Awaiting Trump's Golden Age

MOST ALARMING OF ALL, much more alarming than Trump or his policies, is human nature itself, and the human willingness to abandon one's own intellect in preference to a another person, a political or cult leader or whatever,or to a god. I watched most of Trup's big campaign rally in Michigan, and I have recently been listening, somewhat, to his press secretary spokes babe. They do more than merely lie. they portray a fantasy world,in which America, having been made great again merely by Trup's reelection, is now entering a "golden age", all because of the sheer brilliance of the policies of Trump's first one hundred days as president. Granted, it is the job of the presidential press secretary to portary the president's words and actions in a positive a way as possible,to praise and promote the prsident, in a word, to shamelessly lie. But this dministration takes the cake, all of it. According to Trump and his the hot youg blonde babe selected for that reason Ms. Leavitt, spokes-babe, because Trump has finally, after nearly two hundred years, sealed the border, and no more illegal immigrants are invading America. Well, three, to be precise....Trump's generous offer of self deportation is gaining enthusiasm and momentum. The millions of undocumented brown skinned criminals and terrorists and rapists still lurking in the back alley's in freedom's land shall soon be rounded up and kicked out, for good. Trump's tariffs are driving recalcitrant countries to the bargaining table,on Trump's terms, to plead for tariff relief and mercy. The shrunnken United States government is beginning to do its real job, defending the borders ahd arresting radicals, rather than getting boggde down in this nonsense of promoting human diversity, equality, and inclusion. Rather than spending good money on food for por and starving people in oter countries, rather than resisting Russian aggression agaisnt Ukraine, and silly things like that. According to Don the Con and his hot blonde babes and other sycophants, tha American golden age has begun, after a mere one hundred days of Trump, and Trump has barely begun, and greater things still lie ahead. The world, according to Trump. Sheer depravity. Americans, as winston Churchil cogently observed, can be counted on to do the right thing, immediately after exhausting all other options. Trump, after one hundred days, is the least popular president in American history, certainly since such things have been scientifically measured. Our modern polls tend to be quite accurate. The republic is coming to its senses, perhaps not too late. At his caompagin rally yesterday Trump shouted that its alla lie, all the polls, all his low poll umbers. He is, he bleats, actually extremely popular. Just look at all the red ball caps and MAGA banners! Trump's tariff game has brought fear, uncertainly, and confusion to the world's economy. Trump's tariffs have, are, and will bringthe world'seconomy to a crwl of grinding halt. AS more and more Americans are adveresly impacted by this, Trup's poll numbers will continue to sink, as the stock market and comsumer confidence are now doing. The stock market is only one part of the economy. Consumer confidence, which is scientifically measurable, is vital. As more and more Americans suffer because a government service they rely on suddenly vanishes, opposition to Trump and MAGA will grow. Trump is leading us straight towards a dark age, and if we aren't already in it, we soon shall be. Our salvation may, just may lie in our capacity to intelligently perceive harm, and to rectify it.

Welcoming Tyranny

THERE IS A REASON why Trump chooses to govern by executive order, rather than by discussion, negotiation,and legislation. Its easier. Authoritarian government, rule by decree, is always easier than democracy, which is a large part of its appeal for many. My father, a tort lawyer, accurately said that, all in all, the best form of goverment is a benevolent dictatorship. It certainly is more effcient,neater, tidier, less messy with torrents of opinion, and argument. The more people who are involved in anything, the more difficult it is to form a complex plan and take the precise action necessary to successfully implement it. Yesterday Trump said: "I run the country, and I run the world." So there you have it. One thing about Don the Con, he never, ever tries to disguise who he really is. He jsut does his thing, which is constant lies, insults, and harmful behavior and policies, describes it in glowing terms, and vehemently denies any and all wrong doing, and he always accuses his accusers of wrong doing. The immigrants are Trump's version of HItler's Jews; a convenient scapegoat, the enemy within. The big difference, the difference which might save the United States is that there is a huge opposition movement agaisnt Trump in America, and a much smaller one in Germany against Hitler. Opposition to Trump is swelling and growing, and the more he chooses to turn liberals into his enemies the more intense the opposition becomes. In many circles it calls itself "the resistance', as ifTrump has laready acquired the authoritarian power of Hitler,which, arguably, he nearly has. But Trump is still far from being a dictator,and may he forever so, although it must be pointed out how tenuous and vague the division often is between popular sovereignty and tyrany. When a political figure starts rising to actual political power, voters whose ideology, viewpoint, and values are similar or identical enthusiastically assist, and we have repeatedly seen how willing they are to forfeit their own democatic political input to the power of an autocratic authoritarian. When democracy encounters difficult times the people tend to become restless and insistant on change, whereas they tend more readily to accept hard times under an authoritarian ruler without complaint. Trump's supporters obviously have no concern about whether Trump's actions are legal or illegal, are highly tolerate to the point of being accepting of his constant lies, and seem poised not only to accept autoritarian rule from Trump, but to welcome it. People get tired of governing, and democracies devolve into tyrannies. Many of the first u.S. citizenswanted to be ruled by a king, and wanted George Washington to be the king. He refused, and left the presidency voluntarily, setting a precdent. Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt, arguably the two greatest in American history, were also the two most tyrannical. But the system and the deeply rooted democratic values of teh American people, as well as Lincoln and Roosevelt themselves, prevented presidential tyrany from taking hold. Now its Trump's turn to threaten democray. Trump, and MAGA. And one thing we know for damend sure; neither Trump nor his supporters will resist, but will instead encourage, his ascent to authoritarian tyrany. Once again we must rely on the American political system and the good will, democratic spirit, patriotism of the moral American anti-Trump majority to make sure it doesn't happen.

