Voting On the Bible

MY SEVENTH GRADE Social Studies teacher from 1967-68 assigned year end grades for our class, locked his classroom door, left the building, and never returned. Chastened by our intolerable behavior, he made an about face career-wise, and pursued his true passion, the ministry, Episcopalian style. He was twenty five when he left the education profession, and, now in his early eighties remains active within his congregation. He looks even more handsome in his vestments than in teaching attire. Like everybody, we reconnected in recent years on, as you might suppose, Facebook. As Nietzsche said: "When thou gaze long into the abyss, the abyss will gaze into thee". That Facebook. Nearly all of his posts concern his ministry; pictures of churches with beautiful architecture, pictures of ornate alters, of himself in his vestments, and such. I never post enything: I only type in responses to the posts of others, only positive, to avoid trouble. He posted an image of a Catholic saint, and in his subtitle indicated that this particular gentleman had attended as a delegate, the Council of Nicea, courtesy the Emporer Constantine. Curious, I typed in the question: which way did he vote? By this I meant, which of the many versions of the gospel of christ did this particular gentleman prefer be included in the newly organized canon of the New Testament, which, after all, was the purpose of the Council of Nicea, to establish, once and for all, a scriptural canon, thus unifying the disparate local parishes into a single, uniform religious faith. (Constantine, like all new converts to religion, was zealous.) He ignored my question, arousing my concern. I messaged him, assuring him that my question was not intended to annoy or poke fun at his post, but rather, to educate me. To this he responded, rather patronizingly I thought, that he likes my inquiring mind, and that he assumed I was poking fun at him, and thought my question was funny. Alas, misunderstood again. I still want to know: who voted for what, indeciding what to leave in, and what to leave out. According to Chistian historian Bart Ehrman, no fewer than fifty seven versions of the gospels were considered for inclusion, and the fammoue fab four we have today are what was eventually included. Yes, the Holy Bible was assembled by a vote of the attending clerics at the Council of Nicea. How else? By divine revelation accompanied by a storke of lightning? Had the vote gone differently, we might now be reading the gospels of Barnabus and Mary, which indeed were extant, rather Mathew, Mark, and so on. All fifty seven of the proposed versions of the gospel, so I understand, were written by unknown authors, inclluding the ones finally settled upon. They first appeared in fluent ancient Greek, indicating that the various authors were all well educated scholars in some Greek city or another, possibly Corinth, among other possibilities. The fact that they were named after close associates of Jesus Christ demonstrates that, in the ancient world, if you wanted you writing to be read, you attracted attention to it by ascribing it to some famous person, somebody other than your own unknown self. Many if not most ancient documents are thus, in essence, forgeries. Nobody knows who actually wrote the gospels. Nobody ever will. We know which gospels were elected for canonization. But do we know for sure who was in in attendance at Nicea, and precisely which way the various attendees voted? I don't recall getting this information from Bart Ehrman. I thought my seventh grade social studies teacher might know more than I. For the first time ever, he disappointed me. I guess I'll never know. If only he had taken me seriously.

Sticking With Trump

WITH LESS THAN A YEAR before the presidential election, it is becoming eminently clear that Donald J. Trump will be the Republican candidate. Normally, this would seem an astonishing set of circumstances, but when you consider the state of the Republican party, the state of the American conservative community, and indeed the state of the nation, it becomes less so. One third of all registered Republicans endorse violence as a means of achieving political goals. Two thirds still insist that Trump actually won the 2020 election, athough they know he didn't, and the same percentage still insist that the Capitol insurrection was justified by circumstances. None of this has cnanged in months, nor is likely to change going forward. The extreme right wing in Germany elected Hitler in 1933, despite his having spent nine months in prison for attempting to overthrow the German government by violence. "Make Germany great again" was the NAZI slogan. There are other parallels, many of them. Only perceptive Republicans seem to be concerned that their presidential candidate is facing ninety one felony indictments. All the other fading Republican presidential candidates, except for one or two, have been unwilling to speak the truth about Trump; that he is a pathological prevaricator,that he cares only about his own personal fortunes, and that he is almost certain to be convicted of multiple felonies even while the presidential campaign unfolds. And yet, Trump may very well be elected, only becaue of Biden's unpopularity, unpolularity totally unjustified by Biden's accomplishmens and policies as president. Biden's biggest liability is his age, and his unappealing personality. The American people are, for anyone who wonders, sufficiently shallow to vote an effective president out of office based on such superficial considerations. Trump's "popularity" among conservatives, such as it is, is predicated on racism, xenophobia, and misperceptions about the state of America's economic health. Trump's largest and most loyal base of support remains the conservative evangelical Christian movement, among which racism and xenophobia are strongest. They number upwards of one hundred million citizens, more than eighty percent of whom support Trump, despite Trump's demonstrated criminality and his conspicuous unfitness for political leadership. Thus the conservative evangelical Christian community reveals its own moral and intellectual bankruptcy. The fact remains that the agenda of Donald Trump; diplomatic isolation, neo-liberal economics, opposition to non white immigration into the United States, a reduction of government assistance for the poor, the elderly, and everyone except the wealthy, is not supported by a majority of the electorate, and they know it. They cannot implement their agenda by democratic processes, thus they eschew democracy in favor of authoritarian governance, as did conservative Germans in 1933. It is frightening the agenda which would confront the country in the event of a return of Trump to the presidency, and an American Congress with a Republican majority and Republican leadership. The current Republican speaker of the House asserts that the Christian Bible is his only guiding influence. According to the Bible, Almighty God sometimes elevates reporbtes to positions of power and authority for his own purpsoes. That in and of itself is alarming. It may be that God can do that without negative consequences. The tragedy is that American conservatives, by and large, seem to think that they can do the same.

