Writing, Rewriting History

THE THOUGHT OCCURRED to me that it has been a while since I wore a mask while in public, anywhere. Maybe a couple of weeks, maybe a month. The last place I entered which required a mask was two public libraries. I don't know whether they still do, I havent been to either in at least a couple of weeks. But I'll need to be going soon, so I'll find out. From what I can tell, Americans in general have taken off their facemasks, and all the various mandates from business and government, the source of so much sound and fury, are expiring. Now, presumably, America's right wing champions of freedom and liberty from tyranny can focus their energies on controlling women's reproductive rights, scrubbing all negative references to these white United States from the nation's history textbooks, and marginalizing the gay and transgender community. Hell, fewer, slightly fewer, than a thousand Americans a day are dying from Covid 19; - the one millionth American to have died from it will have died from it by sometime in late April - so, off come our masks. Premature? Prematurity in the cause of liberty is no vice, to paraphrase a true right wing nut. With regard to history, in particular the history of the pandemic, it will be written, and, eventually, written truthfully. Best bet is that the truthful version will not emanate from far right wing conservative historians. The far right version might include anything, such as: the pandemic was a deliberate attack on the United States by China, an attack which the great "honest Don" Donald Trump fended off with hydroxychloroquine and mask free campaign rallies. Honest, accurate historical versions of pandemic history will, thankfully, ultimately emerge, and will focus on the disastrous impact Covid 19 had on the United States, with more than a million people dead, and the economy in tatters. Again: The honest, accruate historical version will emphasize the disastrous impact the pandemic had on America, with more than a million dead people and the economy in tatters. Blame will be partially placed on horrible government mismanagedment during the Trump adiministration, during which the pandemic was virtually ignored by the Trump administration, with Trump calling it a "hoax", and blame will be placed on the refusal of a certain sesgment of American society, a large segment, refusinig to cooperate with necessary anti-pandemic measures and precautions, such as mandatory mask wearing and societal quarantines and shutdowns. And, if the history is accurate, it will identify the uncooperative segment of America as the conservative, Trump supporting segment. In fact, it is America's conservative base which has from the beginning refused to take the pandemic seriously. Extreme right wing ideologies always inclulde distorting history for the purpose of nationalilsm. NAZI historians portrayed German history as a glorious struggle and a lost cause in need of resurrection, which Hitler could provide. So too do our currrent right wing American so called "historians". Accordingly, we scrub bad historical behavior by the white Christian majority, behavior which badly needs to be not only taught, but emphasized, no matter whose feelings are injured.

Dealing With the World While Gay

TYPICAL OF TYPICALLY crazy conservative reasoning, conservatives seems to believe that homosexuality and transgender "ism" are conscious choices, as if people, on any given day, suddenly decide, "today I will go gay". Or as if they think about it often, maybe every day, then, decide. Those who choose to believe this nonsense evidently have not the foggiest idea how idiotic it is. Apparantly, these misinformed folks are unaware that a specific gene for homosexuality has been discovered and identified, conclusively, whihc means, in short, that being gay is not a matter of personal freedom, choice, freedom, and will power, but, rather, of heredity. To the best of my knowledge, no such gene has yet been found for transgdner people; which of course does not mean that one wont be. But either way, does it matter, and, if so, why? Why should it? Nobody has shown any evidence that anyone anywhere changes back and forth from gay to straight, from male to female, more than once; that argument by conservatives thus becomes merely more demonstrable idiocy. People, in a nutshell, are gay or straight for exactly the same reason they have blonde or black hair - they inherited it. Even those right wing homophobic fanatics capable of understanding this and aware of it prefer to overlook it, because it contradicts their personal political prejudices. For some it may be difficult but it is not impossible for adults of any age to remember what it was like to be a kid. Its tough enough being a heterosexual, "normal" kid. To grow up gay in America, or for that matter just about anywhere in this corrupt world, must be horrible, to say the least. when I was a kid it was illegal to be gay in the United States, and most gay people were either in prison, or hiding in the proverbial "closet". What a life. That's why the negative conservative attitude towards homosexuality is so thoroughly reprehensible and egregious. Its based on false information, and, it does great harm to innocent people, particularly gay and transgender people. Obviously conservatives somehow have gotten the crazy notion that people can be and are being turned into gay and transgenders through educational indoctrination, as if America'spublic schools are spawning grounds for alternative sexuality. Another insane notion. Merely teaching acceptance of gay and transgender people is not the same thing as trying to brainwash someone into becoming gay or transgender. These new right wing laws prohibiting mentioning alternative sexual oreientations in school will do great harm to many innoent children, and sould be repealed extraordinarily repidly. Innocent children will be afraid to be themselves, to be who they really are, and will feel persecuted and excluded for situations beyond their control. Truly, these laws, and their underlying rationale, is child abuse.

Legislating Lunacy

THE GOVERNOR OF fLORIDA yesterday signed into law the law prohibiting Florida public schools from giving instruction regarding sexual orientation or gender studies. Liberals contemptuously call this law the "don't say "gay" law", which is misleading, because the new law does not prohibit the use of the word "gay"; it prohibits instruction or studies in gender studies and sexual orientation. The complete uselessness of the law derives from the simple fact tht there are currently no public schools in America which provide instruction in gender studies or sexual orientation, nor are there any, as far as anyone knows which plans to offer it in the near or far future. What this new idiotic, useless law does is provide unlimited opportunties for lawsuits. Let the lawsuits roll. Lawsuits from paranoid evangelicals who panic that some teacher referred to "gay people" as if they not only do not choose to be gay, but are proud of so being, and want to encourage other children to so become. Nonsense such as that. The current conservative cultural avalanche, consistine mainly of hundreds of pieces of nonsensical, idiotic legislation i, republican states is a continuation of Trumpism, and bodes ill for the forthcoming midterm elections, and, for that matter, the presidential election of twenty twenty four. Purely as a political expedient, Trump decided to "embrace" the far right evangelical coservative Christian portion of the Republican party, which reciprocated with undying loyalty for and support of Trump. Strange bedfellows, to say the least. Argue all you want, but the simple fact is that for a long time, American cutlure and the American people has been and continues to move in the direction of acceptance of gay and transgender people as equals, anad that trend is going to remain. That's the way we the American people want it. We have decided. The decision has been made. It is entirely useless and counter productive for conservative America, demonstrablly off its proverbial rocker, to try to oppose gay and trans culture by wiping it out in public schools through legislation. As the say: It aint gonna happen. All these idiot laws, like the one signed into law yesterday in Florida, will never stand the test of time; they will eventually be repealed, as harmful to society. Similarly, trying to whitewash American history by making it illegal to tell the truth about slavery and racism in America, past and present, will never work: the truth is already out there, available to all; the cow, as we say, is out of the barn.

