Making Much Ado (about anything and everything)

 MUCH FUSS has been lately made of the fact that it costs, approximately, seventy to eight dollars per month to outfit an incontinent butt with disposable diapers, and that many a young single or otherwise mother cannot afford to so outfit infant, or must choose between food, electric or water bill, or diapers of the disposable kind. All true, and sad. Food bank-like diaper banks are springing forth, a worthy undertaking. Lost in te uproar is that there was once a time, fifty years ago, when disposable diapers did not exist, and civilization managed to get along rather well, just as it did without cell phones or exercycles without computer screens. Also, disposable diapers are an environmental disaster, filling landfills. Perhaps we are making much of a problem which is less of a problem than we might imagine. When confronted with a choice of necessity between food, water, electricity, or diapers, choose all the former, and in a pinch use cloth diapers, reusable, washable, the old fashioned way.. Having done that, we can turn our attention to the actual underlying problem; grotesque economic inequality in America, and lack of support for children. Consider donating cloth reusable diapers, and food, which is always in short supply in our grotesque, inefficient economy..Much is currently being made about the sixty five year old Asian-american lady who was brutally assaulted by a thirty eight year old African-american man in broad daylight, with people watching.The criminal knocked her down, kicked her in the head, and remarked that she "didn't belong here", and nobody intervened. the bystanders are now being suspended from their jobs for not performing like good Samaritan heroes and doing something about it. But the hate criminal was a really big dude, and anyone willing to accost a little old lady on the street might well be equally willing to pull out a semi automatic and blow away anyone trying to help. A surveillance camera, of the sort which are ubiquitous, caught him on video, the police apprehended him shortly thereafter. No heroism needed.Perhaps we should al lower our expectations of others a bit, and trust that justice will be served by the folks professionally trained to serve it. Rather than chastise bystanders for being a bit timid about suddenly becoming super heroes, let us resolve together to address the root problem, the same ole same ol American problem, among our originals sins: racism itself. we have many varieties from which to choose: anti black, anti Asian, anti Hispanic, anti native american, your choice. With a moment's thought, one might begin to wonder whether the problem is expensive disposable diapers, and hat crimes perpetrated in the middle of the day without any intervention from civilians, or whether the problem might be the social and moral values of a culture so sick that were it a horse, it would have long since been shot, merely to put it out of its misery.

Disinforming, Like FOX

 FOX NEWS made what may eventually become an expensive mistake when it cablecast not only people who falsely claimed the election was stolen from Trump, but took matters a step further, perhaps a step too far, by accusing the Dominion voting machine company of having cooperated in by orchestrating the theft.That is slander, and Dominion intends to prove so in a one point six billion dollar lawsuit against FOX, alleging that the network cost Dominion millions of dollars in revenue. FOX has all kinds of defenses, all fatuous. It stands solidly behind its reporting integrity, blah blah. No, the slander was not presented as mere opinion, but as rock solid fact, evidence soon to follow. It never followed.Dominion is not famous, its reputation is not public property, to be kicked around like an abused tin can, immune to defamation. And since FOX on several occasions stated that claims of criminality made against Dominion on FOX were false, rather than protect against exposure to legal liability as the network evidently intended, actually confirmed the fact that it cablecast false, slanderous claims against Dominion. Conservative media in America are generally a perfect reflection of the conservative community in America.There is no end to its corruption, dishonesty, and  immorality. The sexual abuse scandal, involving Bill O'Reilly, roger Ailes, and a few other FOX big shots, proves the immorality. Never to be forgotten are the more than thirty thousand lies told by Donald Trump while in office, all documented, and fully supported by conservative talk radio, FOX news, and tens of millions of conservative Republicans, many of them evangelical Christians. Immoral, dishonest, all of the above. The spread of deliberate disinformation is a phenomenon usually associated with discredited fringe internet sources, seeker of sensational responses. FOX is indisputable mainstream media, with a large following among conservatives. likewise Rush Limbaugh, before his death. Still, throughout the entire Trump administration media sources of such large followings embraced Trump's lies, especially the big lie about the election being stolen, and repeated it constantly, without giving the slightest indication of its falsehood. When the media stops reporting the news and transforms itself into a political propaganda machine, as nearly conservative media has done, there is cause for concern.

Reading the Bible, Literally

 FEW PEOPLE read the Bible. Of those who do, most skip around, cherry picking scriptural passage which suits their personal needs or reinforce their  beliefs. Nearly one million words is a major undertaking for merely reading a book, any book. Of those who read it cover to cover like the historical novel that it is, know that the Old testament is an "enhanced" history of a single family which grew into an ethnic group,while the New testament is the early history of a new religion which sprang forth from a very old one. Several trends stand out. God in the Bible has multiple personalities, which figures, because the Bible was written by approximately forty different people, over a long period of time.The bible begins with god dominating the narrative, but as the thirty nine books of the Old Testament proceeds, god god slowly but surely disappears, is mentioned less frequency. The book of Esther, late in the Old testament, contains no mention of God. By today's legal, moral, social, and psychological standards, the biblical god is a psychotic, petty tyrant, childish, murderous, prone to tantrums, cruel, and genocidal, an extreme narcissist  with an insecurity complex. He is only somewhat less harsh and more reasonable in the new Testament. the people who most devoutly worship the biblical Christian God tend to be the least informed about the bible's contents, the least concerned about god's cruel nature. They are the page turners, the cherry pickers.Those who study and know the bible the most thoroughly and completely are scholars who overwhelmingly ten to examine the Bible from a factual, critical, historical, an scientific point of view, rather than a blindly devotional viewpoint. They read in in its original Hebrew and Greek and they teach at divinity schools in the world's most prestigious universities, like Harvard and Princeton.Harvard was founded as a theological seminary, and remains to this day among the world's best divinity schools. People who teach there can read the Bible in several languages, and almost by memory.A high percentage of students who enroll in graduate studies at these institutions enter as devout evangelical Christians and graduate as atheists or agnostics. Such is the impact of sustained scholarship undertaken from an historical scientific objective rather than a devotional point of view. One famous example of this is Bart Ehrman, who entered the Princeton religious studies program a devout christian, and graduated with a doctorate, having evolved into an agnostic.  Scholarship, honest scholarship influences people. Ehrman went on to become perhaps the world's leading authority on the early history of Christianity, and president of the UNC Chapel Hill school of religious studies. His personal religious evolution did not and does not deter his research; he has written many excellent books on the subject. Agnosticism can be regarded as an extreme form of open mindedness, always conducive to good scholarship.

Thirsting For Justice

 ITS A HOT HUMID DAY in the Peach State. You've been standing in line for at least two hours or more in the glaring sun, without food, water, or respite. Your legs are numb, and you are parched. The line seems to not be moving at all. Its a long ballot. Your light headedness does not damper your resolve. Suddenly yo see a friend approaching, smiling, with a bottle of cold Evian in her outstretched hand.Just as she greets you and offers you a lifesaving sip a cop approaches her from behind, cuffs her, reads her her rights, and escorts her to his patrol car, where he places his hand on top of her head and guides her down into the back seat. she will now be accused of a crime, and will experience the wrath of the judicial system, fines, fees, lawyers and all. She has committed a crime of compassion. It is now illegal in Georgia, and will likely soon be so in many other conservative states, to prevent dehydration while waiting to vote.The ostensible reason, say conservatives, who watched in horror as Donald Trump lost the state and the presidency and Georgia lost two Republican Senators and gained two Democratic Senators and the Democrats took control of congress, is to stamp out rampant election fraud and electioneering. The state which opposed letting blacks vote by charging them to do it and forcing them to read esoteric texts in "literacy tests" is rapt in a fit of electoral integrity. A bottle of cold water, after all, on a day day in the deep south, could potentially turn a good christian Republican into a raving atheist Democratic socialist. thirst is a powerful force, and we must not be tempted, its better to suffer in silence. Republicans nationwide are understandably upset about losing both the presidency and Congress, so much so that they invent the fantasy that the election was stolen, and not only make it harder to vote, but much more uncomfortable as well. Their claim that they are eliminating fraud and making voting more efficient is belied by the removal of vote drop boxes and the addition of frivolous administrative obstacles to mail in voting, which Democrats use extensively. Sore loser Trump supporters know full well that the election wasn't stolen and that voter fraud is vanishingly rare in the United States.They may be stupid and delusional, but even they are not sufficiently stupid and delusional to actually believe such nonsense. but they are sufficiently dishonest, as proven by their support of the mother of all liars, Trump himself. The Republican definition of voter fraud is the loss of an election by a Republican candidate. The fact that this whole sorry episode of voter suppression is predicated upon the single big lie of a single big liar, Trump himself, invalidates the entire voter suppression movement, and exposes it for the fraudulent scam that it is, with its pretext of election integrity enhancement. Trump invented the lie before the election was over, and a big lie told often enough becomes believed. But like any structure built upon a false foundation, this one cannot and will not stand long.