Flying

THE FIRST TIME I flew was about fifty year ago. I am old enough, barely old enough, to remember reliable, convenient flight schedules, stable, reasonable ticket prices, and comfortable seats large enough for an expanded American butt. Also full, hot meals during flights, and clean restrooms. In other words, I'm old. Actually, nearly all commercial passenger flights are of short enough duration that eating before or after a flight, or both, will suffice to stave off starvation or even the munchies, but, nevertheless, having a gourmet, full course meal brought to you in your seat halfway between Boston and L.A., with cocktails and appetizers first, is just special. Plus mixed drinks pn demand, and snacks, if desired. Hedonistic. Air travel used to be comfortable, pleasant,hedonistic. Then came deregulation, and the race to the bottom. People think of Ronald Reagan as being the deregulation president, but Jimmy Carter began the process in the late nineteen seventies with the deregulation of the commercial passenger airline industry. Government, getting out of the way of free enterprise. The new wave of what is called "neo-liberalism", meaning the removal of government involvement ("interference") from the economy, otherwise known as "Reaganomics", swept cross the fruited plains, and remains with us today, disastrously. Deregulation does not open the door to unlimited business opportunity and prosperity, but rather, to less competition, concentrated wealth, low wages, high prices, and shitty servie. The rationale for airline deregulation is that it would free up the big airline companies to innovate, expand, and improve service amid a healthy market of air travel providers. Obviously, precisely the opposite happened, and is still happening. A small collection of air carriers, essentially constituting a monopoly, with bloated ticket prices, chaotic, unreliable schedules, and crappy serivce to the customers is what we have today. If the restroom is working onboard your flight, and is clean, you're lucky. Nowadays they'll either give you nothing to eat, or something out of a vending machine, if you're lucky. Over the past few decades, flying has become less and less pleasant, as the airlines fall all over each other trying to squeeze ever more money out its customers by cutting quality in the name of efficiency, the government powerless to prevent it. Deregulation of the economy is of course one of conservative Republicanism's most cherished ideals. It is probably more harmful and horrible than most of their other ideals, but that, of course, is debatable. Our current economy in which less than one percent of the population owns more than twenty five percent of the wealth, an utterly deplorable, uncivilized state of affairs, is the direct result of consrvative economics policies, policies such as low taxes for the wealthy, low wages for workers, corporate control, and weak government regulation. Polices designed first, foremost, and exclusively for the wealthy, by the wealthy, who own the politicians as well as the political and economic systems. Conservatism, by allowing and indeed even encouraging policies which assist only the wealthy, are in fact the political party of the wealthy. Millions of hard working but poor white working people voted for Republicans, voted for Trump, and will again,even though doing so is directly opposed to their own best interests. The people who have never had enough money to be on an airplane, voting for the first class private jet crowd. Folks in rural Arkansas voting for a New York City billionaire, a con artist and crook to boot. Go figure.

Endorsing Trump

THE REPUBLICAN GOVERNOR of Texas, a tried and true ban advocate of certain books, mainly masterpieces, and demonstrably willing to facilitate the drowning of illegal immigrants to prevent their arrival in Texas, quite unsurprisingly, endorsed Donald J. Trump for the Republican twenty twenty four presidential nomination, and, by extension, the American presidency. He did this with predictable pomp way down at the border, to demonstrate hisand Donald Trump's perfect willingness to do whatever it takes to prevent people from Mexico and locations further south from entering the United States, regardless of what drive them towards it; violence hunger, whatever. Good for the governor. Chalk up one more eventual victim of the consequences of staying aboard Trump's doomed ship. At length, Governor Abbott will rue his love of Trump, like MAGATS generally will. It will sink, soon enough. Every American president since James k. Polk has tried to keep Mexicans out of the ocupied territories; none have succeeded, most have failed miserably. Ronald Reagan gave up entirely, and declared those illigal immigrants already living in the U.S., severl million of them, to be free and clear, pardoned fo their crime of illegal desperation trespass, in essence, pardoned. The dirty little secret is that there is no way to keep them out, wall, or no wall. Immigration is like abortion; ultimately, we all, left or right, want the same thing. In the case of abortion, that means none of it, in the case of immigration, it means a world of human beings, living happily and peacefully within their own borders. Trump, with the full throated,shrilll, screeching, mindless approval of his gang-like minions of supporters, will keep ranting and raving about the Democrat's lawless approval of of invaders in America, and promise to end the "problem". Amazingly, all this will not prevent him from once again becoming president; his imminent alvalanche of ever increasing legal problems, the perpetual news of which will scare off enough independent and undecided voters will keep him out of the White House, and, is there is justice in the universe, lock him up. All Biden has to do is prove to the American people that he is indeed quite alive, and has a reasonably degree of energy, actually does have a personality, and, that his policies have actually worked well, which they in fact have. Every major news network loves covering courtrooms and legal drama; they are on the verge of having a veritable field day with Trump, and his ninety one alleged felonies. This far right wing Hitler-esque populism is aive but not well. The new president of Argentian is another conservative extremist fascist, like Trump, Bolsinaro, Putin, Modi, and on and on. Trump, of course, called to congratulate him upon his desperate election victory The new president, like Republicans all across America's fruited plain, wants to drastically cut government services to those who need them the most; the poor, the homeless, the aged, the infirm, the usual victims of conservatism. It is absolutely amazing that a large segment of folks in those categories will actually vote for far right extremists like that, and will vote for Trump. A federal government in REpublican hands will drastically cut social security, medicare, among many other government programs which work well, and will engage in the favorite activity of conservatives everywhere; cutting taxes on the wealthy.

