineties in which we all might as well turn ourselves in as co-conspirators. Mick and the boys had it right all along. I shouted out: who killed the Kennedy's? When after all, it was you and me. I was eight years old when Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone, accomplished something way above his pay grade, and grew up concocting my own conspiratorial assassination theories, like all good Americans, but by the time Stone's movie came out, I was ready to give Oswald full credit, by default, from exhaustion. People wanted, and still want, big people getting credit for doing big things, not some little nobody like lee Harvey. The JFK tangled web, after more than half a century, has finally died down a bit, laid to rest as never to be resolved, replaced by newer, even sexier conspiracy upgrades. The tangled web of folks and groups in collusion to get Trump is remindful of the Kennedy mess, and Donald has sworn to get them all. Good luck with that. They include the Democrats, the media, the imaginary deep state, et al. Stay tuned for more. In actual reality, which these days people tend to eschew, the conspiracy out to get Trump consists of one group; the majority of the American people. We're perfectly willing to await our turn to vote, and to do it the right way. Speaking of conspiracies, what's with this business of the Attorney General having in his possession the entire Mueller report, but not letting anyone else look at it? He seems to have mistaken it for his personal diary. Didn't the House of Representatives vote, something like four hundred twenty to noting, to get a copy of it? And, am I dreaming, or did Mitch McConnell, using his Senatorial majority leadorial agenda setting powers, just block any attempt in the Senate to facilitate the sharing of Mueller's information? Is this all a bad dream, or what? Now, look. I, as well as the next man, and the next, no matter how much I despise Donald J. Trump, which I can assure you, is considerably, am perfectly willing to accept the fact that there was no Russian-Trumpian collusion of any form or fashion. In fact, I personally hope and pray there wasn't. The last thing i want is to have a president of the United States indicted, arrested, tried, convicted, and executed for treason, great reality TV though that would make. I mean, the Nixon thing was bad enough. But I cannot accept the results of an investigation which I cannot see. And, chances are, Barr's four page letter is basically telling the truth, summarizing Mueller, but; how do we know? We don't, and won't, until, as Bernie Sanders inelegantly put it, we see the whole damned thing. What if Trump and a few of his enforcers visited Mr. Barr, and offered to let him live, instead of swimming with the fishes, so long as he redacted and redacted to Trump's heart's content? I mean, what if? Is it true what the rumor says, that first the full report will be given to "The white House" for "redacting", and then released? Or is this another of my bad dreams? Trump first, then America? What? To quote John McEnroe, you cannot be serious! Just to let you know; right wing Trump supporter nut cases are not the only ones with vivid imaginations. There are millions of us who can see it now; Donald Trump, switching off FOX fake news for a brief spell, glancing through the Mueller thing, and magic marking out the part about collusion, and leaving the rest, good to go. I mean, if you were Trump, wouldn't you? Sorry, that isn't a fair question. No, this is not the way it needs to happen. No way, no how. I'm ready to take to the streets over this one, and I already have my hand painted sign ready to go, cardboard nailed to two by four. To quote Donald Trump, who said it twice in a row during his mercifully brief inauguration rant: "America first. America first".

Investigating.

ALL INVESTIGATIONS ARE GOOD. Why not? Why not find out what's going on? The only drawback is the expense, the time and money. All worthwhile endeavors, however, require effort, and, well, investigations, if nothing else, keep lawyers off the streets, where they might make even more trouble. If memory serves, when bill Clinton received sexual favors from a comely young intern, and investigation into the affair was launched, and investigation which soon digressed and branched into numerous other avenues of investigation, none of which were specifically mandated in the beginning. Bill Clinton said it best: "the republicans just spent seventy million dollars proving that I'm a sinner. There's lotsa folks down in Arkansas who could've told 'em that for free". And indeed they could have, and likely would have. And, as it turned out, receiving a blow job was about the worst thing Big Bill ever did; all of the various horrible forms of corruption and financial crimes of which he and his wife were accused and for which they were investigated proved to be fiction, and their investigation fruitless, as a matter of historical fact. It could be argued, and has been, that the various investigations into Clinton were the most wasteful witch hunts in American history. But again, why not at least find out? In retrospect, the Kenneth Starr saga seems to have done no damage to the Clintons, and it certainly didn't hurt to find some things out, mainly, that the Clintons were not financial criminals, they were merely trying to get rich. Belatedly, they succeeded. Now we can expect to hear all manner of wailing and moaning by Trump supporters with expressions of righteous outrage at the horrible burden imposed upon their leader by Robert Mueller, the injustice of it all, and that it is proof that dark sinister force, mainly progressives and media people, used Mueller as an insidious way to bring down the don. Break out the violins and kleenex, folks. We are already hearing it. Nobody but nobody, says Trump, could have endured what he has endured, and nobody else should ever have to. The truth, of course is that he didn't endure it; he cried like a toddler with a wet diaper the entire time. And why? Any decent, dignified person would have merely said: I welcome the investigation, because I am confident it will fully exonerate me, and I understand that the American people need to know that their president is not a treasonous traitor". It would have been, could have been so simple, so calm, so appropriate. but never expect ever expect the great reprobate to do the right thing, tell the truth, or to take the high road, or to refrain from any opportunity to lash out at somebody and scream bloody murder, when there is no bloody murder, no need for histrionics. Trump the unreality TV star simply has to gain attention, and has to be the poor victim, fighting valiantly against evil. Instead, he is a whiner, a crybaby, having attempted to obstruct justice daily throughout Mueller's perfectly legitimate investigation, and, as always, the president is the person with the least amount of good character even remotely conceivable. When seventeen out of seventeen intelligence gathering agencies tell us that the Russians attempted to influence the outcome of the 2016 election in favor of Trump, when trump, his family, and his close associates have a long history of many contacts with many Russians, and when trump, in front of God and the world implores: "Russia, if your'e listening, I hope you can find Hillary Clinton's missing emails", there is reason to ask: to what extent, if any, is the Trump campaign working with the Russians to secure his election to the presidency? The Mueller investigation was not only warranted, it was entirely necessary, and we still do not know its findings, because we the American people have still have not seen nor read it, but only a brief summary of it, which may or may not be accurate, provided by Trump's hand picked Attorney General. That, dear reader, is not enough. So, enough already. Mueller is finished, he has submitted his report, and now let us all read through it, that we may know what it says. This is not some sort of horrible, dark conspiracy to take down Trump, as his supporters, people of demonstrably and universally of low character pretend to believe. This is simple, common sense. Everything Trump has said so far since Barr's four pager was presented has been, unsurprisingly, an outright lie. Trump has not bee fully exonerated. Nor is he going to enact any retribution against anyone who was involved in, advocated for, or supported the investigation as criminals, because if he dare tries, he will and up engaging in even more criminal activity, and land his ass in an even larger sling. We all know that the don of con gives not a fig whether future presidents go through something similar. Donnie'll be long dead. If they keep their noses clean, like Trump refuses to do, they might hot have to. But if they do, no harm no foul. A little transparency never hurt anyone, even, and especially, a Trump supporter.