Gaming the System

  AS THE 2020 ELECTION APPROACHED, Harris county, Texas, the home of Houston, like the rest of the country, was confronted with the problem of how to safely and effectively hold an election in the middle of a pandemic. Election administrator Isabelle Longoria did some brain storming, and came up with some creative, innovative ideas about how to safely get out the vote. They included an expanded absentee voting period and mail in vote opportunity. what better way to give folks the chance to vote with very little direct human contact? Also included were expanded voting hours for early in person voting and election day in person voting, an increased number of polling places, all measures designed to make it easier and more convenient to vote, providing maximum opportunity to cast a ballot, while thinning out the crowd. Her most brilliant innovation was truly all American: drive thru voting! All these changes were remarkably successful; more than a hundred thousand people drove thru and voted fast food style, and the overall turnout in Houston and around the country, with many of the same innovations in place, was record setting. Amid the record turnout nary a trace of fraud was discovered in any precinct in the country, including those in which the innovations were implemented.The election of 2020 was the most fair, free, and efficient election in American history, according to all investigations and reliable sources, including the FBI and others. The only problem with the election is that it resulted in the defeat of Donald Trump, the election of Joe Biden, and the installation of a Congress in which both houses are controlled by the Democratic party, an unacceptable outcome from the Republican point of view. Infuriated to the point of denial and delusion, most republicans embraced Trump's lie that the election had been stolen, despite the complete lack of any evidence to suggest it. Of teh tens of thousands of Republican poll workers in thousands of voting precincts across the country, there came not a single instance of reported fraud or election rigging of any sort. Unable to overturn the election results in the court system or in the electoral college, unable to usurp democracy and steal the election victory from Joe Biden, and unable to violently overthrow the federal government in an act of sheer desperation with a violent insurrection at the U/.S. Capitol building, the Republicans have now turned to voter suppression as their final defense. They are now engaged in about half the states ina project to make it more difficult to vote, ostensibly to eliminate voter fraud, which has been proven to be nearly nonexistent, but in reality to decrease the number of voters, especially poor minorities who usually vote Democratic, Republicans hape to change their future fortunes, knowing that only with a much lower voter turn out can they hope to gain and retain political power. This is how low the conservative movement and the Republican party have sunk. This is, as President Biden said, "sick".

Seeing the Forest

 ELIZABETH NEWMAN, a career national security professional, was an assistant director of the Department of Homeland Security during the Trump administration, having worked for the DHS since nine eleven. Her job description was assessing and reducing the threat of domestic made in America terrorism. Her thorough, assiduously researched assessment, verified by the FBI, is that by far the greatest internal threat to American national security comes from right wing extremist groups of the sort which ardently support Donald Trump, refuse to accept the reality of his election defeat, and planned the Capitol insurrection on the internet, a confirmed fact. Right wing extremism, irrefutably, demonstrably dangerous to America. Newman served for three years in the Trump administration where she, a conservative Republican Christian, tried to make this dangerous situation clear to the administration. All her warnings fell on deaf ears, as if nobody in the White House wanted to hear or believe it. She finally became convinced that Trump and his administration, instead of fighting domestic terrorism were fomenting and encouraging it, after compiling massive evidence of this by simply listening to Trump. She resigned in April of 2020, and is now out of government, and speaking and writing about the topic. Having reentered her Christian community, she is also trying to convince it that its marriage to the Trump movement and the far right wing is malign, and inappropriate to their faith.  We arrive now at the larger point. Far right extremism, the illegal militia movement, the Proud boys and other white supremacist groups, and the Trump movement, and the Republican party itself, are all embedded in the same movement, under the same big tent: American conservatism. The conservative evangelical Christian community is a threat to secular democracy, hence the country. The republican party, with its denial of climate change and the election results, and it current voter suppression crusade, is a dire threat to the United States. Donald Trump, with his attempt to overthrow the government after refusing to accept his election defeat, and his potential for further  political activity, remains a dire threat to America, as long as he lives, or goes to prison. but the big picture is the damage modern conservatism in its extreme form, embraced by millions, is the greatest threat to our country's future, because conservatism is rapidly trending towards fascism.

Living in The Dark Ages

 WE ARE LIVING in the dark ages, which future historians will possibly designate as having spanned two thousand years, from the collapse of the roman Empire to the reinvention of civilization around the year twenty five hundred A.D..if, as might be hoped, our descendants are kinder, wiser, and more compassionate than we were. If not, as Einstein said in a time capsule, may the devil take them. We prefer to think of ourselves as enlightened, progressive, modern, just as our ancestors did two hundred years ago, two thousand years ago. In a sense we are; history for the most part is a story of human progress. Our descendants, assuming they have become more civilized than we were, may well marvel that in the twenty first century, in a world with an abundance of food, millions of people did not have enough to eat, when better economic efficiency would have ensured that everyone did. Assuming they have become more peaceful, they might be amazed at the level of violence tolerated in the twenty first century, and in the fact that during the twentieth century more than one hundred million people died fighting in wars. They will likely marvel in disgust that the vast majority of the world's material and monetary wealth was owned and controlled by a tiny fraction of the population, which generally hoarded it uselessly, preventing by design any equitable distribution of wealth which would have stabilized the world's economies and given all of humanity an acceptable living standard, rather than dividing the world into a small elite wealthy class and a huge impoverished class. Billions of hungry, impoverished people, suffering needlessly. They might shudder in horror that for decades many countries maintained large stockpiles of deadly nuclear weapons which threatened the very survival of the planet and the human race. But perhaps their greatest amazement and disgust they will reserve for humanity's wanton destruction of the ecosystem, bringing about catastrophic climate change through their insatiable greed and lust for even increasing material wealth. While the natural environment steadily deterioration, twenty first century people seemingly ignored its deterioration, preferring to pretend that the problem was not real. They will find it disgusting that the problem was left to their descendants to cope with, and will be acutely aware of the sacrifices that were later made in solving a problem which never should have happened in the first place. As twenty fifth century people look back on their ancestors, they will perhaps find it difficult to regard us as anything other than uncivilized barbarians.

Knowing Good From Bad

 YOU'VE HEARD the argument before. Everyone has.  it goes as follows; if you take away everyone's guns, the criminals will still have guns, because unwilling to abide by the law, criminals will always find ways of illegally getting guns, while the law abiding citizens will be defenseless. (The police evidently don't count). The same reasoning is applied to all weapons, including assault rifles. This sound perfectly logical, assuming that there are two distinct and identifiable kinds of people: law abiding citizens, good people, and bad people, or criminals. Problem is, like many simplistic lines of reasoning, its all wrong. People are complicated. The criminals and the law abiding citizens are, in fact, the same people. We are all part good, part bad, in varying proportions, at different times, from different points of view. in America, mass murderers and mass murders are abundant, obviously. And every mass murderer, or nearly everyone, has one thing, or perhaps two things in common. Before they committed mass murder they were law abiding citizens, good people, with no criminal record or only minor offenses, and they got their weapons legally, because they were qualified by law to own them.  They were good people, people nobody could or had identified in advance as being criminals unqualified to own an assault rifle. Maybe they were loners. may they were know to be a bit unusual, or strange. Eccentric. Unpopular. Whatever.But not bad. Not unqualified to own a deadly weapon. then, suddenly, out of nowhere, out of the blue, the mass murderer kills ten people, or fifty, and suddenly becomes a criminal, a bad person who never should have had a weapon, and we all use our hindsight and find oh so many clues and warnings in the person's life that should have tipped us off to the coming crime. We always miss the clues and warnings. hindsight is twenty twenty, and we are all such good Monday morning quarterbacks. Good people suddenly transformed into bad people. We just never know in advance which good person is going to suddenly go bad, and kill. and that is why, if we want to eliminate or reduce teh number of mass murders in America, we will have to take away everyone's guns, because it is obvious that just about anybody, just about any "good person" can flip and suddenly become bad. the estranged husband, the failed business person,  the aggrieved loner,and so forth. Good people under great stress gone bad. We never know which of us will be the next to flip out, go bad, and blow away a dozen innocent people..  Because it could be any one of us.