Choosing Peace

THIS TRUE STORY was presented on NPR, by the wildlife researcher scientist who lived it and documented it. He was living in Yellowstone National Park, monitoring, observing, studying, researching packs of wolves. A large and powerful pack with a strong leader, Alpha Male #8, found an abandoned baby cub, doomed to die. The pack adopted the infant, and #8 raised it as his own son, raised him tenderly, lovingly. The two were very close for several years, a loving family. Eventually the stepson, given the number 21, grown up, big, and strong, left his father' pack to form his own pack, which became large and successful, and became a rival pack to number 8. One day the researcher watched the two packs sprinting en mass across fields, hills, and streams, towards each other from great distances, getting closer and closer to each other, obviously on their way to a pack versus pack showdown. By now wolf number 8 was old, and was losing speed, strength, and eyesight. But he was still the leader of his pack, and was out in front, leading his pack into battle. HIs step son, number twenty one, was also leading his pack, out in front, much bigger, stronger, younger than his step father. Horrified, the researcher knew exactly what would happen. The two packs would within minutes close upon each other, the two leaders would engage in battle, and the son would very quickly kill his step father. This was the absolute worst possible situation, the absolute worst possible way for the old father to bring is life to an end, worst possible way for this loving family to end; at the fangs of his own, beloved son. The researcher desperately tried to think of something, to think of a way to avoid this impending disaster, but could not. Maybe the son would take it easy on his father, and merely pin him to the ground in victory. No,, if that happened, the next in line would finish the job. Closer and closer the two charging armies got to each other, at full sprint now, howling, growling, ready for battle. Then, something amazing happened. The two packs collided, but didn't. The two leaders ran right past each other, in opposite directions, an only glanced at each other, in apparent recognitiion. The otehr members did the same; the two wolf packs flowed past and through each other, without any physical contact, or a single bite or scratch. Howling and barking and growling, they simply flowed, ran harmlessly past each other... The scene almost resembled a correographed group dance, so smoothly it proceeded. Both packs continued on their way, and rapidly put distance between them. This story seems amazing, the decision by both father and son simultaneously to avoid conflict, to instead choose non confrontation. The willingness of all the members of both wolf packs to abide by and imitate the decision. This immediately begs a question perhaps like no question has ever been begged before. A question the answer to which Rocky Balboa gave his new found Russian admirers immediately after barely surviving but winning a fight with a Russian boxing champion: "If you can change...and if I can change....everybody can change"!

Trump, Breaking Bad

EVERY DAY DONALD TRUMP moves into darker territory, sounds in his speeches and social media posts more and more like a gangster, a mafia boss, a thug, a Hitler type of NAZI. And, his supporters seem to be perfectly amendable to his dark evolution, into a more monstrous monster. The quote, in his latest pep rally, is, roughly: "I promise we will deal with the communists, marxists, far left thugs,the vermin who infect this country". By "vermin", it seems apparent that Trump is referring to left wing people, progressives, Democrats, and so forth. He robably also means LGBTQ people, African-American civil rights adovcates and socialists, among others. I have, after due consideration, concluded that he indeed does mean me; Donald J. Trump has clearly called me "vermin". That really hurts. The problem with it is that I can't count the number of times I have admonished people,and myself, to take the high road, to avoid name calling and ridiculing. Do not talk about Trump's hair or weight, do not call him an idiot or moron, simply quote him, quote him precisely, and state his actions accurately, and realize that Trump reveals his true self far more effectively than anyone else, myself included, could ever describe or explain him. The longer I am aware of Donald Trump, the more I dind out and know about it, the more I thoroughly despise him. I am beginning to learn and understand that, as a good friend of mine once said, "there is nothing wrong with despising despicable people". So, now, there is no doubet about it; Trump called me "vermin". How ironic. Once again, as he always does, Trump is projecdting. Seeing himself in other people. He often calls other people "liars",hilariously, astonishingly. Nobody on the planet, past, present, or future, has, does, or ever will lie as often and as outrageously as Donald Trump. Trmp's constant prevarcating is pathological, clearly, and should be dealt with by a competant psychiatrist in a mental institution. His extreme narcissism and pathological dishonesty are different parts of the same mentally ill mess of a barely human human being. During the speech in which he called me and millions of other good Americans "vermin", he returned to the topic with which he began his political career at the bottom of the Trump Tower escalator in 2015: immigration. Immigration is nothing other than poison in American blood, said Trump. Bad, brown skinned blood, making America dirty, spoiling its whiteness. This brings to mind the time Trump expressed longing for immigrants from Norway.Good, handsome, tall. white Norwegians. Not brown skinned vermin, or black skinned immigrants from African countries, which Trump called "shit hole countries"... He keeps "doubling down" on the election denial thing. Good for him. We'll see whether that helps or hurts him in court, defending himself against charges of incitement to insurrection. Mr. Trump did more, much more, than merely clal me nd millions of other good loyal Americans"vermin". He threatened us. At least that's what i heard, a threat against me from Trump. He said that he promises to "deal with us", using typically cryptic, vague, omninous language, like any good mafia boss or gangster. What does that mean "deal with them?" Lock up all leftwing liberal socialists? Trump cited in his inanae remark communists, marxists, and fascists, but not socialists.Ironic, considering his blatant fascism. Perhpas Trump is dim aware that many many millions of Americas areself described"socialists", but not "communists", and that there is a difference, though doubtless he is unaware of the details. That's pure fascist gangster talk from Trump, "dealing with the vermin", once again revealing Trump to be a criminal and a punk, as well as a traitor.(describing Trump with words like "criminal" and traitor" is not name calling, but factual) But, not to worry, for it is Trump who is being and will be dealt with, by the American system of justice,in a court of law, actually many courts of law, and the final deal he receives might not be to his liking.