Deceiving Ourselves

A GREAT NINETEENTH CENTURY Northern European philosopher whose first name was "Soren" once said that there are two ways for us to be deceived: by believing a lie, and by failing to accept the truth. People who refuse to accept the reality of man made climate change for personal ideological reasons, or any other reason, including failing to understand basic science, are deceiving themselves in both ways. They refuse to accept reality, and are accordingly accepting a lie, and they deny the truth. Another great northern European philosopher whose last name was "Goethe" said that we are never deceived, we only deceive ourselves. Suppose that the United States were being invaded by a foreign army, say, the Russians. Their tanks and troops landing on the east coast and making their way inland, because the commander in chief refused to give orders to the military to resist and drive the invading enemy off our soil. (For this mental exercise, the Russians are the perfect motif, amid today's controversies).The invaders are advancing, capturing territory, inflicting billions of dollars of damage to property, private and public, and taking many lives. And yet, the president of the United States not only refuses to take action, she repeatedly assures us that the invasion is a hoax, fake news, and is in fact not happening. She continues this strange behavior no matter how many competent military officers frantically try to persuade her of the reality of the situation. Finally, she simply dismisses everyone under her authority who disagrees with her "no Russian invasion" viewpoint, and installs as her assistants and advisers only those willing to agree with her position, and to present it to the public. So effective is the commander in chief's ability to convince millions of people that there is no Russian invasion, that millions of people, a minority but a significant one, believes it, and joins the president in denying the reality of the invasion. Many of the people who deny it continue to do so even as Russian tanks and troops roll across their land and down their streets, leaving tread marks and foot prints, as well as ruined lawns, dead dogs and cats, and trampled gardens. We Americans are confronted with this exact situation, only, its worse than in this purely hypothetical fantasy. We are indeed ignoring an enemy which even as we ignore it is ravaging our country, costing us billions of dollars in damage and countless shortened lives. The enemy, of course, is climate change, an enemy far more inexorable and deadly than any invading Russian army, although its invasion is much slower. Even though a large majority of Americans now accepts the reality of climate change, those who refuse to have enough political power, currently, that our efforts to fight the enemy are falling short. The necessary effort involves changing our behavior, since ultimately we are the enemy, we are the manufacturers of climate change. But the deniers tragically, currently have the power to thwart our efforts to fight and win. Fossil fuel corporate money inundates the political system, purchasing climate change denial among America's political leaders, and the fossil fuel industry keeps belching pollution into the atmosphere, slowly, but increasing rapidly, killing us all. In southern Florida millions of people agree that every summer is hotter than the last. Every high tide, Miami floods. The Department of Defense tells us that human made climate change is the greatest threat to America's national security. Science tells us that with current trends all insects will be extinct within one hundred years, and that by the year 2050 most major cities in Asia and elsewhere will be uninhabitable in the summer. Fossil fuel pollution fills the atmosphere with many types of polluting particles, which enter our lungs, damage our hearts and brains, and shorten our lives, the lives of everyone on the planet, by years. The proof is overwhelming. Ask a scientist, any scientist. And yet, we refuse to accept the truth, we prefer to believes lies, and we have elected a president and political leaders who assist an enemy invasion by ignoring it. When we are all dead, our descendants will suffer far more than we do now. We deserve our fate, but they do not, and we are responsible for it.

Turning Lemons Into Lemonade; Making America Greater

EVERYONE IN THE WORLD, except perhaps those who have been hiking the Appalachian trail for the past two and a half years, has long since become familiar with those iconic bright red MAGA ball caps, which are not associated with any baseball team, but rather, with Donald Trump's political career and his millions of loyal followers. And just as those who adore Trump adore the ball caps, the caps are every bi as repugnant to those who detest the president as is the president himself, at least, almost. Such people need have no hatred nor anxiety. for these people, the message is; not to worry, incorporate, coopt. It is a time tested, true blue tactic. when during the American was of independence from Great Britain the British and their American allies, of whom there were many, belittled the revolutionaries as ill mannered uncultured bumpkins by singing the disparaging tune "Yankee Doodle", the yanks themselves began singing it. they made it their own, and the term "Yankee" which originally meant both a sailor responsible for hoisting sails and an American lower class worker, became in America a term not of derision, but of veneration. To this day Americans are known as "yankees" in many parts of the world, and at home, the word has essentially positive connotations, except among those who happen to hate a certain historically successful baseball team, a team named after sail hoisting sailors. We return to red ball caps. To progressives, and to thoughtful people with some measure of historical knowledge, the expression "make America great again" is at best meaningless, at worst, a lie. it is, if nothing else, an expression of the true conservative spirit. America was once geat, in the halcyon, revered past, no longer is, but can be once again. reverence for the past,a longing to return to it, a reverence for tradition, pure conservatism. Also, pure nonsense. Here's why. If America has ever been great, if America has always been great, it still is. Nothing has happened recently to change that, to remove her greatness. Conversely, if America is not great now, then she never has been, because, by all fundamental measurements, America is basically the same as always. If anything, America has improved. Higher levels of education, better health, longer lives, more prosperous citizens, greater social equality, and, notwithstanding our current enormous degree of economic inequality, economic inequality has throughout much of American history been a persistent feature of American economic life. the most reasonable conclusion is that America is great in some ways, and not so great in others. America, a complicated mixed bag of greatness and shortcomings. The truth, as usual, is many shades of grey. Back to the ball caps. Humility is, in most quarters, considered a virtue, while pride and arrogance are not. let us assume for the sake of common sense that whatever it is about America that is already great need only be left alone, and that our duty as patriotic citizens is to address those areas in which American is not great, and probably has never been great, and to make them great. The appropriate message on the ball caps then becomes "make America Great." Make America more prosperous for more people by ending poverty, homelessness, and unemployment. Make america great by leading the world in addressing and finding and implementing solutions for climate change. Make america great by curtailing its career as an aggressive imperialistic power bent on remaking the world in its own image, for the purpose of enhancing the power and prosperity of its corporations. Make America great by taking control of the country away from the billionaire corporate oligarchs who have long owned and controlled it, and giving control to to people, who have never before had any real power in the United States, but could, for the first time, with sufficient political and economic reform. Make America great by ending, once and for all, racism, sexism, and all other manner of social and economic inequality. Make america great by ending disease and hunger. And perhaps most importantly of all,make America great by renewing our commitment to education as all levels, and our commitment to the advance of science, and by ending the all too pervasive contempt for and rejection of science demonstrated by those who oppose vaccinations and those who deny the reality of climate change of the human made kind. The list is endless. And, since we wish to be confident and optimistic as well as humble, our ball caps could say; 'make America Greater". And while we're at it, why not vary the color scheme a bit. Caps can come in all colors. there are a billion shades of red. Why not use blue too? Making America greater is a bipartisan project. May all good citizens come forth, with their caps of many colors, proclaiming the positive, hopeful message: Make America Greater (MAG).

Going It alone, But Having It Our Way

DONALD TRUMP'S "America first" agenda, which could be accurately described as "America Alone", has removed the United States from the Paris climate change accord, the nuclear arms limitations agreement with Iran, and the Trans Pacific Trade Partnership, among others. In all instances, all the other participants in these cooperative endeavors are happily continuing their productive cooperation, without the slightest concern for our departure. These agreemtns were entered into for a reason. Now, all the other countries benefit in many ways from them, America does not. Good riddance America, Don't let the door hit your butt on your arrogant way out, is the message. America will go its own way, irrespective of foreign concerns, and will subordinate cooperation with all other nations to the immediate but poorly conceived, poorly perceived interests of the United Sates. In other words, America Alone. Trump's presidency has done nothing to enhance America's prestige abroad; quite the opposite, in fact. In parades all over the world, caricature balloons float high above flat bed floats, depicting Trump is various unflattering guises, from village idiot to petty, gun wielding tyrant. Trump is not respected by the global community, and increasingly, neither is America. Recently the United States informed young Iranian student scientists that under no circumstances should they even consider a career in nuclear physics. Although possible consequences were not specified, presumably Iranians who choose the verboten career will meet with severe punishment, od some undetermined sort. one can scarcely imagine what that might entail. legions of special forces operative infiltrating Iranian territory, possibly armed with poison pills and an assault rifles, picking off young Iranian scientific scholars by the thousand. Between 1953 and 1973 the United states, under several presidents, did everything in its power to persuade Iran, governed by the Shah, an American puppet, to develop and deploy a nuclear weapons arsenal. Iranian students of nuclear physics studied at M.I.T., with American pleasure and approval, and at other prestigious American institutions of higher education. We the highly fluctuating America people have now come full circle; from encouraging and supporting Iranian inquiry into nuclear weapons, to forbidding absolutely their doing so. To Iran, this must seem a confusing state of affairs, as it must to anyone paying attention. One might wonder why the U.S. didn't merely ship nuclear bombs and missiles directly to Iran. The most likely answer is that doing so might have aroused the wrath of other global powers, and might have made the united State seem to be a war mongering belligerent. Precisely why did the United States of Imperialism spend a quarter century trying to get Iran to go nuclear? According to former Secretary of State and national security adviser Henry Kissinger, it was because "they were our friends then". Just as a matter of fact; all the other countries which signed the nuclear agreement with Iran are stills standing strongly by it, and Iran is abiding by it. it would seem that the American way is not the only way.Imagine, the United States, presuming to tell all Iranian students which courses of study and careers are impermissible, while harboring even the most tenuous belief that is has even the remotest hope of enforcing its belligerent bullying. Quite honestly, had I been born in Iran rather than Missouri, I would in all likelihood be on social media, twitter tweeting right back at Donald Trump, telling him precisely what he might do with his nuclear physics instructions, his torn up treaties, and his country. it wouldn't be pleasant nor pretty. The United States of Animosity, withdrawing from the world as if it is somehow too superior to participate in it, and simultaneously presuming telling its member nations, nations willing to cooperate in and abide by international agreements, what to do. the United States under Trump has not been made great again, far from it. It has been made lonely again, lonely, bizarre, bipolar, and impotent, much like its demonstrably mentally ill head of state. The time may be arriving for America's remaining sane to adorn red baseball caps, emblazoned with the message: "make america sane again". the only problem with this approach is obvious: has the United States of Aversion ever been, in any real sense, sane?

