Lying

 THERE IS A FEDERAL LAW which says that evangelical Christian broadcasters must be idiots. Idiotic, brazenly dishonest, bigoted, pompous, with a proclivity for ranting incoherently. Or maybe it is a natural law, ordained by God. And these characteristics manifest, the pomposity, the dishonesty, all of it, not only when some delusional ranting psychotic believer expresses his hope in fervent prayer that Jesus Christ will return to Earth , overturn the election, and make Donald Trump president once again, but on numerous other occasions as well. There is absolutely, proclaimed the ranter on the radio, no scientific evidence of any sort that whey you drive your car, you are killing the planet, warming the Earth, changing the climate, harming the world. how could such a simple thing as going to work cause all that?  The very idea that human activity is causing the climate to change is a hoax, a lie perpetrated by Democrats for the sole purpose of gaining power for the government, the power to control everyone's life and eliminate freedom. Republicans who refuse to believe in climate change are inf act freedom fighters fighting to keep everyone in America free, free from government tyranny. Climate change is a left wing communist plot, so say the ranters om  right wing radio. Climate change is a lie. But it is only one of man liberal lies, says the evangelical right wing lunacy community. Another lie is atheism. Most people probably think of atheism as a belief that God does not exist.  Atheism, like Christianity,like all other religious choices people make, is a personal choice. how can atheism, or any other form of religion or non religious choice, be a "lie"? Are all atheists lying about being atheists? Are they all closet Christians, devout Bible bangers, merely pretending not to believe in God for some unspecified reason? Perhaps they relish the rejection of the Christian community, and so they conduct their church services and Bible study groups in private. More likely, their beliefs are as real and as honest to them as anyone else's. The radio evangelical lunatic ranter further proclaimed that the LGBTQ community and lifestyle is a "lie". How so, precisely? Are gay people actually straight as arrows, allegedly gay guys going out to bares and chasing hot chicks, while pretending to be gay the rest of the time? Are transgender people merely faking being transgender? if so, maybe they are motivated by some perverse masochistic desire for social rejection and marginalization. the more likely conclusion, the only one which fits the facts, as that the lying is being done by the evangelical radio lunatic, telling the big lie that anyone whose religious or sexual orientation does not match his own is a "liar". They are the ones who should be rejected and marginalized, and would be, in a saner world, where millions of misguided lunatics did not agree with their insane attitudes.

Ridiculing the Ridiculous

 FOR A GOOD LAUGH nothing is quite like an evangelical Christian radio "personality" trying to be serious, pretending to be an intellectual, acting  like a guru, leading the masses to the truth, to the sacred place of God. If you're lucky, you might catch  one of them is a rare moment of lucidity, when he is not ranting or raving incoherently. Rarely will you actually do this. Almost invariably they remain firmly ensconced within their cocoon of sanctimonious oblivion,  smug, condescending, superior, handing down truth from their lofty perch above.One in particular tried to impose what he thought passed for logic upon Richard Dawkins, but only revealed his inability to use logic, unaware of his failure. Dawkins, noted evolutionary biologist, atheist, and author of "The Selfish Gene" among other scholarly works, is tempting but dangerous prey for the sanctimonious pseudo Christian. Heaven forbid that a devout christian would ever consider being tolerant and accepting of religious freedom, freedom which they so cherish for themselves, and paranoically believe is threatened by secular American society. Like fellow atheist Thomas Paine did in revolutionary era America,  in his famous essay "The Age of Reason" Dawkins has noted that the Biblical God behaves like a diabolical, pathologically ill genocidal monster. Its hard not to notice this, unless blinded by religious devotion. Dawkins further asserts that good and evil are human made concepts, and have nothing to do with the actual force which created the universe.In swoops our evangelical intellectual light weight, thinking he has trapped Dawkins. How could Dawkins believe that God behaves badly, is evil, if he doesn't even believe in God? How can he discuss God at all? The obvious answer, of course, is that to Dawkins, and to intelligent, educated people, the biblical God is a fictional character in a work of fiction based loosely upon historical events. Dawkins believed that the universe was created, and that we are free to call the creation of it "God". what he does not believe in is the anthropomorphic deity of the Bible, or of any other religion of human invention. There is no law of man nor nature which says than an atheist cannot comment on or express an opinion about a fictional God described in a book, and to consider it evil when it kills thousands of innocent people or tortures a person who believes in him by testing his belief, as he did with Abraham. To make negative comments about the God of evangelical Christians, it is only necessary for an atheist to be a book reader and a literary critic, not a believe in the reality of the fictional God within the work of literature.

Eliminating Impediments To Progress

 MORE THAN FIFTY THOUSAND BOOKS are published in the United States every year, many of them on paper, many not, many of which are rarely read and barely sell any copies, despite having intellectual or artistic merit. In America, having intellectual and artistic merit and popularity are two distinctly different qualities.Forty years ago, when computers were still as large as refrigerators with about as much computing power as your average head start student, I went out on a limb and predicted that there would soon come a time when paper books would cease to exist, and would be replaced by books on computer screens.It pleases me to know how wrong I was. Three recently published books merit mention. "Land: How the Hunger For Ownership Shaped the Modern World",  by Simon Winchester, traces is the right of any United states Senator, as long as he or she remains standing and does not stop talking, to talk his head off, as Jimmy Stewart pu t it. the origins of our modern attitudes about private land ownership since the advent of modern capitalism and industrialization. Less economically developed cultures of the past had a much less proprietary approach to land distribution and ownership. "Fantasyland" explores various trends in American culture and history which have contributed to our contemporary culture of misinformation , disinformation, denial of objective, verifiable reality, and our rampant culture of false conspiracy theories. Considering the abundance and pervasiveness of all these in today's society, any elucidation of the phenomenon is a welcome contribution. "Killswitch" discusses the origins and history of the Senatorial filibuster, which, as portrayed in the iconic movie "Mr. Smith goes to Washington" is the right of any United States Senator, as long as he or she remains standing and does not stop talking for a break, to talk his head off, as Jimmy Stewart famously put it. The practice, a vestige of southern power in the Jim Crow culture, was originated by southern conservative Senators as a means to delay or derail civil rights legislation. A great deal of attention is being paid to filibustering now, because the technique has been used with increasing frequency over the past few years, not to merely kill obviously bad legislation as in former time, but as a means to totally stop the agenda of the party in power by the minority party.The filibuster, as an instrument of legislation, or actually legislation blocking, has perhaps outlived its usefulness, much like the spread of disinformation, which arguably never has been useful in any way.And arguably, the possession of much of the world's very limited amount of land in the hands of private interests, for private benefit only, is also becoming an anachronism, and will someday come to an end, for the benefit of all.

An Unflattering Legacy

 OVER THE NEXT SEVERAL DECADES, the great lie,Trump's claim, echoed by millions, that the election was stolen from him, will be prominently featured in American history survey textbooks, and read by generations of secondary public school students, maybe in amazement, of the strangeness of the event. We hope that this behavior does not become the norm, and remains forever an aberration.That, plus the two impeachments and the insurrection will be the lasing legacy of the Trump administration, for their bizarre manifestation, all because of a single mentally unbalanced, corrupt president. Certainly, not a legacy any former president would want, nor one that Trump is likely to acknowledge or appreciate. Whether or not Trump is convicted by the Senate, which he will almost certainly not be, his name will live in infamy, to quote FDR, beginning immediately, as the case is made, the facts laid out, that the insurrection was no random event, was was carefully planned by Trump, premeditated, orchestrated over a period of weeks and months. The case is filled with nefarious activity; constant repeating by Trump of his bogus claim that the election was stolen, a claim he began making before the election was over, his calls for people to come to Washington on January sixth, his refusal to call out the national guard; the proof of treason is overwhelming. The treason will be proven, but there will be no conviction. republicans will offer the lame argument that his incitement to insurrection was only "figurative talk", just like his profane, obscene Access Hollywood talk was  only "locker room talk". At this point, Trump's supporters and enablers will become accessories to crime and treason. Whether Trump or his many supporters were the more reprehensible will be discussed. Hitler was elected by seventeen million Germans, but history tends to focus on him rather than his followers, and the same will likely be true of Trump. It will be recalled that seventy percent of the Republican party believed, long after the fact, that the election was in fact stolen, and that thirty five percent of Republicans believed, after the fact, that the storming of the Capitol building was a good idea, and that the only unfortunate aspect was that it did not succeed in overthrowing the government.History will mention all that. These are the people of whom we are rightfully ashamed, and who should be ashamed of themselves, but will probably never be. They will always embrace their own lies and violence, just as Hitler's followers, many of them, continued to embrace Hitler's evil long after Hitler's death. The sad thing is that these people all know better.

Failing to Make A Friend

HAROLD DIED. This gladdened me for two reasons;  he often said he was waiting for the lord to return, and now his wait is over. And I will no longer have to endure his hateful glaring at me at the senior center. Harold said that all Democrats go to hell. He was a strong Trump supporter, thought Trump was a good president, and was willing to argue about it. Maybe the election broke his heart, and it failed. Nobody, to my knowledge ever hated me the way Harold hated me. I never knew why. From the first moment I walked into the senior center to join he glared, growled, and frowned at me, but never spoke to me, not in five years. I decided to try to win him over. I spent five years volunteering in the kitchen, cooking Harold's lunch, serving it to him, washing his dishes, offering to bring him coffee, anything I could do. It never worked. Not one thank you or kiss my ass from Harold. As the years passed, i grew tired of his rudeness, his coldness, and grew to despise him. Twice he cost me a job at the senior center, by complaining to the director that he would not ride in a bus driven by me, nor would he accept food from me because I did not wash my hands after using the restroom. It was a lie. He wanted to destroy me, he hated me so much. i just kept serving him, and hoping, in vain. He was cold and unfriendly to everyone. Each day  in a crowded room he ate lunch alone, while the rest of us gathered together at tables. He was, from what I could tell, a very lonely, unhappy man, who lived alone in a tiny house near the senior center. I hope Harold is right, that he, as he often said, had a 'one way ticket to heaven", and is there now, and that I am wrong about this eternal destiny. I wish my extended to catch a fly with honey had worked, and that we had become cordial, if not friends. He alone prevented that from happening, by choice.I suspect that he found out that I am a democratic socialist and a non Christian, a pantheist, and that turned him against me from the start. God, what a reason to hate someone, to be so terribly cold and hateful. Harold, like many other fundamentalist Christians I have known, was hateful about non Christians, judgmental and condemned than to hell, rather then letting god do it, or not do it. He,like many evangelical Christians, loved Trump, which to me is the opposite of a Christian attitude. Yes, I ended up despising Harold, and I still do, I will always despise his memory. But that's my"'problem". As time passes, it will be easier to despise him less, and the time will come when I no longer despise him at all. Wherever he is, I hope he is happier than he was here on Earth with the rest of us. Harold often told other people that I would spend eternity in hell. If so, maybe I'll see him again. If so, we will probably have nothing to say to each other, and I'll be damned f I'll cook his lunch or wash his dishes for him.