American Authoritarian Conservatism, Rising

THE CURRENT QUESTION OF THE AGES remains: Precisely why, in the name of all sanity and decency, do millions of Americans, previously presumed to be good, intelligent people of high moral character,still support Donald Trump, despite his blatant, daily, vile behavior year in year out, decade after vile decade? The answer is that they want what he promises and offers: a demagogic, authoritarian president who can and will implement the conservative agenda in the United States, no matter what it takes, a persident willing, able and ready to circumvent and ignore normal democratic processes if necessary to install their right wing ideology in America, by excutive action alone. Its called "fascism", and it was basically invented by Julius Caesar, who swore up and down that he was not interfering with,damaging, or destroying the republican institutions of Rome,but rather, executing their wishes and desires as their representative, combining the authority of all offices and institutions in one powerful hand, a hand which holds a bundle of sticks held together with string, symbolizing these various offices and powers, the bundle being called a "fasci". Julius Caesar, simultaneously the Roman Tribune, Consul, Senate, and Chief Excutive, by his own pronouncement. In other words, an authoritarian leader, posied to become a dictator at any moment, like,Caesar, Hitler, and, potentially, Trump. Republicans, conservatives, Trump supporters no longer like democracy because they correctly perceive that the democratic process, if left in place, do not, and will never result in the American people democtatically voting the conservative agenda into effect. This conservatie agenda, as every one knows, includes abortion bans, book bans, Christianity as the officieal American national religion, American isolationism, elimitation of immigration into the U.S. except for white immigrants, and unfettered, uregulated corporate capitalism, including tax cuts for the wealthy and opposition to labor unions. A majority of the American people reject the conservative agenda. A vast majority of Trump supporters still wish the insurrection at the Capitol and Trump's attempt to overturn the election and remain in power, presumably as president for life, The Trump wing of the Republican party, which includes a large majority of all registered Repblicans, is essentially a fascist organiation, fascist in its ideology, and methods of achieving power. More than one third of all regisered Republicans say that the defense and preservation of the United States might very well requred violence in the future, and by ""violence", they mean and include political violence against fellow Americans, against progressives who threaten to or actually do achieve power. If, for example, Trump indeed gets the Rebublican presidential nomination, and if, for example, he starts to get convicted of multiple felonies at the same time, it is not beyond the realm of reasonable possibility that his supporters would organize highly, like the people who participated in the Capitol insurrection, and once again use violence to try to overrule Trump's felony convictions by force. After all, they've done it before; they've used highly organized violence to try to overthrow the American government, have Trump's supporters. Because of this, because of their history of political violence and their continued embrace of it, Trump and his supporters constitute the greatest threat to American democracy in decades, and, for the sake of American democracy, must be defeated.

Misinforming, Conservatively

SURELY BY NOW nearly everyone has noticed that now, more than ever, the world is full of B.S.. How could you not notice? With all the "improvements" in communication technology - cell phones, computers, etc. - and with the inevitable, inexorable progress of human history and knowledge, the amount of information available to your average citizen living almost anywhere in the world has multiplied billions of times in less than a generation. Few seem to have anticipated an unint3nded consequence of all this communication technology, knowledge, and communication, that not only is the world filling up with information, but also with misinformation. Despite our modern advantages in education and knowledge, like never before in all human history, perfectly intelligent folks are walking around unsupervised in public with a headfull of false information, false beliefs, not because of any deliberate desire to self deceive or to deceive others. but because with all this huge amount of both good and bad information available in everyone's back pocket, there are bound to be numerous cases in which people make incorrrect choices concerning what to believe and what not to believe. Although studies can be inconclusive, it seems evident that well educated people tend to embrace more good information and less false information than do those less formally educated, whose apparent lack of critical thinking skills result in false beliefs. And of course the very old and the very young are particularly vulnerable to misinformation, just as they are ro most things. There is yet another clearly observable, undeniable pattern to the misinformation so ambiant throughout the internet, the ocial media, the traditional media, and society generally; overwhelmingly, the vast majority of misinformation is both invented, promulgated, and embraced by conservatives,and not nearly so much by progressives. A cursory enumeration of the most prominent examples of widespread misinformation quickly demonstrates this. There is perhaps no lie in hisotry which has been momre widely circulated, with greater dishonesty and conviction, and embraced by so many people, with such devoted fervor, as, for example, Trump's big election lie, as we have come to call the election denial movement. conservatives invented, ebraced, and still embrace this ridiculous, false belief. The same is true of climate change denial, vaccine-phobia, and other scientific facts; it is the conservative community whch embraces the lie, and ignores or discards the truth. The list goes on, and becomes quite long. Who refuses to accept the reality of human evolution by natural seletion, liberals, or conservatives? Which group tends to much more fervantly embrace traditional religious beliefs, beliefs which are obviously untrue,such as creationism itself, without question? Again, the conservative community. It is also the conservative community which wants to ban books, and to teach a false verions of American history, a version according to which racism is no longer present in America, a version in which life in America has been from the beginning a fertile field of opportunity for all, one nation under God, with liberty and justice for all. In conservative states, if a public high school social studies teachers emphasizes the systeatic exploitation of labor in teh United States, or the persistance of racism, homophobia, and white Christian nationalist bigotry and violence, all of which are real, the teacher can lose her job. Welcome to the world of ubiquitous conservative misinformation.

Plastic Polluting

EVERY YEAR, we the human race dump roughly four hundred billion tons of plastic into Earth's environment, air, water, land, plants, animals. If nothing else, we are an equal opportunity polluter; we pollute everything, most shockingly of all, our own bodies. Four hundred billion is one of those enormous numbers, like the number of light years across the cosmos or number of stars in the galaxy, which defies one's ability to grasp and comprehend. That, indeed, is an enormous amount of thrown away plastic, and, as any high high school biology teacher will tell you, its unsustainable. If we keep doing it, we're going to dorn ourselvesand the Earth in plastic,and snuff out all life on Earth. You miight wonder how anyboyd can calculate with reasonable accuracy something like that, buth, they can. Perhaps they take an inventory of all the plastic manufactured in the world annually, by identifying the manufacturesrs and their output, and by assuming that every last atom and ounce of it will eventually, one way or antohter, end up as garbage tossed dismissively into a landfill, a river, a lake, or an ocean, all of which, everywhere, are full of it already, and can scarcely endure any more. As we speak we recycle about nine percent of all plastic we use,, and increasing that amount seems to be impossible, or highly improbable, on account of the energy required. But more will come. NOtwithstanding our increasing awarensss of the problem and a gradually matesticizing movement to do something about it, by the time we actually get to the point of actually doing something, anything about it, we and all life on Earth will have perished. Kinda like, say, climate change. Yes, we are sluggishly, belatedly beginning to take the climate change crisis by the horns and confront, but alas, We're doing too little, too late. Unless humanity suddenly lurches forward in a frenzied spasm of environment salvation measures, which is possible since anything is possible, we are toast, or soon to be. I recall reading or hearing somewhere that each day nearly everyone consumes enough plastic, presumably in or daily diets, to make a credit card. Or maybe it gakes longer than a single day to eat a credit card, but, make no mistake, we eat credit cards, at whatever rate, sickeningly. I recall listening to a lady who said that as a research project, she had her breast milk chemically analyzed, down to the last molecule, and was astounded at the amount of material it contained that under no circumstances should human breast milk contain. Among these, I discinctly recall, among the poisonous molecules in her milk; was, believe it ot not, jet fuel. Jet fuel. She swore that never in her life had she ever been anywhere near an airport, a jet, of jet fuel of any sort. This is incredibly alarming. What about the rest of us. Do we all carry traces of jet fuel in our bodies, and if so, what in the hell else might we find within ourselves? The induction seems to be,inducing from one woman's jet fueled breast milk, that, quite simply, everything ends up everywhere , everything IS everywhere. The exhaust from your automobile disperses widely with the atmospheric currents. The carbon we spew out daily, thirty billion tons annually, amazingly, ends up distributed equally throughout the atmosphere, gnenerally speaking. And thus, so it seems, it is with jetfuel and plastic.