Lowering the Flag, Yet Again

 IN MY LITTLE TOWN we seniors get our pandemic lunch in a white plastic sack through our car windows, as I suspect they do at many senior centers across freedom's land. The shuttered sheet metal senior center sits next to the sheet metal American legion bldg, whose flag is currently at half staff.My mentally challenged friend got out of his pick up truck in pajamas, and asked why. I knew why, so I told him; the Atlanta massacre. Surprisingly, he seemed to understand. A derelict woman in another truck was listening, so I kept talking. "considering the frequency of our American mass murders, old glory has been on the move a lot in recent years; lots of ups and downs." Clever comment, I thought. Her response was equally clever: "Hell, they might as well just leave it at half staff". She has a point, I thought. And sure enough, true to form, as if on cue, ten more people were blown away in a grocery store in Boulder, Colorado, my favorite town, within the next twenty four hours. Yet another of our patented made in America mass murders. Down stays the flag. if there's any consolation, which there isn't, its that things are beginning to return to normal in the United States of Amnesia. the vaccinations are rolling out and into arms, the pandemic is ebbing, or about to, or so we think and hope. Only the far right conspiracy crazies and the far left new age crazies, about a third of the American population, will not get vaccinated, assuring us that the national epidemic will continue indefinitely, but that it will be held down. to a dull roar. Covid 19 is here to stay. People are gathering together in large groups again, not that they ever stopped in the United States of Illusion. Once again its party time and money making time across the fruited plain. We are spiking the ball on the five, but why not? We know we're going to win. We always do, and if not, we claim to have won. One more surge after spring break, to send us past the six hundred thousand mark. With our renewed togetherness return the mass murderers, lock, stock, and barrel, fully loaded, weapons polished and dusted off. They are adorned as usual with hoods, swastika, MAGA caps, the works. there's a lot of pent up rage going  around, and we can expect an active killing season. Alienated young men galore. Boulder enacted a municipal ban on assault weapons. The state told them it can't do that; they're over stepping on state toes.During the pandemic mass murdering has decreased drastically, but gun sales have exploded, and so has one on one gun violence. Maybe things haven't changed that much after all.

Struggling, As Always

 THE STRUGGLE for gender equality, like the struggle for racial, social, economic and every other form of human equality, ongoing, is taking far longer and engendering far more turmoil than desirable or should be necessary. by now, we should have achieved it, long since. Why don't we just do it and get it over with? Equality of opportunity, if not outcome. I sometimes actually prefer women's basketball, because of their superior willingness to work together as a team. Who needs slam dunks? The Big Dance dumb bell scandal of 2021 should never have happened, because it should have been obvious to someone in a position of authority that the men's gym was fully loaded, and the women's was nearly empty. Another avoidable, needless circumstance of gross and grotesque inequality..As consolation, the scandal provided an entertainment media which thrives on scandal, fodder.The list of athletic gender inequities is yet rather lengthy, involving facilities, amenities, accommodations, pay,  athletic budget, media attention, to name but a few. Certain types of equality we cannot create by mandate, nor would we want to. Imagine an intercollegiate bi-gender basketball tournament. In the first round, the men's teams at all universities and colleges play the women's teams. After the first round, only the men's teams are left, and the tournament enters the second round. Anyone who knows of a college or university where the women's team can beat the men's team please, share. No, not everything needs to be equal, can be equal, nor should it be, nor would we want it to be. We  must never impose a requirement that women play basketball as well as men. But men and women require essentially the same fitness facilities. The crowds at women's games are almost always smaller. there is less advertising revenue, a smaller television audience.Voltaire said: "All comes out even when the day is done, and more even still when all the days are done." True enough. /the arc of justice is long, and only slightly bent, but it bends towards justice, which, with persistence, is inevitable. Maybe between now and the time when justice arrives, we can hasten it along a bit, by distributing the wealth a bit more fairly

Knowing Somebody

 MR WATSON the quarterback now joins Governor Cuomo as an until quite recently highly respected celebrity whose glow has been significantly diminished by the bright spotlight engendered by salacious accusations against. Both men now seem destined to fall hard from great heights. A perceptive radio sports talk host, referring to celebrities generally, posed the pertinent question: How well do we really know them", referring to the numerous famous people to whom we pay so much superficial attention. His answer was that we hardly know any of them at all, because our information always comes by  way of short sound bytes and highly orchestrated situations, all smiles and clever quips.That set me to thinking.Taken to its logical extreme, we might ask : "How well do we really know ourselves, and each other"? referring to the Socratic maxim "know thyself", Goethe, waxing a bit cynical, said"Know thyself" If I knew myself, I would probably run away!" I like to think that I know myself pretty well, and that I know other people reasonably well. but I'm probably deceiving myself. Goethe, who uttered numerous pithy profundities, also said "We are never deceived. We only deceive ourselves". If you think about it honestly, you come to realize that this is true. What really strike me are two things: That there are many people I have known for decades, but hardly know at all, because I have never engaged in a conversation with them. And, there are many people I have known for decades, have had many conversations with and have spent much time, and yet who, in my opinion, really do not know me well. In high school, many years ago, my close friends and spent a lot of time talking about music, which songs in the top forty were our favorites, which rock n roll bands we liked the most, and so forth. But I distinctly remember that none of them was aware that my favorite kid of music was actually classical music. I never mentioned it, because one of then shared my interest, or at least not to my knowledge. Maybe I should have told them, but I wanted to be considered a true member of the top forty rock n roll set. Who knows, maybe they were also secret classical music lovers. As far as I know, they still don't know about me and Mozart. But than, again, maybe deep down I really don't even know what kind of music I like best, maybe I just think I do.

Vaccinating, Finally

 THE THOUGHT came to me early that what with super fast computers with huge storage capacity and several millennia of practice producing vaccines, an effective vaccine for Covid 19 should not take long to develop. Quite by chance, I was correct. the vaccine concept was known to the ancient Egyptians, and in American colonial times, Benjamin Franklin administered a small pox vaccine to himself, and encouraged it be given to everyone. When I was a toddler the polio epidemic was rampant, and when Dr. Salk developed an effective vaccine, he became suicidal when some idiot pharmaceutical firm mistakenly used a live virus, and something like twenty thousand people contracted polio after taking the cure. I signed up early for Covid relief, just as soon as sixty five year olds were declared eligible in my state. Then I waited, and waited. My pharmacy said they would call me, but never did. I filled out the email they sent, they responded saying they would call, and I waited. then i called them, they once again said they would call, that there had been a delay in receiving the vaccine doses and they were trying to catch up. then instead they sent me another email blank form, so i called again. The form must be completed, they said. I refused to hang up the phone until they filled out the form for me , which they did. Finally, I had an appointment. Sixty five percent of Americans over the age of sixty five have already been vaccinated, but finally I have an appointment. In less than a week I will get my first shot, then, I assume, three weeks later, my second. after that, I will begin to leave my house for short intervals, and find a new pharmacy. forty percent of Republicans still say they will not get vaccinated. This I find  horrifying. I been been given to believe that anti-vaxxing was a liberal phenomenon, but apparently is merely another kind of right wing disinformation conspiracy theory nonsense. Will the damage being done to this country by the political right wing never cease? the thoughts occurred to me that if everyone would get a vaccination for the flu every year, then eventually the flue virus would become extinct like small pox. or like malaria had nearly become until people stopped vaccinating for it. We now know that the world is full of corona viruses, and that therefore it is inevitable that one after another will infect humans, and that pandemics will become the norm unless vaccines and vaccinations programs are created immediately and effectively. The more natural habitat humanity destroys, the more viruses invade human space, seeking survival. The ultimate destruction of human life might be brought about by micro organisms, which possess far greater powers of of endurance than we.

