Evolving

IN CHURCH YESTERDAY there were ten people, including the substitute minister and the organist, who also plays the piano, which he alternates beautifully before, during, and after the worship service. I have been attending this church for several months now, I like it, and intend to continue. What concerns me, however, is the question of how long the church will continue to exist. Interestingly, its a nearly two hundred year old church, a beautiful nineteenth century brick and wood building, with a nice stained glass window and a church bell on top, which I have been permitted the honor of ringing each Sunday morning, just before nine thirty, when the service begins. If you pull the rope hard, with strength, the bell rings loudly, singing our across the tiny town in the Ozarks. I ring it five times, and I always initiate at least one ring which is insufficiently loud, on account of my lack of effort. Its embarassing, but correctible, and I know how to correct it. During the service I sit each Sunday in the same place, about half way back on the left side, near an elderly couple who are friends of mine. At least the lady is. The gentleman,a conservative, is not especially happy with my expressed opinion of evangelical Christians who support Trump, and thus treats me rather coldy, but, so be it. My opinion adheres. I'm not the youngest congregant, but close to it, and that also alarms me. How long will this ancient church last? I am told that one hundred years ago teh weekly congregation was somewhere around one hundred, and that thirty or forty years ago there were still thirty or forty attendees, normally. This somehow seems indicative to me of the generalvdecline in membership of the Christian religion throughout Europe and North America, ongoing. I am sixty nine years old, and I vaguely suspect that I will outlive this litle church in the woods. If it can survive four more years, until the year twenty twenty eight, it wll be able to celebrate its two hundreth birthday. This would be an amazing accomplishment, and I think there is a good chance of it happening, and of my participating in it. Beyond that, who knows? What I like about the Christian religion is the loving, kind, compassionate side of Jesus. What I disike is the theological dogma. Like a good songwriter once wrote in a song lyric, "You an keep the cross, just give us Jesus". Its worth bering in mind that one can be a buddhist, and also be a believer in any other religion on the planet, all four thousand two hundred of them, or however many there are. Buddhism and Christianity go beautifully together, arguably. Perhaps the best idea for the expansive, intellectually and spiritually ambitious person is to embrace every religion on Earth, to embrace their fundamental beauty, widsom, and truth, while strictly adhering to and limiting one's self to none of them. Arguably, all religions are human made,all are partly true, none of them are entirely or exclusively true, from any particulare viewpoint. If you put all our human religions together into one, big Earthly religion, it might, in total, represent no more than one trillionth of the religious wisdom in the universe, scattered among all the various intelligent, religious species of beings which must surely be out there, worshipping, praying, advancing beyond religion, as we here on Earth appear to be on the verge of being ready to do. As Goethe said: "Behold the phenomena, for they are the doctrine."

The Sex Fascists, Closing In

I WAS SHOCKED to learn recently that in twenty six states, gender affirming medical care for people under eighteen is illegal, prohbited. Presumably, it remains legal for those over eighteen, but, I confess ignorance on that matter. Obviously the people who caused it to be banned for children would prefer that it be banned for all. Hell, from what I can tell, the people, mostly extreme conservative evangelical Christians, who have brought about and are bringing about these horrible bans would actually prefer that LGTBQ people simply vanish from the Earth, or better yet, convert to straight heterosexuality, and find Christ, if they haven't already found him. The proponents of banning medical health care for people by rejecting their status as transgender,and insisting on pretending that transgender people have not truly changed genders, are basing their beliefs and actions on conservative religious nonsensical doctrine. They are denying simple reality,in preference for their fantasy. Both conservatism in general and the Christian religion in particular are strongly antithetical to homosexuality, to gay people, and to all LGBTQ people. This hostility to this large, outspoken gay minority is harmful to everyone, to society in general, and to the religious conservatives who espouse this malevolant tenet, (though of course they don't realize it). It is estimated that in the twenty six "red" conservative states in which the ban is in place, there live approximately one hundred and ten thousand transgender human beings. Evidently, somebody counts them, for some reason, some reason hopefully having to do with advocating for their inclusion in, and acceptance by society, by everyone. The hardships imposed on them and their families by these henious prohibitions are innumerable. They must travel out of state for normal, basic medical care. Transgender people, like gay people, not only exist, but they are genuine, natural, made the way they are by the Almighty Christian God, and their sexual and gender orientations do not make them sick, evil, or sinful, or possessed by demons. The belief that it is somehow "wrong" or "bad" or "sinful" or "sick" or "unnatural" be to be gay or transgender is exclusively a conservative Christian belief. Secular liberals, atheists, and agnostics, overwhelmihgly, do not judge gays and transgenders, but rather, accept them as equal human beings. This tolerance and acceptance by progressives is often used by conservatives as evidence that the moral standards of liberals are low. Actually, quite the opposite is true. Prejudice, hatred of gays and transgenders, or hatred of their "lifestyle", is proof of low moral standards and decency. Conservatives often claim that the gender affirming medical care bans are not designed to harm LGTBQ people, but rather, to protect children. This argument is, qite obviously, completely bogus, a complete lie. Hatred of gays and transgenders is indeed exactly what the bans are all about,just as hatred of gays and transgenders is exactly what conservatism espouses. Ironic, but not really surprising, that he people who profess the greatest allegiene to Jesus Christ, conservative evangelical Christians, are the people who most blatantly ignore the teachings of Christ, teachings about loving everyone and judging no one.

Book Banning

BOOKS HAVE POWER, which is why people fight over them. Until the Protestant Reformation, the Bible was printed only in Latin, according to the doctrine of the Catholic church. This served at least two purposes; to keep power in the hands of the church clerical hierarchy, and to accentuate the biblical divinity by forbidding its publication in "inferior" languages. Most people during the middle ages were illiterate; the few literate folks usually were literate only in their vernacular, the local version of French, German, Spanish, whichever. If only the clergy could read the holy bible, the clergy possesses all power within the church, particularly the pope and cardinals and bishops. Controlling books today is, of course, quite different. It has been estimated that approximately ten thousands books have been "banned" over the last few years in the United States, removed from public school and public libraries. To date, the book banning disease has not spread to higher education in the United States, but that doesn't mean that it can't or wont't in the future. The people, mostly Christian conservatives, who facilitate and support book banning are quick to argue that what they advocate and what they do is not really "banning" books, since the books they ban remain available practically anywhere. This is true. What the book banners are doing is merely removing selected books from libraries and from school classroom curricula. (curriculi?). Definitely, different. There is no almighty power or political or religious ruling overlord decreeing absolutely that any books must no longer exist. There are, however, thousands of local school boards all over America which are dominated and controlled by right wing Christian conservative extremists, who are voting to remove books from public school libraries and curricula. This, in essence, is book banning. Its essentially the same thing, or too close for compfort as they say, and, it should and will be called "book banning". It is perhaps the most malignant, the most vile ane evil component, manifestation of the entire malignant, vile consrvative agenda in America today,along with hatred of LGBTQ people and hatred of dark skinned immigrants. Banning books is always horrible, harmful policy. The book banners are never the good guys, as the saying goes. But the way it is currently happening in the United States is especially egregious, because the books being banned are for the most part, in fact almost nvariably, literary classics, literary masterpieces, great, brilliant books. If only the morons would ban garbage, but they don't. Book banning in America is entirely a right wing ideal. The progressive community has no interest in banning books, and is willing to accept and tolerate libraries which contain books by, for example, Glen Beck, Bill O'Reilly, Wm. F. Buckley, etc. What the Christian conservative censorship fanatics are trying to do is to eliminate all vestiges of progressive thought, including racial equality and discussion of racism, LGBTQ acceptance, democratic socialism, climate chnge, Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion, wokism, etc. Falsely claiming that including such topics in public schools is "indoctrination", the Christian right is trying to indoctrinate America's public schools, and America, with its extremist agenda precisely by eliminating any alternatives. In Oklahoma, the state legislature is forcing the Bible into public school classrooms, and keeping literary masterpieces such as "Of Mice And Men", "To Kill A Mockingibrd", and "Fahrenheit 451" out. And unless we the remaining sane step up and stop it, its only going to get worse. American Christian conservatism, with its representative entity the Republican party, has become a fascist movement, spearheaded by Trump and MAGA, determined to turn America into an authoritarian, right wing Christian theocracy. As part of this, they want to brainwash America's children with right wing extremist dogma, to ensure a conservative Christian future for our once secular democracy. These fascists would actually burn books, like Hitler, but they are smart enough to know it wouldn't do them any good.

Who's Blaming Who?