Waiting For Mueller, Alone

A YEAR AND A HALF AGO, when Manafort was indicted, my thought was that the Mueller investigation was wrapping up, and that soon we would know something, maybe even the truth. I repeated the process a few more times, but finally learned. I betook myself to being patient, and reminded myself that justice does not adhere in my voraciously, fervently anticipating the fall of the tower of Trump via exposure of treason, and incarceration. In all truth. all these meetings 'twixt Trumper folk and Russians had to be for a reason, am I correct? I mean, something must have been going on, and to investigate it, in light of the fact that all seventeen intelligence gathering services assured us that Russian election tampering in twenty sixteen was a reality, was justified, reasonable, and had nothing to do with hunting witches, contrary to the vociferous protestations of White House occupants and spokes personnel. And, then too, what's wrong with rooting out witches? Sometimes, as in Mueller's case, it works. By definition, any investigation which exposes crime and causes its culprits to be prosecuted and sentenced is a successful enterprise, and not a witch hunt, assuming the term "witch hunt" as a futile endeavor, intended only to make trouble. Mueller has been honorable, dutiful, and professional, so, let's hear what he has to say. I've been saying that I hope Mueller did not find the president to be a traitor, although, as a known gangster and reprobate the president is known to be capable of anything, and, as mentioned above, there certainly is an abundance of evidence and smoking guns, contrary to what Trump supporters dishonestly imagine. More fascinating are the various attitudes and reactions of the masses for and against Trump. Indeed, his despisers are chomping, waiting for and fully expecting a report horribly damaging to his orangeness. Anything else will be a construed as a failure of the system, and of the sacred spirit of accountability. The very thought of merely awaiting the report, accepting whatever it says, then moving on factors not into any equation known to anti-Trumpism. The trump supporters are far more fascinating, their attitudes amazing, psychotic, delusional, and a few other things. Once the witch hunt meme gained momentum, it just wouldn't relent. We live in a society in which everyone seems to have read 'Macbeth", a nation of Shakespeare-ian scholars. Double, double, toil and trouble, and all that malarkey. The president understands the big lie oft repeated idea, that it works, and his one hundred and eleven references to witch hunts took hold. The best part has been the various permutations of the grand conspiracy theory, at which the far right and the paranormal community are so terribly accomplished. Among these wackos, every and all unsatisfactory result is the product of some damned conspiracy, which only the purveyor of the news itself knows anything about. Everybody has his or her own brand. Fake (liberal) news media, the professorial community, Chinese hackers; you name it, they invent a conspiracy to cover it. Among these pro Trump loonies, who, yes, are loonies merely by definition of being Trump supporters, the slightest indication in the Mueller report that the Don of the gang is anything other than a pristine defender of the faith and the American way will evince wrath the likes of which have not been seen since the last time a conservative Christian read the Bible straight through, which, in a word, has been forever. I hope Trump is clean; I'd rather impeach him for failing to fight climate change. The mere fact that I am content to await the report, to accept it, and to move on puts me at odds with both sides, and, as the old song says, stuck in the middle with you.

Looking For The Deep State

CONVERSATIONS WITH CONSERVATIVE conspiracy theorists yield unexpected fruit. I am persuaded that many of them truly believe in what they call "the deep state", the exact nature of which must must extrapolate from available information, what little is available. Does it consist of real people, or are they also imaginary? Do they have secret symbols and gang signs like Klan members and white supremacists? they must be government employees, at least nominally, or they wouldn't have earned the designation"state". But where are they? Certainly not in any part of the executive branch. Most cabinet level agencies are seriously understaffed under Trump's policy of down sized governmental bureaucratic contraction. Buildings where deep staters might furtively lurk, creep, and conspire, places like the State Department and E.P.A., are more than half empty, making the verification of the loyalties of those who remain a virtual piece of cake. we are left with a boringly mundane conclusion. the "deep state", if anywhere, is right under our very noses, much to the surprise and probably disappointment of the conservative conspiratorial community. Even the most cursor examination of the flow chart of the United states federal government reveals a tangled, confusing, bureaucratic depth of two, or is it three million civil servants, without even mentioning the military. That's deep, and its state, socialism at its finest, right out there int he open, visible to all, hiding nothing, engaged in nothing more sinister and subversive than shoving trillions of dollars of public resources down the deep hole, never to return. The conservative conspiracy theorists, unimpeded by reason, reluctant to abandon the fun, next propose a secret coven of ultra elite ultra wealthy white men, secreted away somewhere in Switzerland, pulling strings, controlling everything from the world economy to the United nations, implementing a subversive globalist agenda, inimical to the sovereignty of the United States and detrimental to the American way, freedom, liberty, and a upwardly mobile dreams and aspirations of the common man. Again, the conspiracy theorists are actually on to something, but looking for it in the wrong place, seeing trees, as it were, but not the forest. Introducing the fortune five hundred, plain as the nose on your face, in plan view, not hiding anything or anyone, its agenda perfectly obvious to even the most superficial scrutiny. They have meetings in fancy accommodations, they purchase political loyalty and power, they contrive insidious schemes to plot power and money grabs under the guise of everyone's best interest; in short, they meet all the requisite criteria. If nothing else, they deserve the respect of acknowledgment. Why look beyond them, to something even more perfidious and insidious? Won't they suffice? The will, with a little embellishment, a few gated estates, helicopters, yachts, and, just for good measure, clandestine gatherings behind locked doors in Switzerland. Maybe the search for this level of allure and glamour is why we elected Donald Trump. The deep state, the fiction that there lurks hidden within the n the United States government an organized movement to overthrow Trump and seize power, was invented due to the unwillingness of conservatives to accept the reality that a large majority of the American people reject Trump's policies, his behavior, his presidency, a reality far less palatable than the notion of a much smaller but potentially potent anti trump force, deeply hidden, but ever lurking. The problem with conservatives, and their conspiracy theories, as well as all their paradigms, including the rare variety which harbors no thoughts of conspiracy, is that they get everything backwards. They put supply before demand, and solutions before problems. Hence their intent to arm the good people before ascertaining exactly who the good people are, which, in truth, can never be done. A conservative colleague recently told me that teh death penalty does nothing to deter a convicted murderer, but deters would be killers from acting on their worst impulses. Again, backwards. People sufficiently motivated to kill are not likely to pay heed to consequences they no more expect to experience than detection, capture, and conviction. But as for the captured, convicted, and executed murderer? He'll never harm another soul, and in terms of actual deterrents, it doesn't get any better than that.

Staying In Trouble.