Normalcy, Returning En Mass

 THE YOUNG "GENTLEMAN" who blew eight "ladies" away swore up and down in an "interview" that he wasn't racially motivated, that he was sexually motivated. That's one way to solve an addiction; eliminate the drug. Case closed. The criminal's explanation is adequate. Why would he lie? He's the expert. Crusaders against racially motivated hate crimes are understandably disappointed. They expected more. With everyone isolated during the pandemic, mass gatherings, therefore mass murders had become sparse; the entertainment media beast had become hungry, and must be fed. A sexually motivated mass murderer should be sufficient, and in a civilized country would be, but since everything in American media is sexually motivated, why not just call it a race hate crime, and call it even? With the pandemic losing steam and nearing the final curtain, something vaguely approaching normalcy is returning, and with it old habits, and we once again will be regaled with right wing gun rights pyscho mass murder, served up on a regular basis, compliments of our national far right wing guns n' violence industrial complex. Epidemics, much like mass murderers, knowing that they are going out, like to go out with a bang. the final bullet to the final head, one more big pool party during spring break to share share alike, virally. In all cases they are aided and abetted by the large mainstream culture, which, after all, nurtures the context.The more passionately our latest mass murderer insists that he is not a racist, but merely a sex addict, the more vehemently the culture, wanting another scapegoat to take the blame for its own  pervasive prejudices, will insist that he is we are all, after all, sociologists at heart, with an explanation for everyone's behavior except our own. He must have been a racist during the moment he pulled the trigger, if at no other time; no other explanation conforms neatly to out preconceptions. The more passionately proponents of gun control engage in activism, the more the conservative gun owners will insist that guns have nothing to do with it, guns are quite beside the point, the killers could just as easily use scissors or ball bats. We will all draw our conclusions predicated upon our own biases and ignorances, but certainly not upon facts and dispassionate reason. we are, at the end of the day as we like to say, creatures of free will, hell bent on defending our freedom to explain the violence of others in our own terms, and to spread viruses at will, for the sake of freedom.

The Russians, Doing Their Thing

 AMERICAN INTELLIGENCE, assuming there is such a thing, once again informs us that the Russians were up to their old tricks in the 2020 presidential election, trying to influence it to help their old friend and employee Donald J. Trump win. Ho hum. What else is new? This time, unlike 2016, they were unsuccessful, to the good fortune of the American people and the world in general. So, the Russians are batting five hundred.In 2016, Russian advertising, propaganda, and disinformation on social media made have made the difference, according to the FBI, CIA, DHS, et al, all reliable authorities, despite conservative claims to the contrary. Quite predictably, in complete accordance with their loyal morally bankrupt support of Trump, evangelical conservatives, Trump's prime base, ignored this inconvenient reality in their zeal for their criminal icon. Trump, after all, is, as he said, "a good Christian" who protects the unborn. Having denied the reality of Russian interference in 2016, Trump lovers can be expected to carry out a violent vendetta against all things Russian the rest of 2021, for their failure to sufficiently influence the election outcome for Trump in 2020.On no fewer three three instances Donald Trump has revealed himself to be a traitor, and those who still support him after January 6, 2021 are no less traitors. He should be tried, convicted, and sentenced to prison, or executed. Trump was a traitor before he was a president, by virtue of having knowingly accepted Russian assistance in getting elected, according to the Mueller report, which was purely factual, contrary to the claims of Trump and his supporters. Then came Trump's attempted blackmailing of the Ukrainian government for damaging information on Joe Biden, a crime every republican member of the Senate agreed happened, but was not punishable, because Trump failed to get away with it, according to their twisted reasoning. Trump's attempt to overthrow the government two weeks before he left office was his worst, and one might hope his final act of treason, carried out with the apparent support of all his treasonous followers. None of this will be ignored, forgotten, or erased by history, despite the best attempts by the evangelical Christian community and Trump's other criminal supporters. History is already duly recording the multiple betrayals of America by the Trump movement, and that record will live forever in infamy.

Persecuting Nonconformity

 CONSERVATIVE CHRISTIANS generally despise gay and transgender people, despite their false pious claims of hating the sin but living the sinner.as if one can be separated from one's sexual orientation and compartmentalized. When you hate someone's fundamental nature, you hate the person. Christians are largely responsible for the historical mistreatment of homosexuals in the western world. Having lost the persecutorial battle against homosexuality after centuries of sustained attacks, the church of love now turns its attention to the transgender community, full force. In about half these disunited states, the conservative one, dominated by far right legislatures and politics, laws are being proposed or enacted preventing transgender children from participating in organized sports and from receiving medical care.  This is yet another manifestation of right wing reality denial, remindful of the notorious bathroom bills of yesteryear, vigorously opposed by the community of the decent and the sane.right wingers offer all kinds of contrived reasons for persecuting transgender people by placing restrictions on them, everything but the truth.  High sounding phrases like "fairness" and "personal protection"; whatever it takes to persecute and discriminate, just like they do with gay people, and have for centuries. The unvarnished truth is that conservatives Christians by nature despise nonconformity to their values, traditional values, such as strict gender roles. male is male, female female, with separate roles all must abide by. the roles ca n and must never vary, despite overwhelming proof to the contrary. Transgender people are not mentioned in the bible, and therefore do not exist, must exist, cannot be allowed to exist.But help is on the way. One half of millennials report having no religious affiliation, and teh generation after that is about the same. the generations arriving at adulthood are far more tolerant of individual differences.All religions eventually die, and with them their various forms of bigotry and intolerance and dogma.Our descendants will be blessed with the opportunity to invent new forms of religiosity, new systems of morality, which, as Einstein said, is of the utmost importance to mankind, but not to God.All that remains to us is to wish them godspeed, the very best of luck, and to hope like hell that they hurry up and get here.

Listening

 GREAT ARTISTS, great poets, composers, geniuses of all types, shapes, and sizes tend to be groundbreakers, innovators, avant gard in French. John Cage was such a person an American composer known for his experimenting style, whose originality perhaps took him a bit too far, outside the box, and even over the edge.  In 1952 he introduced a new composition titled "Four Minutes and Thirty Three Seconds" to a stunned audience. The composition is a sonata, a piano piece ostensibly, but nobody knows for sure because the work contains no music, no notes, neither melody nor harmony - only silence. Anybody in theory, even someone completely unfamiliar with or untrained in music can perform the piece like a virtuoso. To do so requires merely siting at a piano, and looking at the keys for a little over four and a half minutes. The pianist, presumably attired in a tuxedo or gown if female, strides onstage, sits on the bench, and does noting other than open and close the keyboard covering twice at precise moments, to signify a new movement. At first audiences were stunned, then annoyed, as they sat shuffling their feet, glancing around the auditorium, inserting fingers in ear seemingly searching for ear wax, and eventually demanding a refund on their ticket. Nowadays the work is rarely if ever performed or recorded due to lack of popularity. Sometimes innovation goes unrewarded. The composer's purpose, so he said, was to awaken classical music fans to the reality that they live in a world in which in which, no matter where they are, or what they are doing, they are surrounded by a veritable symphony of beautiful sound, if only they will listen. One might argue that most intelligent people already know that, and don't need to get a lesson in the form of silent music, but that's beside the point. One might also ask, in a crowded concert hall, precisely what beautiful noise one might hope to hear other than actual music. Random coughing, shuffling of feet and rustling of clothing and squeaking of chair backs? One might further inquire whether it is necessary to bother with an alleged musical composition to realize that the world is full of beautiful noise, always abundant, near. Again, perhaps, beside the point. the point is that to every ear in every life there is the opportunity for ambient audio, and presumably every other form of beauty, if only we advantage ourselves of it.  But why ask questions at all? Why not just sit back, and enjoy the concert?