Leaving Leaves

MY ENTIRE YARD, which is not small, is now completely covered with leaves, mostly red, orange, and yellow maple leaves, but some oak, and a few other varieties. My beautful ornamental maples become gorgeous while most trees remained green, especially on the distant hillsides, remained gloriously, resplendantly, vividly bright for a few days, then blew off during a windy day. It was heartbreaking and frustrating at first, but a little internal evolution taught me that my memory was intact, and that I ought to be grateful for what I had, and still have. Now the ground is colorful, and the ornamental maples are bare branched, a special kind of beauty all its own. There are, however, still millions of leaves left on my many trees, about twenty five trees in all, and as the fall progresses towards winter, the yard will get deeper...and deeper, in leaves. That's fine with me. Eighteen and a half years ago I built a house in a very small town, because I couldn't afford to own a home in a city. I bought a piece of land with only a tree or two, put up the house, then planted trees all over the yard, front and back. The brand new house was sitting in the middle of a barren, rock strewn construction site. I wanted to change that. Now, nearly two decades later, I have a yard full of big beautiful trees, deciduous trees. I recall my sweet mother, RIP, suggested many years ago that I might eventually come to regret having planted all those trees. I could and can see her point, but, no, no regrets here. I don't mind the leaves, and I don't mind the dark cool house in the summer.The trick to dealing with the leaves is to not mind them. My house faces the south; during the hottest days of summer the house is very dark inside, surrounded by and shaded by many trees. In the winter, with the sun low in the southern sky and shining straight into my house, and the leaves off the trees, my house is bright, well lighted naturally, and cheery, just what I want in the deep dark days of winter, not that winter days are so deep and dark anymore, what with climate change...(in my neck of rhe woods, winters are warmer every year, as are summers).....By the time spring arrives, my yard will still be covered with leaves, but not utterly inundated with them, as I will continue to dispose of six big barels of leaves every week, focusing on sweeping up big piles and keeping them spread out, to prevent wildfires. With the first lawn mowing, they will be reduced sufficiently to mulch, fertilizing the soil. I have little appreciation to vast, beautifully maintained lawns with a thick cover of grass, every blade identical,looking almost like plastic carpet or artificial turf, not a single weed, and myabe one scraggly young tree surrounded by a brown mulch circle. To me, that's boring, and I think its also not the best way to cooperate with nature, which, if we are smart, we will begin doing much more of. I am big proponent of "no mow May". Also, of leaving a few small areas of one's lawn in a "naturally wild" condition all year long, for insects and for the planet. The plastic grass have no trees because trees block the view from the street of their half million dollar home, and, after all, since each and every leaves must, absolutely must be policed, no trees means no troublesome, annoyng back breaking leaves to blow away or mulch. Most people seem to tink that such intricately manicured, uncluttered lawns are beautiful; I beg to differ.The more you think about it, the more you realize America's multitude of cultural mental illnesses, hatred of trees being among them. Endless rows of million dollar houses, perfect lawns, not a weed, not a blade of grass out of place, few if any trees. How barren, how extreme. The world is reaching agreement that thirty percent of the planet's land must be set aside for nature, as wilderness. To me, that number seems low. In my more perfect futuristic world, the human population would live with modest living standards, small vertical dwellings, with most of Earth's land and water left for the billions of other species which we all too often seem to ignore.

Locking Up Hamas

THE UNITED STATES Secretary of State, Mr. Blinken, said it straight out: "Too many Palestinians have been killed in the war". As if he was really going out on a limb, making a bold, fresh, explanation and new awareness of global reality. If anybody ever stated the obvious, it is the U.S. Secretary of state, Mr. Blinken. No shit, Sherlock? Twelve tousand, mostly women and children, is too many? Really? Arguably, too many Palestinians had been killed when the first one was in this vicious onslaught of Israeli retribution. Presumably, the Israeli's have a pretty fair database of Hamas members, especially the ledership. Hell, why wouldn't they? They have atomic bombs, massive conventional fire power anda well trained army, a country beautifully landscaped,virtuallly manicured, greath prosperity,perhaps the world's finest intelligence gathering ability, and, last but not least, its hand in the pockets of the United States, public and private. Why not establish a program of paying Palestinians to identify, for the Israelis and the Americans, members of Hamas, especially high randking officers and leaders. Why not? This would accomplish severalvery desirable goals simultaneously. First, it would result in the severe damage or most likely complete destruction of Hamas, and, not le importantly, it would put some mney in the hands of Palestinians, spread a litle wealth around in the general population, which would help considerably in the inevitable United Ntions rebuilding of Gaza. Say, five undred American dollars for every apprehension and arrest of a Hamas member. Presumably, five hundred American dollars is a helluva lot of money to a Palestinian. It might even work for, say, one hundred dollars per arrest. Who knows how low the money could go before the Hamas market started drying up? Maybe Palestinians will be willing to sell Hamas cheaply.Surely Israel could afford to contribute substantially to the Hamas buy out program; unless I'm dreaming, the nation of Israel never really did offer any compensation to Palestine for the murderous taking of their land in 1948 in what is still called among the Palestinians as "the great catastrophe", for good reason. There is still not a satisfactory Palestinian state of existence, their own country. It is not beyond the realm of possibility that if more Americans, many more Americans, would become educated about the actual founding of the nation of Israel in 1948, the American people, including Joe Biden, would have a more balanced view of the Palestinian-Israeli "problem", a problem which has persisted for seventy five years because it was deliberately created seventy five years ago, and has never been solved and repaired. Americans, ever ignorant, like to say things like "oh hell those people have been fighting each other for thousands of years. Nobody can do anything about it". That's idiotic. Before 1948 Palestinians and Jews both inhabited what was then called "Palestine", relatively peacefully. The trouble began in 1948, when Israel attacked, fought, and conquered its way into existence. The conquered people suffered, and still suffer.