Liberals, Losing It

 YOU JUST CAN'T catch a break. For five years this website posted essay after essay criticizing Trump, to put it mildly, calling him a liar, a criminal, and a traitor, calling him everything under the sun, everything except late to dinner. Five hundred essays. Scroll down, and keep scrolling. Like a rock n roll band said: "check it and see". Finally. at long last, we get rid of the sumbiotch, run him clean outta office, but good. I despise him more than ever. This morning he said he is more popular then ever, laughably. Lie number thirty thousand and one. He's at twenty five percent, and sinking. Check it out. Only his hard core remains, and they're crazy, the thugs, the NAZI types. Whether the Senate convicts him, which they will not, Republican cowards, he needs to be prosecuted in federal court for treason, for attempted overthrow of the government, and he needs to be sentenced to death, and to have his sentence commuted to life in prison by Joe Biden, or somebody. So I publish an essay (scroll down two essays ago), half jokingly, half serious, in which I suggest that we ought maybe to consider, after the consequences of his actions have been duly and lawfully applied to the great prevaricator, forgiving him. Clearly identifying him for what he is, publishing all of his lies, then, forgiving him, even while he rots in prison. Please read the essay. well, about half the liberal community, my people, went off on me. Some, most of it was trash talk, most of it was a bit rude, they were, as Davy Crockett would have said, "a mite wrathy". Some of the comments and responses were border line rude, insulting, some were over the border, downright unpleasant, directed towards moi, he who despises Trump more than anyone. alas, the sanctimony of the progressive community emerges. But lemme tel you something, my fellow l\Bernie Sanders Alexandria Ocasio Cortez democratic socialist left wingers; somewhere, somehow, on this forsaken planet, somebody has to forgive somebody, at some point in time. And what better time than now, when we progressives have the perfect opportunity to simultaneously become the law and order party by upholding the law against trying to overthrow the government, to claim the moral high ground by acting like Christians, and to be the party which reaches out first in genuine reconciliation and healing. Not the right time, you say? Baloney. there's n ever been a better time.

Going In Public

 SCI FI GREAT ROBERT HEINLEIN maintained that the degree to which a society is civilized can be measured by the cleanliness of its public restrooms. Accordingly, measuring American civility is particularly difficult by this standard, since public restrooms in the United States are a great rarity, rarer even than smiles from strangers on the street. I recall a friend telling me that while walking around on the streets of New York City as a tourist with his ten year old son he needed a restroom very badly, and ended up defecating behind a shrub on the sidewalk. He didn't get caught. his son was ostensibly not too emotionally scarred. I cannot count the number of times I have sprinted hastily into a McDonald's restaurant, smile at the cashier and said "I'll be right back", then made it into the restroom,just in time. Most Americans have surely had similar experiences, in our culture of privately owned restrooms only. Distinctly I remember the day my mom took me to register for the draft and get my draft card. When I get back to the car, shew was crouching behind the passenger seat, using a can, literally. I was eighteen, and already flustered by the horrible thought that I had possibly just signed up to be drafted and go to Viet Nam. seeing her in that condition only made it worse. "Get in the car and shut up" she said.I did exactly that. If an uncivilized culture is indicated by dirty public restrooms, we the American people are in sad shape. But what about barely having any public restrooms to begin with? Heinlein was silent on that issue, but he was presumably well aware of the general lack of public facilities all across the fruited plain in freedom's land. In America, we have the freedom to piss and crap our pants, or to wear diapers. We taxpayers pay for street lamps, stop signs, sidewalks, and numerous other amenities, but we either can's muster teh funds or don't care about public restrooms. This has always been the case in our private property obsessed society. We seem to follow Aristotle's criticism of socialism: "That which is owned by everybody is cared for by nobody". There is a certain truth to this, but we take it to the extreme, keeping our public money and cooperation at a minimum, in the name of freedom and individualism.Freedom and individualism are well well and good,but not when it reaches the point where millions of people are suffering in public, holding in what should never be held in. People are becoming more aware of this, ad public restrooms all over the country, what few there are, shut down because of pandemic fears. Hopefully when the virus is vanquished we can all come out of hiding, rebuild our crumbling infrastructure, and add a few boys and girls rooms to the mix.

Reconciling,Top Down

 PRESIDENT BIDEN SHOULD, we respectfully suggest, invite Donald Trump to the white House. For coffee, for a day, or if the former president prefers, to move back, and save on rent. The primary purpose would be reconciliation, starting at the top. The intended effect would be "trickle down" healing, which we hope would trickle all the way down, down very deep, to the Proud Boys and folks of that ilk. Biden could ask Trump for suggestions, drawing on his  (Trump's) experience as president. The intent here would be to show respect, and good intent. Any bad advice or suggestions provided by Trump could be ignored, as has long been the custom. Trump could be offered a position within the administration ,"Special Assistant for Bad Advice"  (SABA) and adorn a red ball cap with "Spec. Asst. Bad Advice" Then, after breaking the ice, Biden hands Trump a thick manuscript, and explains that he wants, in the name of honesty, to fully explain his complaints against the former president. the manuscript would of course contain a long list of the lies Trump told to the American people and to himself while in office. Not all twenty two thousand eight hundred and eighty eighty eight of the whoppers, just a good enough sample to make the point. Maybe two or three thousand of the most blatant ones, for emphasis. All proven, verified lies, on tape on video, and now, complied into a single manuscript for Trump and the American people to peruse at will. Mr. President, there was never any need or reason for all this. In almost every case, the truth would have done just as well, if not better. you got into a rut, into a habit, and you couldn't get out. We the people who opposed and detested you did so largely upon this basis. A little plain talk never hurt nobody, as Sheriff Andy Taylor once said. Who knows how that would go? But reconciliation must be based on honesty, consequences, and forgiveness. We the majority of the American people who despised Trump and railed and voted against him must forgive him, but only in concert with full and complete consequences, justice,  being applied to Trump as it is, we hope and assume, to the rest of us. Trump needs to experience the consequences of all his lying by being forced, trapped into, or strongly encouraged to acknowledge and deal with them, with the fact that he really did lie constantly. he also needs to be tried, convicted, and either sent to prison for life without parole or executed for inciting an insurrection and trying to overthrow the government, then perhaps pardoned by Biden, but that's a matter for another day.

Defending Lost Causes

 THE PREVIOUS ARTICLE (see below) discussed the nature of historical writing. Now we turn our attention to "lost causes", of which history is full. In 1961 German historian Fritz Fischer settled a long standing argument b publishing "Germany's Aims In the First World War", which became and remains the definitive analysis on the complicated circumstances and events which led to World War One. His essential thesis was that Germany ignited the war through expansionist, aggressive foreign policies, and fully intended, upon winning the war, the carve out a huge portion of Europe for its own keeping, and to dominate every aspect of the continent, economically and politically. History written by a "loser", placing blame upon his own country. Good history is not always written by the winners.  Late in the first world war, when it became evident that Germany would be defeated, Germans began fighting among themselves, blaming each other for the disaster.  This, of course, is not uncommon. Conservatives accused liberals, socialists, communists, and Jews, anyone within sight, of 'stabbing Germany in the back" by failing to contribute to the war effort, acting as traitors, and so forth. This notion became ingrained in the German national attitude, became popular, and Hitler used it to his advantage when coming to power as a right wing extremist, claiming that he alone could "make Germany great again". Today this sounds familiar, because it is. A "lost cause" grievance culture arose and spread,  conservative blaming liberals in post world war one Germany. Hitler came t o power a s populist right wing dictator, with the strong approval of Germany's right wing movement. Again, familiar. A lost cause grievance culture also arose in the aftermath of the American Civil War. Yankees traitors, runaway slave defectors ungrateful for their wonderful life as slaves, the blame game comes easy, culprits are easy to find. The lost cause movement lasted for decades, arguably endures today, in the form of conservative white southern males with confederate battle flags and MAGA ball caps. For this purpose finger pointing pointed in all directions post war; at damned Yankee profiteering Rhett Butler types, runaway black slaves ungrateful for their wonderful in bondage, Lincoln's treachery, you name, confederate lost cause crusaders blamed it. They blamed everyone but themselves, typical human behavior. And now we arrive at our most recent,, current lost cause; that of  Donald J. Trump and the stolen presidency. Trump and hie supporters are so intent on blaming folks other than themselves that they have fabricated the big lie, the lie of the stolen election. They know, of course, that the election was not stole. All of them know that, but refuse to admit it, even to themselves. The Germans knew that nobody stabbed Germany in the back, the rebels knew that they lost the war to superior manpower and industrial might, and Trump et al know that they lost the election because Trump was always unpopular with a majority of voters, and for on other reason. But lost cause grievances die hard, and this one will too. but they all die, at length, and good riddance.