Transforming, For the Good

 THIRTY YEARS AGO about ten percent of the American people favored legalizing gay marriage. Today, more than seventy percent approve of its being legal since 2015. fifty years ago, gay people were essentially forced into hiding to avoid being persecuted, prosecuted, incarcerated, or worse. Today, millions of gay people openly, freely acknowledge their sexual orientation, unafraid of any consequences. Never before or since in America, nor probably anywhere else has society so fundamentally and rapidly changed its attitude about an issue of such primary importance. It proves that it can happen. american is a pluralistic culture of undervalued, neglected, even despised minority demographic groups.African-Americans, Asian-Americans, Muslims, the elderly, the poor, the disabled, transgender people, women, native Americans,  you name it,take your pick. Only young and middle aged white Christian men are entirely satisfactory, it often seems. A nation founded upon the lofty principles of social and legal equality,  from its beginning torn assunder by mutual intolerance and hatred. As President Clinton astutely said: "We do so much us versus them in this country that we run the risk of us and themming ourselves to death". Much of what we so nobly claim to believe in is aspirational. the good new is that sustained scholarship and research clearly indicates that, slow though it may be, we have made much progress and are continuing to make progress towards achieving our aspirations of human decency and equality. anyone of a certain age is aware that over the past half century, great progress has been made not only in the treatment of homosexuals in America, but also of non whites, particularly African-Americans.Advanced sociological research, using math based statistical methods, has quantified the progress made in achieving human equality in American over the past two centuries, and extrapolating future progress from past rates of improvement, has determined that racial equality for all will be achieved in about another one hundred years, and that equal levels of respect for such groups as the elderly and the disabled will gain parity with mainstream white demographic in about the same amount of time, one hundred years, another century of hare won progress. but that doesn't means that anything is inevitable. Human social progress can be retarded, or even reversed. but it can also be accelerated, as it so obviously has been with the gay and lesbian community. We can always hope for and anticipate, and bring about, the best case scenario.

Canceling

"CANCEL CULTURE" is a term I'd begun to encounter a tad too often lately, so I googled it. As I had suspected, I found that it means withholding support for a person, organization, movement, or idea due to having become offended by it. When its  an organized effort, its a boycott. Much like "political correctness'its basically a good thing, well intentioned, but, like all good things, can get out of hand if overused. Right wingers generally regard cancel culture as horrible, like they do political correctness, and the term is used derisively.Conservatives attribute both to liberal excess, and most of them consider their existence a sure sing of culture, i.e. conservative cultural decline. heaven forbid that we should be pressured by a bunch of liberals into calling women "ladies" instead of 'broads" and "gals", or that we should be pressured into turning off the Rush Limbaugh show when we hear the great one tell lies and slanderous lies. Anything, aven good things, can be taken to excess, as certainly political correctness and cancel culture often are. that does not alter the fact that they exist for a good reason; to fight back against incivility. Freedom os speech comes inherently with the freedom to not listen. conservatives, who are normally paranoid about being excluded from mainstream culture, which they perceive a dominated by liberalism, take umbrage at even the appearance of being ignored, corrected, or canceled. They prefer the rapt attention of captive audiences. I've been the victim, in my personal life, of cancel culture several times, by formerly close friends who became offended at something I said, often in a political context, in this era of ideological division. I admit, it no fun. Every time I think I'm being treated unfairly. People being rejected usually do. It amazes me that my presumed close friend didn't even make an attempt to work out the grievance, save the friendship. or allow me an opportunity to explain or defend my words and behavior. I still fell that way, about friends I lost several years ago. When I found out that one of my best friends made comments which  seemed racist to me, I told her so, and she chose to cut off all communication with me, rather than to hash it out. Well, then, so be it. As tehy say, don't let your the door hit your butt.Why would conservatives object to cancel culture? Is't' it merely another form of free market choice? Should we not all defend our freedom to stop listening and supporting whatever and whomever we choose?  Cancel culture can cut both ways. Governor Cuomo claims that he is even now being targeted by it, as pressure mounts for his resignation amid allegations of sexual misconduct against him. Often, targets of cancel culture deserve canceling. Political correctness and cancel culture are ultimately progressive inventions, defenses against rudeness and meanness. Conservative resentment of them derives from their perceived right to be rude and mean whenever they choose, without suffering adverse consequences. Consequences, however,  adverse or favorable,accompany us wherever we go and whatever we do.

Dispelling Delusional Thinking, Gently

 BY NOW you've surely noticed that the liars who insist that the election was stolen from Trump do so with absolute certainty, with nary a trace of doubt or suspicion, nor, for that matter, evidence. And yet, they persist, just as certain of their false belief as they can be.Delusional people cling tenaciously to their delusions if only to strengthen them against the he greatest threat to them; reality. Delusional thinking, seemingly ubiquitous in contemporary America, you can't swing a dead cat without encountering it, serves various psychological purposes, and in that sense can be quite useful, particularly in bringing emotional stability to an otherwise troubled mind. This, according to a newly published book "Useful Delusions" by a rock star of a pop psychologist, Shankar Vedantham, of widespread radio fame. Delusions  should be resisted and dispelled, says Shankar, but not always in the usual manner. The way to do this is not necessarily to oppose them with contempt, ridicule, anger, and hard core facts and reality, but rather, with tact. Those who embrace delusional thinking are only likely to resist compromise and change more forcefully if so confronted, but will bend as the blade of grass in the summer breeze, if only the rest of us will. To wit; to present the benefits of rejecting falsehood and replacing it with truth. Like: "If you might consider accepting the thirty thousands lies of Donald Trump as actual lies rather than alternative facts, you might be able to produce a political leader who can make america even grater than Trump did!" Or, "If only you could convince those annoying aliens to stop abducting you every night, you might get more sleep, and then have more time and energy for scientific research concerning the possibility of life on other planets!" Now, as for me, I still prefer the old fashioned tried and true way of opposing nonsense with scorn, contempt, ridicule, and anger, even though it never works, it at least has the advantage of turning former friends into enemies and thus ridding them and their insanity from our busy lives. A fanatic fan of rock solid established empirical science, I have long detested the purveyors of pseudo science, fantasy, and alternative realities and cosmic paradigms. In that regard, Trump and his following put me over the edge. One simply cannot simultaneously support Trump and remain moored to reality. Delusional people are invariably dead set certain of the truth of their insane delusions. They have all the answers, somehow, but they never ask questions. I  them with untempered fervor, but I resolve to try the "useful Delusion" approach.This method seeks to dispel delusions, but gently. Refusing to do this puts me at risk of being one of them.

Inventing True Capitalism

 THE TWIN PILLARS of american conservatism are capitalism and Christianity, in no particular order. throw in gun ownership rights unabridged, and you have your three legged stool, or, as historian author gore Vidal called them, the "Jesus, Guns, and Money crowd". this, notwithstanding the obvious fact that the essential message of Jesus is socialism, not capitalism (give unto the poor, render unto Caesar). Or, as the progressive christian joke has it; private charitable giving to the poor is Christianity, government assistance to the poor is socialism. There are a few things about capitalistic theory that conservatives ought to know, but probably don't, which were first articulated by the intellectual father of capitalism, Adam Smith, in his seminal work "The Wealth of nations", published in 1776, the Bible of capitalism, which describes how it should operate, but does not, contrary to popular notions, necessarily advocate it.smith said that the free market is the best method of allocating and distributing wealth, under two conditions. First, it requires that people behave rationally, in their own best interests. Second, the free market must be truly free, which means lacking any external factors which impede or distort its functioning, what economists call "externalities". Such conditions are akin to a vacuum; in nature they can never exist, thus they never exist. People do not always behave rationally, in their best interests. Much human behavior is self destructive, harmful to the individual. Also, no free market can ever be free of external, unpredictable factors, which can include anything from crazy weather to monopolies to pandemics. The free market, operating perfectly, would allow the abolition of government, when in fact, in this world or reality, government is necessary to stabilize and regulate the economy to some extent, no matter how much we might wish it to go away and leave the market alone, it cannot. If it did, capitalism would consume itself in its own craziness. government must protect capitalism from itself. Adan Smith said, apparently realizing that the free market would always function imperfectly and would produce a wealthy and a poor class, that 'all government action benefiting the poor is desirable, and no government action benefiting the wealthy is desirable". Definitely not the sort of message conservative Republicans want to hear. Smith  obviously believed that externalities distorting the free market would alwayd always exist to produce great economic inequality, which is essentially saying that capitalism is by its very nature a flawed economic system, although perhaps more efficient than any other kind humans might originate. And now, for the coup d'etat:. according to the intellectual godfather of capitalism, in a perfect free market, an efficient effective free market, not only would there be equality of opportunity, but also, equality of outcome, meaning economic equality between the wealthiest owner and the poorest worker. Obviously, Adam Smith did not really believe that capitalism would work this way; he envisioned a free market supported and sustained by laws and government involvement, but only insofar as might be necessary to produce something similar to the desired results; a reasonable standard of living for all, with reasonable work conditions. smith, by the way, abhorred the emerging factory system of the late eighteenth century, as he realized that it was turning people into creatures of hard labor, with boring,m repetitive, jobs of constant drudgery. Smith's purpose was to describe free market capitalism, not to venerate it. We should probably do more of the same; describe and analyze our economic systems, and seek to improve them to make them work better for everyone, rather than merely praise or condemn them, depending on one's political viewpoint.