Nightmares Come True Too

REENTLY I SAID to someone that the way it looks to me right now, Donald Trump could very well run for president in 2024, and win. The pain and suffering I thus caused myself are too unpleasant to detail here; suffice to say, it could happen. The "someone" to whom I said this is one of my best friends, a ninety five year old gentleman who voted for Trump the first time, but calls him an "idiot" now. His response to m dire warning was: "No way." As in, "there's no way that can happen", which we know a priori is simplye no true, for verily, there is a way that damned near anything can happen. Pensively I recall how hard I tried to steer him away from Trump in 2016, to no avail. He simply hated Hillary, and he hates Biden, but would never vote for Trump again, I'm convinced. He's a self proclaimed conservative Republican, who now despises Trump, after watching him as president for four years.To me, that seems reasonable. He thought my theory that Trump might get reelected was ridiculous. I reminded him that Biden is very unpopular, and is having a rough term in office. i futther reminded him that, despits recent claims of decreased support, Donald Trump very much remains in control of the Republican party, the most popular, powerful politician in it. He appears to be running for president in twenty twenty four. Those facts alone make his election in 2024 at least possible, if not likely. This will provide the Democrats teh opportunity of rehasing Trump's record as president, and his record pre and post presidency, including whatever legal situations there are regarding Trump in the fall of twenty ttenty four. By then, who knows what'll be going on? B then, Trump may be a convicted felon, but, so what? It is perfectly legal for convicted felons to run for president, to be elected pesident, and to serve as president of these United States. If anybody can do it, Trump can. Hell, the more criminal activity Trump engages in, the more his supporters support him. They, like he, seem to wear his confirmed bad bahaviors like badges of honor. This includes millions of Americans, Americans one would have therefore have thought good and dcednt people with high morals, but...they still support Trump, post insurrection. A former president hwo tried to violentlly overthrow the United States government might well run for president again, get elected, and become president, again. That America could ever have gotten itself into this situation is almost beyond amazing.

Out-Trumping Trumpers

AMERICANS SHOULD PROBABLY simply accept the reality that election season is never ending; and maybe that's a good thing, our best and only way of preserving democracy in America. Already the midterm campaign season is upon us, with gangs of manic, extremist Republicans swarming and seeking office in primary campaigns all across our beloved fruited plain, the blessed land of liberty. A lingering, pertinent question for Republicans is: is Trump still the man, or is it time to move on? In the great state of Ohio, which Trump won easily twice, a bevy of hard charging Republicans is competing in the primary for the party's nomination to run for U.S Senate; the eventual Republican candidate seems destined to get elected. If this campaign is any indication, which it most certainly is, Trump is still the man. What they are arguing about is which of them is the most like Trump, which of them most strongly supports the former president, and so forth. There will inevitably be a growing contest within Republican America over whether to keep or replace Trump; it will become fractious, heated, fun to watch. At one point all of the Republican Senatorial candidates in Ohio were together in the same room,, answering questions, and a journalist asked them all: does anybody here think that its time for Trump to stop talking about the 2020 election, and move on? Out of the group of several, one dude and one dude only raised his hand - the one who is in last place, the rest evidently being content to continue arguing about the last election, content to continue to make their outrageously false claim that it was stolen from Trump. Conclusion: Trump still has a formidable support base, and as of now seems as capable as anyone else, if not more so, of getting elected president in 2024. Meanwhile, half a continent away, the second trial of a January 6th insurrenctionist concluded with a conviction on one criminal count, an exoneration on another. Sentencing will occur later this spring. The convicted criminal says that he wears his participation in the insurrection and his conviction for it like a badge of honor. Yes, he would do it all over again...There is a ceratin alarming overtone to that, and it makes one wonder how widespread this attitude is; among not only the participants in the insurrection, but Trump supporters generally, among Republicans, and among evangelical Christian conservativs generally. How many Americans still insist that Trump won the election, and still believe that the insurrrection was a noble attempt to restore justice, and that justice must be restored sooner rather than later, by any means necessary, including reinstalling Trump as president; by any means necessary? Plenty, likely. One is one more than we need. That's why this crazy movement known as the Republican party, as pro-Trump American evangelical conservatism, whatever you want to call it...must be defeated.

Censoring, Part II

OBVIOUSLY, you simply cannot say that all censorship is bad, all of the time. There are simply certain things that you don't want certain people to see and experience at certain times. The most obvious red flags are of course sex and violence. Strange that we keep mentioning these two drastically different activities in the same sentence; one is good, the other, bad. However, you really don't want your teenager, or for that matter your child of any age, sitting infront of his or her computer all day long watching pornography. To prevent that from happening, some form of censorship may be necessary, such as: no porn in this house. Also, most folks might agree that the less censorship, the better. In other words, use censorship only when necessary, only when it must be used for a particular reason, a good reason. Of course, one man's good reason is another man's nonsense. The book censorship and book burnings during Hitler's rule are generally regarded as having been among Hitler's many and worst atrocities and crimes against humanity; at the time, however, there were plenty of perfectly intelligent people, erstwhile intelligent people, people other than Hitler, who thought the book burnings were of the utmost utility and necessity. For that matter, there were plenty of Americans, conservatives, who approved of and supported Hitler until well into World War Two, just as today there are many American conservatives who seem to approve of Vladimir Putin. Obviously, nobody in his or her right mind wants pornography to be allowed in public schools. Defining pornography is of course the problem; like the supreme court justice famously said: "I may not be able to define it, but I know it when I see it." Bertolt Brecht noticed a pattern to Hitler's book burnings: all books being burned were good, well written books. Hitler did not burn poorly written, vacuous, trashy books, Brecht noticed as he looked at the list. Only the good got burned. Insulted, Brecht wrote a great poem titled "The Burning of the Books" in which he complains that Hitler refuses to burn any Betolt Brecht books, but should, because he, Brecht, is a good writer. One thing we should all agee on: consorship should only be implemented by good people with good intentions to oppose evil; it should never be implemented by people who support a bad cause and want to oppose a good one, which is exactly wat is happening with all these "don't say gay" laws sweeping the country. Angered by Trump's loss, and desperate to reverse the inevitable and irreversable progressive tendencies in American culture, such as increasing acceptance of gay and transgender people, Republican controlled states are passing censorship laws which they think will defend traditional American culture and keep it from changing, traditions like exclusion of gay and transgender people. So they censor all books which promote, defend, or even mention gay and transgender people. The material they are trying to censor is good material, good books for children to learn from, promoting good positive values, including complete social and personal acceptance of gay and transgender people. The purpose of their attempts at censorship is to destory healthy, positive culture, acceptance of gay people, and replace it with negative, evil, outdated cultural notions and traditions, such as exclusion and persecution of gay people. Therefore, indisputably, undeniably, inarguably, the current Christian-conservative-Republican-Trumpist agenda involving censorship of literature and history within American's public schools, is pernicious, wholly undesirable, a great evil, which must be opposed and stopped.