Knowing History, Maybe

 EVERYONE WHO CAN REMEMBER their first grade teacher is, in a sense, an historian.m we are all, in a sense, historians, autobiographers. Problems arise when we begin trying to document, understand and convey the history of other people, or large groups of people. That's when our personal biases and axes to grind kick in, and we distort history, and begin, consciously or otherwise, to reshape historical fact to suit ourselves and our personal agendas. We begin to think of ourselves as better historians than we really are. Good professional historians try to avoid all that, but they do not always succeed. It is amazing how people embroiled in a heated political argument, people who slept through their high school history classes, suddenly become knowledgeable historians when argument needs supporting evidence. Humans by nature think they know more, about everything, than they actually do. We all do, except for the very wise, who know enough to know that they know nothing. Historical is valuable at making arguments, and can be twisted into any shape desired, through interpretation of facts and events. Misconceptions about history abound. People often say that history repeats itself, a clever, smug belief, when in fact it does not, cannot. It only rhymes, as Mark Twain truthfully stated. It could only repeat if space and time could flow back and forth, repeating themselves. We are afforded but one eighteenth birthday, so we had better enjoy it. People like to say that history is written by the winners. Indeed it is, and it is also written by the losers. Anybody with a pen can and does write history. What actually happens is that the winning version is more widely dispersed and taught. Many histories of the American civil War have been written by southern sympathizers. The false idea that the war was fought over "states's rights" came from southern historians, trying to write revisionist history, trying to deny that the great lost cause was a cause to defend and perpetuate slavery. It just sounds better, more noble, more honorable, to assert that the confederacy was defending their basic rights as states, than to tell the truth, that they were defending their enslaved economic goldmine. Many German historians in the twentieth century wrote histories of both world wars. For the most part, they told the truth about Germany's responsibility for the wars, except for the NAZI sympathizers, a twisted bunch. Losers write history too, and they should. Everybody should.

Vaccinating, Rightly

 VACCINATIONS WORK. Polio, small pox and malaria still exist, but only barely, mostly in laboratories for study.To be opposed to vaccines is to live in a fantasy world of denial and false conspiracy, as so many people, unfortunately do these days. To be opposed to vaccines is to be a traitor to yourself and to humanity. Humanity will  defeat Covid 19, as we have defeated the others, but only with the full cooperation of the entire species. The vaccine deniers, the deniers of science, the conspiracy mongers will be the only enemy One question looms; why are the effective vaccines currently being administered not being manufactured much more widely, by many companies, under licensing arrangements, other than the ones which developed them? The answer of course is clear; corporate capitalism rears it ugly head, once again. the profit motive, and the proprietary culture it fosters, does not lend itself to efficient sharing of valuable urgent needed resources, even medicine. Bog pharma companies want all the action for themselves, and for that, shame on them, even as we admire them for helping to make us healthy again. if only corporate culture were as interested in serving humanity as in serving itself, and its billionaire owners. Biden should issue an executive order ordering Pfizer and Moderna and Johnson & Johnson in particular to sell the right to produce their proven effective Covid 19 vaccines to anyone interested, thus stimulating massive production of them, and, as they used to say, may the devil take the hindmost. Let big pharma contest the order in court, and let us all see the base upon which they resist it; greed. Big pharma could either comply, or see laid bare its true concerns and motives. Meanwhile , it is comforting knowing that each day millions of people are getting vaccinated world wide, and that the pace is only going to accelerate. If Trump overturns the election, and becomes president again,w will return to taking bleach and hydroxychloraquine for Covid 19 going without masks to huge MAGA rallies, and diverting valuable resources from fighting Covid to fighting windmill cancer. Fortunately, the odds of that happening would seem to be far less that the odds of pharmaceutical companies suddenly becoming magnanimous.With Biden in control, we have a highly organized, concerted effort from the federal government at long last, with billions of dollars of resources,and the results are already beginning to show, vaccinations accelerating rapidly. Finally we Americans are coming to our senses and tackling Covid seriously. The tragedy is that it took us a year, and half a million needlessly lost lives to do it.

Explaining Rocket Science

 SOME BIG SHOT MINISTER from some mega church in Dallas - Rev. Jeffries, is it? -  reassured us with limited intellects that understanding why evangelical Christians overwhelmingly support Donald Trump is not, as he said "rocket science". comforting indeed, until one looks a bit deeper. Merely, so says the esteemed reverend, it is that Trump is a tireless crusader for religious freedom and protection of the unborn. Case close. But...wait. Neither of these attributes attributed to Trump is true, nor do they explain Christian support for Trump. The truth is indeed not rocket science, but is a bit more rocket sciencey than the reverend might like to disclose. Religions freedom in the United States is deeply entrenched, mandated by the constitution, widely practiced, unthreatened by anybody or anything. It is the threat of religious incursion in to the civic secular sphere which threatens our democracy, since the constitution prohibits it.Donald Trump is about as concerned with religious freedom, or religion, as he is with honesty; to wit, not at all. Donald Trump would willingly rip fetuses from their wombs were he to profit by so doing. The christian, were they honest and attentive to detail, would concur. But blind loyalty and obedience to a cult leader blinds one, if one is a member of said cult. Donald Trump is morally bankrupt, a criminal, and a traitor, verifiably. his followers know this, but are unconcerned about it. They support Trump because of his agenda, his complete agenda, which matches theirs. Evangelical Christians support and are devoted to the complete right wing agenda,social, economic,and political, hook, line, and sinker. They  love Trump for keeping rapists and murderers in Mexico, or at least trying to. Were they honest, and attentive to facts, they would accept the reality that rapists and murderers are much more common among native born Americans then Mexican immigrants. They love Trump for cutting taxes for the wealthy, for hating china, for hating LGBTQ people, for hating democratic socialism of the sort of which America runneth over, for preferring immigrants from , say, Norway, to those from "shit hole" countries of the sort they have in Africa, for his hatred of progressives - evangelical Christians buy the complete Trump package, not merely the pseudo religious parts of it. They use their self proclaimed moral superiority of loving unborn babies and heterosexuality to cover their hatred of a changing, diverse American culture in which ethnic equality rears its ugly, non traditional head. They, like Trump, want to make America "great, again" by turning back the clock to an era of white male patriarchy, marginalization and segregation of ethnic minorities, and strict cultural uniformity, rather than diversity. That they lack the courage or integrity to openly espouse their malignant agenda is telling, extremely.

Voting For One Reason Alone

 A FRIEND OF MINE, an intelligent, well educated older gentleman, voted for Trump in 2016 , mainly because both of them are Republicans. Either my friend didn't  hear the Access Hollywood tape, or did, and didn't care. My friend, a man of principle, was also evidently unaware of Trump's shady biography, and his behavior during the 2016 campaign, spreading lies , and slandering everybody in sight, including fellow Republicans. Either that, or he didn't care, like so many trump voters. My friend knew one thing about Hillary Clinton: he didn't like her. He never gave me any specific reason why; something about her tone of voice, her participation in a pedophile prostitution scheme, or something or other. During the for years of Trump my friend managed to pay enough attention to the president's behavior, especially the comments about windmill cancer and taking bleach to cure a virus, to start to get the picture. Trump, he began to realize, is an idiot. By the time the election of 2020 arrived he was a rock solid hard core anti-Trumper. And yet, he just couldn't bring himself to vote for Joe Biden. Why not? I don't like Joe Biden. Why not? Because Biden is anti second amendment, and wants to take everyone's guns away. Predictably, no amount of factual presentation or argument or persuasion using facts about Biden's actual stand on gun control could change my friend.s mind. So, he voted for the green party candidate, and, as he said, threw his vote away. I admired his honesty, if not his reasoning. And, at least he didn't vote for some right wing wacko white supremacist. There are a million and one important issues for all voters to consider in a presidential election; the great American single issue voter, undaunted by any sense of responsibility for being educated on the issues ,holds firm, ignoring one million issues, while voting tenaciously based upon a single one,that all important one, as if none of the others mattered or existed. He may be a homicidal mania, a serial killer, and a pathological liar, but by god he believes in freedom, and in our sacred Christian right of arsenal ownership. He thinks illegal immigrants should be shot on sight, felons should be given the electric chair, and the only socialist is a dead socialist, but, by god, he is "pro life", and protects the unborn, including sperm cells. In a more perfect democracy, the single issue voter would conveniently, magically forget to vote, or better yet, forget to register, or both.

Purging the Unfaithful From THE PARTY

 ARIZONA REPUBLICANS, lawmakers among them, voted to censure Cindy McCain, former Senator Jeff Flake, and another fellow republican, all for having committed the unpardonable sin of expressing opposition to former president Trump, back when he was still president. The only surprise is that they didn't censure deceased Senator John McCain, posthumously, and banish them all to Siberia, but they still might, they have all the time in the world. Thus the Republican party in Arizona leads the way, not only in Covid 19 deaths per capita, but in leading the national G.O.P. ever further down the dark road of fascism. Obey the party line, strictly, or be banished. The party descends ever deeper into mob gangster culture, and authoritarian fascism like true Trumpeters. Now we can expect further recriminations and purges to proceed and accelerate among Republicans across freedom's land, in their despair over losing the presidency. It will tear itself to pieces, by condemning all the heretics to excommunication for failing to genuflect in worshipful adoration before the scourged and crucified Donald Trump, who is not expected to resurrect himself from the political dead, and once again serve as their savior. With no supporting evidence, seventy percent of republicans cling to the claim, the lie that the election was stolen from Trump. Crazed traitors to American democracy, hence to America itself. One third of Americans, Republicans, believe that Trump's attempt to overthrow the government by violent insurrection was justified. Most of these traitors are evangelical Christians. Beyond dispute, everyone who took part in the sacking of the Capitol should be put in prison, and many of them will be. Trump himself should be convicted of high treason, and imprisoned for life, or executed. Biden plans to use the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security to investigate right wind extremist terrorism. Quite likely the investigation will reveal that the entire Republican party, or a large part of it, and the entire conservative evangelical community, or a substantial part of it, are complicit, either by actively engaging in acts of terrorism, or by supporting these acts, such as the storming of the Capital building. Statistics complied by the FBI and other agencies clearly shows that almost all the domestic terrorism in the United States over the past few years has been perpetrated by the far right, by people brandishing Bible sand assault weapons. This scourge must be eliminated from our country, and, lord willing, will be.