Hatred Going viral

 THIRTY PERCENT of Asian-Americans report having been verbally and/or physically abused during the pandemic, as if a person of Asian descent living in the United States is somehow responsible for a virus which originated in a Chinese city thousands of miles away. attribute that gross misconception, like so many others running rampant through American culture, to a decided lack of reasoning, logic, and critical thinking skills. Chalk up another nefarious consequence of the nefarious Donald Trump, who, with the approval of his gang of followers, described the Covid 19 as "the China virus", seemingly unaware of adjective form, causal connections, or national and personal responsibility. There is no limit to the number of kinds or racism which infect American culture. None of them make any sense in a country composed entirely of immigrants, or the descendants of immigrants. You will recall the "Irish problem" in Boston, and other places. Benjamin Franklin openly lamented the influx of Germans into eighteenth century Pennsylvania, as if they would spoil the pure Anglo-Saxon blood of the British colony. Asians, like Africans, were essentially brought to North America in bondage, where they built the United States while being kept in bondage, then were conveniently discarded and treated like vermin ever after. And the beat goes on. Racism, a modern invention, has been a fundamental cultural feature of western civilization for about seven hundred years, has become a traditional value deeply embedded in American culture in particular. Racism is a traditional, conservative value, and exists today almost entirely within conservative culture and community, although once it was ubiquitous. the civil rights movement separated it from liberalism. Conservatives today steadfastly refuse to acknowledge the truth about modern racism, including that it is an invention of Europeans and Americans. The dishonesty knows no bounds. FOX news now claims that George Floyd died from a drug overdose, even though the coroner who performed his autopsy officially listed the cause of death as suffocation; police officer knee to neck, homicide. Racism only exists, contend many conservative "thinkers', when rabble rousing do good liberals start talking about it  Out of sight, out of mind, problem solved, racism vanishes, is evidently how they "see" it, incredibly. Affirmative action and all other measures and programs designed to combat racism are racist, goes their twisted "reasoning". The current right wing assault on Asian-Americans they write off as a hoax, or exaggeration. Actually, the elimination or racism will require the elimination of the twisted and fantastical ideology of modern American conservatism.

Limiting Personal Freedom, the Conservative Way

THE GREAT REPROBATE STATE of Arkansas has outlawed abortion ro force the newly ultra right wing US. Supreme Court to decide whether to uphold Roe v. Wade.  The impulse is noble, if mishandled. What makes Arkansas a "reprobate state" is the fact that it twice voted in a landslide for Donald Trump, and would happily do so again today. Everybody is pro life. Nobody is pro abortion. most people are pro abortion rights, they understand that a woman should have sovereignty over her own body. Pro choice people believe in a woman's personal sovereignty and freedom to choose, and they believe in limited government. conservative pro life folks think the government should control a woman's reproductive rights, which is hardly a "limited government" perspective. The protection of unborn children is a noble enterprise, among the most noble conceivable. What is abortion, other than murder? to truly believe in God should entail, it would seems, a belief that God is as likely to guide a woman's choices directly as to do so through legislation. god obviously believes that abortions, like war and human suffering, should occur, else is powerless to prevent it. Arkansas as among the several states which has elected an extreme right wing legislature, a legislature which believes in no reasonable limits on gun ownership or use, that requiring a mask in public is government over reach, that the wealthy deserve tax cuts while the poor do not, and that social programs for the poor encourage laziness. Any state government which makes it a crime for a woman to abort a fetus which was conceived through rape or incest is, arguably, overstepping the bounds of morality. No government, arguably, has the moral right nor should have the legal right to control a woman's reproductive choices. Here's a prediction; no matter how many far right supreme court justices America's far right forces onto the high court against the will of the American people, Roe v. Wade will never be overturned. For the republican party to use unethical, dubious methods to create a pure conservative court is contrary to the principles and aspirations of American justice. Being conservative is in itself not a qualification for membership on the high court, or any court. The only qualification is a demonstrated capacity to render equal justice under law. Roe v. Wade is well founded settled law and will withstand any future court test, because conservative justices have shown a tendency to ignore their personal political beliefs in rendering justice, which greatly frustrates America's right wing, which would prefer a biased judiciary.Fortunately for the republic, extreme right wing legislators and activists, such as those currently governing Arkansas, are often thwarted in their most devious plans.

Showing Integrity

 FOR MOST OF THE PAST YEAR, I, like many others, have watched admiringly as Governor Cuomo skillfully managed the pandemic in New York. His skillfully managed daily press conferences became familiar to millions as a role model for leadership, with informative, firm, authoritative but always inspirational messages of hope and progress. I had begun to think of him as possible presidential material, considering that Joe Biden will be eighty two years old when its time for him to seek reelection, assuming he does.Now, however, with teh governor besieged by accusations of sexual misconduct and of misrepresenting the facts concerning Covid 19 related deaths in new York state nursing homes, I, like many others, am beginning to believe that it would be best for him to resign as governor. However, no office holder should be hounded out of office for "light and transient causes" as Jefferson might say.Only when a thorough unbiased investigation demonstrates conclusively that serious sexual misconduct has in fact occurred multiple times, or even one time, should a public official be forced to step down.it is a fact that overwhelmingly, when women come forth with such accusations, they are valid about ninety five percent of the time. most women would never subject their honesty to such scrutiny for shallow reasons, like profit. it seems to be that Governor Cuomo exploited television to project an image of himself as a bold crusading warrior against the pandemic, when in fact his administration has been beset by various problems involving corruption and mismanagement. Arguably, he responded to the pandemic in New York too late, as did state and local governments everywhere, and the federal government as well. I, like many others, was duped and taken in by his apparent competence. My point here is that I, a die hard yellow dog Democrat, am willing to amend my opinion about a Democratic politician I once admired, and even considered a possible president. I don't like doing it, but it seems necessary, for the sake of honesty and integrity. If nothing else, I want to maintain my integrity, for the sake of my self respect. this is precisely what i fell is lacking among supporters of Donald Trump. Trump, over teh past five years has proven himself unworthy of the support millions of peole have given him; he has in fact betrayed them by constantly lying to them, among other forms of egregious behavior. and yet, even after teh horrific events of january sixth, which beyond dispute trump bears a large share of responsibility, most of his supporters remain steadfastly loyal to him, almost after the fashion of gang members  coerced to remain loyal to a  dangerous mob boos with the power of life and dearth over his sycophants. Trump has no such power over anyone. His supporters simply refuse to admit their own error in supporting him, refuse to acknowledge they made a mistake, and instead cling to the false notion that supporting Trump is justified because of some greatness he has which outweighs all his faults. this self deception is costly to those who indulge in it, and even more costlyr to the country they claim so piously to love.