Creeping Fascism In America

A DEEPENING GLOOM pervades the nation, as the dreadful specter of fascism encroaches across the land, casting its ominous dark shadow everywhere. Such movements as socialism, feminism, and racial equality have been accused of making a similar "slow creep" into the fabric of American life, incrementally insinuating and imposing themselves upon American culture and society. In every case, there is some truth to the notion of the "slow creep". almmost as if there is a conspiracy, a conspiracy of huge proportions, perpetrated by some secretive "deep state" or something, to funadmentally alter the kind of country the United States is without attracting attention, without anyone knowing what is happening until after it has happened. Really, of course, this is a mere illusion, as the percentage of teh poplation which, after strenuous resistance, which accepts thee progressive concepts gradually but inexorably increases and gains momentum. As fascism in the era of Trump now seems to be creeping into America, its not a progressive cause, and its not becaue a growing number of Americans support it, but rather, because the minority of Americans who do support Trump's authoritarian fascist aspirations, while still a minority, is now in power, and well able to implement as much of its nefarious agenda as it can, unless and until of large enough segment of we the American people, or the judicial system, stops it. Trump, well aware that the judicial system constitutes a threat to his aims, is now attacking it, and the attack seems destined to increase in intensity very soon. Trump seems to think that we the American people, no matter how large in numbers our opposition to him, will never be sufficiently politically strong to do anything about it, but that the judiciary, which has already seen the SCOTUS render rulings unfavorable to Trump, is indeed a threat to the Trump agenda. The FBI has begun arresting judges, and the plan is for the federal Justice Department to file charges against them for allegedly assisting illigal immigrants elude apprehension, incarceration, and probable deportation. Theonly question is: how far will this go? Wil we witness the horrifying process of Trump's hand picked Attorney General, the hot young blonde Pam Bondi, presiding over the arrest of hundreds or even thousands of American judges, with the new Trump FBI, headed by Trump lackey Kash Patel, doing the work of gestapo style goons? The best way to resist Trump's fascism at this point would be for a few judges to be arrested, charged wth aiding and a betting undocumented immigrants, then found by the courts to be entirely innocent, and to thus put a healthy serving of egg on the face on the whole fascist administration. Now,let's be clear. There is no way in hell or America that we the people under Trump are going to deport anywhere close to the eleven million or so illegal immigrants who now live in these united states. No, freaking, way, period. It aint hapnin', as they say. Hell, we'll be "lucky" to deport even a tiny fraction of that impossible number. Eventually perhaps, we'll all come to our senses, document those now udocumented, stop retending that we can deprt eleven million people, and start controlling the border and organnizing and documenting all humans who cross it, for the first time ever. Traditionaly, we Americans mostly haven't given a damn, which might ultimately be the best attitude. or at least the least burdensome, legally and morally...

Trump, Doing Good?

THE FACEBOOk POST SAID: "I will never forgive those who elected Trump and did this to us.". I have seen it several times, I like it, and I share it every time I see it. On one of them, I typed in "I can't decide", meaning, whether I will or can forgive them. Some preachy lib babe got all wrathy, and responded to me: "The proof is in the pudding. Wake up". Now, I can go with the proof and pudding part, but the "wake up" annoyed me. I responded: "I am awake, and can forgive anybody who informs me of their having awakened from their self imposed delusion of formerly, but no longer being a Trump supporter. One must cknowledge, however, that at present it is difficult to imagine very many Americans in the future announcing that they are no longer Trump supporters, and can't believe that they ever were. These hard cores MAGA types are remindful of Hitler's most ardent adorers, likely to remain loyal and obedient forever, ever amid the ruins of their country, devastated by the tyrant they adore. I can imagine mobs of MAGAts milling about in a bombed out America, praising Trump and blaming his enemies. As of now, it almost seems as it the United States has lost a war, and is being governed by its enemy, intent on weakening and destroying it. Actually, its being governed by the most extreme right wing oligarchy, an oligarchy with substantial popular support, intent on turning back the clock on American culture at any cost. If Trump takes the country with him when he goes down, he and his cult mob will blame their enemmies, American liberals first and foremost. Amid our current Trumpian destruction and chaos, Trump did, or rather said something which is arguably good. He does that,qute by accident, once in a blue moon. Once in a blue moon, the old blind squirrel finds an acorn, as we say. And, as always, one must give credit where due. On his laughably named social media platform "Truth Social", he posted: "Vladimir, Stop!" Whether he typed this in all caps, or with or without an exclamation point,I do not know. Probably so. Itwould be appropriate. Vladimir Stop, indeed. Now, many expertsin communication, diplomacy, statesmanship, and so forth, have already pointed out that this Trump post means nothing, is nothing other than more Trump verbal garbage, as it were. Probably so. But,if nothing else, at least the message "Vladimir Stop" is a good idea, doesn't include any lies, does not insult or slander any good, innocent person, an for the first and only time ever, offers a rebuke to the right person, Putin, by his norammly ass kissing puppet,Trump. Trump, like everybody else in the U.S., has valid complaints against China, and there is truth in his position that illegal immigration is undesirable. However, his method of dealing with both concerns is, demonstrably, so far, chaotic, ineffective, and harmful, harmful especially to the United States of America. Trump wants to eliminate any media source, judge, politician, or institution of any sort which dares oppose him, like a true fascist. His intent on governing as an authoritarian ruler is now more evident than ever, and now it is becoming increasingly evident that his supporters prefer an authoritarian fascist Donald Trump to traditional American democracy. And since American democracy has always been window dressing for the actual governing corporate plutocracy, the transition is easy, and simply involves placing Trump at the top of the existing pyramid. Tragic, that even one human being would want this. But at least Trump said two good words.