Spreading the Word, Not the Virus

 I LIVE in a small bedroom community about twenty miles from a major university town, from where I moved, bought some land, and built my dream home about sixteen years ago. I love it overall, but it takes and keeps me farther from my friends, most of whom either live in the university town, or scattered all across America's fruited plain and beyond. My friends never come to visit me, they having seemingly decided that since it was I who moved away, and since they live in the most important city in the world, the university town, that it is my duty and responsibility to go to the trouble to visit them. most of them have never seen my nice ranch style house, nor my half acre of wooded land, upon which I planted all the trees sixteen years ago, turning a construction site wasteland into an lovely wooded oasis. Their loss, right? I make and receive few phone calls. I grow impatient at leaving messages on cell phones in people's pockets whose owners are too damned lazy or busy to reach into their university town pockets and respond to. I have no cell phone, having grown tired years ao of constantly looking for it, and dropping it in toilets and coffee. My loss, right? For me, a smart phone would be an invitation to disaster, either misplacing it or staring at it all day. My phone is a big box, which never moves. I do not have caller ID, and often people who call do not leave a message, which further annoys and isolates me. Sometimes I am simply too old and slow, dodging to many cats, to reach the phone in time. Their loss, my loss. My normal isolation has intensified during the pandemic, which may have saved m life, and I am probably less affected by the forced, enhanced isolation than any living thing on Earth. Frankly, I rather enjoy it, far from the cacophony of human blather, no offense intended. The other day my best friend called and said he and two other friends wanted to come and hike around the beautiful lake near my home. I hike it often, the rocky wooded path, challenging, four and a half miles around the lake, looking down on the beautiful, blue , cold water. They have never been to my house, nor to the lake, although I've been inviting them for sixteen years. now, suddenly, they want to come. I gave them both answers: no, and hell no. I'm sixty five, and only a few weeks away from the vaccination. meanwhile, the pandemic is raging in America worse than ever, precisely because of people like my friends. Everybody in America thinks he or she is the one person who can continue to do whatever in the hell the normally do, having fun, and avoiding the virus. That's why half a million Americans are dead, or soon will be. Self absorbed arrogance. My friend argued that we'll be outside, that we can meet at the lake, no need for them to come to my house at all, blather, blather, blather. I responded that we can all hike around any lake we choose, at an time, alone. With friends like these, who need enemies, or cell phones, or caller ID?

Looking the right Way, Redux

 "EXTRATERRESTRIAL: Fist Signs of Intelligent Life Outside of Earth", a recently published book by a Harvard astronomer, is the perfect antidote for two equal and opposite intellectual illnesses: stuffy, staid, stagnant sanctimonious science, and far fetched, unconfirmed, unverified fantasy, fashioned irresponsibly into factual falsehood.Too little open mindedness, or too much. Four years ago an object was spotted zipping through the solar system which, based on measurements of its size, shape, and velocity, looked suspiciously like something artificial, of intelligent design. The author indeed believes that it was, possibly a deep space probe launched by some intelligent species heaven only know how long ago or far away from us. Its happened before. Many years ago NASA made a video of a bright point of light which approached the Earth, then suddenly made a perfect U turn and headed back into space, in defiance of gravity or any other natural force.  And that's about it, about all we have, so far. Out of all the noise, all the sensational claims and stories emanating from the UFO and new age cosmic paradigm community over the decades, all the accounts of supposed UFO abductions and so forth, we are left, for actual evidence, with two far flung objects.Like so many other components of contemporary culture, science often vacillates between extremes extremes of thought; between excessive skepticism and an unwillingness to consider possibilities on the one hand, and a rampant flight into fantasy and speculation, substituting fantasy for fact on the other hand. In our twenty first century world we are awash in science, surrounded by it, and we reap the abundant benefits of scientific progress constantly. You might almost expect that science would by now have replaced religion and all other forms of superstition in our advanced cultures. And yet, the persistence of pseudo science, of science denial, of paranormal investigations which lead nowhere other than farther and farther from the truth, is alarming. Perhaps science education, or the lack thereof, is to blame. Maybe if people understood science and the wondrous ways in which mainstream, empirical science explains the world and give us the ability to use natural phenomena for our own benefit, for medicines, computers, transportation, communication, for a millions marvelous, miraculous benefits, they would understand that science is really the only game in town, and the only game anyone needs to understand reality and to learn to revere the natural world and their place in it. Somewhere in the middle, between fact and fancy, maybe the twain can meet.The universe is amazing enough as it is; that has long been evident. we needn't adorn it with added layers of false facts. When a Harvard scientist expresses his belief that we now have strong evidence for the existence of extraterrestrial life from objects passing through through the solar system, we can be assured that mainstream science is not on the sidelines, ignoring wondrous phenomena, stuck in the mud.

Right Wing Extremism, Threatening America

 THE REPUBLICAN PARTY  is the white Christian party, as evidenced by its membership. It is the home of traditional conservative values, white Christian values. The party is the home of right wing extremists, defenders of America's most traditional values, not necessarily virtuous values. Trump, who may or may not end up in prison, is still being given credit by conservatives for keeping out those illegal immigrants, those brown colored Mexicans and Muslims. His extreme right wing supporters proved their loyalty by staging the most effective attack on the U.S. Capitol building since the War of 1812. Trump is a "Christian" to whatever extent enhances his fame and fortune, and his political goals, and gets him on television in front of a large audience. Trump, like his white christian supporters, prefers immigrants from Norway, as he said, to those brown skinned immigrants from mexico and, as he put it, "shit hole" countries of Africa. Racism, a modern illness, is deeply rooted within the christian faith, and deeply rooted within the conservative movements of both major political parties in America, Republican and Democrat. It is modern conservatism which promotes climate change denial, science denial, and unfettered corporate capitalism, all of which contribute to America's current maladies.Worst of all, it is the far right, in particular the evangelical christian right, eighty two percent of whom voted for trump, which is responsible for giving him the presidency, and the criminality which went with it.The reason why all the white supremacist racist organizations and individuals strongly support Trump, and that reason is they sense a strong common kindred spirit with  a man who has been known to be a racist most of his life. There are signs of hope. Science and progress flourish, despite efforts by Trump to discredit them. There are signs that the Trump movement in the post Trump era is fragmenting, and that new political leaders will soon replace him among American conservatives. The millennial generation, which never did give Trump much support, is now moving into a dominant position in American politics and culture. When Trump's impeachment trial is over, no matter what the outcome, he will probably fade into the background of American politics, never again to regain influence. This in itself is progress.

Menacing America, From Within

 RIGHT WING EXTREMISM is the greatest domestic threat to American national security, it has become obvious. It poses a far greater threat than any foreign adversary, a greater threat to the American future than anything except climate change itself, which threatens the entire world and human civilization. Pour current deadliest threat, Covid 19, we now know for certain will be vanquished. Its merely a matter of time. The recent invasion and ransacking of the Capitol building, a direct result of right wing extremism, clearly reveals its deadly potential for destruction and violence, not merely in terms of recent manifested reality of events during the Trump administration, but more importantly in terms of the future potential of the far right to disrupt and damage American society in the post Trump future, as it appears that the right wing's reaction to Trump's election loss is and will remain one of extreme anger. If there is any silver lining to the insurrection and the overall situation, it is that the fundamental criminality and immorality of Trump and the entire Trump movement has been laid bare in the starkest possible terms for all to plainly see, and thus perhaps to do something about. For most of Trump's disheartened supporters, a great number of whom are part of the far right,Trump is "still" their president. Their rejection of Biden's election is an indicator of the lengths to which they are willing to go to construct their own version of reality as justification for their extremist views and behavior. They believe that Trump and the Republican represent their beliefs as well as their morality. Assuming this is true,, they arguable belong in prison every bit as much as Trump. The far right is dishonest about its reasons for supporting Trump, and has been since the beginning of his political career five years ago. Trump, a former pro choice Democrat, is about as "pro life" is it takes to make a buck, win an election, get on television, or gain the support of an adoring army of sycophants. His real drawing power, what he really offers, has nothing to do with defense of liberty, protection of unborn babies or the American way. What endears the right wing to Trump is deeper and darker; white supremacy, racism, and xenophobia.These are values few dare openly promote; all but teh most extreme of the extremists prefer to couch them in more palatable terms, such as "traditional American values and society". Nevertheless they lurk, just beneath the surface of ordinary conservatives.

