Harvard, Teaching the Constitution, For Trump

PERHAPS AS A PARTIAL RESPONSE to Harvard's recent and current difficulties with Donald Trump, the esteemed institution of higher learning is preparing to offer an online class on the Constitution of the United States. The class will be free of charge. Harvard, with an endowment exceeding forty billion dollars, the largest of any university in the world, can certainly afford it. It can also afford to withstand any conceivable financial damage done by Trump. Already the school has filed lawsuits against Trump because of the president's seemingly pointless, purely vindictive attack on Harvard, and on education generally. The good money says that eventually, maybe even by the Supreme Court, Trump's executive order withholding billions of dollars in scheduled government grants will be held unconstitutional. We may safely assume that the venerable old school will be able to muster a pretty salty team of lawyers to defend itself, and, ultimately, to defeat Trump. As always, it sees education as the method. After all, education is all Harvard has to offer, the intellect being its comfort zone. Someone or someones at Harvard possessing surpassing powers of analysis doubtless concluded that the root problem is that we the American people elected a total buffoon to the American presidency, and therefore might need a little brushing up, shall we say, in certain areas pertaining to good, well informed citizenship, including basic knowledge and understanding of the constitution. National remedial education, of a sort. Trump, never the sharpest file in the manicure kit, will doubtless miss a golden opportunitiy to issue the most ironic executive order ever; making the class mandatory for all Americans over a certain age, say, twelve. Nobody needs to learn the constitution more than the leader of the free world, his cronies, his supporters, and his enforcers. Trump, for example, evidently thought that it is constitutional for the president to change the constutution with the stroke of an executive order, as witnessed by the fact that his first executive order of his current administration summarily eliminated an integral part of the fourteenth amendment; the one giving all human beings birthright citizenship in the land of liberty. Trump has already signed more than a hundred fifty executive orders, an authoritarian governing by decree, and nearly all of them have been ruled unconstitutional by the federal judiciary, including many by far right wing judges appointed by Trump. They must have hated doing so, but they had no choice, owing to their obvious, blatant unconstitutionality. We already have a SCOTUS which ruled that the POTUS is above the law, which is a direct violation of the esteemed founding document. Refresher courses are good for all students. While we're at it, let's make sure that all members, SCOTUS included, of the federal judiciary, log on to the Harvard constitution class. At my local senior center in my little town in the deep American south, I suggested that we all take the class, so that we can all claim that we "attended Harvard". Not many takers. In any event, I had an ulterior motive. I reckoned that if every evangelical Christian MAGA member took and passed the class, the country might, just might, experience a cultural rennaissance, one in which we the American people increase our awareness of verifiable reality, with me doing my part at the local level. Again, not many takers. I must, however, confess, that the whole thing is probably a pipe dream.