FOR MANY YEARS it has been widely known that the fossil fuel industry, especially the big oil companies, (which should be called "fuel" companies), were lying about the impact of carbon emissions on the atmosphere, concealing their own research from the world which indicated that climate change due to atmospheric carbon increase was indeed a reality. These big companies knew about climate change very early, possibly as early as the sixties, seventies, and eighties, but kept it quiet. Legal processes have resulted in their change of behavior, and their acknowledgement of not only climate change, but also their role of causing it, and in concealing early evidence of it. Now they are trying to rebuild their tarnished reputations by advertising themselves as new champions of environmental restoration and health, while selling plenty of gasoline. We'll see. Smart busines practice demands that they lead the way in fighting cliamte chang by converting to clean energy, while finding a way to remain in business. The governor of California, Gavin Newsome, who might one day be an attractive candidate for president for the Democrats, has now had the utter audacity to file a lawsuit, in the name of his great state of California, against the Exxon-Mobile fuel company, in federal court. Quite a match up; a gargantuan, gigantic state government, versus a corporate mega giant. A titanic struggle of goliaths. Right wing pro Trump capitalistic anti-government extremists will doubtless be rootng for the poor oppressed unfairly attacked business, versus, big, bureaucratic, activist, out of control government. Statism, collectivism, run amok. Meanwhile, we left wing socialist types will be pulling for Governor Gavin and his team, crusading to rectify the wrongs wrought by corporate perfidy, on behalf of we the people. Only this time the lawsuit isn't about climate change from burning fossil fuels, responsibility for it, and deliberately concealing it. Its about plastic, the less notorious less publicized but every bit as huge branch of the fossile fuel insustry. For may years, including in the present moment, the plastic industry has been telling us that their plastic products can be and are being recycled, when in fact about ninety five percent of them are, evidently, not. Precisely how Exxon-Mobil is involved in the plastic industry is uncelar, most probably in every way conceivable, including selling oil to companies which turn it into plastic of various shapes and sizes,and direct ownership of plastic products facilities. One can imagine that a lawsuit of this sort could list hundreds of businesses as defendants, charging them with illegally misleading the public concerning plastic recycling. The question is; precisely who really is responsible for the consumption by the human race of fossil fuels in such things as cars, and precisely who is responsible for climate change? Exxon - Mobile, among many others, dug the oil out of the ground, turned it into petroleum, and sold it to billions of car owners, decade after decade. They still do. Meanwhile, billions of car owners in the United Staes and in every country in the world, have for decades been happily, willingly obtaining automobiles, filling them with gas, and cruising around town and country. Any lawsuits that anybody files against anybody for lying about climate change, and for causing climate change, should, arguably, be filed by all of us against all of us. Hell, the fuel companies certainly aren't the only ones lying about climate change and its causes, or about plastic, and our enormous problem with it. We lie to ourselves, mostly. AS Goethe said: WE are never deceived, we only deceive ourselves". Still, I'm rooting for Governor Gavin...

Drowning In Plastic

I HAVE ABOUT A TON OF PLASTIC in my house, it seems. Everything seems to be made out of the stuff. In my kitchen alone I have an assortment of plastic containers and lids, all scattered about, scratched, torn, mismatched, bent, stained, utterly disorganized. I have no idea what to do with the heap of plastic, other than to throw it away, to contriubte it to the local land fill, my legacy, forever. It will never break down into carbon, at least, not for thousands of years. It is almost impossible to recycle plastic, economically. Only about five percent of plastic is ever recycled. Millions of tones more are being manufactured every year, due to consumer demand. The world is filling up with plastic. War spurs invention and technology. and technology. Plastic, like so many other inventions, emerged from the desperate efforts to invent weapons during World War Two. An awareness that the substance would eventually inundate the world, including us and our bodies, drowning us in it, poisoning the ecosystem, emerged somewhat later, gradually, belatedly. We are killing ourselves with fossil fuels in more ways than one. Demand fore energy is currently increasing, thanks in large part, evidently, believe it or not, not to any increase in manufacturing production or consumer demand or population growth, but rather, because of Data centers, energy demands for artificial intelligence projects and crypto currency. How ironic, all this high technological advance, exacerbating our greatest problem; how to produce sufficient amounts of clean energy. The high tech crowd operating these data centers assure us they seek energy from sustainable, "green" sources. Nuclear power plants are being refurbished and restarted after having lain inactive for years. Technology got us into this climate change and plastic pollution mess, and it will have to be technology which gets us out. Nuclear energy idneed releases no carbon based heat absorbing gases into the atmosphere, contributes nothing to climate change, but nuclear waste presents its own special problem; namely, whre do you put it? Hiding it from ourselves under some mountain in New Mexico is only a temproary solution. Digging ultra heavy radioactive metals from deep out of the ground, or for that matter out of shallow groudnd - is only a temmporary expedient to solving the problem of power. We have learned over the decades that coal, oil, and natural gas lie undergound, beneath the surface of probably every square inch of land and water on the planet. What we have removed, great though it is, is probably ony a tiny fraction of what remains, and what will have to be left exactly where it is and belongs. Removing billions of tons of carbon from the atmosphere, through the use of technology, will prove to be a simple matter, child's play, compared to cleaning up the plastic pollution with which we now know the Earth and our bodies are inundated, saturated. Large installations are now being built, one such by Exxon in Texas, to capture and remove carbon from the atmosphere. The technology, in primitive, inefficient form, exists. The task is to improve it, make it work on a much larger scale, and get it into operation. Precisely how to remove billions of tons of plastic from the world's oceans, from landfills, from the soil all over the world, and last but not least our own gorgeous sexy bodies is quite another matter. Plastic, it seems, is everywhere. Plastic atoms and molecules break down into their smallest components and lodge themselves in our body's fat and muscle tissue, in our blood stream, and, probably, in our bones and brains. There they can remain forever, never decomposing, never bio degrading, and thus, eternal. We are living in the "Anthropocene", the age of human beings. We are now the architects of this planet, and thus, responsible for its health. It is not impossible to imagine carbon sequestration facilities cleaning enough carbon out of the atmosphere to restore normal climatic conditions. But it is very hard to imagine cleaning all the toxic plastic and heavy metals out of our environment, water, soil, air and bodies. Our bodies contain not only plastic, but radioactive metals, in trace amounts, which can be detected, traced,and measured. Nobody escapes all this. We have waited long to begin doing something about it. Have we waited too long?

Pentecostal Piano Playing

I'VE JUST ABOUT DECIDED, the more I think about it, that I could probably be happy immersed in any religion in the world. Of the several thousand religions in the world, I could embrace any of them. I'm just guesing that most other people are the same way, whether or not they know and admit it. The sense of community would be similar or the same among them all, and the comfort and inspiration which derives from religious devotion would be present in any religion, I assume. One of the benefits of my religiosity, the "pantheism" of Spinoza and Einstein is that, I have discovered, it leaves one free to embrace any religion one chooses,one religion, or perhaps more than one, perchance, all of them. Whether it is logically or cognitively possible to simultaneously embrace more than one religion is, well, an entirely different matter...Thus my weekly participation in gospel singing, despite my relative antipathy towards the Christian religion. Whether there are about four thousand religions in the word or more, Christianity would probably be among the last I would choose, among the more difficult for me to embrace. A spiritual, religious philospohical tradition, like Buddhism, is more to my liking. I have heard it suggested that one can be a buddhist and simultaneously embrace any other religion in the world. One can be a buddhist and a Christian at the same time, so goes the ideal, an ideal which might appeal more to liberal buddhists than right wing pentecostals. So when I arrived at gospel singing Monday morning and found out that our piano player was in the hospital I was dismayed, but also intrigued when I also found out that a replacement had been found. A guest piano player player at gospel singing kind of messes things up, makes it a bit difficult to sing with a different style pianist, but, at the same time, gives us a new experience, a change of pace, and interesting variety. Our regular pianist is going to be fine. An eighty eight year old lady in good nealth, she was experiencing a bit of heart fib, and was having it corrected in the hospital. Piece of cake. She'll be back at the keyboard in a jiffy. The replacement lady walked in to the senior center all ebullient, in her ankle length nineteenth century dress and hair bun atop head, with thick rimmed glasses. This, I thougt, is a real, dyed in the wool church lady. And indeed so it seemed to turn out. Her piano playing style was pure pentecostal, if there is such a sytle, which there is.. Fast, and loud. I am told that our hymnal, which after three years of gospel singing I am beginning to become familair with, is a baptist hymnal. I wouldn't know one kind from another, of course. The church I attend, a Presbyterian church, uses a much larger hymnal, with totally different songs, all foreign to me. That's all I know. I mean this pentecostal lady played hard, loud, and fast, and those baptist hymns moved along at double time, with a renewed vigor. We all sang loud, and fast. I could get used to it that way. The lady, who from the back looked like Aunt Bea sitting on the bench, was on the verge of bouncing up and down in rhythm with the music, I swear, just as Bea Taylor did in that famous episode when she and the other church ladies got smashed on the Colonel's magic elixor. I started to imagine what it might be like to actually attend a pentecostal church service. Do they actually have a lot of shouting, screaming, and speaking in tongues? Do people really get healed by the holy spirit in front of the congregation, with passion and weeping and shouting for joy? Well, as they say, I guess there's only one way to find out for sure...