Looking, the Right Way

 AN ASTRONOMER at Harvard is absolutely convinced that there is not only life on other planets circling other stars, but that, as he put it, that we are not the "smartest kids on the block". That, upon even cursory examination, is probably not a particularly ambitious claim. A survey of the world's astronomers, physicists, exo-biologists, and indeed the entire professional scientific community would almost certainly reveal that scientists by and large tend to be convinced that there is not only life on other planets, but that in fact the universe is probably abundant with life, perhaps billions of inhabited worlds in our galaxy and others, many forms of life of which are more than likely at least as advanced as ours, if not much more so, in terms of understanding the universe in which they live, and in their ability to control the forces of nature to make their own lives more comfortable and healthy. Carl Sagan put it best: "If we on Earth are the only inhabited planet in the universe, it sure is a lot of space going to waste". The first planet orbiting a star other than the sun was discovered twenty five years ago, and since then thousands more have been discovered by advanced telescopes. It turns out that every star we can see has its own solar system of orbiting planets, and that many of these planets seem to be suited for life, in terms of temperature ranges and chemical composition. out Harvard astronomer agrees with all this, plus, he says that he has seen objects passing through the solar system which appear to be other than natural objects; objects that appear to him to be of purposeful design in their shape and motion, as if space probes or ships. We will doubtless hear more about all that soon. the important ting is to listen to the experts, the professional astronomers, the scientists, the people who have made the effort to become educated and trained in science. These are the people to whom we should listen. Having our own thoughts, dreams, and opinions is wonderful, indeed essential. But we modern Americans for some reason seem to have turned our backs on expertise, and expertise matters. in our politically correct intellectual culture we seem to have decided that we are all entitled to our own facts as well as opinions, and that all paradigms, all opinions are created equal. They most certainly are not. Your local new age self proclaimed guru with the high school education telling you which extraterrestrials are doing what to whom on planet Earth, and how many multi dimensional beings are currently infiltrating our government are not the go to people for knowledge and facts. Books fill libraries with pseudo science and nonsense written buy people who claim to know much, but in fact know only their fantasies, and how to make money peddling them. Mainstream empirical science is under attack today, in our culture of the fantastic and the bizarre. Ironic, since mainstream science, not pseudo scientific cult-ish nonsense has given us all the blessings we tend to take for granted in our high tech world we so enjoy. The next time somebody tries to tell you that there is a global conspiracy to take over the world by Democrats and scientists to take over the world by implanting computer chips in everybody's brain, remember to ask him to prove it.

Ordering Hope

 BIDEN BECAME PRESIDENT about twelve minutes early, according to my many clocks, wall and desktop. Possibly inexact scheduling, or too short a speech from Kamala, or not quite enough pre oath entertainment. Nobody seemed to mind. Whichever, American gains a good president a bit early, Trump loses twelve minutes of authoritarian rule, and we await the lawsuits from the former president's lawyers. The young lady's (Amanda Gorman) poetry was indeed beautiful, she stole the show, but was really more like tightly written prose, with complete sentences, or prose poetry, or poetic prose, but whatever, it worked, and will doubtless make her our most recent addition to celebrity culture. Speaking of celebrity culture, the anthem was rendered magnificently by the best voice in the world, GaGa but may the day come when one only needs a great voice, not celebrity status, to sing the anthem on television. Fanfare for the common man cometh, one can hope. May the common man emerge, and supplant our obsessive culture of fame and fortune. We many who have long longed for effective formal refutation of greatest, most egregious grievous grotesquenesses  rooted for Biden to walk faster, get firmly ensconced in the Oval Office, and get those pens to moving, and at length he did. Those lovely executive orders came flying one by one off the impressive stack he had to his left, and in a few fell swoops America was back in the Paris climate accord, the World Health Organization, and was out of its isolation cage, determined to never gain put starving migrant children into them. We are done making America alone again. Construction on Trump's great wall of futility has been ceased. It will not be resumed, unless Trump gets elected again, after serving his term in prison for treason. Watching Biden wielding the full power of the federal government to actually do something about Covid 19 for a change, to actually begin to do something about climate change, fills America's sixty percent sane with anticipation and hope, hope for an actual future. Biden could, unfortunately, sign executive orders to the moon and back, as we like to say nowadays, ordering an end to systemic racism,, without ever puncturing the barest pin prick in the hardened right wing shells of America's many county judges and right wind extremist cops, but at least he acknowledges that systemic racism exists, and, after what we've been through with our racist former president, that, as they say, is a start. Now if only he could take the time to do something about those god awful golden curtains; they are too remindful of Trump.

Renewing Hope

THE SICK PATIENT is the United States of America. The medical staff are all good, patriotic Americans. The prescription for the cure, I have come to believe, is Joe Biden and his agenda for national healing and rejuvenation. I personally have a much more progressive agenda, but we must all be willing to compromise in a democracy. We must also compromise in our form of government, which is an olagarchial plutocracy, government of, by, and for an elite wealthy class. Well, close enough. The day may come when we have an actual democracy in America, with power belonging to we, the people, or, as Madison described us, the "lesser sort". We'll take what we can get, which for now, is what our founders intended, a very limited republic. I can imagine Biden doing much good, even gathering together Iran, North Korea, and all the nuclear powers of the Earth and proposing a ban on all nuclear weapons in the world, like Gorbachev tried to do, but was stopped by Reagan. Somebody has to do it, might as well be "sleepy Joe" as the Republican reprobates call him.  As for me, there is no need to write dark essays attacking a corrupt criminal former president like there is a corrupt criminal sitting president. I feel a sense of liberation. The daunting tasks ahead for Biden are well known, arguably the most formidable array of difficulties ever to confront an incoming president,although we seem to say that every four years. Yes, Biden is too old for the job, but so are Top Brady and Drew Brees, so, you never know. To quote the new president LBJ the day after JFK was killed: "I cannot do this alone". Trite but true is that we must all work together to solve our country's huge problems. To paraphrase Franklin, we must all stick together, or we will all tank separately.And of course the great divide, engendered by Reagan, remains.Its gotten worse over the years, especially under Trump, who reveled in it. Now it seems insurmountable. I can remember when, before Reagan, there seemed to be not a dime's worth of difference between the two major parties. Then, the Republicans, under the influence of the ultra right wing evangelical Christian influx into politics, moved itself well to the right of Reagan, where it stands, or sits today. But we the American people know exactly what we can do about it; because we just got through doing it to Trump.

Setting An Indecent record

 THE WORLD RECORD for the least amount of dignity and decency by an outgoing presidential administration during transition now formally officially belongs to Donald J. Trump, hands down. Hands up, upon his imminent arrest, trail, and conviction for inditing a treasonous, riotous attempt to overthrow the government, among many other crimes, too numerous too mention her, but well known. Trump never conceded the election,never called, spoke to, nor congratulated Biden, refused to even speak Biden's name.Deplorably shabby behavior for any American president. For weeks he incited anger and resentment among his own supporters by falsely claiming that the election had been stolen from him, a lie, without a shred of supporting evidence. May Trump and his supporters be swept away into the dustbin of history like trash, their rantings about a stolen election muffled by millions of patriotic Americans proudly proclaiming national restoration under Biden. Trump will pay for his crimes in the system of justice, as an avalanche of legal, civil and criminal, descends upon him. May he rot in prison, where he belongs.  Trump;s leaving town amid military splendor, red carpet, canon blasting, honor guard,  constitutes a final clownish act which dishonors and discredits the American military, but only for a few moments. We can recover from Trump's bizarre, clownish behavior, behavior we have witnessed for four long years, an avalanche of lies and horrible slanders of good people. During his final week Trump hid in the white House, out of sight like the cowardly criminal he truly is. his final statement was pre recorded, lacking even the courage to confront the American people live. As he prepared to board Air Force One for his departure, he touted his imaginary achievements, once again derided his opponents, and told one lie after another, as usual. Trump by his inaction turned a minor epidemic into a catastrophe which has killed half a million American, and has crashed the economy. his racist hatred and denial of climate change are disastrous, and reprehensible. He says he plans to start a new political party, perhaps a new television network, and to remain active in politics. If justice is served, he will have to do all that from a prison cell.

Making A Bit Much of Mozart

 EVERY TOWN in the U.S. with more than ten people has more that ten million acoustic guitar singer song writers, if not more.  They ply their trade of four tracks recording systems, gig around a bit at parties and local bars, and hope for the best. The best is usually a few bucks in the bank a all the beer you can swill while you strum. Most if not all of them are very good musicians.  Problem is, we are a culture of performing artists as much as a culture of performing artist consumers; supply overwhelms demand, and few make it big, commercially. Really, this is a good thing. A country of abundant culture, flooded with homemade books nobody reads, songs nobody hears, are nobody sees.Art for the sake of art itself. Anyone seeking fame and fortune through creativity is in the wrong business with the wrong attitude.the art is the ting, all the rest but icing on the proverbial cake. In Mozart's time it was much the same, with many good but unheralded musicians and composers competing for the public's limited attention span. The streets of Vienna, Salzburg, Prague, and Paris were flooded with good poets and composers. Sometimes Mozart was in, sometimes out, depending on his most recent work, and the mood of the city.He loved Prague, which always loved hi, no matter what. Vienna, not so much. Mozart the party animal, short on cash, long on women, with an inflated sense of his own talent and importance not always matched by his audiences. Nobody knows why or for whom he wrote his final three symphonies, his finest. Ne never got paid for them. He had a weird, complicated, co-dependent relationship with his father, who began parading him around Europe when he turned six, showing off his prodigal virtuosity on the piano and viola. He could play anything standing on his head, blindfolded. In young adulthood he wrote home expressing joy at the progress of his compositions, the scenery, and his abundant social life. his father wrote back asking when and how he planned to make some money to send home. sounds like an acoustic guitar song writer sitting in his parent's basement. People today make much too much ado about Mozart. We lavish praise upon his brilliance while ignoring dozens of other composers with roughly the same level of talent and quality of opus. Millions of guitar playing singer song writers can relate.