Censoring, Part I

OF ALL THE MANY VILE FORMS of conservative behavior currently manifesting in America, of all the vile planks in conservatism's rotten platform, of all the poisonous programs embedded within the right wing agenda, perhaps none is more vile, perhaps none is more vile, harmful, reprehensible as censorship. In particular, book censorship. The practice of creating, maintaining, and expanding a list of books prohibited within schools. This behavior is beginning to seem a bit popular, "trending" as we say nowadays, within America's evangelical Christian conservative Republican pro Trump community, yes, the same infamous crew, the usual suspects, the ones passing laws eliminating gay and transgender people and accurate history from school currricula, suppressing voter turnout, and so forth. Throughout America society and culture in general, obviously, there has been in recent years and decades a trend towards greater acceptance of "sexual minorities", gay rights, and so forth. Conservatives don't like this, and are attempting to "turn back the clock" culturally. New generations of talented writers have written and published increasing numbers of children's books featuring gay and transgender people, encouraging equality for them with enticing plot filled fiction. These book are popular. And they are exactly the kind of book that American conservatism wants to prevent young children from reading. All this clearly demonstrates the utter moral depravity and intellectual bankruptcy of American conservatism, and its desperate stupidity; the cow, as they say, is long out of the barn. A clever cartoon shows a little girl asking her mom why Bob and George are always toegther, holding hands. Mom says its because Bob and Geroge are in love, just like mom and dad. The little girls says "Oh. Can I have a cookie?"...The caption reads: "Scarred for life!". For the benefit of conservatives, please permit one to humbly remind you; Its way too late to try to get rid of homosexuality, or force it back into the closet. Tolerance and acceptance are what America chose, long ago, and has been pursuing, and continures to pursue, despite your best misguided, anachronistic attempts to the contrary. When I was in high school fifty years ago my conservative midwest town had a ban on certain books, a forbidden book list. It included the best selling novel "The Catcher In the Rye", J.D. Salinger's masterpiece about the psychological travails of teenagerhood in modern America. Quite naturally I got a copy and read it, which I think most of my classmates did as well. I can remember seeing it in many lockers when students had them open. The book stood out because of its bright red colored cover. Its truly a great novel. Kinda made me wonder the point of banning it. I still wonder. My dear mother, who was born in 1920, said many times that she is strongly opposed to censorship of any kind. My opinion is that all good Americans should be. The salient, unassailable fact about censorship - and this is born out by history - is that it never works. Word always gets out, even if only belatedly. Author Virginia Woolf, roughly paraphrazed, perhaps said it best: "You can lock the library if you like. But you can never lock up the human mind."

The Wrong Protest at the Wrong Time

AS THE COVID 19 DEATH TOLL in the United Staates approached one million, tractor trailor convoys mostl made up of good ole boys converged on the bridge connecting Detroit to Canada, honking horns, snarling traffic, stalling the economies of two nations, forcing law enforcement to take action....all for what, precisely? I recall fifty years ago, when I was a teenager, we'd cleverly respond: "Horn blows, what about the driver"? The answer is, that by inundating Canada's Capitol with truck smoke and noise, the protestors were advocating for a useless, harmful cause; eliminating mask and vaccine mandates from business and government during the worst pandemic in a century. These fanactics acted like they were rising up against Stalinist oppression. Arguably, when thousands of people are dying every day due to a deadly pandemic, temproary mask and vaccine mandates have a very real purpose, and protesting against them on the spurious basis of "fighting for freedom and liberty" becomes a comedy of idiocy. Plus, all these big strong man semi tractor trailor protests came at [recisely the time when mask and vaccine mandates were beginning to expire anyway, having accomplished their purpose of saving lives, no longer necessary as the pandemic subsides. A clownish caravan cruised up through Oklahoma, through Joplin, Missouri, and all the way to Washington D.C., where it turned out to be somewhat of an ineffective fizzle. All these drivers and trucks could have been spending their time better working, by reconnecting that much maligned supply chain, and, as we said in the nineteen seventies, "whip inflation now". We modern spoiled Americans of course have no real idea exactly what "tyranny" is. Get a load of the "Tower of London", or Ivan the Terrible, or the most shocking example of British imperialist tyranny ever: the "black hole of Calcutta". All in all, it didn't reallly hurt any of us to wear facemasks in public for a couple of years, and to get vaccinated. Minor inconveniences, to save lives. Leave it to the American conservative community to, when it finally protests something, to proest the one thing which never should be opposed or protested. The reason why more than one million Americans will soon have died from covid 19 is not because people have been wearing facemasks and getting vaccinated; its because of the people who refuse to do either, and who have thus spent the last two years spreading disease and death throughout the United States and the world. All these temproarary emergency measures which conservatives hate so much would have kept the American deateh toll down, like other countries, if only they had been given the chance to.

Legislating Gays and History Away

NEW LAWS are being passed in Republican controlled states requiring that teachers hide the existence of gay people from young children, presumably in the hope that by so doing, the problem will be solved; there will be no gay culture infecting good, healthy, decent American society..or whatever. This is because conservatives do not like homosexuality, hence, homosexuals. They see it as a perversion, a sin, an affront to normalcy. Conservatives are doing further damage to American education, hence, children, by passsing even more idiotic laws requiring teachers to hide the truth about African enslavement and native American genocide in American history, and the persistence of systemic racism today, all for the purpose of sparing the feeling of white children. Hiding history, of course, hurts people, teaching history truthfully helps inform and enlighten people; our job is to help our conservative comrads understand this. Telling the truth, which conservatives like to disguise as something bad, so they call it "critical race theory" risks making white children feel guilty or ashamed of their ancestors. Noble Republicans, so terribly concerned about the psyches of sons and daughters of injustice. Lying to children harms them. Telling them the truth sets them free. The progressive viewpoint is that all of this negative American hsitory, enslavement of African-Americans, native American genocide, exploitation of labor and corporate societal control, the struggles for African-American rights, women's rights, and gay rights and equality should not only be taught, they should be emphasized, so that today's students, by learning about the mistakes of history, will be less likely to repeat them. That certainly makes far more sense than ignoring or downplaying these abominations to spare the feelings of students. As Goeteh said: "Only by errors that really irk us do we advance." And of course Lord Action: "Those who fail to learn the lessons of history are condemned to repeat them." When teaching the history of the United States, there is no way to do it honestly and flatteringly, or "hagiographically" as it is called. Too much of it is simply ugly and unpleasant. So, teach the truth, and learn from it, right? All all across the frutied plain of the land of freedom, thousands of K thru third grade teachers do their jobs, everyday. On a day to day basis, they know exactly whether to mention anything about "Gay" people, and we can trust them to know what to do. No fascist laws censuring teachers are necessary. The best thing Rebublicans and Christian conservatives can do with America's public education system is to get out of the way, and leave it alone.