Devolving America

GOETHE SAID: "All the great thoughts have long since been thought. It is left to us to think them anew." Oh, how true. Even mediocre and idiotic thoughts, the endlessly repeated cliches. Who among us hasn't said something like "I dont' get mad often, but when I do, watch out!" Or, the ubuquitous "Society is going downhill. This new generation has no work ethic or morals"..blah blah... When Socrates was walking around Athens corrupting teenagers Socrates haterswere making that exact complaint, that human civilization was on a downhill fall, evidenced, indeed proven, mainly by the shiftless, worthless current crop of young people. And yet, somehow, here we are. Alive and well in the early to mid twenty first century, online and frisky as ever, if nothing else. Compared to the alternatives, that aint half bad.Despite all the gloom and doomin the media inin our hearts and minds, homo sapiens appears to bemaking progress, advancing, not declining. Facts and statistics, which don't lie, indicate that the human race is much healthier and long lived, less violent, though its hard to believe, and much better housed, clothed,fed, and educated than even one generation ago, much less in bygone centuries. If the young people in ancientAthenswereindeed taking societ morally downhill,and ifyoung people throughout hisotry hadtaken society on the road to destruction, where would we be today? Perish the thought. Perhaps living like packs of wild primates, roving paleolithically in extended families. In 1971, when I was sixteen, my father, a World War Two veteran, told me that the United States was going straight downhill, and was doomed. Maybe he was thinking about the social turmoil of the time, hippies,race riots,war protests. Nineteen sixties America was indeed a turbulent place. The young generation my father was complaining about is now the elderly demographic, and, generally speaking, has lived a productive live, without doing any discernable damage to the grand old republic, or the ret of the world. I have never had that "the kids are going to hell" feeling at any time in my life concerning the people comingup behind me.Even now, as I enter ancient elderly old age, I see no reason to be pessimistic about the younger generation. To me they seem a very impressive bunch, smart as whips. When I was in high school in teh early seventies Itook a look at myself and my classmates, and wondered how in hell the world would survive when we took it over. On balance, we didn't do half bad. Right now I am terrified by and worried about climate change and the apparent fact that we all have about a credit card's worth of plastic in our bodies, blood, and brains. Who wouldn't be, other than MAGA morons? And, in truth, I am shocked and dismayed by the apparent decline of morality in American culture. I see as evidence the willingness of millions of Americans to support, follow, and adore a career criminal as president, to fabricate completely false scenarios as a pretext for forcing their regressive agenda on the nation and world, and the sheer volume of vitriole, hatred, and violence everywhere in American society. It is not at all unreasonable to cite these and many other observable phenomenon as evidence of societal moral decline. However, none of this can be laid exclusively at the feet of the current young generation, nor any other generation. As we say, there is plenty of blame to go around. We seem to live in a world of steady, constant progress, hindered by the unavoidable fact that despite all our progress, we remain, for the time being, basically the same wild animals we were only a few short millenia ago.

Trump, Attacking Harvard

IT GOES WITHOUT SAYING that Trump's attack on Harvard University is is a complete scam, a "hoax" if you will, in the sense that Trump's real reasons for launching it differ enormously from those given by the now fascist federal government's propaganda machine, Jjoseh Goebbels become Karoline Leavitt. Real reason number one is that Harvard is not only perhaps the greatest university in the world, but, like nearly all great universities, colleges, and educational institutions generally, a hub of progressive thinking and ideology. At Harvard, books are read, not banned, LGBTQ people are treated like human beings, and science is not rejected and replaced by religious fanaticism and conspiracy theories, as in mainstream conservative America. Go figure. Other reasons might include Trump's inability to qualify for Harvard as a student. The stated reason by our fascist overlordsis that Harvard fosters anti-Semitism, and is biased. Biased against extreme right wing conservatism, anti-Semitic because whenever a few sstudentsfrom the Middle East stage a peaceful protest against Israeli "activity" in Gaza, suddenly, the whole university is anti-semitic", according to the, tyrant, absolute fatuous nonsense which, like all such Trump lunacy, is warmly accepted by his MAGA mob, lapping it up like maggots clinging to bull manure. Defenders and promoters of Israel's Israeli Defense Force "operations" in Gaza stridently but falsely exclaim that no genocide is taking place. Technically, presently, perhaps not, but, as Davy Crockett once said about genocide and Indian removal, "Its a mite too close for comfort". If it isn't genocide, it certainly is a fine start headed in precisely that direction. Netanhayu, a tyrant of Putain-Trumpian proportions, has, amazingly, seemingly bouoght in to Trump's lunatic plan of removing all two point four million Gazans to various locations around the world, and developing the devastrated Gaza strip into a Riviera style resort mini-state, the mythical Nation of Trump. Rendering Harvard weak and impotent and relegating Palestine to the proverbial dust bin of history are both causes which enjoy, so it seems, the near complete support ofthe most dangerous violent gang in human history, MAGA 13. Whatever the plural of the word "axis" is,if there is one, we define them here as unholy internationalallience,like the famous Germany-Italy-Japan axis of World War Two, or the Iran-North Korea-Russia-China axis we allegedly have today, there is, arguably an axis of Putin-Trump, et al. Authoritarian, white Christian male right wing extremism, united in common cause internationally. We note that these "axi" or "axises" tend toward the dark side, and we, among the shrinking American sane, panic and wonder what to do about it. The final solution, so to speak, may require and involve a loose coalition of tne American judiciary, the American people, and the civilized world, what there is of it. In the nineteen thirties, German poet and playwright Bertolt Brecht, seeing what was coming, wrote: "In the earthquakes to come it is to be hoped I shan't allow bitterness to quench my cigar's glow". We seem to once again be a civilization poised on the abyss, looking down, undecided. From the darkness below we think we hear a faint whisper, perhaps from another German poet, with another warning...."If thou gaze long into the abyss, the abyss will gaze into thee...