Naked Blackmailing

I JOINED FACEBOOK LATE, probably no more than seven years ago, if memory serves. I knew going in that I was not interested in meeting people, making friends, or chasing women, because I had had experience doing that back at the turn of the century when America On Line ruled the internet, and people were flyng all over the country to hook up. I had decided, between the years 2000 and 2005 on AOL that living one's social life online, vicariously, was, as they say, "for the birds". Yes, it can work. But crazy as the real world is, its still saner than the internet. (That's very frightening, or should be). Women flew in from all over the country, I did a little traveling myself, but nothing ever really worked out. However, no regrets. All experiences have value. On Facebook, I would confine my concerns to promoting this website, and to politics, specifically, strenuously opposing conservatism, and Trump. Yes, my "career" on Facebook was inspired, at least in part, by Donald J. Trump. It isn't easy to admit that. I can honestly say that both the website promotional and the conservative and Trump oppostion aspects have gone extremely well, and pretty much as expected, mostly a lot of self satisfying preaching to the choir on my part, but at the other components, friendship formation and the pursuit of women, both of which I had resolved to assiduously avoid, not so much. Indeed over the seven or so years I have not made many, if any, Facebook friends, even though I have the maximum limit of five thousand on my friends list. Most of these were and remain actual strangers, if political fellow soldiers in progressive arms. Its the women which, or who became the problem, a big problem. I habitually spent about an hour on Facebook a day, posting ads for this website and sharing and commenting on anti-conservative anti-Trump posts. The more time went by,the more my Facebook feed became unindated with anti-Stu posts, alogn with scenicbeaut, cats, and sports. The great Artificial Intellgence God nows exactly what we all like, who we are,everything about us. We may as well accept it. I wanted as many "friends" a possible to be on my list, to increase the impact of my advertising, so, I accept any and all friendship requests, including those from strangers, which almost all are. At one point is began to seem as if every friend request I received, whether from a male or female, was a scammer, and it still does. I managed, through careful selection,to accumalte a five thousnad member list of Facebook friends, almost all of whom are politically progressive political animals. I have built my own little liberal bubble around,and I safely, happily live in it. The attractive young women who messaged, and continue to message me I continue to resposd to, but I do not add them permanently to my friend list: I don't see them being beneficial by helping to defeat Trump and conservatism. But I did talk to them, as sort of sociolgical pyschological reaearch, to find out what they want. Invariably, they want money, and like cyber prostitutes..most of them dangle a subtle indirect offer of sex for money. They kept getting angry with me for not having the ability to take a selfie and sending it to them. I often explained thea I had no itneret in selfies,which perplexes most people, but, eventually, quite by accident,I learned how to take one. By and by some of the picutres came naked. Resonding to pressure,I started sending naked pictures of myself to qualified ladies, most of whom expressed gret gratitude and admiration, flatteringly. I need to curtail that, though, because one bitch who got mad at me threatened to distribute my naked self far and wide. Then, she turned nasty, and demanded money. Oh well. Hell, If I think about it, I really dont care at this point who sees me naked. I should be flattered that anybody even wants to.

Counting Votes By Hand

THE GREAT STATE of Georgia is solid purple, with black Democrats in Atlanta giving the state a chance to become, in a better, future world, progressive. Often, however, it fails to be progressive these days, due to entrenched Republican control of vital state offices. The state election commission, totally red, evident Trump supporters and thus unhinged with 2020 election fraud conspiracy theories, has decided that all votes in the forthcoming election in Georgia must be counted by hand. Whether a higher, saner Georgia state or federal court will overturn this nonsense remains to be seen, but, there isn't much time left to do it. Since about five million votes are likely to be cast in the presidential election in Georgia, the final count will not, under this system, be complete until days, maybe many days, after election day. Thus, the entire nation, we the American people will quite possibly not know the final outcome of the Harris -Trump war, not only late on election, but not the next day, or the next, or the next. It could drag on for weeks, the undecided national presidential election hanging in the balance, as human beings steadily but very slowly count one..vote...at..a..time in Georgia..This could be the last straw. This could be the final jolt which rips America apart, the final jolt into civil and chaos and anarchy, as mobs of Trump supporters from all over the country descend on Georgia, waving swastikas and confederate battle flags, offering to help count the votes. The media would have a field day, or a field week or month, stirring the pot with rumor speculaton and analysis endlessly, in- terminably. The idiots who voted to hand count the votes fail to understand that human beings are far more innacurate, less efficient than computers, and that therefore human vote counting will actually make the final vote totals less reliable, less accurate, than merely letting the computers do it. Or perhaps they do realize this and want it this way, to give Trump and his gangster MAGA support mob a chance to mess with the vote tally. With Trump, there is no conspiracy theory too outrageous to be true, Trump and his mob will try to install Trump as president again, beginning very soon, regardless of the actual vote count nationally, regardless of the electoral college results, regardless of the election outcome. Since the big Trump election lie of election night, twenty twenty, Republicans have been attacking and trying to change the electoral system in red states all across America's fruited plain, suppressing the voter turn out, making it far more difficult and tedious to vote, all contray to the principles of democracy and America, all in the false name of improving vote count accuracy, of eliminating fraud, which, it has been proven, is largely nonextant in U.S. elections. Trump supporters, Republicans, conservatives, evangelical Christians, all know that Trump lost the last election,and that their crusade to install him in office was immoral and illegal, but they do not care. To join the MAGA gangster mob is to forfeit all claim to morality and decency, and patriotism. The tens of millions of people who support their convicted felon former president are no more concerned about moral principles and democratic due process now than they were four four years ago. If anything they are less so... The tragedy fo millions of Americans abandoning moralit and democracy in desperation to implement their unpopular agenda poses a dire threat to the nation, and that threat only grows as electon day approaches.

Making Trump, Breaking America

OVER THE PAST NINE YEARS, ever since Donald Trump's dramatic entrance into politics at the bottom of a golden escalator, more books have been written about Trump than any other human being in recorded history, more than Lincoln, Jesus, and Napoleon combined. At least, it seems that way. Generally, as more and more books, especially biographies, are written about famous people as the years go by beyond their death, the books get better. Latter day scholars have the advantage of hindsight, historical perspective, and of course, they have access access to all the ressearch and writing others have done before on the same subject. Usually, the more recent the scholarahip and book, the better it is. The most recent book about Donald Trump is a good example of this. "Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America" by renowned journalist Maggie Haberman fills the bill. It is arguably the best, most authentic, best researched monograph about Trump to date. Doubtless better ones await us in the future...Haberman has been keeping tabs of and writing about Donald Trump for decades, and knows her subject thoroughly. Over the years Trump has repeatedly slandered Habam as "an unprofessional herhack", and worse, but has given her numerous interviews, probably well aware that her reporting on him would likely not be postivie. This is an example of Donald Trump's insatiable lust for attention, especially in the media, and that for him negative publicity is much better than no publicity. Half of this lenghty book discusses Trump's life prior to his presidency, and digs deep into the roots of his influences, influences which helped make him the complicated, volatile, treacherous character he is. His influences include Rudi Gilliani, George Steinbrenner, and Roy Cohn, among other infamous, highly ambitious success mongers. Trump learned early in life that the world is dog eat dog, always hit back twice as hard,and everything is a transaction, a deal, everything is for sale. Haberman's book makes Donald Trump much more understandable. He begins to seem less some crazy, incomprehensible deranged entity, but rather, the product of very real influences, circumstances, and people. Haberman shares one important characteristic in common with nearly all of the other writers who write about Donald Trump; she doesn't seem to like him very much. I started reading books about Trump as soon as they started coming out; almost immediately after his inauguration. The more journalists, former associates, and his own family members know and find out about Trump, the less they like him. With every book that I read about him, the les I like him, indeed, the more I despise him. True, Trump, like the rest of us, is to a certain extent a product of his environment, forged in the environment in which he was raised. But merely by observing many different people, the way they were raised, and the decisions that they made, by studying history and today's society, one can tell that no matter how a person is raised, no matter what his or her background is, he or she has every opportunity to make choices which largely determine the direction of his or her own life. Ultimately, we are all self made, regardless of environmental factors. What Donald Trump made himself into and how he has influenced the entire country by his choices, Maggie Haberman elucidates with great clarity. It is difficult for anyone to read this brilliant book without being convinced of its authenticity and accuracy, and convinced that Donald Trump, on the whole, is a great tragedy, for himself, and for us all.

Against, Stupidity, Contending..