Making Friends With Misty

 MY FRIEND MISTY is a fundamentalist, Pentecostal, evangelical Christian, assuming I haven't left any adjectives out. she supports Donald Trump and thinks the election was stolen from him. Standard conservative American christian material, standard issue. Exactly the sort of person I despise. Despise, not hate. My best guess is that in her universe the Lord moves in mysterious ways, and, well, Donald Trump was put in the Oval Office by Almighty God to do His work, whatever that may prove to have mysteriously been. To tell lies and blackmail the Ukrainians, maybe. I find that line of reasoning despicable, lunacy. If it works for Misty and a hundred million evangelical Christians, fine, whatever. I made Misty my standard offer: one thousand dollars for her if by the end of twenty twenty one strong evidence emerges anywhere from anybody proving that Trump actually won the election, one thousand dollars to me if nobody does. Misty knows, they all know that Biden won the election, that Trump lost, and that it wasn't even close. The steal would have required way too many people doing way too many obviously strange and shady things in front of way too many witnesses, and would have been found out by now. Yes, Trump and his cult know all that. Bu they wanted it so badly, their disappointment was so extreme, co crushing, that it turned to anger, then to denial, then to fantasy. Its just too bad that it turned to violence, lasted way too long, and turned them into liars and traitors. To remind folks like my friend Misty that Trump is the very antithesis of Jesus is pointless. he was put there to do the Lord's work, and that's that. Of the tens of millions of people like Misty, I despise them all, for supporting Trump, for sending me to hell for not being a "believer", for many other reasons. I despise them all, save for Misty, whom I love. Whom I love for her understanding that my intelligence and education deserve respect. For her sense of humor. For realizing that I am free to be a pantheist, admiring what Einstein called "the infinitely superior spirit which built the universe and is unconcerned with human morality", as long as I am willing to accept the consequences, which I am. For realizing that God and her her might send me to hell. For understanding that I choose to take my chances that hell is a myth fabricated by a cruel, primitive, dark, barbaric, in my opinion, religion. You can sit down with Misty and have a margarita, and talk a little football and she won't send either of us to hell for having a little fun. her lively, energetic mind if loving and kind. Misty is my kind of conservative evangelical Christian. Misty and I and our friendship prove that the great American divide is not inevitable, and can be healed. If Misty and I can do it, anyone can.

Proving Jefferson Wrong

 THOMAS JEFFERSON, an inveterate racist, in the only book hew ever wrote, "Notes On the State of Virginia", said that black people, (he called them "Negroes"" were intellectually incapable of sophisticated reasoning, incapable of writing poetry, that black women prefer to mate with gorillas, and that black men prefer white women. Yes, he really wrote all that. As Casey Stengal used to say, you could look it up. Jefferson was no less a victim of his times and cultural environment than the rest of us, brilliant though he was. Don't judge him too harshly. Our descendants will doubtless think that we were barbarians, and they will doubtless be correct, by their own standards. An African-american with a doctorate in mathematics from Harvard wrote to Jefferson, begging to differ. Jefferson was duly impressed, and decided that the gentleman was simply the exception that proved the rule. Jefferson, brilliant, but imperfect, not entirely open minded. On inauguration day a brilliant young African-American poet, Amanda Gorman, who reads Jefferson and begs to differ will read her original poem a poem which mentions Jefferson, and proves him wrong. Jefferson would have approved.Normally, he did not mind being proven wrong, and relished the challenge of intellectual discussion. He loved to learn. He wa so open minded that ht had six kids and a forty year relationship with one of his slaves, taught the kids employment skills, and freed them all shortly before his death. His common law wife was one eight black, looked white, but black enough to be a slave for life. By eighteenth century standards, Jefferson was noble, magnanimous. We have come far since Jefferson lived, but only because Jefferson lived, and were he alive today, he would doubtless congratulate us on our progress, but admonish us that we have not come far enough. he was an apostle of progress who was so confident in the abilities of the common man that he radically believed that they should be allowed to govern themselves. Nobody else believed in such a crazy idea as democracy, not even James Madison, the author of the constitution. Thomas Jefferson would probably be happy to hear the poem by the young black woman on inauguration day, would probably agree that she was talented, and, probably would, we can hope, not ascribe her beautiful poetry to her being the exception which proves the rule.

Dreaming

 WHENEVER SOME SANCTIMONIOUS AMERICAN complains about human or civil rights violations in other countries, sarcastically percipient un-Americans, Chinese, Russians, Iranians, North Koreans, what not, who not, appropriately speaks the words: "I can't breathe". Touche'. Point taken. Case closed. What goes around, comes around, etc. If only we got the point, and kept it. The ugly American shuts his mouth, only, not usually. it is indeed possible for the United States  of Inequality to lecture other countries about human and civil rights, but not with any credibility. This, considering our present state of affairs. If American abuses of basic human rights and decency were confined to history books, and had since been corrected rather than merely incrementally improved, it would be one thing.  We could with some degree of credibility voice our concerns about conditions in foreign lands. But considering our grossly uncorrected situation, not so much. It has not, and thus we cannot. Practice what you preach, the saying goes, and we the arrogant ugly American hear a lot of that, not without justification. Of the many wonderful poems Langston Hughes wrote about inequality in America, his favorite was titled "I Dreamed A World". Its a beautiful little piece, easily understood, with the oft explored theme of imagining a better world. We the American people were invited to write our own version, beginning with the words "I dreamed a world". I decided to try to make mine a bit unusual. here it is:......................................................

I dream a world

Therefore I am

And thus the world I dream can be

Deep within the better part of me.

The Buddhists say that mind comes first

That everything from mind proceeds.

The world I dream therefore becomes

A better, kinder world, manifest reality.

As Voltaire famously said; We must tend our gardens.

Moving On In Hope

 THE INCOMPETENT CHAOS of Trump's impotent response to Covid 19, the racist hatred of Trump and his white supremacist Christian supporters, Trump's hateful, vicious tweet twittering rhetoric, his refusal to take action against climate change, the constant lying, the chaotic swamp of bizarre behavior and policy which became the Trump administration, make witnessing its final extinction inspirational, inspiring hope and rejuvenation, as if a long nightmare has finally ended, and we have awakened to a better world. The Biden administration is a renewal of hope, progress, and decency, a return to sanity. Biden's heavily fortified, truncated inauguration is the final, fitting, outgoing death wish gift of Trump and his deplorable supporters, on their way to political irrelevance and, in a more just universe, hell. Biden will fight climate change and systemic racism, organize an effective response to Covid 19, and repair the economy with economic stimulation from the government. Trump encouraged the virus by ignoring it, leading to economic collapse, contributed to the destruction of civilization by ignoring and encouraging climate change with is pro fossil fuel policies, and encouraged racist hatred with hateful racist rhetoric. He also undermined democracy and damaged the  United States by refusing to accept his election defeat, by falsely claiming that the election was stolen from him, repeatedly making this claim and thus angering millions of Americans and inciting violence, and by inciting an angry mob to attack the Capitol building in an attempt to overthrow the government. Other than that, what a guy! You have to love the hair. He belong in prison, and in a just universe will eventually be sent to one, and in an even more just cosmos, will be sent to hell, even though hell does not exist, it being nothing but a fanciful fabrication of a cruel, primitive religion. His seriously mentally ill misguided supporters will persist, but only amorphously, a diffused vacated movement as other, presumably better political leaders emerge. Davy Crockett said: "Always be sure you are right, then go ahead". If only millions of right wing reprobates could understand the first part of David's wise admonition, the conditional part.

Solving the Problem of Trump

 THE PROBLEM is simple, the solution less so.The emergence of Donald Trump and his cult movement, and its subversion of the Republican party, an already inherently corrupt organization. Any supposedly patriotic organization in which a majority of the members denies the existence of the greatest threat to American national security climate change, is corrupt, period. Add trump to the already toxic mix, and a few million lost souls looking for a savior, a messiah,and what emerges is a massive incoherent mob of fanatical zealots, inflamed with psychotic fervor for a twisted, pathological ideology. The ideology is white supremacy and racism, xenophobia, and social and economic Darwinism, buttressed by a cruel, dogmatic religiosity, Christian fundamentalism. Republicans are apparently belatedly beginning to realize that the successful future of their party depends upon severing its connection with Trump. He came in as an outsider, and he must leave an outsider. Trump,s sudden surge in populist popularity four years ago forced the party to reluctantly attach itself to his movement; hence, his takeover of the party. Trump's following was always a minority and still is, its Achilles heal. Trump's fantasy that he won the election, his brazen attempt to steal it, sealed his fate and will soon complete the destruction of his cult and will precipitate massive reform within the Republican party. Trump's supporters, in moments of questionable lucidity, like to claim that the very moment he took office, Democrats began trying to impeach him.  there is a certain truth to this, because Trump's criminality and unfitness for office were recognized early and often. Although his supporters and he himself dismissed the Mueller report as nothing but a conspiracy to destroy him, the fact that the FBI, the CIA, the Department of Homeland Security, as well as all of the other sixteen intelligence gathering agencies within the government affirmed that the Russians gave assistance to Trump, massive assistance in the form of money spend on advertising, misinformation, and websites,  are convincing proof that indeed, Trump became president only with the help of foreign interference.The Mueller report confirmed this, but was misrepresented by Attorney General bill Barr, misleading the American people about its actual contents. Trump, proved Mueller, knew full well during the 2016 campaign that he was getting help from Russia, but instead of trying to stop it and reporting it, accepted it willingly. That alone makes Trump a criminal and a traitor, and justifies spending four long years trying to remove him from office.If only it had succeeded.

A Sickening Movement

 DONALD TRUMP'S APPROVAL RATING, which never varied throughout his presidency from between forty and forty two percent, except when the first impeachment gave him a sympathy bump up to forty nine percent, has suffered a considerable decline since his attempted overthrow of the government, down to thirty three percent. Why it has not declined to zero is beyond comprehension. Evidently he has supporters who support  his coup. Evidently one third of the electorate think that overthrowing the government is justified to keep him in power. Freaky. They would discard democracy, and keep trump as an authoritarian leader. This is beyond mere political extremism; it approximates mental illness. All indications are that the extreme right wing movement will continue to play a part in American politics for the near term, embedded deeply within the republican party and the evangelical christian community. Unfortunate though this is, it can and must be discredited and destroyed at the ballot box. The movement includes advocating a christian theocratic state, with a pure capitalistic free market economy, free of government involvement on behalf of the poor, and an isolationist foreign policy suffused within a white supremacist culture. A seeming contradiction is that the extreme right seems to advocate an aggressive American military presence globally, to export American values and interests around the world. They mistakenly believe that America once embodied these qualities, and should again to be great.This is all a lie, of course. Fortunately, a growing majority of voters oppose this insane agenda, as reflected in elections and surveys, and it is extremely unlikely that right extremism will ever be achieve through democratic methods. The socialistic safety net is here to stay, for instance.So is religious diversity.So is ethnic diversity.A pure white America is nothing but a twisted fantasy of twisted thinking. That is why the extreme right is becoming more aggressive, more violent, and why it must be stopped, beginning inauguration day. The vision for American being laid out by the Democratic party and by Joe Biden is becoming reality, whether or not the far right approves, because most Americans want a progressive agenda. Just as Joe Biden won at the ballot box, future progressive candidates will win, and enact a kinder, gentler civil society. The far right crazy coalition will be forced to leave their assault weapons and bibles at home, and either join the rest of us, or be forgotten.