The Climate and Trump, In Our Face

IT WAS JUST ANNOUNCED by a government agency responsible for climate research that over the next five years the Earth's atmosphere will continue warming, as it has been doing for centuries, ever since the industrial revolution in the late eigtheenth century. By 2029 the average global temperatures will have, say the scientists, risen sufficiently to reach and perhaps surpass the absolute maximum allowable, beyond which there is little or no hope for reversal of global warming, aka climate change. As if we already didn't already know, say the sane. More propaganda from the radical left, say the MAGA folk. This warning, utterly predictable, we should perhaps value excessively; it may be the last we ever have, at least for a very long while. Anything having to do with resrach to and response to climate change by the government is now being or already has been decimated, truncated, destroyed. WE the American peple are now governed by people who have chosen to deny the reality of climate change, and intend to spend not a single enny more trying to understand it and do something about it. Were I live, in the American mid south, the pattern is for it to rain for, say, several days in a row, drenching our region with a deluge of flood water, as the rain pours down...day after day....week after week, incessantly.. Then, the rain stops, and the drought begins. Always the annual drought(s), day after day, week after week, usually but always in summer, no fewer than once and usually twice a year, as the trees turn brown in August. Ianticipate teh day when the hilly heavily wooded area where I live has eutrophied into prairie, grass lands stretching in all directions to the horizon. My current is that we teh human species will find a way to curtail and reverse cliamte change, most likely by fully developing a technology for removing carbon directly from the air, a technology which already exists but only in primitive, rudimentary form. Our ability to accomplish this is still quite limited; huge amounts of effort and energy are required to remove even a small amount of carbon, but that will change. Carbon sequestration facilites are being built, the process is being refined and improved, much like clean energy production. Climate change has already caused much human suffering, with much more to come. To avoid global catastrophe,we must accelerate our efforts. That is why the fact that many people still refuse to acknowledge climate change becomes more amazing the day. It, and its effects on our daily lives,are literally hitting us in the face. Even more amazingly, shockingly, nightmarishly, the climate deniers have gotten control of the United States government, and seemingly will have it for almost four more years. This seemingly suicidal government has already almost completely dismantled all government research and response to cliamte change, through this sheer, insane denial. The majority of Americans who oppose Trump have many valid claims to make against him. the financial corruption, dishonesty, barbarity, and so forth. But too few people protest his climate change denial. Arguably, this is his most horrible, criminal act of all. Fortunately, much can be done about the climate by the private business sector and universities, unless, of coure, the current government is successful in its attack on the economic and educational systems.