WHEN I WAS in ninth grade, in 1969, I went to school in the same building as my sister, who was a high school senior. For me, that didn't work out well. it was almost like having a parent or guardian or supervisor, lurking. One fine day I got wind that some students were planning a walk out, to protest the Viet Nam war. I was down with, solidly against American imperialism, then and now, only in secret, as a fourteen year old in a conservative, establishment, patriotic family, in which opposition to American foreign policy was traitorous. I skipped class and joined the protest. it consisted of little more than a lengthy declaration by a long haired male activist about the inalienable right to protest, and the willingness of all concerned to endure the consequences of our action, in defense of a higher moral principle. Little if anything was said about the war, which by 1969 was going badly for the imperialists, and widely unpopular. Guess who was looking out the window of her psych class. Sure enough, sis tried to blackmail me; mums the word to mummy, in exchange for certain domestic considerations and accommodations. Too proud for my own good, not the sort to accede to blackmail, I ended up in, as we used to delicately say, "deep do do". The folks were quite unhappy, using as their pretext my having skipped class. We all knew what the real issue was. i would have respected them more had they simply come clean. Maybe they were secretly proud of me for standing for something, but too proud and patriotic to admit it. I got into even more trouble as a high school teacher than as a student. I swear I got summoned to the principal's office more often than the most deliquent deliquent. the two causes were my preference for having fun in class, and my insistence on teaching American history accurately, rather than patriotically. The incident I remember most fondly, and relate most frequently, is when the big man called me in and asked: "why are you telling your classes that Thomas Jefferson was a non Christian who ridiculed religion"? The problem, as usual, was my response, which was: "why don't you take a wild guess". I'm pretty sure that was my last year. My life, riddled with controversy stemming from my contempt for social norms and normal behavior, collided with more grand adventure when I swallowed my pride and joined Facebook. Maybe I missed the old AOL chatrooms, and the trouble they got me into. I saw Facebook primarily as an opportunity to promote this website and to push a progressive agenda, in the age of Trump. It was a good choice. I joined one of what must be millions of exclusive progressive discussion groups; I would like to join them all, to promote my website and push a progressive agenda among fellow agenda pushers, and I plan to go about it diligently. As I previously states in another essay, this business of "friending" folks on Facebook I can barely take seriously; it seems too much like grade school; make a list of friends, in order of importance. My friends in the corporeal world I can call, email, or visit; Facebook adds nothing to a friendship decades old. i harbor no illusions that putting someone's name on a list on a computer screen will result in actual friendship, hence, my disrespectful attitude. Facebook cautions people to avoid friending (shouldn't it be "befriending"?) people you don't know, then, promptly proceeds to send lists of strangers as suggested friends, what Facebook calls "people you may know". Sure, I may know the guy in Shanghai walking down the street right now carrying a briefcase and smoking a cigarette. I just might. Wee, Facebook, we all know, is a monstrous corporate hypocrite, promising this, doing that. eager to please, i clicked on every potential soon to be friend in the group,,,, and about half of them accepted my offer. The leader, however, was not pleased. Something to do with respecting privacy and behavioral norms. Again, the societal norm thing, back from the dead. If only he had known. He informed me that he had blocked me, until such time as I, in his words, would "rectify". Well, I rectified. I promised better behavior, and a future replete with nothing but socially acceptable behavior and meritorious contributions. He's a nice guy, and I am pleased that he seems pleased, once again, with me. But somehow I now, I just know, that its only matter of space and time until I run afoul of the law, or of social norms, again, and again. So far I have survived the Pentecostal conservatives as the senior center, but only by, as we say, the skin of my teeth, whatever teeth skin is. My next intolerable infraction might be wearing sweats to a recital, or sipping a drink through a plastic straw an an environmental protection meeting, a clandestine beer at a high school basketball game - it could be anything. But, inevitably, it will be something. We live in a very anal, conformist, judgmental culture, one which views departure from norms very negatively. maybe its our English German cultural heritage. Whatever it is, it sure as hell aint gonna change, but then, neither am I.

Christians Coming Clean On Trump

IF I WERE a conservative Christian Trump supporter, my point of view would be as follows: "As a political conservative, I support, in general, Mr. Trump's agenda, his foreign and domestic proposals and enactments. I voted for him for only this reason, since better Republican candidates were made unavailable to me. However, as a Christian, and a person of good moral character, there is little or anything about Trump's personality and behavior of which I approve. His gratuitous verbal attacks against good people, his incessant lying, and his failure to condemn white supremacist movement I find appalling and disgusting. I hope and trust all his political supporters who happen to be Christians will join me in making our disapproval apparent to him, and insisting that he make the necessary changes to retain our political support." Something like that. I would be ashamed to support any politicians who speaks and behaves like Trump, even if the person held political views identical to my own, and I would make sure that when expressing my support, I never failed to qualify it with a condemnation of his or her behavior. I would be embarrassed to support someone whose lies were constant, daily, and so blatant as to inspire ridicule. I am trying to remember ever being in a situation in which a political candidate behaved in such a way as to make me feel ashamed to support him,and the answer is obvious: Bill Clinton. Although I supported many if not most of Clinton's policies, I found his behavior in teh Monica Lewinsky affair disgusting, and detrimental to the liberal cause. I remember thinking, and still thinking: We worked so hard to get a Democrat in the White House, and he can't even stay away from women and extramarital affairs for eight years,, ad devote his energies to promoting a progressive agenda." I thought Clinton should have been smart enough to know that in the modern word no president can misbehave, like Kennedy did, without the entire world knowing about it. I was angry at Clinton, and still am, for debasing teh Democratic brand. So...why do we not hear Trump supporters complaining about Trump's constant lying, his slandering of good people, and his refusal to clearly condemn the white supremacists who commit mass murders and cite him as their inspiration. Not only does Trump not condemn the mass murderers specifically for their bigoted, twisted white supremacist ideology, neither do his supporters; they seem unwilling to point to the fact that they are white supremacists, inspired by Trump. Even as we speak a petition is circulating online, insisting that the president simply condemn white supremacy. One can assume that few if any Trump supporters will sign it. We the American people of the progressive persuasion shouldn't have to do this. trump and his supporters should already have done it. Sad. Very sad, as Trump would inarticulately say. Something over sixty one million people voted for Trump. Have any of them actually issued statements criticizing Trump's obviously unacceptable behavior? I never hear about any of them doing so, and when I talk to them, or see what they have to say, its always something like "I like the fact that he speaks his mind", or, "No matter how he acts, he's better than Hillary Clinton". About half the time I mention Trump's lies to one of his supporters, the response is "what about Obama's lies", or "what about Bill Clinton's lies, or, what about Hilary Clinton's emails?" In other words, their defense of Donald Trump is to change the subject. They might as well tell me that since Richard Nixon and Warren G. Harding were unethical, there is nothing wrong with Trump being likewise.Is it pride, or is it blindness, or is it simple moral bankruptcy which prevents Trump's supporters, after two years of his presidency, from coming clean and honestly expressing disapproval with his behavior? There must be some explanation I'm overlooking, because if there isn't, I can only conclude that all sixty one million people who voted for him, and the millions who still support him are no better than he, and are in fact moral reprobates. Many of the republicans currently in the U.s. Senate served with John McCain. he was their comrade. And yet, with Trump's recent vicious twitter tweet attacks against the memory of this great America hero, not a single Republican Senator has stepped up to condemn Trump's vicious words, not one has risen to defend the memory, the honor, and the integrity of one of America's great heroes, a hero before, during, and after his time in the senate. that is beyond shameful, and perfectly in keeping with the behavior of Trump supporter all across this nation of cowardly Trump supporters. As Trump himself might say: sad, very sad.