Seeing the Change

FOR THE FIRST TIME in my life the temperature reached eighty degrees in November where I live, for several days in a row, for good measure. As if the Earth is telling us that eighty degree temperatures in mid-America in mid November are no longer an anomoly, but are becoming and will become the norm. The eighty degree, summer like days were pleasant; everyone seemd pleased, and remarked about the beauty of the weather. I smiled and agreed. I used to say it out loud but now I just silently think it: if you like climate change so damned much, you are about to get a whole lot more of it. Although summer in November did seem a bit strange, I really wasn't surprised by it - hell, at this point I don't think I'd be surprised it it got to ninety in Novemver...It is however, beginning to freak me out a bit the number of times, keeping track of the weather on a day to day basis, am convinced that I am witnesing another manifestation of human made climate change. Flowers bursting out of the ground in late February, then earlier and earlier in February each year, for instance. Or the fact that for about the past ten years, where I live, many if not most days in October have been eighty degrees or above. October, in my neck of the woods, (the lower American midwest) is becoming a summer month, and indeed has apparently already become one. Every summer seems to feature more droughts, more severe droughts, longer droughts, less rain, and more days with temeratures above one hundred degrees Fahrenheit than the prvious year. When I was a child, fifty years ago, snowfall was common where I live; now, it rarely snows. Some yers, it doesn't snow at all. Most of the deciduous trees here don't start changing leaf color until after Halloween now; twenty five years ago the fall colors tended to peak in late October or early November. Conservatives no longer bother to claim that the climate is not changing. Their fantasy has evolved; now, they claim that the changes are natural, and that the climate changes constantly, beond the power of humans to affect it. Because humanity has been so litle and so late in dealing with the climate change we cause, it will, very soon, over the next few years, become much much worse. It is time to gear up for daily one hundred degree summers, and perpetual drought, with the inevitable sweeping wildfires. With ever more kinetic energy, aka heat, in the atmosphere, there is bound to be more and more violent weather as the years pass and we approach mid century. Already climate change is ruining the economy, destroyng crops, driving people out of their homes as refugees, and destroying billions of dollars worth of property each year.. All this will only get worse, because of our inaction in dealing with it soon enough, thanks in part to the idiots who have always and continue to pretend that climate change is not real, and that hhumans can no nothing about the naturally changing climate, or Jesus is going to return soon, and rapture the saved into heaven, so, why worry about climate change? In the carton aliens were sitting in a bar, drinking and laughing. On of them, referring to humans, says, "They know how to turn sunlight into energy, but they kill ecah other over oil, and they wonder why we don't contact them"! More alien laughter. And, truth be told, you can see their point.

Leaning to the Left

IT IS NOW ONLY ONE YEAR until the presidential election, and before we push the panic button because Trump would beat Biden today, simply take a deep breath, and give thanks that the election isn't today. There was an election yesterday, as there is every first Tuesday in every November, and a quick look at the results should encourage Democrats and discourage Republicans. Their discouragement should perhaps even be great enough to inspire them to invent another plethora of conspiracy theories about the fraud and corruption in the election perpetrated by Democrats, and claim that in reality, the voters in Ohio voted to ban abortion statewide, rather than to allow it, which they did in reality by a margin of fifty six percent to forty four, a veritable landslide. Nobody, but nobody can best a Republican in the fabrication of a conspiracy theory... The popular Demoratic governor was reelected in Kentucky, despite the fact that somehow the Republicans managed to find a handsome, well spoken, well educated conservative African-American, a truly endangered species, to run against him. If nothing else, maybe the Republicans are starting to catch on to the racial equality and diversity thing, even though their throngs and minions seem to have a decided preference for the caucasian look. The Virginia state legislature flips from Republican to Democrat, and, in Ohio, a mostly conservative Republican state, abortion rights was overwhelmingly enshrined into the state constitution, by the people, to the presumed great disappointment of Republicans, and veritable grief of conservative evangelical types. If you examine the Republican agenda generally one might find a clue to the seemingly very real possibility that the country is moving more towards the Democrat agenda, despite Biden's inexplicable lack of popularity. Biden might benefit by exuding a little more energy in his speech, facial and body language, and vocal tone, and a little less of the crusty old man look. A majority of Americans embrace the progressive rather than the conservative ideology. A majority of American believe in reproductive choice and freedom, religious diversity and tolerance, a mixed economy, fighting climate change, and taxing the wealthy. Republicans do not, and are therefore running straight into a headwind if they hope to attract currently independent voters to expand their base. The conservative Republican ideology and agenda, as embraced by more than eighty percent of evangelical Christians, including support for Trump, is vigorously opposed by a majority of Americans. All polls indicate this. If Biden were even halfway popular he would be leading Trump "hugely" in the polls. He should be popular. His policies have been effective, including his inflation fighting program. In next year's election, Republicans will be running on Trump, on banning abortion through government action, and on cutting Medicare and Social Security, banning books, twisting history into lies, and giving no breaks on student loans. It will be ineresting to see what percentage of the voters are willing to embrace that obviously destructive agenda. We the American people do not like abortion. We understand that obortion is certainly not the desired outcome. Among other things, effective, available, affordable birth control is the best solution. But not coat hangers in back alleys. And not government control of women's reproduction. We the American people made that perfectly clear, yesterday, and may very well make it even clearer, in about a year.