Trump, Floating Trial Balloons

TRUMP'S LATEST ATTACK on Harvard disgusts and outrages me, as it does all halfway intelligent defenders of democracy. From the outset I was fairly confident this odious abuse of executive power would be stayed by the relevant federal court, and I remain confident that it will be ruled illegal in curcuit and appellate courts, and, likely, SCOTUS. In executive orders, Trump is about one for one hundred and fifty, correct? His blatantly false and fatuous claims that the university has been fostering anti-Semitism, allowing hate speech, fostering an atmosphere of anger and violence, engaging in various and sundry nefarious activities including partnering with the commnist Chinese in advanced technological research. A good friend of mine, who is my minister as well as a retired tory attorney, says that Trump is merely floating legal (illegal) trial ballons. I tend to agree with him, only, I think the great demagogue fully expects the ballons to fly, and is willing to do pretty much whatever it takes to see that they indeed do. Buried deep within Trump's notorious big beautiful bogus bill are two provisions which further the cause of making the POTUS a dictator, and the United States an autocracy. It has passed the House, will pass the Senate, and will be signed into law by the beneficiary of its misguided provisions. The first essentially prohibits Congress or the courts from taking punitive action against the president for his or her arbitrary firings government workersand dismantling of agencies. The second divides the country into twelve smaller coountires by declaring that any ruling issuing from any of the twelve curcuit cours applies only to that part of the country over which said fed court judicially juidicously rules. This, although both these laws are, once again, of highly questionable constitutionality. Thus surges on the inexorable conservative movement to transform democratc republic America into fascist corporate state America. Apparently said conservative MAGAmovement has thus far failed to grasp the rather fundamental reality that there is no guarantee that the U.S. of A. won't, at some point in the remote unfathomable future, once again be governed by Democrats. Secular gay rights DEI socialism, one must bear in mind, can be implemented by groundswell movements, or, by executive decree. Hitler came to power because a sufficient number of far right wing extremists believed that far right wing extremism was the only reasonable option, and that it could just as easy, and probably more easily, be implemented by dictatorial fascism than by democracy, and might as well be. Trump will continue to "push the envelope", to find out just how close he can ever get to becoming the first dictator of these United States. If things don't start to shape up for him before the '26 midterms, it'll be because of the federal court system,and five'll get you ten that legislation will be introduced in to Congress to drastically curtail the power of the federal judiciary. The current Congres would be wuite willing and able, albeit but barely, to pass any laws it thinks thinks will insulate Trup against not only the federal courts, but itself as well, sickeningly. If current trends in polling adhere, Trump will have no further opportunity to assume the dictatorship after the midterms next year, so, he must act soon, and you can bet your bottom dollar he will. The extent and degree to which we the American people resist this will be strongly indicative of our political will, belief in democracy, and moral character. So is our current behavior similarly indicative. Early indications are not favorable.

Doubling Down On Church Part II

So shall it be written, so shall it be done. I did it. Attended church church twice on a single Sunday, at two different buildings, two different denominations. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience, although it seems unlikely that I shall ever repeat it. The first, the Methodist, pleasant and enjoyable as before, half children, upbeat, positive message, with a once a month free lunch after service. My first thought is that I've no objection to children going or being taken to church, having the opportunity to do so, but I will until the day I enter heven, and most likely long thereafter, that no child should be given religious instruction without his or her consent, that everyone has the inherent right to choose his or her own religious influencers and affiliation, and that any perent who indoctrinates his or her children or tries to influence such matters is guilty of child abuse. This of course is a very vague potion, and of the many seemingly happy and healty children at church yesterday, I find it impossible to make any reasonable estimate as to which have been abused, theologically, if any, and which have not. For the sake of preferable presumpation, let us (lettuce) assume none. I might go back there again. The second church was a horse of a different color, as it were. Itname is "The Brand New Church", and is evidently an organization with "campuses" spreading all across America's fruited plain, a brand new, repidaly growing denommination. Do members call themselves "brand Newers?" Time, as they say, will tell. The friend with whom I attended suspected that it is either a cult or an overscripted extravaganza; to me it seemed a bit of both. I didn't like, neither did my friend, andth of us plans to return. Nice new building, large 2000 seat suditorium, mostly filled. Whereas the Methodist church has a long list of activities, hymms, prayers, and such, before ever getting to the actual sermon, the BNC got right to the sermon, which was long and loud, in a room in whcih all lights were turned off except the ones illuminating the minister and the group of musicians who opened the service with some extremely loud, hard rocking, ear splitting Christian gospel on a sound system perhaps a bit too big. They could've, and still could, perrom the same set in a bar, sell beer, and make some real money. The minister here was an energetic weight lifting fifty three old in tight black glittery shirt and tight tight jeans. He needs fancier shoes, but, oh well. This is a church which clearly has ambitions of becoming a "MEGA church'. And also,a "MEGA" church. My lady friend and I agreed that if we walked in and found everybody wearing red baseball capse wewould leave, fast. We didnt', but may as well have. I couldn't verify it with absolute certainty, but I very very strongly suspect that this is a far right Trump church, full of evangelicals who for some reason don't stick to mainstream pentaostal evangelical locations. This church is not covertly conservative nor evangelical, but close enough. The preacher preached universal patriarchy, Chrsit of course at the top of teh pyramid, below which on his Power Point chart had rather,belowthat mother, then kids in the basement down below. Pets were not included. The collectin plate was online only, and I suspect that weekly donation are upwards of six figures. I confirmed a rumor tha the preacher is currently building a one million dollar house. If and when I get word that he plans to preach a sermom focusing on the "go thy way and sell whatsoever thous hast and give unto the poor" scripture, I'll plan on attending.