Doing Science, For Real

I WAS BORN nine days after Einstein died, and I have always felt the connection, and the gap. Throughout my life I have fantasized about some unknown law of nature, some migration of souls, wherein the soul of the recently deceased takes a bit of a break, say a little over a week, then finds a new reincarnative home, in the body of a new born babe. Yeah, that's me, Einstein, recycled. Poor Einstein. to have lived his life, and now to have lived mine, would, one must suppose, present quite the descent from the intellectually lofty to the intellectually, shall we say, mundane. No, not mundane... Mediocre? No, not that either. Eccentric? That I'll buy. Come to think of it, Einstein was a bit eccentric himself, so, well, you never know. By the time I was twelve I was an avid Einstein and science fan, and spent my teenage years in the back yard, with my telescope, looking for star clusters and making pencil sketches of Jupiter's horizontal stripes and moons. I recall my mother often ruining the research by remarking just how cute those precious little moons were, like tiny children, circling big mother Jupiter, never getting too far away, always there, always on the orbital move, changing their pattern relative to the big girl and good another. Now, in retrospect, her metaphor strikes me as cute. Such was my reenactment of Einstein. I never replaced nor added to his in science, but I evolved into a better person, and can now better appreciate my dear mother. During the nineteen eighties I made frequent visits to the air and space wing of the Smithsonian Institute. Again, my mother was there, and she thought it funny how transfixed I was by the gravity wave detector, a large silver cylindrical hunk of metal with a small hole through its long axis, with a wire strung through the hole, attached to a mount on either end. In a building full of scientific wonders and famous airplanes and spacecraft, I couldn't get away from a piece of metal with a hole in it and a wire through it. Such was my love of Einstein, and science in the abstract. The idea was that the subtle gravitational waves, which Einstein always insisted existed and would eventually be detected, would be detected by a very slight movement of the heavy hunk of metal as it moved on the wire, and could be measured. Problem was, it never happened. Finally, in 2015, it happened, using much improved detection devices, involving orbiting telescopes, lasers, and computers. The government had funded two such devices, called Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatories, (LIGOs), one in Washington state, the other in Louisiana. This time, the contraptions worked, and now we know that Einstein was, as always, dead on correct. All of this; my near miss of Einstein, my childhood of cute astronomical thrills, and Einstein's purely speculative theory proven true in my lifetime will make my heart smile unto my death. This makes me feel truly sorry for people who reject, ignore, or refuse to understand science. The climate change deniers, the good hearted folks who waste their lives dwelling in paranormal nonsense, insisting that the universe and the United States government are infiltrated with extraterrestrials with devious motives, and ignoring and rejecting real science; these poor benighted people are simply missing out on all the fun. Those who deny science and replace it with fantasy come from all sides of the political spectrum. The anti-vaccine people tend to be from the progressive end, and the conspiracy theory crazies and climate change deniers are overwhelmingly conservative. but either way,, the science deniers and paranormal freaks will never know just how totally cute Jupiter's moons are, on a warm summer evening, in the backyard, with your mother smiling approvingly at you.

Defending The Faith, and The Nation of Caucasians

NOBODY IN AMERICA, except a few special angry men, is a white supremacist or a racist. Just ask around. Not Steve Bannon, not David Duke, nor Donald Trump, nor a single member of the alt right, the KKK, the republican party, or the conservative movement. There are, however, millions of law abiding, Christian, conservative Americans intent on defending the dwindling, besieged caucasian cause against a veritable onslaught of hungry, desperate, darkly pigmented, Latin American mothers an children, currently invading the United States, threatening its very homogeneity. Among other threat to the America made great again are something fictitious called "the deep state", the progressive movement, and the mainstream media and its ceaseless barrage of fake anti-conservative anti-Trump diatribe, all of which are pledged to a vast conspiracy to destroy Donald Trump, America, God, and virtue. In America, racism ha largely gone underground, deep into every institution where it covertly lurks, well hidden, but can still be smelled out by concerted scientific scrutiny, measured, and quantified, which it indeed is. For those in need of elucidation,when the President of the United States describes Islamic immigration as a great danger to the nation, and tries to prevent it, and describes refugees from violence and poverty as an invasion", sensitive egg head liberal types are going to take offense, and suspect him of racism, or at the least ethnocentrism. meanwhile, extremely conservative racist white supremacists, the real deals, including those plotting the mass murder of some minority threat to caucasian nation, are not going to hesitate to give him credit where credit is due; as the prime inspiration for their behavior. We needn't argue over whether the media, the anti-Trump movement, or anyone else is being fair and accurate in blaming Trump for recent mass murders; the mass murderers themselves, almost to a man, have already saved us the trouble. They, almost to a man, identify president Trump as their source of inspiration, through his anti-immigration, anti-minority rhetoric. Straight from the horses mouth. Donald Trump made it clear that in his opinion white supremacy is not a threat to America, and is not on the rise. he does not cite the source material for his doubtless exhaustive research, surprisingly, for such an assiduous stickler for specificity and verifiable fact. As one might suspect, quite the opposite is true; in America, and globally, white supremacy is very much on the rise, being spread by the internet, and nurtured, even if unwittingly, by political leaders who refer to refugees an an invading force, and nation populated largely by dark skinned people as "shit hole countries". if refugees from the middle east and Latin America would kindly stay home, and replaced by immigrants from Norway, for which president Trump expressed a preference, all this nonsense might abate, and al these many mass murderers might stop giving him credit for giving them a good idea. Either that, or they would have to decide whether Norwegians were worthy of acceptance in caucasian America, lately made great, again.

Slumming, Politically: Revealing America's Dark Side

IT DOES NOT, or should not, require any great abundance of high moral character, good judgment, and honesty to recognize in Donald Trump a man whose moral character, good judgment, and honesty are sorely lacking, conspicuously lacking, nearly to the point of being altogether absent. The most accessible conclusion is that those who voted for and continue to support Trump are sadly lacking in such admirable personality traits. A more generous interpretation is that they possess them, but have decided to abandon them in the face of being confronted with untenable circumstances; it was either Trump, or the abhorrent, unacceptable Hillary Clinton. but the choices were many and varied long before they got to Hillary. Sixteen republicans besides Trump ran for president, and many of them were people of the highest quality, intellectually, ethically, with demonstrable good judgment and an impressive records of public and political service. For the evangelical Christian community, Ted Cruz offered a seemingly ideal candidate, one whose devotion go his faith matched anybody who has run for the White House in recent years. Furthermore, his policy credentials sere thoroughly, straight down the line conservative. Jeb Bush displayed his caring and warm personality from start to finish during the republican primary, although he dropped out early; his every word and deed evinced nobility of spirit. He too showed his true conservative colors but with bonuses: Jeb Bush is a man who is willing, able, and ready to listen to others, to give consideration to all points of view, including that of the less fortunate, whose plight he does not blame on them, instead finding social cures and showing empathy, compassion, and understanding. Jeb Bush is a man the entire country could have spoken to, and it may be among America's greatest losses that he failed to generate sufficient support to win the Republican nomination for president. and the list goes on. In 2016, the Republicans presented a filed of presidential candidates as impressive as any in American history, with a wide range from which to choose. but America's conservative Republicans turned their collective back on them, and, listening instead to their lowest impulses, chose the worst possible one, Donald Trump. They were not deceived. Trump showed his true, ugly colors from the beginning. Like many people, I was at first excited about Trump's candidacy; something about a fresh approach from an outsider I, along with many other, found alluring. that lasted bout two weeks. By the time Trump had slandered Ted Cruz fifty times, I was done. Two years later, and Trump's words and behavior have done nothing but continue to reveal him to be a complete reprobate, with no morel character, and a penchant for pathological dishonesty. by now those who voted forhim are trapped; where can they go? that's a difficult question to answer, but the mere fact that they continue to support him, without any attempt to honestly address his constant torrent of vicious, slanderous, hateful lies, and the growing pile of strong evidence that he has engaged in a wide array of criminal activity can only be described as disgusting and reprehensible. It reflects their character, not Trump's. Trump's recent vicious attack on American hero John McCain was perhaps his lowest behavior yet, and yet, you hear no condemnation of from among his supporters, to their eternal shame. The realization that we live in a country in which a huge percentage of its citizens lack basic decency is alarming and depressing, but if ther is any benefit to be gleaned, it is this: at least the dark side of America society has fully exposed itself, so we now know who they are, and what they are capable of.