I HAVE BEEN ATTENDING my local senior center in my small town for nine years now, and I have truly enjoyed it, have made some meaningful friendships there. After spending years in the classroom with young people, very young people, I was ready to retire and hang with some older humans. It has been good for me. And, I have found that senior citizens possess indeed a great store of down home, homespun wisdom, garnered over decades of life experience, regardless fo their level of formal educational attainment. One needn't have a doctorate in anything to have wisdom; a goodly number of years spent on this planet simply paying attention will do the trick. But for stupidity and willful ignorance I have no tolerance. For, example, if and when I hear some older person warn that we in the United States must never ever allow this to become a socialist country, must not allow socialism anywhere in America - who hasn't heard that tired old conservative lament? - I want to approach the person, suggest that he or she stop receiving Social Security, and inform the idiot, in no uncertain terms, that Social security is nothing other than socialism, socialism in essentially its purest form, here, in America. Anyone old enough to receive Social Security, itseems to me, should be old enough, should have learned enough, it now that Social Security is socialism. The senior center I attend, nearly daily, for lunch and other activities, is full of Trump supporters, I believe. That amazes me, because many of them are ostensibly intelligent, moral, discerning citizens. The more religious the senior, the more likely to be a Trump supporter, which I find telling. The same is true, I am led to believe, across all age groups in America. Deep religious faith and political, economic, and social conseratism go together, despite the obvious fact that the essential message of Jesus Christ, of extreme charity, voluntary poverty, wide distribution of wealth...is straight out of the liberal socialist hand book. Jesus, if anything, was a raving left wing liberal socialist. Raving, because he was an apocalyptic preacher, who constantly warned the end of the world as people knew it was soon coming to an end, that a representative of God would soon arrive on Earth, the "Son Of Man", or whomever, and bring about extreme change, usher in in the kingdom of God. Well, Jesus as dead wrong about that. But he did emphatically instruct people to behave economically like socialists, not capitalists, a demonstrable fact which evangelical conservative Christians will argue against, fatuously, without relent. The most devout segment of the Christian faithful should not be politically conservative, but rather, politically liberal. There are evangelical Chrsitians who understand this, and have defected from Trump. There are even progressive liberal evangelical Christians, though not nearly enough of them. If there were more of them, the Christian religion would stand a much better chance of actually being, on balance, a net force for good in the world, rather than the divisive, controntational, intolerant, stifling, rigid, dogmatic, anti-science behemoth that it has always been, and remains. Trump supporters delude themslves into believing that Trump's criminal convictions are actually a plot agianst him by a politicized judicial system, an insane notion, about as insane that believing in an anthropomorphic deity which concerns himself with human morality and prefers Republicans to Democrats.

Loving Olivara, Forever

HER FACEBOOK NAME is "Olivara". I shall never know what his or her "real name" is, over there in some other country, maybe in Africa. Maybe eastern Europe. Hell, maybe Russia. They do a lot of that sort of thing, messing with Americans on the internet. Hell, they got Trump elected, according to many analysts, and might well do it again. But whoever it was and is sure manipulated me, manipulated me right out of a little over two hundred dollars. But, I fell in love with her, my imaginary, fantasy Olivera... only this time with a bit of skepticism behind it. It wasn't the first time, you see. Although nearly all if not all of the women who have friend requested me on Facebook, and have chatted with me due to my friend acceptance, are scam artists, it seems to me. That makes mewonder precisely what percentage of the female American population are scam artists, but, I digress. Facebook can be an excellent tool for sociological research, psychological research, self analysis,and inward reflection and discovery. Evidently a shocking number of Americans are successfuly scammed on a daily basis, alas, now, I am among them. I was sending gift cards to "Olivera", an alleged resident of a town near me, in actuality some hunch backed criminal in Africa or eastern Europe. I was told that some folks send thousands of dollars to scam artists, sometimes their entire life savings, sometimes, their lives. Something like that,something like this, can ruin a good person's life. I kept trying to talk her into making the two hour drive to come and visit me, and she swore she wanted to do nothing more. If only she had a little money to put gas in her car.When she got in her cr to hit the highway on her way to be with me, she noticed that she needed, or rather her car needed, new brake pads. I paid for those. Oh her way to be with me her fuel pump gave out on the highway. She sent me a picture of something under the car, utterly irrelvant. She got the fuel pump repaired, there on the highway, bu couldn'tpay for the repair, so the mechanic seized her ar, and kept it, pending her payment. That's where we stand now. This scammer in Africa or eastern Europe desperately wants to get her car out of the shop in a small town in a southern state in the U.S, and is once again saking for money from me. This time, by god, he or she won't get anyway. Many times she said she loves me totally, and will love me forever. Many times I have told her the same thing. Now, I am telling her that she would find life more fulfilling if she gave up her life of crime, and became a decent person. I think she found that advice hurtful. I talk, on Facebook messenger, typing, typing, to this scammer in another country, and instead of telling this person "I love you", I tell this person "I love Olivera, the Olivera of my mind, the only Olivera that exists". Somehow, that seems more appropriate, more honest.She, the character "Olivera", is very upset with me, says that I trust other people more than her, tha I dont love her anymore because I stopped sending her any money, and that there is no way in teh world she can possibly come to see me if she doesn't get more money, to repair her car. I cant visit her, she says, because its too dangerous for rme. Gangsters, apparently. Her phone doesn't work. Damn. I will keep my promise to Olivera, the fantasy girl in my mind. I will love her forever.

Trump's Highly Consequential Prevaricating

Donald Trump, while he was president, in front of God and the world, told no fewer than thirty thousand lies, blatant ones. Jeff Bezo's Washington Post published them, on a daily basis, Bezos being no fan of Trump. He needn't have bothered; nearly all the lies were so incredible, obviously lies, so idiotic, or easily disproval, that everyone knew they were lies, the moment he spoke them. The difference is how people reacted to them. Some people chose to believe Trump's lies, some, to ignore them, and those are the two modes of operation of Trump supporters. And, of course, Trump didnt suddenly become honest when he left office. To this day, he continues to spout his brazen, harmful lies, his supporters keep believing or ignoring them, and the rest of us shake our heads and ponder at the state of morality in Christian conservative America. Two Trump lies in particular were particularly harmful, particularly heinous, and, arguably, should have resulted in criminal conviction and incarceration for his orangeness. Number one of course is the great election lie, which has done and continues to do incaliulable damage to the United States of America. Words never divided the United States more severely and completely as Trump's big election lie. This national division, which existed before the election but has only grown after it, carries on, unabated. Families have been torn apart, fiendships severed. All around the country, thousands of election polling place workers hve been harassed, threatened, intimidated, stalked, hounded. These people are the very best American citizens, folks willing to volunteer for a thankless but invaluable, crucial, vital job. Thousands of good people have been forced out of the noble work, now, there is a severe shortage of polling place workers, which may impact the forthcoming election. Voting might not be a smooth and efficient as people have come to expect. And yes, instances of actual violence or property damage being inflicted on innnocent people by angry, rabid Trump supporters are numerous. Trump is culpable for all of this; the mass harassment, the trauma, violence, and property destruction, all Trump's doing. He should be held liable for it, held accountable. Trump's other horrendoud and especially harmful lie was uttered only a few days ago, and is nowprobably more famous than any lie Trump has told with the possible exception of the elction, is the one about Haitain immigrants eating dogs and cats in Ohio. We'veall hear it, and the nation is currently in an uproar over it. Meanwhile, the city Trumpmentioned as the scene of haitiani cat anddgo consumption is in complete turmoil, to the point of temporarily, one hopes, being completely shut down. Schools closed, and so forth. Death threats and vandalism by Trump supporters, doing their usual thing. The Haitian immigrant community, which is rather large, in Ohio may be in imminent peril. The violence could spread, and become quite serious. To make matters even worse, Trump keeps repeating this outrageous lie, exactly as he has done with the election lie, doubling down as we like to say, and V.P. candidate Vance is doing teh same. That will only make it worse. Several died during Trump's Capitol insurrection, for which he is responsible. Whatever property damage and violence takes place regarding this immigrant accusation will also be Trump's fault. And of course, as many people have reminded uos, those who support Trump and carry out his violence on his behalf are no less guilty than he.