Trump and MAGA, Going Ever Lower

OF ALL THE MANY MILLIONS of character flaws of Donald Trump,the one which I quite possible despise teh msot is sheer, unbridled vicsious pettiness. Or petty viciousness. Your choice. You'll recall a certain Mr.Rodriguez,living for the past month and a half in a brutalEl Salvadoriain prison, instead of wher he should be, at home with his wife and kids in Maryland, because the Trump administration accidentally deported him, or deported him because they falsely claim he is a criminal and terrorist, depending on which excuse is used by Trump from day to day, much to the ongoing consternation of most of America, and particularly Garcia's friends and family, who are protesting quite vigorously, rightly so. That's vicious and petty enough unto itself. Now, in an act of vicious pettiness so brutal that it shouldand perhaps shall live in infamy, the Trump junta has published the contact information, including street address, of Garcia's family, on the infamous Musk "X" social media platform, for all the world to see. This, once again with the apparent full approval of MAGA mob, the most petty people on Earth. So immediate and overwhelming has been the violent response of MAGA nation that the family has now gone into hiding. If they hadn't, by now they would undoubtedly be dead. They would have continued talking about their vanished husband and father and son and friend forever, stirring up trouble, inspiring many other Americans to join them in protesting Trump's crime. It would have been a problem for der fuhrer,thus, they had to be "eliminated", and they have been. But unfortunately for Trump, the story doesn't end there, nor does it end with the SCOTUS order to Trump to bring the young man back home, or to try to and prove that he tried, or something like that. Then too, Garcia's family needn't be involved, nor even alive, for the rest of us, the moral majority of Americans who hate and oppose Trump, to carry on in their behalf, relentlessly, vociferously demanding not only Garcia's return, but Trump's impeachment, removal, indictment, arrest, trial, conviction, incarceration, and execution. Only then will justice have been done. If Obama, either Clinton, or any Democarat had behaved as Trump has, conservative Christian America would be demanding precisely that. Trump was elected partly because Harrris is a black woman and much of Americais racist and fascist,but mainly because enough Americans were duped by Trump into believing that an actuallly thriving economy was doing poorly, but that Trumpwould fix it. That's all changed now, and it will change much,much more, very soon. The economic honey moon is over. The percentage of Americans who trust and support Trump to "fix" the economy has plummeted, and will continue to plummet as the devastating his psychotic tariff game are felt, and hit home, hard, among Trump supporters included. The ripple efect of the Musk-rat decimation of the federal government hasbegun, but barely, and will sweep through and wash over the economy like a tidal save, as unemployed workers suffer hardship, and vanishing government services and various forms of assistance disappear. Unless I'm dreaming, a considerable part of the Trump agenda has been and is being stifled in the federal judicial system, as Trump's Executive orders get tied up, stayed, suspended and eliminated in an endless avalanche of lawsuits, lawsuits in which the precarious Trump position is fully exposed. His desperate, fatuous argument to the Supreme Court, that the U.S. president can deport anybody he chooses, for any reason, at any time, without any due process, according to the constitution, has already been shot down by a SCOTUS which is inclined to kiss Trump's ass, but can only be pushed and manipulated so far, even by Trump. The more insane, harmful actions Trump takes, and there will doubtless be many more soon enough, the more the courts will stop him, the more we the American people will speak out against him, and the cherished ideal of democracy will survive once again, to fight another battle on another day.

America, Losing Respect

I WAS SURPRISED when I saw a post from one of my high school classmates on Facebook, because he is a far right wing extremist, and I rerely if ever see any conservative messages on my time line, or feed, or whatever you call it as you scroll,and scroll...My Facebook feed is beautifully spoon fed to please me, and includes some beautiful scenic photography, interesting news items, and a great deal of posts expressing hatred of our current president. One just never knows, however, what those algorythmic AI gods will decide to send one next. They often seem as arbiitrary and capricious as the god in the bible. The post said: "I can't believe that the United States has gone being the least respected to the most respected country in the world in only sixty five days!". That's exactly what it said, incredibly. I typed in: "nor should you..." In fact, this man, my lifelong friend, is highly intelligent, successful, and all that. But seemingly he is so deeply embedded withtin the Trump cult phenomenon that he actually believes what he tped and posted on Facebook, and that, arguably, is extremely alarming. Arguably, Donald Trump has done exactly the opposite; he has led the United States from its previous position of world respect to a postion of world contempt and disrespect. What, precisely, on god's green earth gives my friend, or anybody, the idea that in late April, 2025, the United States is a respected country anywhere outside its own borders? Have you spoken to a Canadian lately, or condescended to listen to one? Even more alarming about the post is that there is reason to believe that this is indicative of the attitude embraced by Trump supporters, Trump cult members generally. Thomas Jefferson famously said that he trembled for his country when he reflected that God is just, and that His justice cannot sleep forever. We have reason to tremble today, when we behold handsome looking upper middle class white American families all wearing "Trump is God" T shirts, and when we realize that as many as seventy five million Americans probably firmly believe that because Trump became president, the United States became the most respected country on Earth (in only 65 days!), having previously been the least respected. Heaven only knows what else they believe. On Easter Sunday, Trump posted an Easter greeting to the nation on his social media site. In it he emphasized that his Easter well wishes were intended to include everyone, all Americans, including the radical left wing extremist lunatics who are trying to destroy the country by opposing his policies, and so on, and so on. Typical, mean, hateful, stupid Trump garbage. So needlessly negative and harmful. So much easier and better for the president to have merely wished all Americans a happy Eater, and to assure us all that he will always try to serve every American, not merely those who agree with his agenda. But Trump, of course, simply does not have good enough moral character or basic human decency for that. He just had to be angry and hateful, even on Easter, towards many of the people he was elected to serve. All over the world most people either laugh at Trump, or despise him, just like a majority of Americans do. That is the simple fact. And anywhere in the world where Trump is liked and admired, including the United States, those who do will through necessity carefully avoid morally and intellectually examining theselves, for fear of what they would see.

Finding Life Far Away

WHAT MAY ULTIMATELY HAVE BEEN among the most important days of my life, and everyone's life, happened just recently, not entirely ignored, but certainly relatively quietly. Certainly, perhaps the most important question I have been asking since I was a little kid has been, seemingly if not definitively answered. It was confirmed, for all intents and purposes, that indeed we the living on planet Earth are not alone in the vast universe, that there is indeed life on other planets in other solar systems. There are probably many people who would like to know this, but havent heard about it yet, because it was only briefly mentioned in the mainstream media. Over the next few weeks, months, and years, we will all hear much more about it. If huge, gleaming spaceships had come down out of the sky and landed in Cenrtal Park we would now be having twenty four seven news coverage. When a spectroscopic analysis of the light from a small planet orbiting a distant star indicates organic chemical compounds unique to life on said planet - not so much. It would we are told, be possible for these organic compounds to be present without life beig present, but quite unlikely, If nothing ese, there appears to be a thriving bacterial microorganismic ecosystem on a planet located in the "Goldylocks Zone" of a solar system a mere one hundred and twenty four light years from us. Or, who knows? Maybe the seas of this planet or filled with whales and sharks, or the skies with birds, and the land with reptiles, or maybe, jsut maybe, there is an intelligent speies of humanoid creatures livign their history, perhaps their version of paleolithic culture, or the Roman Emmpire. Or maybe they have reached about the same level of technology we have, and are even now training their telescopes on our sun, looking for planets, and for chemical signatures imdicating life of some sort. Whatever, its exciting for me, becaue for about sixty years, since my grade school chldhood, the question of life on other planets has been of paramount interest to me, and to millions of other people. An entire genre of literature, science fiction, is devoted largely to this fundamental question. Of cousres, wehn"we" found water on teh moon and on Mars we turned our thoughts to water and organic chemicals on planets troughout the universe, and the likelihood that somewhere they had combined to engender life. When you consider the trillions of planetary systems we now are convinced exist, and that now we indeed know that the basic building blocks of life are indeed present on at least one of them and therefore proably many more - it begins to seem that staring at the sky at night looking for UFOs may still be a silly waste of time; but much less so than heretofore. I forgot who said that either there is life in the universe beyond Earth, or there is not, and either possibility is equally frightening, but they certainly had a point. If there is indeed life on one planet beyond Earth, and now we know that there is, then almost certainly there is life on millions of them, and it follows that in at least some cases, the lifeform is more advanced then human beings, technogically. That thought alone is terrifying, especially if you agree with the late Stephen Hawking that extraterretrial life is not likely to be friendly towards humans. But if in fact Eart is th eonly palce where there is "intelligent"life, we had better start getting along better than ever before, because, after all, we have only each other, in an otherwise very lonely universe.