Flying the Flag

ONE OF MY NEIGHBORS, a brown skinned man from a foreign country with an accent, recently erected a flag pole in is front yard, atop which an American flag now flies. The flag flies twenty four seven, rain, snow, or shine. Is this proper and acceptable, or are there certain timew when protocaol requires lowering the flag, like at night, and during inclement weather? Either way, I don't care. I'm just happy to have a flag in the 'hood. The only one I have is tiny, about four by six inches, and flies proudly but smally above my fireplace. One wouldn't want too many glags in one's neighborhood. We certainly don't want the streets painted red, white, and blue. I wonder whether Russian aggression is fueling a wave of patriotism through America. Maybe my neighbor correctly assumes that the United States will be at war very soon. It is now, effectively. I have no plans to go to the trouble to try to tell h im that it isn't enough to simply put a pole in the ground, raise the flag, and leave it there, day and night, rain or shine. I'll let someone else do the work, and take the consequences. I'm afraid my neighbor might get mad at me, and besides, for all I know, it is now conisdered perfectly fine to leave the American flag out in the dark, or in wet weather. From my front yard I can see it plainly, and am glad of this; the positioning of the flag pole turned out to be perfect for me. I find myslef tampted to standat attention and recite the "pledge of allegience" every day while facing my neighbor's flag. Who knows, a new tradition might get started. At my local senior center we recite the "pledge of allegience" every day right before lunch, because several years ago I arranged to isntall this partiotic new tradition. Who knows; maybe I was destined to start a pledge of allegience tradition twice, in a single lifetime. The Pledge, like the National Anthem, is a relatively recent addition to American patriotic culture. Earlier forms circulated since the Civil War, but the plegd we use today was written by a minisiter, who also happened to be a self declared socialist, in 1892, and was adopted officially during world War Two. The phrase "under God" was not in the original version, but was added officially on Flag Day, June 14, 1954. Arguably, "under God" should not be in the pledge, since the plege hax been, since it became official, part of the government of the United States, which requires seperation of church, meaning religion, and state. Again, the point could be argued either way; that merely using the wrod "God" does not inherently endorse any particular religion or religion at all, but merelly affirms the existence of a supreme creator of the universe, including the United States of America. I'll give the matter more thought as I recite the pledge every day at sunrise, in my own front yard, standing at attention, facing the flag, right hand over heart.

Nabbing the Perps

AT LONG LAST we have a criminal conviction for a Trump insurrectionist. It certainly has taken long enough, more than a year. May there be many more to follow; hundreds, thousands, if there is true justice in America. The ultimate goal of justice remains, of course, Trump, indicted, convicted, incarcerated. From what I saw on national television, that's the very least we should expect. For a president of the United States to try to overthrow the United States government by stealing an election as well as by inciting a violent insurrection is worthy of the death penalty, according to the constitution. May justice prevail. The first conviction by trial, with a non guilty verdict was issued, appropriately enough, to the leader of the infamous white supremacist group "The Proud Boys". Others, including the crazy guy with the horns and multicolored hair, have already pleaded guilty, and are serving time. Among conservatives, these two over the top thugs, and all the other insurrectionsists who have been arrested and charged so far, were, and remain, if not heroes, than harmless. Crusaders for justice, being harassed by the establishment, "the establishment" being the progressive movement, the Democratic party, the mainstream media, of whaever and whoever else crazy mainstream conservative Trumpers can delude themselves into believing. This continued support for violent traitors by conservative community, as well as its continued support for Trump and for the whole malignant Republcian agenda, clearly demonstrates the moral and intellectual bankruptcy of contemporary Amerian conservatism, as has been indicated repeatedly recently. Its worth mentioning, repeatedly, and worth opposing, aggressively. The fact that upwards of three fourths of American evangalical Christian conservatives still support Trump is beyond shocking. They want a straight up criminal to return as president, pathetically. The mere fact that Christian America ever supported Trump in the first place, let alone throughout his entire corrupt presidency, let alone after Trump's violent insurrection of Januaryy 6, 2021, speaks volumes about the hollow hyprocisy of this segment of the population. By comparison and contrast, America's progressive Christian community, with its opposition to Trump and the Republican agenda, is composed of good, solid citizens, patriots, paragons of virtue. Progressive Christians understand well that modern American conservatism, in its extreme form exemplified by the Trump movement, is antithetical to the message of Jesus Christ, and the basic message and teachings of Christianity. Evangelical christians would be far better off, in terms of their moral standing, if they would retain their fundamental religious views, and diametrically change their political ones. Having said that, neither do we as civilized humans want a society or a religion which condemns gay and transgender people for being who they are, and celebrates the gospel of wealth rather than the message of Jesus, who not only was a hard core believer in redistribution of wealth, but embraced voluntary poverty as well.