Absorbing the News

TURNING ON THE NEWS can be risky, emotionally, intellectually. I know people who have renounced all news on a temporary basis, discovered that they enjoy newslessness, and never went back. One wonders about the impact on their awareness of current events and the state of the world. Maybe none of that concerns them. Most of the time when I watch or listen to or read the news, I sustain at least one emotional shock, one intellectual shock, and not a few head scratching eyerolling moments. A couple of days ago, on National Public Radio, my "go to "source of news, the news person calmly announced that president Biden and the Prime Minister of Britain were engaged in high level talks, about whether to allow Ukraine to use the long range rockets and missiles, weapons given and sold to Ukraine by those two countries, to be fired at targets deep inside Russia. No other itmes were listed for the agednaitems of the two heads of state. One decision, and one only; whtehr to allow Ukraine to fire long range missiles deepinto Russia. WE ar doomed, I thought. Russia is rapidly gtting into a situation in which she will either need to start peace negotiations with Ukraine, or resort to nuclear war, as Putin has indeed threatened to do. Listening to this gloomy report, I reflected,again, on how fortunate I have been to have lived my life when and where I did, and also,that the world of twenty twnty four is not quite like the one I had imagined I would live in, a half century ago, when I often speculated on the next fifty and a hundred years. I knew in 1970, for instance, that the twenty first century would be quite different from teh late twentieth; I forsaw teh sweeping growth of computer technology; I recall talking to a friend in 1981, and predcting to him that books printed on paper, hard copy boooks, would become extinct, and that all reading would be done on computer screens. Obviously, I was quite wrong. My friend knew it t the time; he responded to me that no matter what developments occurred with computers and computer screens, there would always be books in paper and print, simply because people love physical books, and would never consent to their extinction, would never consent to a reading life entirely confine to a computer screen. He was, of course, quite right. Nobody predicts the future well. Nobody. But I never would have predicted either that there would be a massive twenty first century land war in Europe, nor that books would still exist. And of course, in 1970, nobody said a word about climate change, even though the same information, information concerning carbon accumulation in the atmosphere and historical climate and temperature trends, was available. Back then, we just didnt see it. Confronted with all this, we are saddled with the dreadful specter of a candidate for president of the United States, and his Vice presieential candidate, both emphatically declaring, and repeating often, that there are immigrants living in the United States, dark skinned immigrants who are living in Ohio and eating dogs and cats. Such is the mentality of our potential near future leadership in America, confronted with the daunting circumstances named above. We have already had in America, and may well have yet again, national leaders who embrace wild and false conspiracy theories, advocate policies which would return America to the nineteenth century, and declare, emphatically, that immigrants are devouring America's pets.

Getting It Right

CLIMATE CHANGE, somehow, doesn't really seem real. Maybe that's why so many people have such a difficult time believing that it is, why so so many people prefer to deny its reality. Climate change seems like a science fiction novel. Every day, we all experience weather of some kind. No matter what the weather happens to be, it is easy to ascribe it to the unpredictable, ever changing nature of the climate, and to ignore even the possibility of any human infuence on it. Superficially, the very notion that human activity not only can but actually does affect the climate seems nonsensical, impossible. How can we, tiny, puny little creatures that we are, possibly have any lasting impact at all on something so huge, so uncontrollable as nature herself? Most people, however, have by now arrived at the point of understanding and acceptance of the science behind climate change, the very real and rather simple facts which explain it and how it is indeed very much a reality. Fortunately, most people acknowledge climate change; the number of people who deny it seems to be dwindling over time, with better education. Most of the books, conversations, and analysis about the present and future of climate change and human existence tend to be quite gloomy. We tend to focus on the question of precisely how bad it will get, and how soon, and most of the predictions are doom and glooomy. Recently a wonderful book has been publisehd which takes another approach, a positive approach. "What If We Get It Right?" is a collection of essays, discussion transcripts, and poetry from a number of creative scholars compiled by marine biologist Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, which explores the possibility of positive outcomes and futures regarding different ways humanity might deal with climate change successfully, thus ensuring a happy, healthy future for the human species and all life on Earth. The very fact that the author is an esteemed marine biologist, a member of the scientific community studying climate change who can even see the possibility of positive outcomes, is refreshing and inspiring. Johnson points out that the future results and senario of hunanity's attempts to solve the cimate change crises have not yet been written; throughout history people have shown the ability to not only create problems, but to solve them as well. The current crisis, overwhelmingly enormous problem that it is, remains open to an acceptable solution. We are already doing many of the right things. The transition to renewable, sustainable energy is underway. All over the world massive tree planting programs are underway, and societal solutions such as increased mass transit and reduction of the mass production of beef industry are coming online. We are, however, not currtnely doing enough, although the very real possibility exists that we humans will greatly increase our efforts in the very near future. Among the most interesting and potential filled possibilities is atmospheric carbon removal. Athough carbon is still a trace element in the air, its quantity has more than doubled in the past one hunhred years alone, due exclusively to human industry. That is more than enough to cause Earth's climate to change. Our best hope is to develop the technology to remmove as much of it as possible, and perhpas put it back in the ground, where it belongs. The necessary technology is being developed now, with majjor corporations such as Exxon, pariticipating by building carbon collection facilities. There is a possible human future without climate change, and we can benefit from envisioning that future, by believing in it, and, most of all, by making it happen.

Trump and the MAGA Mob, Doing It All Over Again

DONALD TRUMP, with his millions member MAGA mob, is planning to do it all over again, planning to respond to an election loss by claiming that the election was stolen from him through massive fraud. The violent component,something akin to the MAGA mob capitol insurrection of January 6, 2021, is also still possible, is certainly not "off the table". He is already laying the groundwork in his daily utterances, referring to the possibility of fraud, preparing us for act two of the great Trumpian attempt to overthrow the results of a presidential election, violently if necessry, because he lost it. Its amazing, when you think about all that, happening again. And yet, it cannot be ruled out. If it does, it will seem to many of us that we have truly entered the Twilight Zone. The question is, in the probable event of a Trump loss to Harris, will Trump truly make his outrageous claim again, and, more importantly still, will his followers buy into it again, believe and embrace it, and turn into self deluded treasonous traitors,again? The bad news is that every indication, all early indactions are that they indeed would and will. The worse news is, it seems almost inevitable that they will, that tens of millions of self deluded far right wing Americans will once again deceive themselves into believing an outlandish Trump lie. There is every reason to believe that the level of frustration, disappointment, and anger among Trump voters will be no less, and indeed somewhat greater, than when Trump lost the 2020 presidential election to Biden. The zealously insane religious component to the MAGA movement fuels the fire, so to speak. Among evangelical Christians there is the infamous and widespread delusion that God often elevates characters of low morality to positions of great importance, for His own mysterious reasons, and that this is what He is doing with Trump. Seldom if ever have large numbers of people jointly embraced such an idiotic, dangerous, and harmful notion. GOd can and will do whatever He, She, or It will; our task here is to select, by the democratic process, intelligent leaders of high, not low mmoral character. Everyone, including Trump, who had anything to do with the Capitol insurrection and indeed the whole election lie scheme of Trump should be in prison. Many of them are. Trump's famous debate claim that immigrants are eating cats and dogs in Ohio is going viral, as a classic example of a Trmp remark that is both crazy insane, and totally false. The remark is Trump, personified. Whatever is wrong with Trump, pathological narcissism, obsessive pathological lying, its getting worse. Whether Trump wins or loses, the nation is is for a turbulent period ahead. If he wins, and if the Republicans control Congress, Trump will be emboldened to support and falilitate every single crazy, fascist idea that Project 2025, mainstream conservative America, and himself so fervantly wish to implement, including criminization of homosexuality and abortion, and mass persecution of undocumented immigrants. Trump would willingly make himself a tool of the Christian Nationalists,simply to fortify his own position of power. Frightening. Alarming. If Trump loses, here we go again with Trump, his career over, and facing more felony prosecutions, trying to foment a revolution to put himself in power, illegally. He will have the support of millions of people in this, so, it will be quite volatile. Stay tuned, and, as they say, fasten your selt belts.