Commemorating A Day of Peace

AT THE SENIOR CENTER, I have been accorded a great honor. I have been asked to briefly speak at a ceremon commemorating Veteran's Day. Apparently, I am a substitute for the center's director, who it so happens will be out of the building on that day, helping train a new employee in the skills needed for "Meals On wheels", most primary of which is of course knowledge of the delivery route. Strangely, thi little ceremony at the senior center will take place on Wednesday, November 8,three days before the actual holiday. The reason is that Veteran's Day this year falls on a Saturday, and the Senior Center is closed Friday, in order to honor Veteran's Day and to secure for the staff members that most prized of prizes; a three day holiday. why the ceremony will not be taking place on Thursday is unclear, perhaps because Wednesday is always a much better attended day than Thursday at the senior center. Each day at the center, year round, rain or shine, we have lunch at eleven thirty, which is preceeded by a group recitation of the Pledge of Allegience and a prayer, presumably to the Christian biblical God. For the ceremony, I shall be introduced by the pledge and prayer leader, will make my few moments worth of remarks, and on we shall proceed to the pledge, the prayer, and lunch. What I plan to say, roughly, is this: World War One, like all wars, was so horrible, such a nightmare, that the people effected by it invented psychological ways to deal with it. In World War One, they decided that to make the war meaningful, and their sacrifices meaningful, that the war would be the last war ever, or, as they called it "the war to end all wars. This became its official name,so popular was it: "the war to end all wars"....Well, we can see how that turned out....When it ended, they decided to turn the end of it into a national holiday, a day to celebrate the end of the war, the peace treaty or armistice which ended it,the new holiday to be called "Armistice Day". A celebration of peace, and of the end of all war, forever and ever. Eventually Armistice Day became "Veteran's Day", a holiday to honor all American military veterans from all wars and all times of peace, to honor every Amerian who ever put on a uniform and served in the armed forces. And that is good, that is as it should be. So once gain we honor our veterans. But I ask you to do one more thing: to never forget that th eoriginal name of this hiliday was "Armistice Day", and that it was created to honor an commenorate not war nor those who make wars and fight in wars, but rather, to honor and commomerate peace. Let us always remember and cherish the actual, original name and meaning of this sacred holiday; the celebration of peace. Because I am sure that every veteran who ever served in any armed service in any period of history or time, for any country would agree; the ultimte gola of the people who serve in the military is the establisment and perpetuation of peace. Surely, we can say that every American who ever served in the armed forces of the United States did so in order to help create and maintain peace, that all Americans can live in peace and security in their pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness. Let us always cherish Veteran's Day as a day honoring peace." That should only take a minute or so, and I will then ask all the veterans in the room to please stand up and be recognized.

The Pot, Calling The Kettle Black

JUST THE OTHER DAY Donald Trump, in the midst of one of his reliably raving rants, referred to President Biden as "Crooked Joe", incredibly.Incredibly, because if that aint the pot calling the kettle black, no pot ever called a kettle black. In my nearly seventy years on this planet, never have I heard a human being tell as many blatant lies as Donald Trump, never have I ever encountered a person as dishonest as he, and I am sure many other people of my generation might agree. When you become president or even run for president, people start paying actual attention to you, listening to what you say, watching what you do. Trump, the ultmiate narcissist,seems oblivious to this seminal fact of life. Or maybe he simply doesn't care how many people pay attention to hs lies and criminal behavior, past and present, because no matter what, he can simply deny,deny,deny, and simultaneously deny and hide from his own evil, while attributing it to others, projecting it on to others. For Donald Trump to call anybody a liar or a crook, is, among other things, a hoot. Hilariously hypocritical. What continues to be even more amazing, amazingly bereft of the barest trace of moral decency - is the gang of followers, the Trump cult, millions strong, which refuses to come clean, acknowledge Trump's inherent, unrelenting criminal nature, and abandon him politically, for the sake of decency, if nothing else. At this point it seems likely that Trump will retain his hard core base of support until death do them part, and, indeed, beyond. Shockingly, incredibly, but perhaps not unpredictably, if the election were held today, Trump would defeat Biden by a margin of about fifty one to forty eight, and would win by approximately the amount in the popular vote and electoral college as Biden defeted Trump and won by in twenty twenty. The only way that Trump'ssupport is going to collapse at this point is if there are massive defections from among his hard core base of support, and that seems hardly likely to happen. The presidential race could still and probably will change over the next few months, as Trump's legal struggles continue in criminal court, and as undecided and independent voters ultimately come to their senses and vote for Biden, merely to keep Trump out, if nothing else. As Trump's many criminal trials proceed in twenty twenty four, a great deal of evidence proving Trump's guilt will be prsented to the American people, and the fatuous, ludicrous arguments on hefalf of his defense will seem increasingly idiotic to everyone. It will become more and more difficult to defend Trump. And yet, it seems increasingly likely that his hard core base will do precisely that, will either defend Trump by accusing his accusors of imaginary conspiracies, and or ignore Trump's lies, vicious attacks on good people, and constant criminal behavior, as they do so smugly. Trump is doubling down more than ever about the last election being stolen - good for him. Let him talk. His cult seems to be doing the same thing, still insisting that the last election was stolen. We'll see how far they ultimately get with that outrageous, egregious, traitorous lie. Gradually, Americans are beginning to accept the reality of Trump's criminally motivated election lie; many Trump supporters would already prefer to abandon the lie, stop talking about it, and simply move on, but Trump won't let them. And indeed if Trump becomes a convicted felon before the next election, which he very well might, we'll see whether we the American people again elect a criminal to the presidency, or instead choose to respond to the better angels of our nature.