Lying On Behalf of Trump

YOU GET TIRED of being lied to, over and over again, by the same person. You reach the point where you don't believe a word the liar says, no matter what. I reached that point, as did millions of other people, with Trump, about a decade ago, if not earlier. Now, he has an entire army supporting his every lie, echoing them, embracing them. That's he sad part. I can scarcely stand to watch and listen to Trump spokes person Karoline Leavitt and Trump Attorney General Pam Bondi, so enthusiastically and forcefully do they repeat Trump's every lie, despite their mutual blone hotness, or hot blondeness, whichever. Ole Donnie boy, ever the each, sure does love his good looking young blonde babes, eh? Do they "audition" on Trump's casting couch? He, Trump the deal making artist, would certianly not be above it,but what about the babes themselves? The most blatant curent example of Trump administrative dishonesty is its insistance that the gentleman they mistakenly deported to El Salvador, Mr. Kilmer Garcia, is a career criminal, wife beater, and gang member. His wife denies any wife beating on nis part, and he has no criminal recorrd of any sort, either in the U.S., or in El Salvador. But those facts, it seems, are but minor inconveniences to the Trump administration, easily ingored and denied. They, Trump's sycophantic gangsters in his Justice Department, acknowledged that he had been deported by mistake; they had to. It would have been revealed by some whistleblower in any event, thus making the Trump adinistration looking even more dishonest and nefarious than it already does. At that point, the thing to do would have been to apologize, and bring the young man to his home in Maryland. But no, not Trump. Never Trump. Leavitt and Bondi both made it abundantly clear that Garcia will never again set foot on American soil, because of his mythological gangster criminality. Amazing, that an American president, and his subordinates could ever be so cruel as to totally ruin the lives of a man and his family, for nothing more than the needlessness of justifying a mistaken deportation. How convenient! It turns out that the administrative mistake leading to Garcia's being deported wasn't such a mistake after all! Trump and his MAGA mobster are experienced at magically twisting Trump's disastrous actions into brilliant one. Brilliant negotiating, using tariffs as a carrot and stick...simply brilliant... Anyone deported from the U.S must, of course be given due process, meaning that he or she must be given an opportunity to have legal representation, and a chance to argue against the deportation, as the SCOTUS informed Trump just the other day. Trump is quickly accumulating a list of former friends he is turning into enemies, including Canada, Mexico, Europe, the American judicial system, among others. His many bankrupties indicate a tendency for Don the Con to bite off more than he can chew, as we say. Despite the enduring fervant loyalty among his cult followers, Trump is accumulating a lengthening list of powerful enemies. Trum, is anybody deserves the title "Teflon Don", it is he, for the regularity with which potentially disastrous self inflicted difficulties, mainly financial and legal, continue to drain off his back like proverial water from that of a duck. People tend to shre a common faith that ultimately, we all get what we deserve. If that ever proves true of Trump, you almost have to pity him, but not quite.

Laying Odds On Harvard, vs Trump

THE BATTLE LINES are being drawn, in our latest, continuing "only in America" engoing cultural war. Its Harvard University against the Trump administration, and my money's on the Crimson. The Harvard Law School faculty is potentially the most brilliant, high powered law firm in the world, and it seems on the verge of becoming just that, of actualizing its litional potential, in federal court, against Trump and his criminal, fascist control of the United States government. From what I have seen and can tell of Trump's many lawyers, who rotate in and out of his affairs like celery on a lazy susan, Trump's attorneys are invariably shady, mean, nasty characters, with dark pasts statined by probably criminal activity - but are not exactly brilliant courtroom brawler or litigants. The Harvard boys'll eat 'em alive, it says here. The federal govrnment, under Trump, with the Trump worshipping justice department, accusing Harvard of "anti-Semitism" is of course ludicrous, a totally fabricated acusation. Nothing could be further from the truth. And get a load of this. Donald Trump, the great warrior against mandated diversity, claims that at Harvard, there is "insufficient diversity" in voices, viewpoints and political opinions on campus. By this Don the Con means that Hrvard is way too liberal, progressive, for his taste, and must beomce a conservative instution to receive any more government grants. The DEI Harvard, the woke Harvard, must go, so says America's petty tyrant in power. Harvard's argument that teh federal government does not have the right to tell universities what to teach of how to teach it is quite clearly valid, and nearly legal scholar in freedom's land will most likely say so soon. What Harvard does is charge tuttion to students according to their ability to pay, and their admissions policy requires they that admit aminimumn number of ethnic minorities of every type, and they do not discriminate agaisnt LGBTQ people, and, well, that alone is a great affront to Trump and his ilk; how dare those pointy headed intellectual elitists disdriminate against straight white rich academically unqualified conservatives. Please recall that according to conservative legend,a highly conspiratorial plan has been implementd by America's progressive community and has resulted in the essential "takeover" of the American education system, including higher education, by libs. The obvious genuine explanation, that colleges and universities tend to attract intelligent, well educated people and most such people are liberals, remains beyond their grasp, or willingness to acknowledge. The more towarda blatant authoritarian fascism the Trump administration moves, with the evident support of the entire MAGA community, the more vigorously non_MAGA America will rise up to oppsose it, in greater numbers, sooner. Donald Trump and his incredibly obtuse cult is not going to be able to eliminate instruction in systemic racsim in the United States in colleges, universities, or even public schools, and will not be abel to eliminate mention of climate change or socialism or LGBTQ people in American schools. Nor will Trump, whose administration is nothing other than a susrpation of the American political system, by able to deport everyone in the United States, including foreign visitors, who passionately opposes the Israeli war against the Palestinian people,, by falsesly caling it "anti-Semitism". The entire Trump movement movement is based on falsehoods, disastrous policies, and reprehensible morality, and will therefore, if there is justice in the universe, soon die.