Doubling Down on Church

NOT ONLY AM I GOING to go to church this coming sunday, I am going to go twice, one service right after another. The first is a Methodist church I went to a coupla of weeks ago, at nine thirty, and the second, a huge new church which denomination I know not, shich has services at nine thirty and eleven. but which the friend I am going with suspects of being either a cult, or a mega (MAGA?) church wannabe. We'll see. Every Sunday their parking lot is packed, and my friend says that she heard that the services are extremely theatrical and quite a spectacle. They must be. That aint my style, but I'll give it a try. So, a balanced attack,two churches in one day, one I have already visited and liked, the other, a grand new adventure. When I consider that the primary purpose of religion, at least in my opinion, is to provide people with inspiration and comfort, my recent outburst of church attendance begins to make more sense to me. Part of it is a sense of community, and having one. The "when in Rome" attitude is part of it. I tell myself, justifiably, that one can maintain attitudes about anything, including politics and religion, which fundamentally differ from one's fellow congragants, without feeling any sense of guilt, isolation, or conflict. Political conservatives have no monopoly on the sublime teachings of Christ. I believe in the god of Spinoza and Einstein. Accordingly, I am not, at least techically, a Christian. Or, as Thomas Jefferson called himself, I am a "primitive Christian." (Actually Jefferson was a scientific, progressive Christian, or a "deist", and the "true" Christians around him were the primitive ones, but that, as we say, is another matter. What I love most about Christian doctrine are unconditional love, forgiveness personal redemption. Like the new Pope saidabout LGBTQ people: "Who am I to judge?". If Jesus isn't "the way", heaven forbid, who or what is? But when God isperceived an an anthropomorphic being who dispenses morality and inspires and/or authors books, count me out. I like to quote Goethe: "It is beyond me how anyone can believe that God speaks to us in books and stories.If the world doesn't directly reveal itself to us,andif our hearts do nto tell us what we owe ourselves and others, then we will most certainly not find it in books, which, at best, are designed only to give names to our mistakes." Worth mentioning is that itis indeed true that there are no atheists in foxholes. At least notfor me,not in my foxhole. relative to Christianity, I am indeed an atheist, because the god I conceive and perceive bears no resemblance, none, to the biblical God. One thing's for damned sure though. Anytime, anywhere, for whatever reason I really get into a bad emotional place, depressed, grieving and such, the first thing I do is go running to god. It is then when my conception of God becomes as closest as it ever comes to anthropomorphic. But innormal, healthy, happy times the closest I come to god is through gratitude. As I approach the end of this lifetime I feel an enhanced of gratitude, gratitude which would have been much less likely for me in my younger years. I prefer Einstein's "humble admiration" of God to worship. And since we say that "God is love, I see no reason to be "God fearing", and every reason to be "God loving". And so be it. All I need to do is remind myself that "The old eternal genius who built the universe as Einstein put, is eminentaly worthy of humble admiration and love in both good and bad times, and that my salvation lies in the self envident truth articulated by Goethe, who said: "When I realized that everyone invents his own religion, I decided to invent mine."