Closing

FOR MORE THAN HALF A MILLION AMERICANS to have died from Covid19 is shocking. Equally shocking is the apparent rapidity with which the next hundred thousand are dying, despite the apparent end of the pandemic looming. And yet, dirt dumb red republican states are relaxing mask mandates and social distancing protocols, as if to give the virus one final chance to do damage before departing. In defiance of common sense and good government, in defense of imaginary liberty, in deference to the almighty dollar and defiance of science, conservative America is ensuring us of still more disease and death. I have generally enjoyed my year of voluntary isolation, retired, reading, writing, working out, but now find myself caught in the middle, so to speak. An attractive lady friend invited me to breakfast on march 14, the birthday of my hero, Albert Einstein, coincidentally. I've known her a long time, haven't seen her in a while, and this seems like a great opportunity to get out under pleasant circumstances. The fact that neither of uf has ever married attests, my mother would assert, to our intelligence. When she invited me out, I jumped at the chanced, excited, but since have begun to have grave (no pun intended) misgivings. going out in public without wearing a mask can still be deadly, particularly in a restaurant where the demands of the profit motive place people too close together for pandemic comfort.Each day I sit by the phone, waiting for the wonderful call from the pharmacy which tells me that it is my turn to be vaccinated. But until that call comes, shouldn't I stay home? I'm nearly sixty six, isn't it about my turn? I don't even know whether she's been vaccinated; she's a teacher, so perhaps so. Still, I'd hate to lose my life, what's left of it, or become deathly ill over an optional breakfast. My plan is to suggest to her that we wait until late April, and use breakfast to celebrate my birthday, rather than Einstein's. either that, or suggest that she and I have breakfast alone, at her house or mine, perhaps at the end of a date, rather than the beginning, a suggestion which seems likely to go over like a proverbial lead balloon, considering that she has for nearly forty years shown an evident propensity for being nervous about being with me alone, out of the public eye. well, we'll have to wait. I live in one of those dirt dumb republican red states, and that makes life more dangerous. I hate to delay a hot date, but its better than inviting suffering or death.

Attacking Democracy

 THERE IS SOMETHING especially exciting about out quadrennial American presidential elections. The excitement leading up build for weeks, even months, as the candidates tour the country, and the political ads become increasingly aggressive. The first one I remember was the landslide of 1964, when we washed our cars with Goldwater and polished them with Johnson wax. to an informed fourth grader, the joke seemed funny. Since then I haven't missed one. My least favorite was 2016, my favorite 2020, with 1992 and 2008 close behind, true to my liberal democratic form. Win some, lose some. These elections are the foundation of our cherished American democracy, a testament to human progress, a monument to modern civilization, teh will of the people rather than a tyrant expressed in a peaceful, orderly transfer of power.Our political process is indeed a prime pillar upon which american greatness rests. American presidential elections are, understandably, a fascination and joy unto the entire world. Yes, there have been problems. 1800, 1824, 1876, 2000, all fraught with controversy and suspicion; look 'em up.After supporting Donald Trump during the first two weeks of his 2016 candidacy, I began to seriously despise him, when he began viciously verbally attacking his "fellow" republican primary candidates. The thought crossed my mind, at it has many times since, that Ronald Reagan must be disgusted, in heaven. Reagan after all was a gentleman who admonished that 'speak no evil of thine fellow republicans". And of course throughout the Trump administration, Trump's behavior, his slander and viciousness, only got worse. he saved the worst for the last. on election night, before teh votes had even been counted, he repeated what he had been saying for weeks before the election; that it was stolen from him. he told his big lie, and millions of his morally challenged supported it, unable to gracefully accept defeat like decent people do. Trump and his dishonest, poor loser supporters continued to promulgate the big lie, and violence became inevitable. Trump in effect was trying to steal the election from Biden, and millions of his supporters were satisfied with the idea. Trump assembled the mob, inspired their hatred, and told them to go fight for him at the Capitol, which is precisely what they did. Never in american history have so many previously presumed good American citizens behaved so badly at the same time for the same reason. Collectively they have left an indelible stain upon teh cherished american electoral process. They have ste a precedent for similar behavior in the future, and have reduced the United States to the status of a petty dictatorship.They have discredited themselves most of all, and that provides some consolation. the only true consolation and remedy will be their disappearance from the American political process.

Voting To Win

 Democrats want to make it easier to vote, so that more people will vote. If everybody votes, Democrats win. Republicans want to make it more difficult to vote, to reduce the number of people who vote. If only middle class white people vote, Republicans win. Its that simple. The motive, as always, is to win. Both sides are hard at work trying to implement their agendas, the Democratic agenda obviously favoring the American people as a whole, just like Democratic policies do. Republicans are passing restrictive voting measures in conservative states, while Democrats just passed a sweeping voting reform act in the House of Representatives, which shall surely die in the Senate amidst Republican filibuster. damned, elitist Republicans, and their ignorant dirt poor working supporters. The two parties are completely divided. republicans are shortening early voting time spans, making it more difficult to vote by mail and to absentee vote, increasing identification requirements, while Democrats want to make voter registration automatic for everyone eligible and allow voting in as many ways as possible, including online and by phone, as well as snail mail. True to their names, the Democratic party prefers universal suffrage and governance by the masses, while Republicans want the country to be ruled by an elite class of white Christian conservatives. A vast majority of ordinary Americans, especially minorities, have nothing to gain by republican rule. The founders much preferred to Republican plan. they were universally fearful of true democracy, considered it mob rule, and considered ninety nine percent of the American people unqualified to govern themselves. Among the famous founders, only Thomas Jefferson believed in the ability of the common man. And, so far, the United Stats has been governed by an elite class, at fists by the landed wealthy white men, and now by our corporate masters, the billionaires, with complete approval by nearly everyone, so it seems. Times have changed, but on in the details, not in the basic scheme. Gore Vidal once said that the half of the population which doesn't bother to vote is the half which is intelligent enough to understand that their vote means nothing, that what they vote for is predetermined by, you guessed it, our corporate billionaire masters. They purchase power by purchasing the people who run for office, Democrats and Republicans alike. The fact remains that to vote Republican is to vote for a system of elite corporate governance, while to vote Democratic is to vote for mob rule, where we all have at least some measure of political power.

Letting God Kill You

 TWENTY BELOW ZERO feels surreal, but I'm glad I experienced it, just once in my life, albeit briefly.Only one faucet was broken, and I felt lucky. The plumber, a sole proprietor and Pentecostal with five kids and two sequential wives, was very friendly and mercifully inexpensive. We talked a little, I told him I believe in God because of the beautiful design of nature, talked about Einstein's belief in God, but was decent enough not to ask him whether he had ever spoken in tongue. I was content to assume so. He seemed so down to Earth, practical, reasonable, successful, hard working. How could such a person possible embrace a bizarre denomination invented in the nineteen twenties in Appalachia, a bizarre version of a bizarre and primitive religion to begin with? To be a good plumber, one must understand a little basic science, hydro dynamics if nothing else.. When we met we shook hands, and I briefly recoiled, reminding him of social distancing and all that, and he made it clear that he had long since abandoned masks, mandates, and all that. He was content, he said, to leave it all in god's hands. I told him that I could understand his point of view, which I could. What I didn't tel him was that God gave us brains, brains enough to figure out viruses, and that God helps those who help themselves, and that handling snakes is not such a good idea, even to prove a prove one's faith in God. When one is having one's water supply restored inexpensively, and is on the verge of being able to shower, one tends to be in a tactful rather than an honest mood, I found. What I really think is that he and people like him are crazy, idiotic, poorly educated, and irresponsible, and that he and his kind are the principle reason why more than half a million Americans are dead from Covid 19, an epidemic we could have controlled, but he doesn't need to know that. I even told him I might visit his church someday, although I am not religious, and I might. I might learn something.  I'm glad I was conciliatory rather than honest and confrontational; I got my water back on. We are now so close to ending the epidemic, an epidemic which, in military terms, the virus easily won, that I can do the smart thing and double down on safety, without needing to tell anyone else to. If they don't know by now, they never will. Against stupidity, the god's themselves contend in vain, an ancient philosopher said. I wasn't going to educate my plumber friend on the stupidity of his primitive religion, it harmfulness,and, anyway, he could have charged me much more.