Still going to Church and Singing Gospel

I WENT TO CHURCH Sunday, after almost deciding not to. It has a way of drawing me to it. I have now been reguularly attending church for, I believe, nearly a year, and regularly singing in a gospel singing group at the senior center for four years, and ii both instances, I am both a bit surprised at and proud of myself. I still don't know how much longer I will continue; hell, maybe I'll do both until I die. I like the Presbyterian church I go to, despite the fact that it barely exists. Sunday, there was a total of six people in the building,including congregants and clergy. I like the relatively progressive approach of this church, both locally and generally. I will never be a member of any existing church, I still believe, merely a perpetual visitor. I would still like to visit a few other churches, just for the learning experience. I qould be willing to at, as a visitor, a religious service of practically any religion on the planet, for that reason. To me, no other approach makes as much sense. I have a good friend who is very progressive politically, and isin charge of teh music at his church, a Methodist church which has a lady minister who herself is allegedly qite progressive, ada congregation of about forty to fifty,mostly progressive. That sounds like my kind of place, and I think I will give it a try. My minister,a retired corporate attorney nearly eighty, tells us that the more inclusive the Presbyterian church attemmpts to become, the more membership it loses. By "inclusive", what ismenat is acceptance of transgender people, gay people, and all those people who live in a universe of more than merely two genders and one sexual orienation, who use pronouns in all kinds of non traditional ways. You know the type. Mainstream white heterosexual Christian America has done a much beter job,to say the least, in tolerating and tehn accepting women and ethnic minorities than gay and transgender folks. it still struggles with that, as, arguably, it still does race and gender. Our palm Sunday sermon reminded me thaat I have always rather liked Pontious Pilate, who stood up for justice but was forced to capitulate to the demands ofan angry, violent mob of religious fanatics. We in America know all aobut angry violent mobs. We sang "How Great Thous Art" on Monday, then, immediately thereafter, somebody nominated "The Old Rugged Cross", which we seldom sing. Somebody piped up and said; "Good idea. It completes the same idea"....I scratched my head. My fellow singer was apparently asserting that "How Great Thou Art" and "The Old Rugged Cross" carry and express the same theme, or, message, or, whatever. I'm still scratching the old pate. Those two songs? Complimentary? How so, exactly? The former, to me, would be appropriate for nearly any religion, or for no religion at all. Personally, I think the universe, what little of it we can see and comprehend, is pretty damned great. Amazing, awesome, great. And thus the same goes for the force, or for the infinitely superior spirit, as Einstein said. The sone about teh cross is a sweet, slow sappy little melodyexpressing warmth and love for an instrument of torture and death. In my universe, because of these two arguably quite divergent themes, the two songs are indeed not only not a cozy pair in philosophical tandem, but rather, diametrically opposed. One, noble and sublime, the other, primitive, barbaric, tragic, just like Christian crucifixion theology itself. The only thing they have in common for me is that they happened to be my maternal grandmother's two favorite gospel songs. Grandma Gaynelle Estabrooke was a nineteenth century Christian who therefore made the most fervant twenty first century Christians look religiously lukewarm, so, she should know.

Empires, Declining

I USED TO TEACH at a university, and one of my friends was an accounting professor who told me that the United States in the late twentieth and early twenty first centureis reminded him of the Roman Emmpire in the second century, either at its peak, or just a bit past it, beginning to decline. This professor was well respected, the author of many accounting texts, knew more about baseball, especially its history, than anyone I have ever known, including myself, and clearly knew a lot of history. I don't recall discussing the topic at length with him; most of our conversations were highly intellectual and mercifully brief. Although I was never told or don't recall the reasons he gave for this interesting comparision, I am sure that he was thinking about the fact that by the second century after Christ the Roman Emmpire had expanded to the largest size it would ever be, including not only all of Italy, but all land adjacent to the Mediterranean Sea, including large swathes of Africa, Asia, and Europe. The government in Rome had a huge responsibility, and over decades of wars, enefficient politics and economis, and societal corruption, the burden of empire began to make itself felt; border defense alone is costly, and Rome's borders were extremely long and far flung. In the late second and third centuries every man who assumed the title and office of "Caesar" seemed more corrupt and less competant than the previous tyrant. Progressive concentration of wealth, widespread poverty, and a steady decline in the living standard of most of the population, of course engendered widespread discontent. Into this cultural context, a sort of cultural vacuum, the Christian religion inserted itself. God and Christ was now a competitor for the patriotic allegiance of all Roman citizens, and the religion won the competition. The Roma Empire, im a sense, exists today, but has contracted back to its original borders, Italy. Flash forward to our modern America, and you wonder whether "we" are going to allow Trump to appoint himself president/fuhrer/dictator for life, and whether the United States will indeed add Canada, Mexico, Greenland, and the Panama canal to its existing empire. With more than eight hundred military bases scattered all over the world, in dozens of other countries, and economic and military power with which the United States involves itself and influences and controls events all over the world, yes, the United States of America is indeed already an "empire",long has been, and seems to be poised to become an even greater one. And yet, national empire is irrepairably in debt to itself and other countries, mostly Japan and China, most American are experiencing a declining standard of living and long have been, and we the American people, or many of us, seem perfectly content to chose a convicted crimainal to lead the country, and seem quite content to allow a plutocracy of corporate billionaires control it. Culturally, morally, America, the land of liberty, gives her people the opportunity to embrace whatever moral standards she prefers. Our corporate masters have convinced us not to worry about extreme economic inequality and pervasive poverty; such things always work themselves out, naturally. Free market capitalism is the only true economic system, and ccompetition produces wealth more efficiently than cooperation, and is therefor the Christian way. Maybe the next edition of the Trump bible will leave out "render unto Caesar" and "give unto the poor", and the conservative Republican Jesus will instead tell us to work hard, make good deals, anad get rich while the getting is good.