Forgiving Our Own Mistakes

TOMORROW, Sunday May 11, I intend to return t what seems to've become my "home" church, the little old brick country church deep down in the dell. As always, my chief intent will be to give thanks, to express gratitude, wht one of my favorite footboll coaches called "an attitude of gratitude". They say gratitude improves one's health, I tend to believe it. My last Sundy's visit among the progressive Methodists proved quite rewarding, and I plan to return some day, for another visit. I can't for the life of my tell a dime's worth of difference between progressive Methodists and Presbyterians, but, as they say, that's another matter, fodder for another day's reflection. I made two basic mistakes while with the Methodists. They asked folks to come forth and receive commuion at the alter, rather thn bringing it to you in your pew as they do in my tiny Presbyterian church. So be it. I received the body smoothly, but failed, perhaps on account of either premature dementia, or lack of experience,failed to imerse it in the blood. By the time I realized this, it was too late. The young lady holding the vessel of blood wine looke surprised,and I apologized, claiming dementia and inexperience, and she smiled in apparent understanding and forgiveness. She and I both agreed that, in any event, its the thought that counts. In a somewhat cullinary context, I failed to bring a contribution to the pot luck Mexican style lunch after the service, and yet, I unabshadly stuffed myself with incredibly delicious food. My atttitude towards both situations was, and remains, "when in Rome". I forgive myself, as I would forgive anyone else. I regret yet simultaneously embrace my mistakes, aware of their educational value. Never again shall I screw up either communion or a good potluck after church church meal. I quote Goethe: "Since everyone makes mistakes, since even the greatest people among us make mistakes, we have no basis upon which to regard our own mistakes as unforgivable." Surely Jesus agrees. Anyway, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it. It occurs to me that whereas the Christian religion, as its central doctrine, holds that one seeks forgiveness and is forgiven only through acceptance of Christ as lord and savior, and by asking God for it. My tendency is to believe that the most important form of forgiveness is the forgiveness of one's self. Another tendency of mine is to accept, as the proper doctrine of all religions, what Goethe meant when he said: "Behold the phenomena, for they are the doctrine." Our creator speaks to us by giving us the ability to comprehend reality. not by writing books. And, of course,perhpas Goethe's most profound fact: "When I realized that everyone invents his own religion, I decided to invent mine". For me, attending a Christian church is, in the final analysys, simply one more way, of many, for me to facilitate my continuing spiritual evolution. I'd be equalIy interested in attending an Islamic or Hindi religious service, or, for that matter, any of the more than four thousand different religions available on planet Earth. I still have no idea how much longer I will continue to attend church, considering how strongly I disagree and actually dislike several of the fundamental tenets of the Christian religion. But as I continue to enhance my belief that there is no actual imcompatability between me and the essential message of Christianity, love and redemption, perhaps, just maybe, I will never stop.

Trump, Signaling Tyranny

THE PRESIDENT is properly made up, but still looks much older than recently. Make up and fake hair can only do so much for a nearly eighty year old president. The interview begins. Lights, action, cmamera. The interviewer, an attractive brunette, is probably Trump's type, as most young women are. She is profressionally dressed, and dead serious professional in her demeanor and delivery. She says to Trump: Mr. President, do you believe that it is your duty to uphold and defend the constitution of the United States? Normally, this would be a softball, set up question, but, with Trump's massive violations of constitutional law under his belt, takes on a certain complexity under the circumstances. Shockingly Trump, with only a slight hesitation, replies: "I don't know". Undaunted, the young lady continues: "Do you believe that every person who sets foot on America soil, citizen or immigrant, deserves certain fundamental dignity, fair treatment, and due process underlaw?". Again, the president says "I don't know". The lady briefly looks at the floor, then back at the president with a mildly bemused facial expression, as if to say: "Say what? You really mean that?" This incident, which sounds fictional, like some false narrative or conspiracy theory invented by Trump haters intended to harm Trump, but, always, is nothing of the kind, but rather, a verified, confirmed event, which really happened, and was not only seen by millions of people, but remains forever recored on audio and video. You don't have to make stuff up to make Donald Trump look bad. You need only tell the truth, which in Trump's case, is always easy to back up, using facts. Trump always looks so bad, circumstantially, and has for such a very long time, that he is the object of hatred and disgust for most people, but the cult hero icon for his supporters, to whom his obvious, persistent immorality and criminality are irrelevant. And, for all his pathological dishonesty, he at times makes comments which illuminates his true self. But not knowing whether a president must uphold the constitution and due process is extremely alarming under all conditions. Surely he knows. But if he says so, he falls into a trap of reconciling his many violations of both. As it is, he can claim that all these broken laws on his part were and remain a vital necessity, to save the country in a time of dire emergency. What his answers did wa to reinforce the argument of his many of his most fervant detractors that not only is he mentally ill by virtue of pathological narcissism among other mental maladies, but is just plain old not very smart, not the brightest bulb in the casino. When the head of state of an alleged democracy, any alleged democracy, even one whish is in actuality a plutocratic oligarchy, when the head of state, even if only a nominal puppet of the oligarcy, tells the world that he or she simply does not know whether he or she is required to follow the law - you've got trouble, with a capital "T", right here in River City. And that is precisely the situation in which we find ourselves, to those willing to admit it. At least we can no longer say that we weren't warned, if we ever could.