Sending Nude Pics Online

I HAVE A CHROMEBOOK, which I guess is a small laptop, a tablet, and a smart phone. So, I am not entirely without the devices which make a person a bona fide member of the twenty first century. Only thing is, I fail to take full advantage of them. For some reason, for instance, I am not a great fan of texting, although I certinaly have nothing against the technology, consider it beneficial to humankind, and have no objection to people texting. I, however, kinda stay away from it. I finally, after severl years of smart phoning, learned how to text message. I tried it, found I didn't like it much, and stopped doing it. An ever great struggle took place in my life concerning what we call "selfies". Holding a telephone a few feet from my face, pointing it at myself, and taking a pciture of my own head has never been appealing to me, thus, I never learned how to take a self photo, long after everybody in this great nation was sending selfies back and forth like nothing flat. At length, however, I relented, and over time, by short starts and stops, taking baby steps, I learned how to take a selfie. On Facebook, if you do not have a pciture of yourself to send and share, you are nobody. For years I informed people messaging me that the only photo of me was on my website, which it was, this website, and in almost every instance, this information greatly angered people, and, in some instances, inspired them to stop talking to me. So be it. No problem, anyone asking for a picture of me but too lazy to visit a website to see it has only a limited interest in the picture, and, well, doing without them is no problem. I was and still am surprised by the number of so called "friend requests" I receive on Facebook, while using it only to promote this website and to distribute negative but factual information about conservatism and Trump. And so it came to be that I started sending "selfies" to strangers on Facebook. I had assumed that pictures of my sixty nine year old face would deter attention from attractive women, but instead it seems to have had no discernable impact on it, and,if anything, has increased it. I keep getting compliments about how young and handsome and sexy I look. This only inspires more selfies from me. Enhanced even more is my strong long held suspicion that the only reason, ultimately, why attractive yound women even bother to message me is their desire to trick me, and probably to thousands of other people, mainly old men, out of their moncy. They all indicate right up front that they are indeed looking for a serious relationship, for the love of their lives, for the ultimate perfect soul mate, on Facebook. Sometimes these computer relationships turn serious, and, for all intents and purposes, become real. I have been told that there are thousands of married couple in America right now consisting of people who met online. More power to them. I wish I would meet somebody other than a young attractive lady who either is a scam artist for real, or who behave for all the eorld as if they are. Sometimes the women send me a sexy picture of themselves, sartorially compromised, insufficient garmentry. I have, only for the purpsoes of scientific research, at time reciprocated. There seems to be a bit of a "thrill", a certain adrenalin rush, albeit a small one, associated with it. So, I shall presumably continue with, among other projects, my online sociological research. Its rather fun, and besides, one must find something to do with all these electronic devices.

Trump, Losing On Immigration

THERE SEEMS TO BE a general consensus that Donald Trump has an advantage on two major issues; the economy, and immigration. It requires nothing more than a cursory examination of the facts to see that this notion is wholly incorrect. Without question the American economy is healthy, vigorous, and productive, with only lingering inflation to spoil the party. But inflation has come down drastically under Biden, just as it increased drastically under Trump By early next year, inflation will likley have returned to prepandemic levels. We must bear in mind that some inflation is desirable, and there is an acceptble level of it. Most economists believe that this level is about two percent. It is now approaching that, as it comes down. Anyone who understands the true immigration situation in the United States will agree that the "problem" has always existed, that no president has totally solved it, but that arguably Biden has done as well as any other president, including Ronald Reagan, who gave amnesty to millions of undocumented Latin American immigrants, a big no no among conservatives. Trump is not joking when he says he would initiate the greatest mass deportation project in American and human history. This would include mass arrests, detentions, and incarcerations of undocumented workers, millions of them, rounded up and herded into concentration camps until further action, deportation. Trump's entire political career and the conservative movement in general are built upon anger, resentment, a sense of being cheated, a sense of white Christians being replaced by black and brown skinned people, of their white Christian heritgage being reduced to minority status, both racially and in terms of religious affiliation. Whether brown or black skinned, conservatives and Trump followers hate immigrants, whetehr legal or otherwise. MOre than ten million Latinos, arrested, rounded up, locked up, kicked out: that is Trump's plan. Aside from the blatant cruelty and barbarism of it, this plan would entirely wreck the American economy by depriving it of millions of workers, destroying millions of jobs and businesses, plunging the United States into an instant depression, or tremendous economic recession. Whether we white Christian Americans like it or not, we need these millions of Latino workers in our country, legal, undocumented, which ever. We have allowed them in, willfully or not, have absorbed them into the economy,and have become, alas, dependant on them. Migration is basic human nature. Humans were complete, perpetual migrants until quite recently in human hsitory. We still cannot stop moving around. No matter where we live, we want to go somehwere else, want to travel, want to roam, in search of better things...In today's world millions of people are on the move, all over the planet, seeking refuge from disastrous political and economic circumstances precipitated largely by climate change, and human nature. Migratory behavior among us humans is only going to increase, drastically, as more millions of people, fleeing rising coastal waters, droughts, wildfires, and floods, seek refuge in safer places. Its going to get worse before it gets better. The southern American border is out of control and badly needs to be organized and brought under control. Except for Trump, this would now be happening. Only Trump has prevented the soutern border from being organized and under control, and all the Democrats need to so is make damned sure the American people understand that fact. As for who won the debate, Trump said at one point that immigrants from Haiti are eating cats and dogs in Ohio, and he stood by it when challenged. He has problems, to say the least. This wasn't even the most stupid thing Trump said during he debate,not by a country mile. If he wins the election, heaven help us.

Corrupting Capitalism

THIS CRAZY ECONOMIC SYSTEM, whatever you want to call it, in which a few people have most of the money, is a double edged sword which produces great material wealth but utterly corrupts the world by concentrating the wealth, corrupting politics, and destroying the bioshpere, meaning us. We can call this system "capitalism", knowing what we are talking about, but, as every economist and most lay people will tell you, what we have in America and around the world today is not true capitalism, but some distorted version of it. The ongoing but soon to mercifully come to an end American presidential conflict perfectly illustrates both the economic and the political corruption. Like all American presidential elections, this one is being purchased, and the asking price will exceed one billion dollars, as will the final bill. I remember how shocked I was when I was informed that Bill Clinton, or his supporters and corporate benefactors, purchased the 1992 presidency for a staggering thirty million bucks. That total doesn't seem so staggering now. And although Kamala Harris has accumulated a huge number of small private donors, jsut as Barrack Obama did,in an impressive and truly grass roots campaign, in the end, much of her campaign war chest of hundreds of millions of dollars will turn out to have been gotten from corporations of the fortune five hundred kind. And, much like Barrack Obama, Bill Clinton, and every other president, Kamala Harris will, almost certainly, prove to be nothing more than yet another corporate puppet in the White House. It is of course premature to hurl such a horrible accusation at anybody,and she may pleasantly, joyfully surprise us, but, as they say, we'll see. "Populism" is supposedly when the will and wishes of we the people at large take command of the political process, and the nation is governed from the grass roots up. Throw in a charismatic, authoritarian ruler to implement the will and wishes of we the people, and Eureka! fascism is born. Fascism is a substitute for democracy, which is too cumbersome, messy, and ineffective, and needs a Caeser, Hitler, or Turmp to step up and make it happen. America's conservative community, the white evangelical Christian pro gun capitalistic community, have given up on liberal democracy, demmocracy according to the rule of law and the voting process, because it simply does not produce the results they so fervantly desire, because their agenda has only minority support in the United States, if rather strong minority support. Trump will get many votes, but no enough. Abortion will be legal, there will be no Christian nationalism, and socialistic institutsions and practices will reamin in effect in America, at the end of the day, to use that awful expression. The only politician in the U.S. who truly has the best interests of all the people in mind, the only true leader independent from corporate control, is Bernie Sanders, and perhaps A.O.C. His successful political career should remains as an inspiration to all good true American democratic socialists, that, among this corporate capitalist chaos, change and progress are still possible. Meanwhile, the billionaires and billion dollar corporations still own and control the United States, and her political system. Less than one percent of we the American people have more than twenty five percent of the money, and we the people have no real power; we are subjagated to accept the few limited choices which our corporate masters condescend to give us. Maybe one day soon one person will have all the money in the world, every penny, and will have all political power, and his choice of which religion to establish as official.

Getting Scammed, For Real

IT FINALLY HAPPENED TO ME. I got scammed on the internet, soecifically, on Facebook. Maybe it was inevitable. Maybe I am not alone, although I feel as if I am. Predictably, she was a beautiful woman, a beautful woman who only needed a little gas money to come d visit me. Then, she needed to repair her car. You begin to get the point. It wasn't going to end. I had always refused to send money to people I dont know, people I have never met in person. I had and have always refrained from conducting any financial transactions online. I refuse to utilized online banking, I am not interested in shopping at Amazon dot com, and I have no interest in investing in "bitcoin". No internet money, nothing. I do not like electronic money, abstract money. Maybe I would be better off dragging around huge stones, are bartering my labor and work,or sticking with gold coins. But ultimately, isnt it all artificial, abstract? This woman insisted on gift cards, which I had never heard of, despite their being displayed in racks of merchandise at the very front of the Dollar General store. I had never heard of electronic gift cards. I am told they are quite popular I still talk to the "lady" in Facebok messenger. I figure its my only chance of getting my money, about sixty five dollars, back from her, or, getting some closure to this horrible nightmare. First, I got scammed by an imposter of Sandra Bullock. The difference there was that I knew all along, from the beginning, that the Sandra Bullock message was quite likely an imposter. But, she was convincing. This lady would not give me her street address, and told me her smart phone ws broken, or needed money to buy minutes, or something....red flags alla ournd, which I choose to notice, but accept. Big mistake, of course. Red warning flags pop up for a reason, and should not only be noticed, but acted upon. With this "lady", who is, I fear, actually a criminal, I broke every rule in my own book, and I am paying for it. however, I knew I was taking a chance, and I took it. I ried to do something worthwhile, and got burned. And for that, I ought not feel ashamed, but should remember my good intentions, and hold my head high, knowning I am a a good person. So distraught wasI yesterday that I failed to even write and publish an essay, a rarity for me. But that too is forgiveable, and since I forgive others, I should forgive myself. When one considers tha nature of the inernet and the world, the crime rate, the amount of financial fraud and white collar crime, where it seems everybody is trying to scam everybody else, it is not difficult to despair. One must realize that we humans have from the beginning been terrified, deceitful, violent little creatures, based to a large extent on the fact that for almost our entire history of existence on this planet, we humans hav been prey for larger, faster, stronger animals. We have been food, prey. Now we habe become predators, and our fear, anger, and memories we bring with us. We understand that by completely subduing others, we survive. Or, we think we do. The incredible level or highly organized violence in the world now...Ukraine, Gaza, and many more...is the most distressing, depressing circumstance of all, for it proves that we humans have not evolved enough, hae not grown and learned and improved enough, to transcend our terrified, deceitful, violent basic inner nature. So here we remain, terrified, deceitful, violent, scamming each other, and living in our self made world of violence and other nightmares.