Continuing the Lunacy

 ON MARCH 3, 1933, FDR was sworn in, and the country changed from stagnant Republican to vigorous, progressive, effective Democratic leadership. It happened again on January 20, 2021. After 1933, the inauguration day was moved up, to shorten the transition period in an era when it no longer required weeks to travel to Washington D.C..  Thus, all else having failed, the Conservative Pathological Anti-American Coalition (CPAC), consisting of Trump supporters, republicans, proud Boys, evangelical Christians, and various other terrorists groups, decided that March 4 would be the day when Trump returned to the presidency, presumably at the head of a violent mob, after the fashion of January 6. Delusional? yes. pathological? Most Assuredly. Deadly serious? Regrettably. Thus yesterday was the nation's capitol tightly secured with national guard and razor wire, all because of America's deluded, violent conservative community. The above terrorist groups were reported to have been up in arms, armed with Bibles and assault rifles, but, as might have been expected, the brazen loud mouthed cowards chickened out, and, thankfully, did nothing. Since these lunatics have demonstrated a preference to murderous violence to electoral democracy, the FBI's warning that internet chatter indicated another insurrection was well founded, and worth preparing for. I know many Trump supporters. Its hard not to, in the small conservative town where I live in a small conservative state. All of them, in one way or another, are idiots. To a  person they are convinced that the election was stolen from Trump, not a trace of doubt, evidence,  nor reason among the lot. Only dead set psychopathic certainty about a mater which, upon even shallow reflection,  could not possible have happened. It would have required the coordinated theft of more than ten thousand mini elections in many precincts by tens of thousands hush mouthed conspirators, without leaving a trace. Trump supporters do not seek evidence, ask questions, nor investigate. they simply invent their little world, and assiduously reside within it, evidently content.They invent false realities, and feel no shame. Trump supporters tend towards fantasy, the occult, the paranormal, and alternative cosmic paradigms. The common denominator is perverse dishonesty of the pathological kind, and self righteousness. They display a proclivity for rage, and for traitorous backstabbing, at the behest of their mob boss, for whom they are still attempting to steal the election from the rightful winner, while claiming that the election has been stolen from them. Disgusting. Because of trump's big lie that the election was stolen from him, and because his supporters embrace the lie, people have died, and thus Trump is a murderer, and his supporters are accessories to murder. Incredibly shameful

Wising Up

WISDOM IS TIMELESS, AND AGELESS. Fools and wise people alike defy demographics.  The young are often wise, and the old are often not. A young lady asserted with great confidence that the greatest British invasion band of all time was The Kinks; not the Stones, the Beatles, The Who, or Zeppelin.never mind Herman's hermits. Thus she revealed her lack of age. Yes, Ray Davies and teh Kinks.great band,granted. But, really? Still and all..Then there was the eighty seven year old southern conservative -this person really existed - who swore up and down that Abraham Lincoln and FDR were the two 'sorriest" as he put it presidents in american history. I'm sure you glean the pattern; he doesn't like people who help black people nor socialists, true to his conservative little KKK heart. The old geezer supported Trump. Go figure.I rest my case. idiots come in all genders and ages. Anyhow, he's dead now. When Trump rode the golden escalator down and declared in 2015, I got on board. Fresh blood, and all that. Within two weeks i had learned better. By that time he had called Ted Cruz "Lyin' Ted" fifty times, and I realized that he would call anybody anything, and would never be concerned with my well being. I proved correct.Some folks learn faster than others. I do stupid things, but I always correct myself, at length. Einstein said that the only difference between genius and stupidity is that genius is somewhat limited.And of course everyone knows that insanity consists of doing something repeatedly which does not work the first , second, or third time. Stupidity, lack of wisdom, call it what you will, is contagious. it spreads through the community like a viral pandemic. The great American Covid 19 epidemic, itself the product of societal foolishness and partying and a refusal to wear masks and to social distance and so forth, is far from the only example.A high percentage of American, for example, claim to have been abducted by aliens, that the election was stolen from Trump, that vaccines kill people, and that there exists a widespread conspiracy to rape children and suck the blood from their bodies. Generally, it is the same people who believe all these things. The same people who  believe that vaccines are harmful are the ones who believe, so they say, that Trump lost the election only by fraud. The economic collapse, the pandemic, and the political turmoil were all cause by the same people, people lacking wisdom, stupid people. Our only comfort is that we can to a certain extent identify these people, and isolate them.

Disuniting

 IT IS WORTH  NOTING that nary a House Republican voted in favor of Biden's roughly two trillion dollar Covid relief bill...It was predictable..Republicans never met a  piece of helpful legislation directed at mainstream Americans that they couldn't turn down. The rule of thumb is; when Democrats come to power, Republicans magically, mysteriously transform themselves into true staunch fiscal penny pinchers, having before gone on lengthy spending binges, usually for things like militarizing the nation's police. That sudden emergence of right wing fiscal responsibility, and such pandering, sincere concern for the financial obligations of their children, and their children's children. True deficit hawks, those conservatives, especially when it comes to spending on things which help poor and working poor people. Conversely, perversely, they are always ready, able and willing to make deep tax cuts for the ultra corporate wealthy, as they did in 2017, exploding the national debt they care ever so much about.Republicans never met a gift care package for America's corporate wealthy which they were not eager to deliver, obligingly, to pay their debt to their billionaire benefactors. That former president Trump spoke at and spewed verbal garbage along with the conservative political action klan tells us much about america's conservative movement, in its current incarnation, which encompasses the Republican party, and is an extremist proto fascist movement which includes Christian nationalists, white supremacists, and various other terrorists gangs. They have in common that they are comfortably willing to employ violent and illegal means of subverting the democratic process when it fails to produce results favorable to their agenda, even to the point of attempting to overthrow the government through violent insurrection, as we saw on January 6. the mere fact that much of the conservative community seems to approve of such methods is alarming, but no more alarming that the currently ongoing nationwide effort by Republican state legislators to rewrite election laws to make it more difficult to vote, instead of easier, as it should be. It amounts to voter suppression by legislation. Biden's defeat of Trump was largely the result of huge voter turnouts in many states, with minority turn out particularly putting Biden in the winning column. Violence or legislation; either means serves the dame end, either is acceptable to far right wing America, which correctly sees its existence threatened by dwindling numbers. the lines of our slow motion american political civil war are now clearly drawn, firmly set in stone. Far right white Christian conservatism, including the G.O.P., christian nationalists and white supremacists, versus a diverse coalition of progressive minorities. may the better side prevail.

Prevaricating, Once Again

THE GREAT PREVARICATOR, the loud mouthed loser, is back at it again, once again spewing verbal garbage, to the evident delight of his low integrity low life sycophantic loser listeners. the orange ogre's failed attempt to usurp American, democracy, to overthrow the government of the United States, to install himself as an unelected authoritarian ruler has only emboldened his fascist leaning followers. We can expect more mob violence shortly. Law enforcement and intelligence gathering agencies tell us that the right wing is up in arms, loaded for bear. Hitler had a career trajectory somewhat similar to Trump. He too failed in his first attempt at insurrection, in the famous Munich "Beer Hall Putsch" of 1920. For that he spent a meager nine months in jail, where he had time to ruminate and write his boringly long and cobweb of a book, "Mein Kampf". Trump may too end up in lock up, he certainly should, but probably lacks the ability to pen even a rambling incoherent monograph, much to our good fortune.Spare us your book, Mr. Trump.historians tend to focus more on Adolf Hitler than on his supporters. He is, after all, more famous, more powerful as an individual than those who actually brought him to power. Seventeen million Germans elected him in 1933, a constituency which compares strikingly to Donald Trump's near,y a hundred years later. Angry, alienated white blue collar men who felt that the system had bypassed them, depriving them of their rightful place of privilege in society. Angry, alienated, fearful of and hateful towards foreigners, Trump's supporters, like Hitler's, are mainly christian, and Trump, like Hitler, paid lip service to their faith, while being a non christian himself, something of a  new age occultist. The common denominator is their far right affiliation. Both cult like groups were fervently loyal to their precious leader, who promised to return their nation's to a glorious epoch of the epoch, an imaginary epoch, to "make Germany great again" as Hitler put it. In the United states today, with right wing extremism gone mainstream, the republican party embracing it, white christian identity along for the ride, much of America, as much as forty percent, is rapidly becoming, or has already become, semi-fascist in its ideology and preferred methods, subversion of existing norms. Behold the widespread support for teh Capitol insurrection, and the wider spread belief that trump ;ost the election by theft, a complete fraud, but one which has become sacred dogma among the far right extreme movement. This nascent american fascism must be opposed and defeated before it becomes more than merely nascent.