Trying To Stop the DEI Cancer

THE STORY was on NPR,and I don't know whether it was anywhere else. Its a scenario which one might think has been and is being played out many times all across America's fruited plain in these strange days indeed. A teacher had a big banner in her classroom which basically promoted diversity, equality, and inclusion. the message in big letters said something like "everyone is welcome here", and the canvas was covered with images of hands and smiling faces of every conceivable color, depicting any and all ethnicities. The students had evidently worked together to create the artistic project. She got the usual call to the principals office, and was told that the poster would have to come down, that it was not compatible with president Trump's new federal policies regarding such matters. The fuhrer does not approve. It may be that the teacher refused to take the poster down, and was either fired or resigned, but I honestly don't recall. As I recall, it didn't end well. The important thing is that she was told to take it down, and the reason why. And, as always, its not only about Trump, and his crazy extreme right wing hatreds and biases and anger. The important thing is that the United States has become a country in which these things have a substantial popular base, and that Trump and Trumpism are in power. How have we become a society in which diversity, equality, and inclusion are considered dangerous and harmful, and are not celebrated and held in high esteem as fundamental virtues? Put another way; what have we come to? In this country a black man was president for eight years. Gay and transgender people are and have been for awhile stepping out into public and demanding equal rights, tretment, and respect. All over America, signs are posted in both English and Spanish. Current conservatism, and the Trump phenomenon may be seen as a reaction, a backlash, to all that progress. For black, brown, gay, and transgender people to gain equality of any sort in the United States is indeed progress, progressive, the opposite of conservative. It seems a bit of a stretch to equate government promotion of diversity, equality, and inclusion as big government, over-reaching, oppressive, as conservatives claim it is. It is an even bigger stretch to see DEI as anything other than desirable, as being in any way harmful or undesirable. As has been said of the mythical equal rights amendment to teh constitution: "what harm would it do?". Well, it goes against traditional American values and conservatism, that's what harm it does. It strikes a blow at white, Christian, patriarchal, WASP America. In our great ongoing American cultural war, DEI directly opposes conservatism and promotes progressivism, formerly known as "liberalism". And that is what the G.O.P.and MAGA is all about; eliminating progressive values and returning America to a previous social order, which is there definition of making it great, again.It will never, can never be again what it once was. White patriarchal Christian America is dead and gone, and the tragedy is that an entire political movement powerful enough to come to power refuses to accept this reality, and to deal with it intelligently. People will never stop advocating and fighting for acceptaance of everyone, and for reasonable social equality of citizenship and condition. It is those who resist this progress who are doomed to failure.

Trump, Trading, Inside?

I HEARD A RUMOR that Donald Trump, and perhaps his family, friends, (to whatever extent he has any real ones), and close associates have been profiting greatly in the stock market during all this tariff turmoil. Trump allegedly sold not only billions of dollars of stock in his social media company "Truth Social", but other stock as well the day before announcing his tariffs. Then, shortly before reversing course and putting a ninety day delay on many of his tariffs, he allegedly bought right back into the market, hugely. If this is true, if Trump did all this with even a small percentage of his alleged several billion dollar fortune, then by now he must be a trillionaire, or close to it. Or if not he, then Elon Musk, who may or may not'be been part of all this rumored stock transaction. At each step of the way, the stock market behaved as could be easily predicted; it crashed when the tariffs were announced, and rebounded explosively when they were withdrawn. Again, the question is, of course, is it true, did it really happen, all this financial crime? If not, then we merely have another of our seemingly infinite examples of false information being deliberately invented and distributed through social media and the usual methods. If it is true, we have a massive instance of insider trading, on a massive scale, for which indictment, trial, conviction, and incarceration seem appropriate. What's good for Martha Stewart is good for the Trumps, after all. But wait. We are confronted with the modern reality that in our dystopian world, the president of the United States cannot, by law, be prosecuted, while in office or when out of office, for any criminal acts he or she may have committed while in office during the course of carrying out one's official duties. Donald Trump, therefore, arguably legally, did his insider trading while using his costitutionally mandated emergency powers to abscond with the power of tariffs from congress, and to instate, sort of, them. Thing is, teh insider trading thing hasn't exactly made any splash in the mainstream media so far that I can see,and one wonders if it ever willl, or will simply be swept under the proverbial rug and forgotten, like nearly all of Trump's other many criminal acts. Whether or not Trump's alleged insider trading is misinformation, a hoax, we have a serious problem. Both problems, however, have existed for a long time, and both will continue to exist, it begins to seem, long after Trump and the rest of us have gone from the societal scene. A culture of deception, lies, and hoaxes in teh global social media, and, a deeply embedded culture, history of blatant criminality by Donanld Trump, as well as by many other powerful, influential American political leaders. With reality whatever the beholder deems it to be, alternative facts are always available, and favorable narratives can be woven out of thin air, or out of one's crimes. I reckon we have to figure that at the end of the day, as we like to say, it'll all come out in the wash, and the full extent of the many crimes of Donald Trump will be revealed through assiduous research. By then, of course, we will all probably be dead, and our descendants left to deal with Trump's legacy, and the mysterious manner in which we the American people, or at least about half of us, enabled and sustained the whole sordid affair.