Legislating Gays Away

AS IF further evidence of contemporry conservative insanity were even necessary, a few days ago Florida passed a law making it illegal to teach children about gay people, or to use the word "gay" around them until they complete third grade. Fourth graders are qualified to learn about gay people, presumably. The obvious question is: why? Why pass this ostensibly stupid law, other than the fact tha tFlorida has been taken over by evangelical far right wingers. But why pass this ostensibly stupid law? Why pass a law about this at all? Day in day out, across America, how to teach K thru third grade about hoosexuality simply is not a pressing issue, nor an issue at all. Under normal circumstances it will never come up in class or at school. At least, not until now, when suddenly Republicans decide topoliticize it. the Reppublican party, the conservative community in general, and Christian conservatives in particular simply must learn to accept and understand that gay pepple are not going back into the closet, nor will they cease to exist. Simply accep them for who and what they are, without judgment. Really, its for the best. Over the past several decades there have been in Ameria massive movements advocating for gay rights, African-American rights, women's rights, advcating for equal rights and justice under law, and great progress has been achieved. Let's keep making progress. We do not need laws prohibiting teaching, of anything. We need many laws requiring and supporting it. All laws which prohibit learning and knowledge are based on primitive, outdated, superstitious religious beliefs, and should be repealed, immediately, including this crazy new one in Florida. In the great culture war which currently engulgs America and has for decades liberals stand toe to toe on the issue of gay people. Liberals like them, conservatives don't; its that simple. Conservatives need to change, across the board, on all issues, not just gay rights. Bertrand Russell astutely said that nobody should ever be prevented from learning anything he or she wanted to learn. Another name for this ideal is "proper education". Hiding gay peole from our children is yet another idioticact of denial by conservatives, just like their denial of climate change, the severity of covid 19, and scientific expertise generally. A disastrous frame of mind. To their credit, fewer conservatives deny climate change these days. Most still do, though, or deny that it is caused by humans. A disastrous attitude. American conservatism simply must stop, or be forced to stop, its insane attack on American culture and education, their desperate attempt to create and ensure a future conservative America by brainwashing today's children. Teaching children the truth about gay people, racism, and genocide sets them free; with holding this knowledge brainwashes them, thus betraying them. Teaching truth is good; withholding truth is bad. Conservatives are trying to brainwash America's children by teaching them falsehoods; and by omitting truth. Homosexuality, currently enduring systemic racism, human made climate change, and well organized white supremacist groups within mainstream white Christian conservativism all exist, undeniably. We simply cannot ignore it all, much that some of us might like to.

Updating, Evolving, Improving

DEVOUT CHRISTIANS seem to always insist on the virute of their refusal to even consider ever changing their beliefs, chiseled in stone. Their refusal to even consider the possibility of changing and improving their core beliefs they consider a virtue, an indication of moral superiority. Astonishing, to admire willful intellectual and spiritual stagnation. Willful intellectual and spiritual stagnation should be considered a sin, because it is. Intelligent, thinking beings should be ready, willing, and able (as they say) to change their religious beliefs in a heartbeat, if circumstances merit. Simply by saying: "I don't know", even if its the first time you've ever said it, is honesty, an indication of a willingness to be open minded and honest intellectually. My personal belief in God, for example, is my perception, and I am free to change it constantly, to update it, with new information obtained through living my life. The very moment a group of people in authortiy decide that a certain book, for example, is the sacred, unalterable "Word of God", and refuse to allow for the possibility of updating and improving it, the book begins to become outdated. Society evolves and changes, and its ideals about reality and morality do also. So it must be. It cannot be otherwise. Humanity has been increasing and continues to increase its knowledge extremely rapidly, and, at whatever speed, seems quite likely to continue the process of progress. Over the coming decades and centuries, the Christian bible in its current (2022) form will only continue to seem ever more outdated and primitive, simply because it is a book, and that's what books do. In point of fact, throughout its history, the past seventeen hundred years of its existence, the Christian bible has been constantly changing, as powerful people edited it, translated it repeatedly, changed it, added to it and detracted from it, not always for the better. Our Inherently conservative human mentality makes it irrrestiably tempting to regard, as a society, documents like the U.S. Constitution and the Holy Christian bible sacred, inviolable, and irreplaceable, but quite the opposite is true. Both are badly in need of improvement, and, actually, of replacement altogether. Therefore, let's keep changing the Bible, for the better! Goethe said:"It is beyond me how anyone can believe that God speaks to us in books and stories. If the world does not directly reveal itself to us, and if our hearts do not tell us what we owe ourselves and others, then we will certainly not find it in books, which, at best, are designed only to give names to our mistakes." Well said, Mr. Goethe. Arguably, the idea that God speaks to us, reveals his word to us, in books, is ridiculous. She could not choose a worse way. The best way? Give humanity a brain, and a universe, and see what happens. We the people need a new U.S. constitution and a new Bible, more compatible with modern thought. The traditional bible was written by people and people decided that it is the "Word of God" by voting on it. Let's elect a better version! We could do a much better job, and could us the word "God" as often as we want.... "In the beginning, God created the big bang, and hence, the universe." Human progress is going to continue, unless we destroy ourselves, which, of course, is always a possibility. The question is: will human religiosity keep up? Or will it seem ever more primmitive, ever less relevant? The is a reason why, for example, the Christian faith is losing popularity in Europe and North America. Each generation is born into a world increasingly scientific in outlook. If we reverse climate change and save the ecosystem we will do it with science, not religion, but doing it at all can arguably be regarded as a religious obligation.

Updating Culture & the "Word of God": Part II

THE NOTION THAT the ancient God disapproved of homosexuality but that the modern God does not will of course run afoul of many religious people, and yet, is quite true. Whether God exists, humans invent the concept of God, and proceed to define it. Our definitions are different today than in the remote past. The Bible itself is but a book, and proves nothing. Five thousnad yeas ago God most likely did not say that anyone caught working on the sabbath must be put to death. Humans, listen poorly, and get things wrong. They convinced themselves that God had said many things, then turned it into sacred law. A false idea, repeated often enough and amplified becomes the word of God. The very idea of the christian religion, and the totality of its laws and beliefs, governing America in a theocratic Christian predicated system of laws, let along influencing, controlling, or infecting American culture, is abhorrant to any sane, thinking person. Everyone should vigorously oppose any attempt to implement such a system. Long live our secular democracy! Whetehr transgender people have a "choice" in being transgender is entirely irrelevant. Either way, we must simply accept them as people, our equals. If a transgender person and her doctor both want to provide medical are which fully acknnowledges the transgender person, and the medical care is administered accordingly, for God's sake, let them! When the evangelical politically conservative community starts to legislate primitive, harmful medical practices into law, such as laws denying transgender people, its time to resist and repeal. this madness must be stopped, for it is a form of abuse. conservatives have a demonstrated to deny the existence of whatever they dislike; examples of this tendency are their widespread denial of climate change, environmental collapse and mass extinction, the severity of Covid 19, and scientific expertise generally. These are many of the same folks who perpetuate the big election lie of Trump, and who still support his failed attempt to overthrow the American government. Their criminal insanity is evident. Their ruthless attack, legislatively, on gay rights, transgender rights, and voting rights must be stopped. Indeed, we must preserve the wisdom of the past, but must not allow ourselvs to be ruled by teh ignorance, nonsense, and false doctrine which comes with it. We mus tstudy and learn the msitakes of history, including racism and genocide, to avoid repeating them. Future human religiiosity can and must be based on our modern understanding of the universe, not that of ancinet civilizations. God speaks to us now, as we change, and improve our understanding of reality.