Backing It Up

 TRUMP'S SUPPORTERS are madder than hell, and they aint gonna take it no more,or, at least, so they think.If they aren't careful, they're likely to end up in jail, like the common criminals that they seem to be becoming.Anger or no anger, protests or no protests, armed insurrection at the Capitol, armed protests on inauguration day- whatever, one thing is certain; trump supporters are going to have to accept the reality of President Joe Biden. they may as well start now, and stop all the nonsense. The national capitol is now a fortress, and all fifty state capitols are fortified and ready to defend themselves against enraged mobs of Trump supporters. It shouldn't have to be that way. We the American people shouldn't have to be going through this terror, and division. who's fault is the divided country now; Biden supporters, or Trump supporters? The answer is beyond obvious. The american people should not be subjected to a siege of well armed angry political losers of their own country. eighty percent of Republicans claim that the election was stolen. Shame on them, for they are all traitors. This is the depth to which the party of Lincoln has sunk. Lincoln must be turning over in his mausoleum. I've frankly had enough, and so probably have most Americans. Enough of this nonsense. I've had it up to here with Trump loving traitors shooting off their big mouths, claiming without a shred of evidence that the election was stolen. Talk, as they say, is cheap. I've been looking around for a Trump supporter with enough backbone to put his or her money where his or her big fat mouth is. How dare they discredit democracy without a single piece of evidence, and use violence to vent theirs petty childish anger! I have one thousand dollars which says that before the end of this year no convincing evidence, not a single shred of it, will have been presented proving that the election was stolen from Trump. Any takers? none so far, unsurprisingly, and as I said, I've been looking around, making the offer. Cowardly, lying bastards. All hat, no cattle, as they say. Make America great by trying to overthrow the government, by undermining democracy,by trying to steal the election, and trying to start a civil war, the Donald F------ Trump way. God, what reprehensible, despicable, pathetic bastards. Tens of millions of them, and I'll bet not a single one of the traitorous lying cowards will have the guts to take my bet.

Reaping Freedom's Fruit

 CHINA RECENTLY RECORDED its first Covid 19 death in eight months -eight months. Here in the United States of Arrogance the carnage has reached four thousand dead per day, with half a million total Covid dead in sight by the end of February. "Arrogance" replaces "America" because arrogance is what has killing hundreds of thousands of Americans needlessly. Incoming President Joe Biden, ever the good tax and spend Democrat, plans to spend our way out of the pandemic, which is all well and good. After all, we need more testing, more people, more vaccines, and so forth. Outgoing reprobate Trump failed to do enough of any of that, failed  to do anything other than nothing. He told us to drink bleach and not to wear masks, but that's about it. But the real problem are we, the American people, and our smug, self satisfied, arrogant culture. Remember those Memorial Day lake parties? all the water skiing and bikini togetherness? Wasn't that fun? Then too, remember the fourth of July, and our star spangled group activities? Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's, all the family and friend togetherness, the drinking and breathing sans masks. the virus is something that other people get, not me. Its a liberal hoax.Real Americans don't wear masks and don't compromise their freedom. Ah, that wonderful half a million man and woman motor cycle rally in Sturgis, South Dakota, back in August. S fun, so dismissive of impending death, so arrogant. Now the bill has come due, and its time to pay the piper, the grim reaper. Was it all worth it? The Chinese may be sneaky little bastards, stealing our  precious intellectual property and cheap laboring us out of business and all, but give credit where credit is due; they know when to stay home. When their government tells them to stay home, they stay home. They don't have to stay home. If a billion Chinese decided to defy their government and get out and party, no power in "Peking" or Earth or heaven could stop them, not even their authoritarian government. but the Chinese people, lacking arrogance and the determination to show their freedom and individual power have the good sense to know when to postpone the fun and partying till later, and stay home. They know when to respond to reasonable authority and good advice, instead of yelling about freedom and government tyranny, and acting like independent idiots, impervious to deadly viruses. If only we the American people had a little more common sense and humility, and a little bit less freedom and arrogance.

Recycling Resistance

 SHORTLY AFTER TRUMP took office, I affixed an "Unfit to Serve, Impeach Trump" bumper sticker to my bumper. It fit. I gotta lotta dirty looks, tail-gators, and horn honkers in my small conservative southern town, but no bullets, yet, and, I remain unfazed. Trump people , we have recently learned, are violent but cowardly, while anti-Trumpers are peaceful and undaunted by thugs. The sticker worked like a charm, impeaching the corrupt president. I was thus confronted with the daunting task of removing an obsolete artifact, an outdated automotive tattoo, ready for retirement.  but I procrastinated, my one failing, and the sticker stayed, fading and fraying. People mad the predictable jokes, and my standard rejoinder became: "you never know, I may need it again". My joke turned out to be prophetic. By and by Trump screwed up again, this time big time, and got impeached, again. A seemingly no longer needed bumper sticker, suddenly useful again. Who woulda thunk it? It could be argued that, considering the kind of criminal Trump is, that he got impeached a second time was somewhat predictable, but, let's not argue the point. One needn't have the powers of Nostradamus to predict accurately that Donald Trump will find some way to get into trouble, but, in my case, it was purely serendipitous. At this point, with less than a week remaining in Trump's term (hallelujah)  it is hardly likely that he will get impeached yet a third time, but, as I said before, you never know, and, well, the sticker is still on my car, though faded and more tattered by time and the elements than ever. It certainly isn't physically impossible. In fact, every day, first thin I do when arising is check out the news, to see whether Trump has orchestrated any more mob uprisings against the Untied States on his way out the door. Until Next Wednesday actually comes and goes, anything is possible, and Trumpers are apparently going to make one last desperate attempt to overthrow the Biden administration on inauguration day itself. I should probably replace the sticker with a new one reading: "convict and incarcerate Trump". and I will, if I can find one, when the impeachment trial begins. But my old friend the bumper sticker ma not  be quite done yet. Like Yogi Berra probably famously never said: "It aint over till its over".

Adding A Single Sane Word

 THE CONSERVATIVE ESTIMATE is that twenty five percent of the American people suffer from mental illness of some sort or another. A more liberal guess is fifty, what with the stress of the pandemic and the craziness of American culture and all. Arguably, at one time or another everyone experiences mental illness, just as everyone experiences physical illness. Arguably, everyone has at least one form of chronic mental illness. the types of mental illness are so many that surely everyone is afflicted with at least one of them, if not more. Who among us can truly claim to be free of all health related maladies, mental or physical? Who among us isn't a bit smitten by a smidgeon of gout, hypertension, diabetes, hardening of the arteries, arthritis, eczema, psoriasis, or such? It is also arguable, indeed evident that currently rampant in the United States are pathological prevarication (lying), narcissism, and delusion, and . that entire portion of the national mental illness epidemic, which in fact constitutes a huge portion of the whole, can be remedied by a single word, which ought properly be chiseled into granite on every public building in freedom's land: "perhaps", or, as an alternative: "maybe". Take your pick.A national referendum could decide between the two. "Perhaps" has an intellectual flair, "maybe" better suits blue collar America. Consider this:" perhaps the election was stolen from Donald Trump". "Maybe there are extraterrestrials disguised as human beings controlling the Federal Reserve". Sound better? sound less arrogant, more open minded, more honest? Case closed.Problem solved. No matter how unlikely the accusation, how outrageous the claim, the need for evidence is mitigated, if not eliminated merely by making the matter speculative, rather than arrogantly certain. Merely by adding a qualifier. Our national epidemic of delusional dishonesty is thus ended and the only necessary vaccine is a simple, but all important single word."Perhaps the Covid 19 epidemic is a liberal media hoax". "Maybe right wind extremist Trump supporters claiming election fraud are a tad violent and unreasonable". As you can plainly see, the possibilities are endless, for ending strife and arrogant, inappropriate certainty, the kind which starts wars. When something is put like that, in uncertain terms the only thing lacking is the  investigation.

Due Process: Doing It Right

 DONALD TRUMP should have been impeached and removed within moments of being sworn into office, for accepting with open arms assistance getting elected from Russia. during the insurrection as the Capitol, republicans refused to wear masks while huddled closely together in safe rooms, and afterwards refused to pass through metal detector machines. meanwhile, hundreds of rioters posted pictures of themselves on social media, rioting. All of this suggests that Trump and his supporters are not the brightest bulbs in the holiday display, so to speak. But ten of them had the good sense of duty to vote to impeach Trump, redux, so, maybe there is hope for conservatives after all. Our recent insurrection and re-impeachment melodrama derives directly from repeated claims made by Trump and millions of others that the election was stolen from him. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, correctly stated the late great Carl Sagan. When you accuse somebody, or many somebodies, of wrongdoing, you must have the proof in advance. You must show the proof immediately, or, lacking proof, show strong evidence, or, lacking that, show at least some small shred of evidence. The evidence you already have is what allows and motivates you to make the accusation. One does not make an accusation, then go looking for evidence of it. It is now two and a half months after the election. Not a single shred of evidence that the election was stolen from Trump has been presented by him or any of the millions of people who share his accusation. There is not even a remote justification for the accusation of massive election fraud. Tens of millions of accusers, not a shred of evidence. At what point do they become liars, frauds? How long do they have before time expires for them to provide evidence? Arguably, they  and Trump are already liars and frauds, perpetrators of a hoax. The evidence or proof should have been presented the same day the accusation was made.This is merely another example of Trump supporters openly displaying their indecency and dishonesty.They revealed their immorality dearly, by electing and supporting the most corrupt criminal president in American history. Trump's millions of supporters, many evangelical Christians, many making this ridiculous accusation of election stealing,have revealed themselves to be nothing but immoral, indecent, dishonest hoaxers.We continue to await any evidence at all of widespread election fraud,of the election having been stolen from trump.We will never get it, for they are the true criminals, trying to steal the election from Biden. Unless and until, of course, they provide proof, or even a shred of evidence to support their ridiculous accusations.