Trump, Bringing Back Coal, While It Rains

WHERE I LIVE, in the American mid south, March was a drought month. We had a couple of six inch snowfalls in January and February, some rain in late February then, nothing, for nearly a month, the month of March. Never in my life, that I can remember, had I experienced a March drought. They nearly always happen in the summer, usually August. Then, early April came,and so did rain. A vast storm system worked the normal path up through the Gulf of Mexico, (not the Gulf of America) and dumped a foot of rain on Texas, Arkansas, and Tennessee, as it headed east. For four straight days, the wind blew like a hurricane in the making. Lightening flashes camefrom the south. then thunder. Then, a deluge of sideways rain, with the wind, always the wind. This happened about once an hour, for what I think was four days, but what seemed like an eternity. Again, I had never experienced anything like it, this endless cavalcade of marching thunder storms, one....after.....another. Ther must have been a total of about forty of them over a four day period. These massive storm systems we have nowadays all leave a trail of billions of dollars of damage across much of the country. The weather events and patterns, and teh general cliamte where I live, has become nearly unrecogniable to me, as it has many other people. As it has all over the world, evidently. Extreme proonged droughts, then, a veritable deluge of destructive storms and rain. When the storms finally stop, we venture outside and clean up the mess. On my flatscreen, Trump is inside, with several rows of blue collar guys, coal miners, standing behind him, looking adoring. Trump announces that he intends to "bring back coal", like like he has long promised. No more of this war on America's most abundant, cheapest, and therefore best source of energy. To hell with this wind and solar B S. With about three executive orders, signed with a magic marker right there with the guys, one which removes all federal regulations currently inhibiting coal mining, then, a couple more which make the American government virtually a staunch supporter an partner of coal mining. All this, despite the simple free market fact that both wind and solar are already cheaper, more cost effective, and better in many other ways than coal, and fossil fules in general. Despite the inconvenient little fact that using fossil fuels will kill the ecosystem, and all life on Earth, if we don't stop. The relationshi between teh wachy weather where I live, and teh image of Trump on the flatscreen bringing back coal is obvious, to anbody except Trup supporters and conservatives. The mood at Trump's coal party was ebullient. Everybody was happy, thrilled, as if America had just been saved from liberal progressive insanity,which, to conservatives, it has. We the American people have elected a president, a government, an ideology according to which climate change is a hoax, in which the carbon it adds to the atmosphere is either imaginary or irrelevant. And we will live with the consequences of that choice, as we always do.

Trump, Lying For the Sake of Tariffs

EVERYBODY SAW IT. Or at least, half the country did. Trump, outside,in front of a microphone, holding a nice looking, well designed poster whih listed the tariff rate every other country charges the United States, and next to it, the tariff rate the United States charges other countries. Just simple numbers, percentages. In every instance, the tariff against American goods was, or is allegedly about double that which the U.S. charges. Again, nearly two hundred countries were listed on the signnboard Trump held up to the camera, and there seemed to be no exceptions. About double, each country. With this camera friendly prop, which required a bit of close up camera work to show individual countries, it was immediately easier to make the Trump argument that the poor little old U.S.A. is being cheated and ripped off by every counry in the world, indeed by the world itself, in international trade. We hapless American people are the victims of international conspiratorial perfidy and theft. And, as at least half the country will recall, Trump did precisely that, without hesitation, reservation, or lack of energy, anger, and bile. A professional looking chart always adds credibility to any argument, even if the information presented it spurious. But of course, in all matters having anything to do with Trump, one has to be constantly vigilant, on the look out for lies and misinformation. Thus, I wondered if the tariff rates listed on Trump's chart were true. I still do. And, lo and behold, wonder of wonders, it seems that indeed they are, spurious, fake. Lies. In the middle of a recent night, insomnia drove me to the overnight network news, and a young man on CBS overnight sat before a camera, looked into it, and carefully, step by step, in great detail, described precisely how Trump's team arrived at the tariff numbers given. He figured out their methods, and explained them. It was a complete hoax, of Trumpian proportions. The tariff nubmers Trump's team arrived at and published are totally fabricated, arbitrary, misleading, derived fron an invalid, unheard of method. As usual, so confident is Trump in the unbreakable loyalty of his supporters, and so confident of the apathy of the American people, that he lies blatantly, openly, without evident fer of repurcussion. On ewonders where the academicians and expert are, the economics professors at Ivy League universities, and places like Stanford, M.I.T., among many others. Surely they have looked at Trump's phony tariff chart, have seen the blatant dishonesty of it, and are intending to warn the American people that they are being duped by their recently elected de facto fascist leader. Just as essentially all economists agree that tariffs are almsot always undesirable, presumably they all agreee that Trump's arguments in favor of them and the alleged facts and figures he uses to justify his tariff happy policy; ar totally, entirely, completely bogus. Not only must Trump be defeated and removed from politics, his entire agenda and political movement (MAGA) must be eliminated, and the best way to do this is to thoroughly discredit it, with an avalanche of facts and information presented to the public with great frequency, by an enormous group of energetic, competant, persistant people. In other words, by mainstream America. Trump's entire life is a big lie. Trump is a walking lie, a lie waiting to happen. The DOGE project and the tariff scheme are both deadly harmful to the United States and the world, both serve only to gratify MAGA mobsters. This civil war must be won by Trump's enemies, for the sake of America.

Trump, Trying To Silence Us

HUMAN CIVILIZATION is a huge collection of cultures, and God bless diversity. In our modern world where global communication and interaction are so enhanced through applied science, cultural exchange promotes diversity and understanding. Student and academic exchange programs do the world a world of good. The young scholar from the Middle East who engaged in protests agaisnt Israel on an Ivy League campus was deported by the Trump administration, and is presumably already back home. Also, it is predictable that there will be lawsuits filed agaisnt Trump on behalf of the young man and perhaps by the young man himself. Lawsuits against Trump, stacking up. The Trump administration has now deported no fewer than a dozen foreign exchange students, all for the same reason; expressing disapproval of the actions of the nation of Israel in Gaza. The forms of disagreement and protest are varied, from articles in student newspapers at major universitties to actual organized protests in the streets and on campuses. The official state viewpoint, fully authorized, presumably, by the leader Mr. Trump himself, is that, the students are here in the United States to study, not to protest. All things considered, that is not bad thinking for a MAGA intellect, or Trump himself. However, will it hold up in court? We'll eventually find out. The question, of course, is whether visitors to the United States are afforded basic constitutional rights, including free speech, when in the U.S.. It is widely believed, and has long been established, that they indeed are. If the deporteee had been out in the streets and in teh newspapers protesting Hamas and raising Israel, would they have become deportees? Doubtless not. Protesting is not the problem here. It is the particular viewpoint of the protestors which is the problem with the Trump administration, and, presumably, MAGA-nation, which, evidently, strongly supports Israeli aggression in GAZA, unlike civilized people. Trump doesn't mrerly intend to shrink the size of governent by firing tens of tousands of federal employees. he intends to replace many of them with people who have sworn and demonstrated complete loyalty to der fuhrer, the leader, herr Trump. Perhaps before the midterms we shall see a completely ransacked and rebuilt FBI and CIA, choc full of red capped, MAGA cultists. And who knows, a new entity, Trump's personal secret police force, perhaps. In fascism,the leader creates organizations, mostly military and police but civil service as well, full of goose stepping loyalists to support him. Presumably silencing or discrediting dissent against him among the American mainstream masses is a priority of Trump, which is why it is of the most urgent necessity that millions of good loyal patiotic Americans get out in the streets and loudly proclaim their preference that Trump be removed from office and cast into a prison cell. Trump would doubtless love to utilize any and all methods against those Americans who despise him, but will have immense difficulty doing this as long as a majority of Americans continue to despise him, and are not afraid to say so. The tariff insanity will impact the economy, and hurt Trump's populairty. So will his destruction of government, as soon as government services begin to disappear. When all this happens, his supporters will contiue to support him, and will blame Trump's enemies for Trump's disasters. As always, they will rely on lies. Let Trump try to silence us, and find out what happens.