Updating Culture, and the "Word of God": Part I

THE VIRGINIA COLONY of 1607 was looking for gold, the one in Massachusetts in 1620 was primarily seeking religious freedom, but would've gladly accepted gold. Religious freedom in the Puritan colony soon evolved into strict religious conformity and obedience. Devout Christians carried out the Salem witch trials of 1692, during which roughly two dozen women were murdered, senselessly. Therein lies the problem with primitive religious superstition: the powerful few often use it to ontrol and harm the many, to control and harm society, with society's full approval. The same thing is happening today. What happened in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692 has happened all through the millennia, and is happening today: religious superstition infects law and culture, and does great harm. Contrary to the claims of many hyperbolic American Christians, there is in fact no war on Christianity in American culture today. There is merely an insistence by the majority that religion be kept out of government, and that it be optional individually. Actually, Christian theocrats are trying to insinuate their religion into the American legal system, and to dominate American culture. This harms the groups it (christian nationalism) decides to attack, thus harming society generally. For example, the LGBTQ community, the very existence of which conservative Christianity considers undesirable. Thus, the ethics and morals of ancient, primitive people permeate and threaten to control our modern society, with disastrous consequences. It is shocking and amazing, for example, that in the year twenty twenty two, millions of people would evidently embrace the idea that allowing a transgender child to be transgender is child abuse, and would actually succeed in encoding this cruel, barbaric belief into law, as is now happening in many states. Quite the opposite is true, obviously. Preventing children who are "naturally" gay or transgender from being what they naturally are is, and has been repeaetdly proven to be, child abuse, and terribly harmful, both to the individual, and to society. The widespread practice of "conversion therapy", for example, according to which a gang of Christian grown ups, with the full support of the Christian church ad Christian doctrine, tries to brainwash a person a young child usually, into being strictly heterosexual. The whole process never works, which in itself should be clear evidence that it is bad, wrong, harmful, and so forth, but evidently is not, at least not among the devout, headstrong extremists. Evangelcial American conservative Christianity is currently in full attack mode against LGBTQ people, which includes a surprisingly broad swathe of society, especially including "Q" people, the word "Queer" seeming to be a general description of folks with non traditional sexual self identification, including people who self identify as neither male, nor female, but instead...something else. The point is, its their choice, or should be, not ours. If God indeed communicates to us in books - and most certainly she does not, according to all reason - then it it long past time to update the "Word of God", whatever and whenever word of God claims that anything other than strict heterosexuality is sinful or sick. The modern God, in the year 2022, surely does not disapprove of homosexuality, of gay people, or of transgender people.

Opposing False Doctrine

WITHIN AMERICAN CONSERVATISM there is a strong strain of pro-Putin sentiment, on the far right, which constitututes a good portion of American conservatism. Within this same strain is a noticeable strain of neo-NAZIism and white supremacy, racism, and homophobia, among many other ills. This is the bulwark of the Republican party, the evangelical Christian right wing conservative capitalistic coalition. The KKK, white supremacists, neo-NAZIs, and Christian nationalists, who want the United States to become a theocracy, all have in common an embrace of far right conservatism, Trump, and, in many if not most instances, are all the same people. They like Putin because Putin is a far right wing populist demagogue, like Trump, of the sort they adore, and they see Russia as a bastian of plutocratic patriarchical white Christian supremacy, as they similarly envision the United States. Russia's actual great ethnic and religious diversity they ignore, much like they try to, without success, in the United States. Cultural, religious, and ethnic diversity, rather than homogeneity, appears to be the wave of the future, every where on Earth. White Christian conservatives of course hate this, but society in general wants it, including societal acceptance of sexual diversity. Our right wing geniuses are perhaps able to understanad that gay people are not going back into the closet, and that nobody can put them there. Every plank in the currrent American conservative platform is rotten, and must be discarded. Current American conservatism is a basket of deplorable ideas, as Hillary Clinton might say, perhaps the very worst of which are climate change and Covid 19 denial, and the refusal to fight either one, both of which have already cost millions of lives, with millions more to follow. Not only do these demented admirers of Putin and Trump refuse to fight climate change and covid 19, they refuse to fight or even acknowledge racism and ethnic hatred, all of which must be actively opposed and eliminated, with government being a prime tool to this end. Cultural, ethnic, religious, artistic, and sexual diversity, rather than conformity, are the future of humanity. Harmful, fascist-like action based on primitive, barbaric, outdated religious beliefs must also be eliminated. Hate transgender people if you must, but at least have the decency to leave them alone, and to not torture them. Many conservatives, perhaps a majority of Christian conservatives in America, are sufficiently insane to believe, or pretend to belive, that when a doctor treats a transgender child like a transgender patient, the doctor is abusing the child, and must be prevented from doing so by law. This, of course, is insane, like much if not most contemporary conservatism, the climate denial, and all that. As usual, conservatives have it backwards. Child absue occurs by refusing to treat transgender children like transgender children, thus greatly harming the child, all because of some primitive, outdated, barbaric, idiotic religious beliefs which should be discarded. These new state laws prohibiting doctors from treating transgender children like transgender children are nothing other than child abuse by law. The laws are the result of twisted conservative thinking. What primitive animals we often are. Its time, high time, past time, to stop the insanity. Stop the insanitiy of homophobia, racism, clmte change and Covid 19 denial, and stop the crazy, primitive, harmful social, socio-economic and religious beliefs and practices inherent in conservatism, and in all too many conservative institutions. Stop them from doing further harm to the world.