Keeping Guns Out of the Fair

THE TEXAS STATE FAIR was either held recently, is being held now,or will be held soon, here in the harvest season. I recall the movie "State Fair" when I was a little kid more than sixty years ago, a big, long movie at the drive in theatre with my mother.I couldn't've een more than eight, nine, or ten. I loved the movie,for some reason... "Our state fair is a great state fair, dont miss it, dont even be late"..... the movie was about the Texas sate fair, and the human drama within. I don't recall any guns. But, back then, in the fifties and sixties, guns were not quite the gargantuan issue they are today. Chances are that when that movie was made, Texas and America had far fewer gun regulations, and far fewer guns, at a state fair, or anywnere else. The gun population in America has exploded over the last few decades; Aemrica has become obsessed with firearms. Now, damned near everyone in Texas has a gun, it seems, and folks carry openly, and all across America's fruited plain, the epidemic of gun violence continues to escalate, amid a national gun policy dominated by the conservative pro gun agenda, which, for all appearances, is a miserable failure. In the great blood red Republican state of Texas, a this year's state fair, there will be no guns, other than those carried by duly authorized police oficers. The attending public may not carry, by law. This decision by the state government, despite far right wing gun fanatic governor Greg Abbott and a state legislature owned and controlled by Republicans, the NRA, and their billionaire benefactors. In the state which thinks its a country, and has over its history constantly emphasized its independence and willingress and readyness and ableness to secede, somethng has gotten into the water supply, and made the right wing gun fanatics realize, at long last, that, after all, it would be safer to prohibit guns in a huge, packed crowd, instead of encouraging everyone to carry them, as is normal. Texas culture, by nature, generally subsribes to the insane NRA philosophy that if, in any given big crowd, all or most of the attendees carry guns that, in the event of a mass murderer opening fire, there will, magically, according to statistical laws, be at least one "good guy" with a gun nearby, who will, of course, put a quick stop to the mass murder, by murdering the mass murderer. There is, as a lady Texan and gun expert sadly expressed,simply no evidence that the "everyone with a gun prevents violence" theory actually works. None at all. Yes, perhaps a time or two a citizen hero has put a stop to a mass murder in a crowd filled with gun toting gun owners, good guys. More often, though, in a crowd stocked with people packing heat, random gun fights break out, between good guys, strangers who bump into each other or stare at each other a bit too long. Or whatever. Among humans, it doesnt take much. Like my grandfather is alleged to have said: "you put a gun in a man's hand, the first thing he wants to do is use it". That may or may not be true, but it certainly sounds reasonable. If the rate of gun violence keeps up, eventually America may reliaze that arming every good citizen is not all its cracked up to be, that bad citizens are hidden deep in all good ones, and that guns may not kill people, but they sure dont seem to mind helping.

Reaching A Hundred Degrees Daily

UNLESS I'M DREAMING, and for the record I wish I were, the daytime temperature in Pheonix reached one hundred degrees for the twentieth consecutive day recently, a new record. Nowadays it seems that almost everything that happens regarding the weather is a new record, in our era of increasingly extreme weather and advancing climate change. Today, in the first week of September, the temperature in Phoenix will be one hundred and ten, perhaps not a new record, but close. As the days grow much shorter throughout September and Otober, the sun has less opportunity (time) to pour heat into the atmosphere,so, normally, September and then October become cooler. September has throughout my life been a month in which there are a few eighty degree days, but more often cool days, as summer comes to an end. Now, September feels like Atugust, and October, which I remember as once a cold weather month, has become, within the past twenty years or so, a summer month. For the past decade, temperatures in October have been regularly reaching eighty fivve to ninety degrees, much more summer like than autumnal. The string of hundred degree days in Pheonix has a foreboding sound to it, an ominous harbinger of impending catastrophe. In the American mid south, throughout much if not most or all of the United States, it begins to seem inevitable that within a few years, there will be summers in which the temperature reaches one hundred degrees on June first, rises above a hundred every day the entire summer, and is still rising to that degree on Labor Day. Three solid months of one hundred degree daytime temperatures, the entire summer. Probably within the next decade. Phoenix has already nearly reached that point. The entire American southwest cannot be far behind, nor can most of the rest of the country. The carbon currently in the atosphere ensures precisely that result, and we humans are only adding more, millions and billions of tons of it, every day, as we begin to fight climate change far too little too late. Our transition from fossil fuels to sustainable energy is indeed proceeding, and beginning to pay off, but, alas, far too belatedly and with insufficient vigor to prevent near future disaster. The hundred degreee days and the wildfires of the American west will spread east, all the way to the Atlantic. The further east one goes in America, the more heavily forested the land is. To date, there has not been severe or persistant enough drought to trigger mass wildfires in teh east of the sort commonly, indeed almost constantly burning across California and the rest of the west, but that too seems destined to change. In many areas, wildfires have, over the years, been quenched so effecively that millions of acres of forest have not been burned in decades, even centuries. Therefore, these millions of acres are heavily littered with dead branches and dead trees on the ground, providng perfect fuel for fast moving fire. Projets to clean out the underbrush and instate controlled burnings might reduce the risk somewhat, but not enough. the inevitable prolonged droughts of the climate changing future will all but guarantee that every region of the United States that is forested will sooner than later fall victim to huge, out of control wildfires. We'll see how many consecutive days of one hundred degree days Phoenix and other cities experience next summer, and in the summers of the next decade. The smart money is on the "many". Most of us alive now are going to directly, dramatically experience the extreme conditions of climate change, and we are not going to like it. Our only choice is to frantically develop astmospheric carbon sequestration technology, and cross our fingers.

Radically Transforming College Athletics

COLLEGE FOOTBALL SEASON has begun, under the new order, the new paradigm. For perhaps the first time in the history of the ancient sport, which played the first football game ever in 1869, when Princeton and Rutgers played to a six to four score, nobody really has any verifiable idea exactly how good or bad their favorie team is, or will become this season. Previously, college football teams began football season with a majority of its players returning from the previous year; the teams were all, to a certian extent, able to be rated in advance, because the returning players and their strengths and weaknesses were all known. Now, however, with all college athletes free to transfer from one school to another between seasons without any penalties being applied, players all across the collegiate athletic landscape are indeed taking advantage of their newly acquired freedom, and transferring, early, and often. This is true of every organized, sanctioned college sport, men's and women's. The "transfer protal", which opens and closes several times every year, is here to stay. College athletes have endured and survived the era of indentured servitude, and no longer are de facto indentured servants, bound to their univeristy for a four year unpaid apprenticeship. The age of Name,Image, and Likeness allows the players to be paid, and the plan for payment has been corrupted beyond recognition by the university system, which competes for the best athletes and players with offers of huge sums of cash, giving some few players the opportunity to make more than a million dollars a year while in college. Thus players move from one university to another, taking the best offer, trying to improve their pay, and each year, college team rosters are filled with newly acquired talent, and the fans are left to learn an entirely new team, every year, almost starting from scratch. Collegiate athletics has been radically transformed with an entirely unsustainable new system, a system which will of necessity soon be discarded, and replaced by something financially and socially saner. It now takes millions of dollars to buy and field a good college football team. The competition for talent is, as always, fierce. The already staggering sums of money being offered teenaged athletes will only continue to increase, making the financials of college athletics as crazy and out of control as professional sports. College athletes,in the blink of an eye, have been lifted from starving artist poverty to extravagent wealth and essentially professional status. For decades they were abused, and too poor, relying on parents for money back home, pinching pennies on campus. Now many of them are too rich, driving cars worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, adorned in lavish wardrobes, as college students. Some of them. How well will the million dollar starting quarterback get along with the still playing for free offensive lineman, whose service to the superstar millionaire quarterback is indespensable? Not always well, initial evidence seems to suggest. Most offensive limemen at major universities with major football prgrams won't be playing for free, but the wage gap between players on the same teams is bound to become substantial, until something is done to regulate the N.I.L. system. The question is, how crazy will the situation become before something is done to repair it?