Dismantling A Defeated America

AN ACADEMICIAN, whoe name, precise area of expertise and job title I cennot reember, made an interesting observation, in the form of ametaphor. The Trump administration, he offered, is governing as if the United States had been defeated in a war, and was now being controlled and governed by the conquering, occupying enemy. The purpose of the new rulers is to destroy democracy, and replace the traditional American democratic republic with a fascist dictatorship. The authoritarian dictator seeks not to enhance the strength, prosperity, and health of the United States, but rather, to reduce it to impotent, weak, submmission to its conqueror. The more I think about it, the more I tend to agree, the more I can see that the scholar indeed has a point. The federal government is being dismantled, from the bottom up. The Departments of Education, Health and Human Services, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, are all, effectively, gone. Tens of thousnds of governmental employees are being fired daily. Eventually whoever the dictator is after Trump will have no huge bureaucracy lurking, possibly harboring resistance to authoritarian rule and seeking to bring back democracy. Farewell to the "deep state". The United States, economically and diplomatically, is being systematically cut off from the world. We Americans have now started a world wide trade war, and have plainly indicated to the world that it intends to engage in aggressive territorial expansionism, just like it did in the nineteenth century, and has, for all intents and purposes, since its beginning. Perhaps Trump and Putin have made a nefarious, secret personal alliance, according to which the U.S. is being governed by and from Moscow, with Trump a willing participant. Probably not though. Its difficult to imagine why Putin and the Russians would want the United States to acquire Greenand, Canada, and the Panama Canal, all of which the Trump administration plainly wants to do. So far not much has been said about what percentage of MAGA nation favors these vast territorial acquisitions; one might presume that it is substantial. Obviously, America's hidden oppressive rulers want the country to be governed by an authoritarian dictatorship, with virtually no political power remaining for the people. Perhaps Putin has helped install Trump for his own fascist reasons, just like, in the nineteen thirties, Hitler installed Franco in Spain, a fellow fascist. Observers of geo-politics and international relations have observed that the nation of israel seems to have a great deal of control over the United States government, and thus the United States. The U.S. almost with fail does israels's bidding. But it may be that Putin and Russia have a even deeper type of control, by virtue of having twice helped Trump become president, and by virtue of Trump owing Putina and Russia..something. You might almost expect Trump to issue an executive order any day now, declaring that henceforth the president of the United states may serve as many as three terms, or as many as he or she desires. This would be no more outlandish than many of the executive orders already issued by Trump. If the Supreme Court fails to rule that the Trump agenda is illegal, America is in trouble, and the only recourse will be a massive nationwide progressive protest, in the media, and in the streets.

Heat Increasing, Life Diminishing

SCIENTISTS PREDICT that this year there will be a seventy percent decrease in the honey bee population in the United States. To make such predictions, scientists, biologists of all kinds but especially entymologists, utilize a fascinating mix of empirical factors, having to do with weather patterns, and growth patterns of insect habitat, among other factors. In each of the past few years, they have predicted various amounts of honey bee decrease, forty percent, fifty percent, and so forth, and most of the time, their predictions have proven accurate. It is verified that the decrease in the number of all species of insects, world wide, has, over the past few years, been alarmingly precipitous. The insect population of Europe, including all species, has declined by at least fifty percent in the past two decades. A roughly similar situation is ongoing in the United States. This year's predicted seventy percent decrease in honey bees in North America is particularly alarming; at this rate, honey bees will be extinct within a few years. Honeybees, like all other pollinating insects, are, of course, absolutely vital to the existence not only of humankind, but of every species of life on the planet. The usual suspects are to blame; habitat loss, environmental pollution, climate change, and pesticides. As the wind howls like a hurricane outside my window, and so howls with increasing frequency every month and year, I reflect that the amount of heat in the atmosphere has increased drastically in recent years, as has the amount of carbon, which of course absorbs the extra heat from sunlight. Its as simple as that. Any grade schooler is capable of understanding the basic cause of climate cahnge. By pretending not to, American conservatives, a majority of whom still deny climate change, reveal only their deliberate if unintentional ignorance of fundamental reality. The delusion of climate change denial is as delusional as, say, pretending that a presidential election was stolen, or that your God is going to return to Earth any day now. All these delusions tend, it seems, to be embraced by the same people, your basic white conservative Christian MAGA type. They tend, in general, to be not only climate change denniers, but also, environmental destruction deniers, and on those rare occasions when they do contemplate actual threats to life on earth, they immediately couch it in religious temrs, and they get right back to talking about their Lord Jesus Christ returning to Earth soon soon enough to render all climate and environmental threats irrelevant. Its hard to argue with that kind of stuff. I have acquired the habit of suggesting that it would be a nice way to honor and show respect for Jesus, by showing him a clean, healthy planet, human species, and environment when he arrives. Why not start now? I still like this approach, even though it doesn't seem to work, or, at least, they rarely have much to say in response. So the honeybee population will continue to plummet, glaciers will keep melting, and every year will keep getting hotter than the previous, as long as we humans don't start changing our ways and repairing the damage we have done, and are doing. The wind will blow ever harder, more storms, stronger storms will sweep across most areas, and weather related disasters will proliferate, the expense becoming enormous. It may be too late to save the planet, but it aint too late to try.