Identifying Bias, By Type

WHITE CHRISTIAN BIAS, cultural bias perpetrated and perpetuated by white Christians against non Christians and people of color, is intrinsic, built into American culture, including the legal, political, and economic systems.  America is the land of opportunity and inequality, opportunity for white Christians especially, inequality for everyone, including white Christians. All social research shows this. In America, to get ahead, you want to be a white christian, preferably heterosexual.The Islamic terrorists who attacked the World Trade Center in 1993 were successfully prosecuted on charges of sedition. Extreme right wing christian hate groups have tended to successfully evade prosecution and conviction for various provable crimes. the pattern is constant; people of color and non Christian faiths do not do as well in the legal system, or economically, and the deciding factor is not talent; its prejudice. Perhaps that will someday change, but for now there is no sign that it is, despite our often proclaimed belief that it should and must. It has been noted that had the U.S. Capitol building been attacked by Black Lives Matter African-Americans, the outcome would have been much different, much harsher. To point this out is not injecting needless racism into the situation; it is s merely a matter of fact, and every American knows it. Conservatives are quick to accuse progressives of injecting racism into the discussion where none is needed, and of therefore being racists. Like most right wind arguments, this is a blatant lie. Racism exists in America, has always existed,  a priori. to simply point out the problem and to speculate on probable outcomes based on racial factors is not inventing racism; it is describing it and trying to find ways of dealing with it. During the all white insurrection as the Capitol, the rioters and looters were mostly free to come and go, without resistance. Police responses to the Black Lives Matter protesters was harsh whether or not looting, burning, and rioting was involved, as it was sometimes, and sometimes not. On those occasions in which the BLM protesters were nearly all white, as they often were, police response was conspicuously far more passive. Although these examples do not unto themselves prove bias or racism, an examination of police arrests and legal outcomes based on racial differences, analyzing thousands of cases, clearly proves the point. The same is true of religious differences, and the culturally preferred religion. Atheists are like men and slender people compared to women and obese people; they get the better treatment. All men and women may be created equal in the eyes of God, but certainly not in the eyes of humanity, at least, not yet.

Witnessing Arrogance

 THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION is an aggressively expansionist ideology. Anyone whos dreamy nap has been rudely interrupted by a loud knock on the door and two well groomed well attired young men bearing Bibles and brochures can so attest. Good friends of mine use to smuggle bibles into the Soviet Union. I prayed they wouldn't get caught, questioned the morality of not respecting the wishes of their hosts, and their sanity in taking the risk of spending their remaining days in a dank Russian prison, but, well, people do what they do. Enthusiastic evangelism in action. One might recall reading about the crusades, when, beginning in the year 1095 A.D., hordes of European Christian poured repeatedly into Islamic territory, bent on conquest and conversion of alleged infidels. The mere fact that the Christian religion has spread to every continent is the most convincing indicator of the efficacy with which missionaries and military might have spread the alleged true faith.Arguably all this is immoral, from the door knocking to the bible smuggling to the military attacks. Immoral on the simple ethical theory that everyone is entitled to religious freedom, freedom from coercion or persuasion of any sort. Devout Christians might argue that it is there sacred duty to spread the true gospel, the true faith. They might not consider the possibility that many others people have their own version of the true faith, and are happy with it. Other people already embrace the true faith; their own, whether or not it is Christianity.Christians intent on converting non Christians might do well to remind themselves that those they seek to convert are likely as intelligent as those seeking to improve them, and require no religious guidance, or that if they do, they can go looking for it, without being urged to do so. arguably, attempting to convince someone to change and improve his or her religious beliefs is insulting and disrespectful. But, of course anyone trying to change another's religion is probably too arrogant and insensitive to the need to be respectful of others to even care about such things in the first place. The evangelicals call it 'witnessing". They call themselves "believers". Everyone is a believer, in his or her own beliefs, not someone else's.. What we are witnessing is the temerity and arrogance of sanctimonious self superior souls with a selfish sense of superiority, witnessing their own shallow self absorption.

Accounting, Part II

 WITHOUT ACCOUNTABILITY, there are no consequences for bad behavior, and the bad behavior continues with impunity, by the original miscreant and by others who imitate it.The argument, somewhat prevalent, that holding Trump accountable by imposing negative consequences on him is undesirable because doing so would further divide the nation and hinder bipartisan healing is, in a word,fatuous, in another word, irrational. The people making this specious argument, and calling for national healing are Trump supporters, the selfsame people who unhesitatingly divided the nation for years by embracing extremist ideologies and policies, embracing and perpetuating blatant lies by Trump, and by supporting a blatantly immoral president, immoral in his words and actions both. Now, suddenly, their leader in disgrace, they seek reconciliation in ignoring his criminal behavior. Proper healing would place Trump in front of a firing squad for trying to overthrow the government violently. There will be on compromise and reconciliation between efforts to reverse climate change and climate change deniers. The deniers require reforming. There will be no compromise nor healing between extreme right wing white supremacy and racial equality, the white supremacists will have to be defeated. There will be no reconciliation between the Trump movement and the mainstream political spectrum; the Trump movement will have to be destroyed. Either this will be a white supremacist country which embraces nationalism, xenophobia, isolationism, and white evangelical theocratic Trumpism, or it will be a country of racial diversity, harmony,and equality. The Trump agenda and ideology will either prevail, or fail. That is why it matter what happens to Donald Trump after he leaves office, whether he is prosecuted or pardoned, whether he is allowed to run for the presidency again, and whether his cult following strengthens or diminishes and goes extinct. High sounding talk of national healing, of bringing a divided nation together, given the nature of the division, is sheer fantasy. One side or the other will have to be defeated. America has always been great in many ways, and in many ways has never been. Whether it can be made truly great in an original way depends entirely on the outcome of the forthcoming struggle.

Accounting

 THIRTY FIVE PERCENT of republicans think it was a good idea to storm the Capitol building. A large majority of them still insist that the election was stolen from Trump, whether they actually believe it. A majority of them believe that climate change is a hoax, and are unaware that a substantial part of the American economy is socialistic. But, I digress. The point is that the republican party, dominated by white christian middle and upper middle class conservatives, is crazier than a basketball bat, unhinged from reality, and thus deadly dangerous to itself and to the country.It is so mentally ill that if it were a horse, it would be shot. In all honesty, much the same can be said about American culture in general, but again I digress.you begin to understand why the NAZI party was banned in Germany shortly after the end of World War Two. The American president is a ranting lunatic, and most Americans only only now beginning to realize it. Two thirds of Americans believe that Trump is responsible for the insurrection. Thus one must question the sanity of the other one third. Seemingly, it lives in some alternative reality.Had Lincoln lived, the south would have risen far earlier than it actually did, in the sense that the old pre civil war white supremacist social structure would have immediately regained control, and the renewed subjugation of African-Americans would simply have taken place sooner than it actually did. Systems of tyranny and oppression cannot be appeased. Fifty more years of Reconstruction would have done the foremr Confederacy, and the entire nation, considerable good. Accountability worked like a charm for the French after they finally corrected their mistake of sending Napoleon to Elba, and sent him to St Helena for good, but only after inflicting a great deal more suffering upon Europe, particularly at Waterloo They learned late, but they learned. Germany got it right the first time in dealing with Hitler and the NAZIs harshly in the aftermath of World War Two, despite having their country torn in half by their allied vanquishers. Trumpism, post Trump, must be thoroughly discredited and eliminated.Voting Trump out of office, vanning him from social media, impeaching and convicting him are good first steps. the final solution will be for better people to step uo and emerge a leaders of the republican party and to take the party in a new, different, and better direction.More of the same right wind evangelical extremism is obviously not the answer. Now is the time for all good centrist conservatives to come to the aid of their party, and their country.

Warning

 IT BEARS REPEATING that what was hopefully Trump's final, most brazen breach of decency and law cannot be denied as  "hoax" or a "conspiracy", or "fake news' Perpetrated against him by his enemies, his usual dishonest, insane means of evading responsibility for his criminal behavior. he incited the riot at the Capitol, we all agree on that, its on recorded video for all to see. Removing him from office would give Pence an opportunity to pardon him; impeachment and post presidential conviction, followed by criminal prosecution are the best course. Let him remain ifn office until the twentieth. We'll have to take our chances on nuclear war or further assaults on America by mobs of Trump supporters. Evangelical Christians on the radio expressed regret that a great president is being forced to finish his presidency under such unfortunate circumstances, as if  Trump is being subjected to unfair treatment. Thirty five percent of Republicans, according to a survey, believe that the insurrection was justified, and regret only that it failed. They may try again on the seventeenth, when protests all over the country, against the election results, Washington D.c. and all state capitols, are scheduled. This is why the conservative white Christian Republican is effectively the most dangerous terrorist organization in the world, the greatest threat to the United States, with the possible exception of climate change.Donald Trump will leave office on January 20, and whether or not he tries to pardon himself, will walk straight into a legal quagmire.But the misguided miscreants who by the millions continue to support him will remain a dire threat to American decency and security, long after Donald Trump has been convicted and incarcerated, long after his death. Anyone who supports Donald Trump at this point has no decency, morals, or shame.The assertion that the election was stolen from him is a complete fabrication, an attempted hoax, an attempted coup, traitorous.Ridiculous though ti is, millions of miscreants cling tenaciously to it,and to the detriment of the country, will probably keep trying to act on it, violently. We must accept the stark reality that we live in a country in which upwards of forty percent of the population are criminals and traitors, and mentally ill, delusional.