Imitating Fascism

TRUE TO FORM, the Republican party is continuing its impressive impersonation of fascism, fascism being a political system of governemnt in whichpower is concentrated in the hands of a dominant political party, and all opposition is attacked. The only question is: to what extent is is a mere "impersonation"? But what can one expect from an organization which accepted Donald Trump as its presidential candidate, elected him, supported him throughout his corrupt, criminal presidency, then refused to accept his defeat for reeelection by the American people. And lest we omit the most incriminating fact of all; the Republican party instigated and supported, and still suupports Trumps unsuccessful violent attempt to overthrow the United States government, and the traitor who organized the coup attempt, Donald J. Trump. In states all across America's fruited plain, Republicans are on the attack against LGBTQ people. Since gay and transgender folks do not imitate the behavior or conform to the moral and social values of evangelical Christian conservatism, the dominant strain within the Republican party, they are, according to the right wing, to be legislated into a corner, a closet, or, better yet, out of existence. Enacted legislation, and pending legislation, depending on the state, would prohibit LGBTQ people from receiving "gender affirming" medical care. In other words, it would be or already is illegal for medical professionals to provide medical care for transgender people which acknowledges that they are transgender. Other legislative measures already enacted or being considered for enactment include provisions prohibiting transgender females from participating in girl's athletics, laws requiring transgender folks to use the public restroom which matches the gender on the persons birth certificate, among other equally heinous, harmful laws. Refusing to accept the homosexuality of a self proclaimed gay person, refusing to acccept a transgender as transgender, treating such people as ill, sinful, or unworthy of social acceptance is, has been proven beyond question to do great psychological harm to LGBTQ people. Suicide is a frequent outcome of such ill treatment. Rest assured that the monstrous people promulgating these fascistic laws care nothing baout this fact. The Republican-conservative response to a lifestyle they disapprove of is to try to extinguish it by legislation; a primary fascist strategy. Currently the conservative Christian movement, embodied in the Republican party, appears to possess a certain momentum, as the Biden administration suffers from low approval ratings and Reublicans seem positioned to recapture Congress in the twenty twenty two midterm elections. This, however, is temporary, ultimately illusory, ephemeral. The youger generations of Americnas approaching adulthood and voting age are steadfastly against all this insane far right wing nonsense, and will surely, eventually reverse it, to the extent that it is enacted now. That is our greatest hope for the future.

Believing, Or Finding Out

IT WAS ONE OF THOSE FACEBOOK POSTS which is divided in half, to show a contrast between people, or ideas. I tend to like those: they often have a good point to make. The comparisions are thought provoking as well as the contrasts; positioning a pair photographs of reprobates side by side, two peas in a pod, like Putin and Trump. On this one in particular, the top half said: "I Am A Christian. My faith means everything to me. You can threaten me, torture me, even kill me, but nothing you can do to me, no matter what evidence you try to use against me, will ever desatoy my christian faith." Then, directly below, it said: "I am an agnostic. I an honest enough to admit that I now very little about the universe. I am willing to listen to every viewpoint, to all evidence concering the nature of reality, and, when presented with convincing evidence for any particular point of view or explanation, I am willing to change my beliefs to conform to proven facts". The post provided a simplistic but very accurate way of demonstrating the diference between religion and science. In a discussion decades ago, someone said to me that "you can't compare religion and science". I begged to differ then, I wholeheartedly disagree now. Religion and science can be contrasted and compared quite revealingly. The reason for the existence of both is humanity's inexorable need to understand the world in which we live. For that purpose religion, any religion, establishes what it considers to be the truth about reality, then enshrines these beliefs into a set of inarguable facts, called "religious dogma", which it declares inviolate, sacred, and indisputable, and steadfastly promotes the explanattory dogma against all competing explanations, and no matter what, refuses to change them. Science begins by acknowledging that no explanations for reality exist, then proceeds to create them, by direct observation, experimentation, analysis, and the process of eliminating explanations proven false, and retaining those which seem to be correct, or, in other words, have not yet been proven incorrect. Religion changes relatively little over time, science is constantly changing. Religion preceeded science, and can thus be viewed as humanity's first attempt at discering the nature of nature, and science as a more modern, effective technnique. The results are what matter. By today's standards, the explanations provided by religions of ancient origination are fatuous in their inadequacy, and become more fatuous over time, as the mdoern world of science advances, and discredits them. The secret to the success of modern science and its increasingly accurate description of reality is in its willingness, indeed its imperative to change, to improve and correct itself. Religion by its very nature cannot abide change, since from the begining it claims to have all the answers. Any individual or institution making this claim is doomed to eventual failure, and to be discarded, as inadequate to the task of revealing the truth about the universe.

Backing Out, Gracefully

IT BEARS MENTIONING, and remembering: we the people of planet Earth had better find a way, make a plan to give Putin an opportunity to get out of the mess he has made with face saving honor, or the world is at risk of experiencing its second nucelar was ever. The first was rather one sided; only one side had atomic bombs. This time it wouldn't be so neat and tidy. Nagasaki and Hiroschima would look like practice. It is far from outside the realm of possibility that within two weeks, or, say, by the Ides of March, the world could be engulfed in ecosystem ending nuclear holocaust. Vladimir Putin is nearly seventy years old; either way, he's not long for this life, notwithstanding the fact that he's in excellent health and great shape. Picture if you will the mouse in the corner, confronted by the inexorable cat. Unless the Russian army starts doing better in Ukraine, Putin may assume the position of the cornered mouse. Punk Senator Ted Cruz blames the whole Ukraine debacle on Joe Biden, just like a typical low life Trump supporter would of course do. Why not instead blame it on Trump? Nobody has ever stopped Putin's various acts of aggression before; Trump not ony didn't stop him, he constantly flattered him, and still does. The problem with the United States strongly opposing Putin's aggression is that a sizeable portion of the American electorate, consisting entirely of the far right, the Trumpiest of the Trumpers, not only does not condemn Putin's behavior, as they would if they were civilized human beings, they are utterly unconcerned about it, and they actually admire Putin, as evidenced by the chant of "Russia! Russia!" at the far right convention the other day, the one at which Marjorie Taylor Greene spoke in suppport of white supremacist ideology. Taking a quick peek at the scoreboard, we find that America's far right, which is defined as including most American conservatives and most members of the Republican party, admire Putin, refuse to accept the defeat of Donald Trump in the election of 2020, still suport Trump's violent attempt to overthrow the American government by force as having been a justified attempt to render justice which unfortunately failed, and, the piece of resistance, the far right refuses to acknowledge the reality of human made climate change, a stance which, if it endures, could spell the end of all life on planet Earth within a century. As a military authority in ancient times once said: "we have met the enemy, and they are us". Or rather, they are within our midst. There's a reason why this website and its essay incessantly berate America's far right conservative community: namely, its a great danger, not only to the United States, but to the world.