Making War More, Collecting Taxes Less

AS INFORMED AMERICANS KNOW, the big issue in Congress right now is whether to send military assistance to Israel, and if so what and how much. The consensus is to send away, billions of dollars worth. Already American military forces, including air and navel, have repositioned nearer to Israel in a self proclaimed show of support for the theocratic republic. Aguably, Israel needs absolutely no assistance whatsoever "defending itself" against anything the Palestinians or for that matter the Islamic anti-Israeli world can throw at it, and any assistance to Israel, military, financial, or whatever, is intended to achieve the ulterior motive of purchasing Israel's continued alliance with the U.S., and giving the U.S. more involvement in and influence over events in the Middle East, thanks to corporate American interests, particulalry those of big oil. You somehow sense, merely from watching teh nightly news, that Israel could tie both hands behind its back and still bestow a massive defeat and massive, horrible destruction upon not only Hamas, but the Palestinian people in general, both in the Gaza strip, and eerywhere else. You almost get eht impresion that Israel is a nuclear armed super power, in need of no assistance of any sort from the United States, nor anyone else. What is needed is massive humanitarian assistance for the Palestinians, the basics, food, water, fuel, electiriciay, clothing, housing, and land, much more land. What is needed is a two state solution, a national homeland not only for Israel, but for Pelestine as well. This two state solution should have been implemented in 1948, at the same time as the birth of the Isreali theocratic republic, What is needed for peace in the middle east is not more military might for Israel, but rather, more consideration for the needs of Palestine. Much more in need of military and financial assistance is Ukraine. In the U.S. House of Representatives the Republicans are chomping at the bit to send assistance to Israel, but far less enthusiastic about sending more of it to Ukraine, which has already received a great deal of assistance from the U.S. and Europe in its defensive war against Russia. Russia must not be allowed to win this war,regardless of cost. Congressional Republicans also want to cut the Internal Revenue Service by the exact same amount of money which is sent to Israel, presumably to enhance the right wing's belief in its alleged virtue of fiscal responsibility, in the name of balancing the budget. In fact, conservatives have no better sense of financial responsibility than progressives. However, as Mitt Romney points out, decreasing funding for the IRS will not contribute to the financial health of the United States, but wiill instead have the opposite effect. Far right wing extremist Republicans, with whom Congress is overflowing, persist in their antipathy towards their own government, and towards their government's duty to fund the nation and regulate and govern the country. The intelligent, proper course of action is to fully fund the IRS, increase income tax collection from America's wealthy, fund mmilitary assistance to the Ukraine, but not to Israel. There is mot likely not a Republican in America who would agree to this, simply because it makes sense, but does not further the twisted far right wing anti-government pro Russia agenda of the G.O.P. and the Trump movement. The only solution continues to be the destruction of the Republican far right, and especially of the Trump movement,which, with any luck, wlll take place at the ballot box, and will proceed steadily in the near future.

Punishing Good Republicans

NOT ALL REPUBLICANS are bad, not all of them do the wrong thing all the thing, just almost all of them. One might wish to consider the examples of John McCain, Liz Cheney, and Adam Kinzinger. McCain spent a long, distinguished political career in the U.S. Senate listening to Democrats, compromising with them, and treating them with respect and friendship, while simultaneously staunchly fighting for what he believed in, which for the most part was a traditional conservative agenda. During the Trump administation, he had the audactiy to disagree with President Trump, and for that, Trump, ever the low life, spent the remainder of Senator McCains's life slandering the Senator, who, in the estimation of many, was a great American, an American hero. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger both had similar qualities; an intellgent, reasonable approach to not only their own views, but also, to those of their political opponents, those with whom they disagreed. Because of their intelligence, integrity, and high character, they were summarily drummed out of the Republican party, as good people seem to be generally these days. (Republicans accept only reprobates, and expell the virtuous). Kinzinger has a new book out, titled:"Renegade: Defending Democracy and Liberty In Our Divided Country". The book tells Kissinger's personal story, including the avalanche of death threats he got and still gets for daring to tell the truth about Donald Trump, which a good Republican must never do. What doomed both Cheney and Kinzinger to poliical electoral defeat was their participation in and service on the House Committee which investigated the Capitol insurrection of January 6, 2021, a committe in which there were several Democrats and only two Republicans. Cheney and Kinzinger. This commitee investigated every nook and cranny of the insurrection, and it became obvious that Donald Trump conceived, planned, orchestrated, and implemented the entire attempt to violently overthrow the U.S. government, for which Trump will soon go teo trial, possibly be convicted, and possibly serve time in prison, if justice prevails. Time will tell. For having the audacity to believe that Trump's insurreciton should be investigated, Republicans are kicked out of the party. Amazing. Any Repubican who doesn't cover for Trump is political toast. The Republican party has been thoroughly taken over by extremists to whom deceit, including self deceit, is acceptable in the service to their cause. Both Kissinger and Cheney stood up to Trump, and couragsusly told the truth about him, which is forbidden within the Republican party, and indeed, conservative America, and conservative evangelical America. The insane attitude Trump supporters have about Trump, their refkusal to accept reality, shall evidently eventually result in the Republican presidential candidate in twenty twenty four being under indictment and on trial for no fewer than ninety one separate felonies. To even conisder allowing such a situation, much less actually embracing it, is total insanity, and highly indicative of the self delusions embraced by Trump supporters, delusions obviously ridiculous and false. As if all the grand jury members in four different cities were planted on the juries by local Democrats, just to "get Trump". That makes about as much sense as accusing the Dominion voting machine company of stealing the election for Biden, a wackko conspiracy theory whose chief originators just the other day acknowledged were pure fabrications. Today's Republican party is a prime distributor of fabrications, such as, for instance, that Donald J. Trump is fit to go anywhere near the White House.