The Extreming Right Wing

I DESPISED RONALD REAGAN, mainly for his militaristic policies, his perfidy in Central America, and his neo-liberal economic philosophy favoring the corporate wealthy. Supply side economics, again rearing its ugly head, is a proven sham, foisted upon us by the corporate oligarchy and its political handmaidens. Reagan was a true gentleman, even more so by today's diminished standards, but his policies amounted to murder. For a thorough explanation of this, read Noam Chomsky. Today's conservative Christian Republicans not only make Reagan seem gentlemanly, they make him seem, by comparison. intelligent, open minded, educated, sensible, sane. At least Reagan accepted and believed in simple, basic science. He understood that if you put a trillion tons of carbon into the Earth's atmosphere, and leave it there for decades, while steadily increasing the amount, that it will eventually change the Earth's climate, by absorbing and retaining heat. The retained heat from the sun warms the atmosphere. Hence, global warming. Its that simple. Giving credit where possible, today's conservatives probably understand basic chemistry and man made climate change better than they pretend to, but are self blinded by ideological devotion. To acknowledge man made climate change requires accepting the need to correct it, requiring social, political, and economic change, and change means progress, which to the conservative entails the world's greatest evil; liberalism. Ronald Reagan would have understood that our naturally changing climate does not prevent human beings from influencing and impacting it, and that it is not necessary to have the power of God to impact the Earth's ecosystem. Imagine the harm we could do if the world were taken over by terrorists, and every atomic bomb and nuclear facility in the world were simultaneously detonated, releasing huge amounts of radiation into the atmosphere and every oil well in the world, both on land and below the surface of the oceans, were simultaneously exploded. All life on earth would be extinguished, without God's interference. Climate change is not a scheme to redistribute the wealth, and it is not an attempt o play God: it is destructive, unsustainable human industrial activity which is destroying the environment in slow motion, but with ever increasing rapidity. Reagan would have understood this, because he understood reality, and basic science. Reagan also understood that giving tax breaks to corporations and small businesses produces prosperity only if the money saved is reinvested in increased pay for the lowest paid workers, because increased demand is required for increased supply, and the way to increase demand is to increase the number of consumers who have money to spend on consumer goods and services. Of all the absurdity and insanity emanating from contemporary right wing extremism, is our national past time of daily mass murders, most of which are perpetrated by extreme right wing psychos. This is perhaps why crazy conspiracy theories telling us that mass murders are fiction invented by the government, or by some imaginary "deep state" for the purpose of justifying gun control also emanate from the far right. It is the conservative movement which refuses to remove assault weapons from America, and promotes the insane notion that the more good people who arm themselves in public, the fewer mass murders will occur. The far right in America has become a bastion of mental illness and unreasoning, illogical thinking underpinned by blind devotion to a bankrupt ideology, and Ronald Reagan would not only be ashamed of it, he would see it for what it is; sheer, unadulterated insanity.

Fighting It Out

AMERICAN CULTURE can be fairly described as a civil war in slow motion, an incessant torrent of vitriolic discourse, punctuated by mass murders, law suits, and legislative machinations laden with rhetorical outbursts of slanderous accusations. Throughout the Obama presidency, Donald J. Trump falsely claimed that Obama was born in Kenya, blatant misinformation and racism which trump's supporters either ignored or approved. Obama's haters substantiated few Obama lies, yet constantly accused him of lying, when in fact the alleged lies were mere disagreements. Its all a matter of definition, of perspective, exactly what constitutes a "lie". Trump later quietly admitted as much. The number of verified lies trump has told while president is now approaching ten thousand; his supports have highly selective discernment. Our mass murders and disinformation are disproportionately the product of the extreme right wing, as it struggles to keep its outdated boat afloat in a rapidly changing world. Desperate to change the subject, they label Hillary Clinton "crooked", and scream "lock her up", despite the absence of any hard evidence of criminality or corruption on her part, nor a single conviction for any crime, large or small. We can take some measure of dark comfort from looking beyond hagiographic right wing historical disinformation, and viewing American history in its naked ugliness. it is a litany of violent national division. Rancorous political parties emerged in the seventeen nineties, despite the best intentions and wishes of the new nation's architects. The election of 1800 was an archetype for al future presidential contests; rancorous, contentious, controversial, corrupt, with disputable results. Sixty years later, the pervasive hatred of Abraham Lincoln, and the mass slaughter of the Civil War exemplified the violently divisive nature of American history beyond the merest need for detailed elucidation. When I was a child the country was torn apart by the national disagreement over the Viet Nam War, and by segregation, the legacy of slavery. I took sides. I took the side of the hippie war protestors and the black rioters, in secret, of course. I still do, no longer in secret. When president bush enticed Saddam Hussein to invade Kuwait in 1991, then feigned outrage, I finally my first opportunity to overtly protest an unjust American war of aggression. In retrospect, the hippies, the black urban rioters, and the protestors against the was in Iraq were, as we like to say, on the right side of history. There will come a time when in retrospect the republican party, the Christian conservative movement, the climate change deniers, are recognized as being as wrong as the confederacy, or the Viet Nam War hawks. I'm always careful to choose the eventual winning side.

Worshipping Words On Paper

EVERY TIME some self righteous, right wing, flag waving patriot proclaims the sacrosanctity of the United states constitution, I hurl. Figuratively, not literally. Always, its the righteous Christian conservatives, with their original intent blather and phony founding father idolatry, who just adore the United States constitution, all the while knowing nothing about actual history, nor the intent of the actual framers themselves. Invariably, those who elevate words on paper to the status of the sacred are not familiar with the words themselves but only have a vague, passing knowledge of what the document says. Its the thought that counts, the appearance of patriotic virtue. Conservatives ape those they most admire, establishment types, the types who wax patriotic and religious, as if the two are the same. Psychologically, they may be. If you're looking to follow the actual intent of the founders of the American constitutional system, consider this. Madison, who wrote the constitution, and Jefferson, his mentor, agreed that the document was imperfect at best, seriously flawed and makeshift at worst. They both believed that its primary flaw was that it left open the possibility of the central government devolving into a tyranny, despite the safeguards against such an eventuality written into the law. Thus was added the bill of rights, about which Madison was highly skeptical, thinking it would largely be ignored. Jefferson calculated that the average length of a generation in the United States was just over nineteen years. He therefore concluded that a new and improved version of the constitution would need to be written and enacted about every nineteen years, by violent revolution if necessary, as the new generation came into power, and the old faded away. Jefferson reasonably reckoned that every generation would be confronted with a different, unique set of circumstances, requiring a new legal framework suitable to the changing times. He believed strongly that each new generation had the inalienable right to remake the world, culturally, and in every way, in its own image, so as not to be constrained by the behavior of its predecessors. Liberalism at its finest. By 2019, Jefferson and Madison would have assumed that the nation, if it still existed as a constitutional republic, would be using its eight or ninth version of the constitution, a much improved version. That there would be a conservative citizenry venerating them and their imperfect creation they would find laughable, if not horrifying. They knew one thing we seem to have forgotten; words on paper are not sacred, and can always be improved. Words on paper are put there by people, people no better than we modern folk, not by God or supermen. Every time some scholarly, venerated fossil of a conservative "originalist" magistrate espouses the necessity of interpreting the constitution according to the strict construction of the original intent of the founders, I want to hurl, figuratively. Why bother with what the founders wanted? What matters is what we the living want and need, and what we want and need is what has been wanted and needed for a very long time, and from time to time: a new American constitution, made in our image, for our use, for our benefit and protection, not for the sacred honor of people who lived and died two hundred years ago. And, ironically, the people who lived an died two hundred years ago would agree totally, because they, unlike ourselves, understood their own limitations.