Getting the Drift

FOLKS ARE LOOKING for information on Russia and Ukraine nowadays. Obviously, many sources are available, but if one wishes to go straight to the revelant issues, permit me to suggest a journalist and historian of excellent quality, Anne Applebaum. Further recommendations include her two most seminal monographs on the relevant topics: "Twilight of Democracy; the Seductive Lure of Authoritarianisn"....and...."Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine". The former, "Twilight of Democracy" is especially pertinant to not only political and sociological conditions which currently adhere in the United States, but also, in many other countries. Its essential theme is a familiar one: that democracy is extremely fragile and tenuous, can with shocking rapidity devolve into authoritarian forms of government, and, as a matter of historical fact, usually does. One need only recall events in American politics within the past two years to see her point. The United States survived, maybe barely, a president whose behavior while in office showed definite authoritarian tendencies, who refued to accept his defeat for reelection, and who expressed this refusal by trying actively to overthrow the duly elected United States government, by both legal and violent means, all with the apparent full approval of tens of millions of his American supporters. "Red Famine" is concerned with the long and complicated history and close association between Russia and the Ukraine, focusing on the war against the smaller country waged by Joseph Stalin in the early nineteen thirties, duging which millions of Ukrainians starved to death or were killed outright in Stalin's collectivization purges, during which he confiscated food produced by Ukrainian agriculture for use in Russian cities, leaving Ukraine without basic food needs. Ukraine has always attempted to retain its national, cultural and political identity and independence from russia, while Russia has historically attempted to exploit Ukraine for its resources, mainly agricultural. Applebaum has also written many other books on Russian history, including studies of the infamous Russian gulags, the Iron Curtain, among many other topics. Throughout Russia, historically and presently, there is no widespread animus towards Ukraine or its people on the part of the Russian people; Russian intervention and attempt to control Ukraine have been a purely governmental, political matter. As Americans continue to learn more about Ukrainina and rusian history, they will discover a complicated relationship, one in which political power begins in Moscow, and over the past one thousand years has been ceaselessly expanded, geographically outward, by Moscow's leaders. Ukrainian culture we learn is rich in tradition and history, and the Ukrainian people remain to this day steadfastly determined to preserve their culture, language, democracy, and independence, despite repeated attacks on them historically, and today.

Ignoring the Lessons of History

THROUGHOUT RIGHT WING AMERICA, the land of delusion, poorly educated politicians, aka Republicans, are passing laws, or trying to pass laws, requiring history teachers to omit or distort history in order to avoid injuring the feelings of apparently super sensitive snow flakish pseudo patriotic conservatives. Essentially, the whitewashing involves de-emphasizing or even ignoring the persistance of racism in American history and culture, then and now, ignoring the fact that racism has always been and remains a core American value, on both an individual and institutional level. The teaching of African-American history accurately and factually, teaching it properly, risks inspiring undiserable feelings of "guilt" among pure lily white impressionable American children, it seems, guilt due to the inconvenient behavior of their immediate ancestors, ancestors of the students, and the Republican politicians. In the new hagiographic self serving, dishonest version of history, systemic racism was vanished in the United States sometime shortly after Appomattox, or if not entirley then, then surely by the time "Plessy vs. Ferguson" was handed down, or maybe Brown vs. the Topeka Board of Education, or at the very latest in the nineteen sixties when systemic racism was outlawed for good, with the civil rights movement and legislation. Take your pick. Hell, didn't we turn Martin Luther King's birthday, or the Monday closest to his birthday, into a national holiday, and don't we have a statue in his honor in plain sight on the mall in Washington D.C.? Never mind the fact that while MLK was alive, every conservative in these United States hated his guts, and continued the hatrad long after his death by a right wing bullet. All these options are far preferable from the pseudo patriotic, hagiographic right wing perspective, to reality, the reality that both systemic and personal racism are as alive and well in America as ever, deeply, exclusively entrenched within mainstream American conservatism. For their nefarious purposes, conservatives have invented and popularized something called "critical race theory", by which they mean the reserach, teaching, and study of racism in America from a perspective critical of mainstream American society, using critical thinking but false reasoning, in a theoretical manner, meaning, that it (racism) doesn't actually exist in America, but exists only in theory. That's the essential conservative viewpoint; that racism once existed, but no longer does, at least not unless and until some rabble rousing trouble making radical liberal has the temerity to start talking about it. Actually, what does not exist is "critical race theory", which is only a vaguely intellectual sounding phrase, meaning nothing. What does exist is pervasive racism in America, personal and systemic, among the conservative community, and millions of conservatives who want to hide their racism behind a thinly veiled veneer of pseudo patriotism and a shocking wilingness to ignore actual history, and to rewrite it to suit their nefarious interets, almost after the fashion of NAZIs and confederate lost cause crusaders.

Posturing, Dangerously

WHEN PUTIN let everyone know that he had placed his "deterrents" on high alert, this included the Russian nuclear arsenal, nearly half the world's nukes, and of course he knew that we all knew this. An indirect, veiled threat is nonetheless a threat. On high alert they remain, as we speak. The response by the United States and Europe seemed measured, guarded, careful, canned, too reserved, falsely reserved. Thinly veiled is the justfiably high alarm and fear rippling through the alliance of democracies. "Escalatory" is a fine word, one which most of us might otherwise never have used nor even heard of, but somehow falls far short. (The word was used by Biden's spokesperson). A barrage of respectful words, words like "recklessly dangerous" and "irresponsible" were used to describe Putin's high alert veiled threat to use atomic bombs against us. But none of these words, especially "escalatory" even begins to adequately convey the great danger and potential disaster to the world psoed by a single person, an autocrat, a man wholly in charge of a very powerful country, a country whose unpredictable, unstable autocratic ruler feels threatened by forces aligned against it. Putin has effectively backed Russia into a very dangerous corner, already bogged down in a quagmire of a war, with nearly all the world's economiclaly developed countires arrayed, economically, against him. Escalatlory? Certainly. And then some. Economic warfare has of course been used since groups of nomads wielding spears and clubs trapped rival groups in caves and tried to starve or burn them out. But our modern forms of warfare, including economic warfare, which we respectfully, with dignity and distraction, call "sanctions" is more brutal and barbaric than anything history has to offer. The mouse in the corner will, with all other possibilities exhausted, fight the cat. Arguably, it almost seems as if modern economic warfare is too barbaric to even conisder, that it imposes too great a hardship upon far too many innocent people, that it backs a country and its leader, no matter how evil or criminally insane, as Putin seems to be, into too tight a corner. His reminder to the world that he has numerous nuclear bombs is nothing other than a reminder that, if backed far enough into too deep, dark a corner, he, like the terrified mouse, will come out fighting, with everything he has. It is quite possible, maybe even likely, under current circumstances, that within a few days the world will be smitten with cities reduced to ashes, tens of millions dead, and nuclear radiation apreading across the entire globe. Confronted with that, a preferable alternative for the United States and NATO might be to respond to Putin's convential military aggression with conventional military force; to simply send soldiers to fight with the Ukrainians, along with the small arms and ammunition, tank killers, and assorted forms of assistance already flowing into the Ukraine. The benefit of that would be that the tens of millions of Russian civilian population would be spared the extreme economic hardship that inevitably awaits them, including useless currency, and shortages of necessities, including food, and the people who chose to earn a living by serving as fighting men and women would get to earn their pay, both Russian, american, and NATO. If nothing else, this solution would be much better than starvation, or nuclear holocaust.