Evangelicals, Leaving Trump

NOBODY IS TAKING A LOOK at Kamala Harris, then changing their mind, abandoning her, and supporting Trump instead. Once Kamala, always Kamala. She has that irrestable magnetism, positive, joyful attitude, plus, the good looks. But a significant number of Trump supporters are indeed tossing their MAGA cap in the dust bin of history,and switching to Kamala. Mostly these are "lesser of two evils" types, not necessarily devout, fervant Trumpsrs. However, there is now a fair number of true MAGA Trumpers of the evangelical Christian kind who are also loosing patience, or have lost it, and are defecting from Trump. Since an overwhelmingly high percentage of American evangelical Christians supports Trump, and since the evangalical community constitutes a significant portion of Trump's support, and since they are among the most devout Trump votaries; any discernable defections at all from this powerful constituency are significant. In modern America, where religion has been brought into the cahpel and is now preached from the pulpit, we know and have seen how entire congregations have split into sepearate churches over politics, along liberal - conservative lines. The crack in the rock solid evangelical Trump political edifice also causes consternation among the faithful flock. The devout faithful who support Trump tend to closely associate the billionaire game show host and real estate investor with Jesus Christ, and many are willing to openly, unabashadly assert that Christ himself, representing God Almighty, has ordained and decided that Trump once again become president. To rectify any possible internal moral contradictions concerning a true Christian giving political support to such an obviously and openly sinful man, all evangelical Christians have at their disposal a varied and formidibale array of arguments to support their ostensible hypocrisy. Thus, attempting to convert most Christian Trumpers to a more reasonable political viewpoint is, for the most part, a hopeless enterprise. One of their standard arguments is that in the Bible, the Lord often promotes men of low moral character to postiions of great importance, for His own mysterious reasons. That may be true, but as they say, never try this at home. God can perhaps get away with over rating reporbates; we humans are better off not atempting it. The more religious a person is, the more likely the same person is to be conserivatve, politicaly, and in other ways. This is because deeply religious people are strongly attracted to traditional values, as are deeply conservative people. The Christian religion is a traditional institution, with traditional values, and white male patriarchy, capitalism, suppression of minority rights, and xenophobic nationalism are as well. Conservatives are more inclined to accept and respect existing authority, progressives are far more likely to question and disapprove of such traditional authority. Goethe said: "The world advances only because of those who oppose it". Progressive, liberal political ideology tends to oppose the traditional, the existing world, and to embrace change, hence, "progressivism". It is the world's progressives, those dissatisfied with the status quo, who cause the world to change and make progress. The right wing evangelicals who are abandoning Trump have realized that despite Trump's willingness to cater to them, that he is not really one of them, does not truly share their beliefs and values, and, in fact, cares nothing about them. Some of them have perhaps accepted the reality that supporting Trump is not the truly Christian thing to do. There may come a time when many more of them come to the same realization.

Destroying Democracy/ Destroying America

SO GREAT IS THE DIVIDE in the United States, basically along liberal-conservative lines, that approximately one third of the members of both communities firmly, absolutely believe that the other side is trying to not only destroy democracy in America, but to destroy America her self. Whether these angry, cynical, paranoid people think the destroyers are doing it, knowingly, on purpose, or merely as an unintended consequence of misguided policies surveys do not ask, strangely. With regard to our great national division, I must confess that I am part of the problem, not the solution. I have been a libera Democrat for decades, but as I grow older, rather than becoming more conservative, I seem to be becoming more progressive, moving farther to the left, certainly not the center. Bernie Sanders is my candidate, and,I must further confess, I am among those who accuse the other side of attempting to destroy democracy and America. With regard to America, I am convinced that their destruction attempt is accidental; they themselvs that their malign agenda for the country is in fact virtuous, and pro American. I strenuously beg to differ. Democray is another matter. It seem evident that the attempt to destory democacy by America's conservatives is made evident by their evident desire to elevate Donald Trump to the level of a virtual dictator,and authoritarian president immune to criminal prosecution,no matter what heinous crimes he commits. Indeed, that is not democratic. Nor is it especially democratic to deny the winner of an election, try to steal the election, and then try to overthrow the government. Conservative America did indeed do all that. If the Christian religion ever becomes official in the U.S.,Amercaas weknow it,nd as the founders intended it,will be gone, forever. America will have been destroyed in its present and traditional state of being. Christian nationalism is a very strong strain within the conservative community, and their misconception is their belief that Christian nationalism is pro - American, more American than our secular democracy, a Christian America that the founders intended. This is completely false, of course. Christian Nationalist conservatives believe that by Christianizng the United States they are saving it, when in fact they are destroying it, or trying to,unwittingly. The people trying to save the America the foudners created and intended art those supposedly radical lefties preaching about the sacred separation of church and state. This sacred first amendment founding principle the Christian nationalist delude themselves into believing does not actually exist, that the separation of church and state is some sort of insidious invention of the far left, part of a left wing war against America and the Christian faith. Pure fiction. Comparing America's political right wing and left wing in terms of environmental policy, particularly regarding climate change, is quite revealing. The Republican party agenda calls for the continued exploitation of fossil fuels, and says nothing about climate change, doesn't even mention it. I can think of no better way to destroy ot only America, but the entire world, than by continuing to exploit fossil fuels and to ignore climate change. And, of course, democracy. Nor are we going to save America by immolating the government, and turning our economy into an unregulated, wild west corporate capitalistic free for all. Banning Books, covering up racism, and denying rights to immigrants and minorities doesn't help build a better America either.

Worrying About Morality in America Part II

WHETHER THE TRUMP MOVEMENT, its existence, is indicative of moral decline in America is of course a matter or mere speculation;I suspect that no sociologist, philosopher, or historian on any college campus in America can provide a well articulated answer to this question, supported by evidence, although they all may have a strong opinion about it. The entire question of societal moral delince and revival remains undecided; whatever exteme moral decline occurs in any society, there must also be periods of moral revival, and the process must be cyclical, in order for society to be sustainable; unless high or low moral standards are built into a society, and remain mmostly steady, a prospect which does not reflect well on American society. The persistence of racial hatred and genocidal policies in American society would seem to confirm that if indeed American society is morally stable, without fluctutations, then it is sustained at a level of virtue not to be envied. Maybe the Trump phenomenon is an "outlier", perhaps it indicates moral decline, or, perhaps, perish the thought, it is merely another manifestation of normal, enduring American moral behavior. Either way, I find it alarming and depressing, as do, I suspect, many other people. I ask the same question about my interactiosns with people on the internet, specifically social media, specifically Facebook, the only social medium I use. This interaction seems to me to ndicate that either American moral standards are in decline, or lack quality in the first place, either possibility of which I find disconcerting. I never try to meet people, make friends, or message people on Facebook, but I get many messages from strangers. I answer all of them, because, why else even bother to down load social media? My purpose is to promote this website; one potential essay reader at at a time, if necessary. I get many "friend reuests", I say "yes to all of them, and, invariably, within moments, the new friend messages me. About half the time its somebody tring to scam me by promising me free government nmoney, and about half the time, its an attractive young lady, looking....for something..I am not especally friendly to any of them, but I answer their questions, just to see what they want. What they all want is money. The number and variety of techniques they use to separate me from me modest money is impressive, but, at the same time..frustrating..depressing....Is there perchance anybody out there on social media who is interested in talking to me because I am an amazing, interesting, wonderful person, worth getting to know? Seemingly, not. Many if not most of the attractive young women ask questions about me, decide they like me, and offer to come and visit me - if I will kindly pay for their trip, either by sending them gas money, or airfare. of course I offer to do either. Many of them claim to be starving, or in eminent danger of homelessness. I mistrust these claims. They want the money in advance, and they want it to be sent online. I offer to provide them with cash when they knock on my front door, but they refuse this offer. They want gas money, they all say, only because they have no money to pay for gas, so they say. all of them. Ther is evidently an empiemic of previously middle class young American women suddenly being bankrupt, dead broke. More likely, their is an epidemic of shrewd operators who realize that they want to be paid in advance, just in case the dude is a dweeb and they make a trip for nothing, or, perhaps just as likely, they are in truth not at all broke, not at all. but simply wish to recoup their investment in advance, or, perhaps, take the gas money and vanish. I know for a fact that the government people are crooks, whether the young ladies seeking gas moner are, well.... Either way, to me, the whole business seems shady, and dishonest. Whether this pervasive behavior indicates societal moral decline, of whether attractive young American women have always behaved like this is....subject to debate.