Knocking Head Against Tree

THE GUY DID A GOOD JOB OF FIXING MY FURNACE. He told me that it needed a new computer control board of some sort, a more modern update, and I have no choice but to believe him. Anyhow, it works now. So excited was I to have heat that i opened my big mouth, and made small talk with him. One thing led to another, and that's where the trouble began. I entered the sordid cesspool of politics, with a conservative Christian who does not like redistributing wealth, rendering unto Caesar or giving unto the lazy drug addicted poor, and believes that anybody who believes in climate change is playing God, because how on Earth can anybody believe that we paltry little humans have the power to change the climate? Climate change, he said, he suspects is a trick to get people to redistribute wealth. I was afraid to ask him exactly how that works, how tens of thousands of scientists are conspiring to redistribute wealth by making up stories about climate change. When I mentioned that anybody who took high school chemistry can understand carbon, and how putting eight hundred fifty billion tons of it into the atmosphere and leaving it there soaks up heat, he informed me that he had take college chemistry. I suggested that he ask one of his many college chemistry professors about climate change, and that he might have missed a lecture or two. I wanted to suggest that the truly arrogant people are those who deny human made climate change, because they are the ones who think they know more than tens of thousands of climate change scientists, chemists, physicists, and biologists, plus the Department of Defense, which for decades has told us that human made climate change is the single greatest threat to American national security. Then, as was inevitable, he came out with the state of the art conservative method of denying climate change; the argument that the climate naturally changes on its own, that its going to change because it always has and always will, and that there is nothing we can do about it, because we aren't God. I didn't bother to mention that these tens of thousands of scientists had already thought of that, and that they factored natural climate change into their calculations, and that the mere fact that the climate changes naturally, which everyone already knows, doesn't mean that there is some kind of law preventing humans beings from impacting the climate. Forest fires happen naturally too, but people can pitch in and make their own. I knew the whole discussion was useless. So did he. He mentioned that since our discussion was not going to end well, he would just shake my hand and leave it at that. The thought occurred to me that instead of getting into an argument with a customer, a small business person was probably better off just letting all customers rant and rave and say whatever they wanted, without responding, and just sticking with furnaces, because, as they say, the customer is always right. But, hey, this guy was a conservative Christian, and most likely a Trump supporter, and thank God we didn't get into that. I have finally arrived at the awareness that my sixth grade teacher was right after all, back in 1967. Never discuss religion or politics. Why bother? My fellow progressive non christian wealth redistributing climate change believers and I already know that we agree with each other, and that we will never agree with the conservative christian capitalistic non redistribution of wealth climate change deniers, and that the great American polarized cultural war will continue, until one side destroys the other. We also know that those in the middle, the independent unthinking ones, really don't give a damn one way or another, and simply aren't interested in listening to us political animals tear each other apart. They'd rather talk about sports and the weather and use Facebook to share family vacation and cat pictures, and one can hardly blame them; they may be the smart ones after all.

Spending For Self Destruction

DONALD TRUMP does not like diplomacy, and does not believe in diplomacy. Or so one must assume, since the state department building remains half empty, key ambassadorships remain unfilled, and the foreign service diplomatic core has declined precipitously, in funding and personnel, during the two years of the Trump presidency. Donald Trump is a deal maker, and much prefers the hard roughness of give and take to the subtle nuances of diplomatic discussions and negotiations. Meanwhile trump's budget, which is dead on arrival on Capitol Hill, includes a massive increase in military spending, massive increases in spending on redundant weapons systems, cuts in social programs, cuts in the diplomatic corps. Forty years ago Jesse Jackson pointed out that it does little good to upgrade the nation's defense capabilities if there is no nation left to defend. Jackson's warning has a great deal of agreement among high ranking military personnel. With ten thousand Americans celebrating their sixty fifth birthday every day, drastic cuts to Medicare and education might not be the best way to justify enormously enhanced national defense. What, exactly, will we be defending, if we don not support our old and our young? A retired member of the army general staff likened the situation to a medical analogy. Using the military, he said, is much like conducting surgery on a sick patient; its a last resort. Before resorting to military action, risking and costing the lives of untold numbers of Americans and others, the proper approach is to try to resolve disputes through negotiation and communication, through diplomacy. Similarly, before resorting to surgery, proper medical practices consists of trying to maintain or restore proper health through a combination of diet, healthy life style, and whatever medicine is deemed necessary. Cutting open the human body, like using military weaponry in aggression, is the last, least desirable resort. Why invest more money in weaponry, then, without investing at least an equal measure of resources in preventative diplomacy? This makes so much sense that it seems self evident, that nobody could possibly argue that a strong diplomatic establishment is vital to national security, every bit as much as a strong military. It is frightening that we now hive in office a president to whom this needs to be explained, and one who seems unlikely to grasp it even when presented with a clear and detailed explanation. It is noteworthy that the people most resistant to, most reluctant to advance armed conflict as a means of conducting foreign policy are military people. Military people, especially career military people, are inevitably the most repulsed by the thought of going to war, because they understand the implications of war better than non military people who have never experienced it. Among the military are the strongest supporters of the diplomatic approach. President Eisenhower saw more war and was more strongly opposed to the use of force in implementing national policy than any president in modern times. He understand the consequences of war better than any other president Since U.S. Grant, who was himself horrified by war as an instrument of political policy. We have chosen as our president a person entirely unfamiliar with both diplomacy and war, a person whose expertise lies in high rolling, big money calculations and gambles on investment and return. For the primary formulator of national policy to be someone who is far more devoted to preparing for war than preserving peace is well beyond merely alarming.

Having A Tiger by the Tail

THE STUPID LADY who got into it with a jaguar reminds me of myself. When I was about her age, or a bit younger, a friend and I split a six pack, and spend the day i a wildlife sanctuary in which animals were allowed to roam freely or were loosely confined in large enclosed areas. I remember tiny monkeys scrambling across our windshield, staring at us, as if they wanted to get in the car. One of them reached in and scratched my friend's forehead when he stupidly rolled down his window just enough to permit a tiny paw passage. We got to hold and pet a baby black panther, with supervision. We got into a sandbox with two baby tigers, and one of them, while my friend was focused on focusing his camera on one of them, stalked around behind him, and while I held and bit my tongue, jumped on his back. my buddy jumped several feet into the air, screaming, while I split my rbs laughing. Meanwhile, the parents of the baby black panther were in a bod mood, mad at humans for the theft of their baby. the big male, deprived ot the opportunity of killing his scion, lunged into the bars as my buddy approached his cage with his camera, and again, my friend flew back several feet. An eventful day for my friend the photographer. A four hundred pound tiger lay on his back against the bars, hiding from teh heat. Just like the stupid lady, we traversed a barrier, and I recall the thrill of rubbing the big beast's belly. I swear he purred. he was accustomed to people, but easily could have killed me. Each paw was four times the size of my hands, and the bars were widely spaced enough to give him access to me, but, relaxed and pleased, refrained. So, who am I to talk? The lady, healing nicely, says that management should move back the barrier. the things we say to avoid or mitigate responsibility. We can assume that she also believes that Trump's wall would work. she of all people should know the power of motivation, and its power of conquering any and all barriers. there's a new ford commercial in which we are reminded that all animals avoid danger, but that humans uniquely seek it out, for fund and adrenaline. Buy a Ford trunk, go for it. the one species apparently capable of intellectually comprehending its own mortality knowingly risks its life, just for fun and excitement. Drive a Ford, built Ford tough. No rock climber thinks he is going to slip, fall, and die. all the while knowing that he might. We know enough math to calculate odds, our curse perhaps. The lady who approached teh jaguar to share a selfie knew that she was taking a chance, but thought her odds were good enough. She was almost dead wrong. thirty five years ago I approached a lazing tiger, thinking the same thing. I was half drunk then, and much younger, but i no longer drink, and i don't think I would make the same mistake again. with age, we become risk averse. I am convinced the lady learned her lesson too, because she paid a far higher price than I, who paid nothing, and when we experience adverse consequences, we learn better to know better. Often, tragically often, when some stupid primate tries to mess around with a magnificent feline, for fun or for ego, and gets the worst for it, the magnificent feline is murdered in righteous retribution. But not this time. Repeated public outcries against murdering innocent animals has started to change our thinking. This time, the magnificent feline will live, and, thank the lord, so will the stupid primate. This is largely because, we all agree, that if anyone has to die due to some stupid, needless, ego driven encounter, it certain as hell isn't the magnificent animal, its the stupid one.

Dying Too Soon

FREIDRICH NIETZSCHE SAID that some people live too long, and some people don't live long enough. He himself lived to sixty, which for him might have been just about right. The recent jet liner disaster in Ethiopia was reportedly loaded with the best, brightest, and most talented of young people. Included were a delegation of United nations workers, determined to change the world, to make the world a better place. Also, an award winning writer. then too, the pilots themselves. One hundred and fifty seven souls who had so more to live and give, but now never will. The good and the talented often die too young. what about Mozart? what about Gershwin? both died before reaching the age of forty, seemingly with so much more great music to create. what masterpieces were within them, never to be composed nor performed? Or, maybe they were finished. often times creativity is a phenomenon of the young, whose production slows with age. someone once said of Einstein, cruelly, that he could have spent the last half of his life fishing, and science would not have suffered. several of my dearest friends died decades ago, at very young ages, in the prime of life. they left behind young children, a much diminished world, and an unknown abundance of unfulfilled promise. Robert was a bit weird, but brilliant. A high school recluse, he preferred reading, classical music, and playing war games with toy soldiers on dirt covered tables in his grandparents basement. He married, and had two children, both of whom must be at least forty by now, and I hope and trust that they are happy, healthy, and successful. Robert died suddenly at twenty nine in 1982,and I have always wondered what he might have accomplished with computers. Steve, a small business owner, died in 1987 at thirty one, my age then. He never had children, but his dynamic good looks, quick wit, and engaging personality would have made the world his oyster, and would have given him beautiful children. Now that I am sixty four, and never married, people used to ask my mother why I never married. She used to answer "because he's smart". Maybe, but I quite naturally often wonder what my children would have been like. IN theory the possibilities are endless, much depending on the mother who never was, or who married someone else. I wish her, whoever she is, well. perhaps, in some strange way, her children are part mine. In any case, as a retired teacher, I like to think of myself as having had many, many children, part time. A high percentage of all the people who have ever lived are alive now. And behind every one of us stands the ghost of not only our nesters, but also of the people who never lived, the people who might have lived had our lives turned out differently. If there are, as some speculate, a trillion versions of the universe parallel to ours in other dimensions, there is surely at least on in which my children are born and thrive, another in which they die young, and yet another in which they live long, prosper, and reproduce, sending my chromosomes down the corridors of time into eternity. there must be still other universes in which I die young, or in which my parents are never born, and I never exist. and somewhere else, in some fine, much improved universe, the jet liner never crashes, Steve and Robert don't die young, and of their accomplishments, and all fo their children's children live long productive lives, and give the world all the blessings we here will never know. And that, I think, is the universe in which I would most like to live.

Throwing Money At the military, Starving the Elderly

DONALD TRUMP'S BUDGET, ghostwritten by conservative economists who believe that a neo-liberal, unfettered free market always produces the best results, even when those results include an economy in which forty million people live in poverty and one percent of the population possesses one fourth of the national wealth, is nearly five trillion dollars. The budget will be accepted by the republican majority Senate, and rejected by the Democratic majority House, and once again, as in many years previous, the United States will have no budget. You will recall that Donald Trump ran for president by campaigning for the elimination not only of annual budget deficits, but for the elimination of the national debt entirely, which now excess twwnty one trillion dollars. No budget at all is better, far better, than a Donald Trump right wing pro corporate anti-poor people extremist budget. Here's why. Under Trump's proposed budget, the government spending deficit would be the highest ever, far higher than under any previous president. This sad state of affairs is exacerbated by the massive tax cuts for the corporate wealthy Trump and the Republican congress enacted two years ago. This budget proposes massive spending increases on the military, perhaps to partially compensate for the fact that Trump's declaration of emergency would take money from the paychecks of military members to use in building his wall. The Medicare program is slated to take a nearly one trillion dollar hit; the nation's elderly can count on severe reductions in Medicare benefits if the budget becomes law, which, to our good fortunate, it never will. Domestic spending in general, social spending in particular, is due to take a three trillion dollar hit, meaning that job training programs, food assistance programs, student loan programs, money for public education, housing assistance programs - essentially, all programs which do real good for real people, would be sharply reduced, even as the number of the nation's poor and elderly continues to increase rapidly. The salient fact is that this insane budget will never see the light of day. The incredible aspect of it is that any president would ever even bother to propose such a monstrosity, and even more insane is that such a monstrosity would ever gain any support in congress, let alone by a sizable percentage of its members. Craziest of all is that there are millions, tens of millions of lower middle class, working class,and poor people who will continue their support of Trump, including some of whom will actually take a look at this budget, without the slightest hint of complaint. This budget, everything in it, and everything that Trump proposes and does, is directly harmful to America's non wealthy, and directly, conspicuously beneficial to the billionaire corporate community. Massive increases in military spending benefit only the military contractors, people like the Koch brothers, the sort of people who are the biggest financial supporters of conservative Republican politicians. This is no coincidence. Millions of people on food stamps and Medicaid avidly support Donald Trump. What are they thinking? Do they like his tough, bullying talk? Do they find red ball caps which say "Make America Great Again' so appealing that they have no concern that Trump is trying to dismantle the very programs which keep them alive, housed, clothed, and with food on the table? Overwhelmingly the sixty one million people who voted for Trump are not wealthy, and continue to support him, even as he opposes pay rises for working class people, opposes an increase in the minimum wage. It is as if these people have decided that to engage in sensible thought, and that to look out for their own interests isn't worth the trouble, or as if these people have a self destructive economic death wish. Every one of Trump's closest advisers and cabinet members is a multimillionaire or billionaire, and every one of their proposals benefits the billionaire class, and harms everyone else. This is obvious, provable, demonstrable, easily. And yet, Trump's support among angry white men with low incomes remains intact. These people watch reality TV, play video games for endless hours, do nothing else other than go to work at their low wage jobs, without making any effort to study the facts and issues and express hatred for Democrats even as the democrats fight for wage increases for workers, healthcare for all, and more money for education and job training programs for the working poor who want to gain better employment. P.T. Barnum, the master of con artistry who best exemplifies the American spirit in so very many relevant ways - the American lust for mindless entertainment, the American capacity for denial of reality, the American fiction of upward mobility by hard work alone and by letting everyone, including billionaires, avoid any responsibility for contributing to the welfare of others, and calling such irresponsibility fair - P.T. Barnum said it best: nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the american people.

Voting, Even Though

MARK TWAIN, the first and greatest stand up comedian, said that if voting meant anything, they wouldn't let us do it. Gore Vidal, less the comedian more the acerbic astute aristocratic historian and political analyst who was shunned by the mainstream because he dared tell the truth, said that the fifty percent of the American electorate which didn't bother to vote had the good sense to understand that their vote means nothing. Nevertheless, we keep trying, or some of us do. we keep trying to make voting meaningful, and trying to form a semblance of democracy from the ashes of our founder's aristocratic intent. HR 1, the first important legislation to emerge from the refreshingly progressive newly empowered House of Representatives, is noble in intent, if doomed to the dust bin. The most sensible, most effective change it mandates is the requirement that all ballots be made of paper, or backed up by paper. If that doesn't keep the Russians and their Republican de fact accomplices at aby, nothing will. The gist of the bill is to remove barriers to voting, by, among other measures, eliminating any requirement that the voter present a picture I.D. at the poll, without even offering a picture I.D. to all citizens for that purpose. Same day registration, online registration, expanded opportunities to voted online and by snail mail, extended early voting in person time periods. Also, automatic registration from birth, and pre registration for sixteen and seventeen year olds are written into the bill as suggestions. Turning college and university campuses into voting registration centers and voting booths is in the legislation. When one thinks about it, it is amazing the number of ways voting could very easily made much more accessible to all. The most important part of HR1 is that is makes Gerrymandering, the practice by which them winning party in any given states seizes control of redrawing congressional districts, then redraws them into salamander shaped territories for the purpose of giving their party every opportunity to win every election, a federal crime. No more bundling all Democrats into a single corner, out of the way, or spreading them out into impotent blocks of unempowered minorities. Every state would be required to establish a non partisan committee for redrawing congressional districts every ten years, as new census date reveals demographic changes. the piece de resistance is public financing of congressional elections, at least partly. HR! actually does not go far enough in eliminating corporate dark money from the process, but it si an important first step. To legislate public campaign financing completely would be to kill the bill in the face of Republican corporate power, which this bill will accomplish quite will in its current form. And therein lies the problem with this magnificent, common sense, democratizing legislation; republicans, never known to favor fostering democracy, strongly oppose it, not only in the House, but, more importantly, in the Senate, where, to the detriment of the republic, they still hold sway, with their effective veto power to all that is good for the country, and their voter purging voter suppressing reduce the electorate and kill the Democrats, insidious instincts. Voting in America may indeed be meaningless; there are many arguments to support this rather obvious fact. But the dream still lives, try as they might (the republicans) to bury it once and for all. the better alternative, for the sake of preserving the pipe dream of democracy would be to bury the Republicans.