Spiritual Sampling

YESTERDAY I visited a different church, different from the one I have been attending for about a year. As I have said before, I would be inerested in visiting any church or religious service of any religion on the planet, of teh many thousand that there are. Why limite one's growth and experiences? I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of sharing an hour or two with Methodists rather than teh usual Presbyterians, but,fascinatingly, I missed my usual venue, and the people, few of them though there are, all of whom are my friends. My presence is needed; some Sundays we are lucky to reach double digits in attendance; when we do, we celebrate. I would probably enjoy, learn from, and benefit from any religious service anywhere, and would leave the building, any building, free to continue my personal evolution, the religious basis of which remains in place after sixty years of growth and introspection. Whatever faith I visit, I shall, I strongly sense, forever remain a pantheist, after the fashion of Spinoza and Einstein. Wheras my regular Presbyterian church is a two hundred year old building of extreme quaintness, the Methodists have a modern building, metal, glass, plastic, and girders. Although I prefer the nineteenth century edifice, the more modern ones have advantages. I was interested in sampling the local Methodist church because I was told that the minister is a woman, is very progress, so porgressive that she consiers gay and transgender people to be human beings who are perfectly acceptable as they are, and loved by God,rather than pariahs on account of their sexual and gender orientations. The congrefgation, I was told, was also progressive, the Trumper consrvatives having left the church in a great Methodist schism. Good riddanceThe congregation, I discovered, was about forty to fifty, half of them children, ges rangins from early teens to early single digits. Good looking, white, middle class folks, all very pleasant. A young blonde mother with three very young blonde kids kept the toddlers under control, barely, throughout the entire service, which in itself was impressive. The thoughts struck me that all three children, pre schoolers, were far too young to have any idea whether they wanted to become church goers, or for that matter, Christians. Firmmly I believe that all religions are created equal, as are all people, and that everyone should be allowed to choose his or her own religious beliefs. To me, that is simply basic good sense, and basic good morality. Religious indoctrination of children, by anyone, including parents, in any way, including taking someone to church without their express, informed consent, I consider child abuse. A child cannot be consdidered free to choose his or her own religiosity when taken to church when still too young to give informed consent. if they want to go, fine. If they don't, don't amke 'em go, correct? With half of its congregation children, this particular church seems to be investing well in its own future and perpetuation, in an era of sharply declining church attendance generally. I'm glad that for me spiritual evolution is a matter of change, a sort of grand adventure, rather than immersion in fixed, rigid, religion dogma. I assume that my journey will continue, and never end. The Christian heaven to me sounds like eternal boredom. Fortunately, it sounds fictional. I'd rather come back in an althogether different form in the next incarnation of the universe, and try it all over again.

Trump, Crushing Anything Intelligent

TRUMP'S EXECUTIVE ORDER eliminating government funding for National Public Radio and the Public Broadcast System is entirely unsurprising, and most likely illegal. The courts will determine that. Congress created 'em, only Congress can defund them. Evidently only a tiny fraction of NPR funding comes from the government, and it will not be profoundly affected. It seems quite likely that both will remain up and running through this entire ordeal as the court system stymies the Trump agenda, and either Trump eliminates the courts as a virtual dictator, or, democracy is restored in America. Stay tuned. PBS and NPR are extremely popular, primarily among educated people and progressives. And yes, generally, progressives are better educated formally than conservatives, and more intelligent, so surveys say. Trump's rationale for his action is that NPR and PBS are both heavily biased towards the progressive view, in particular, towards what the conservatives call the "woke" point of view. The term "woke" may have been invented by progressive blacks, but has seemingly been so thoroughly embraced by conservatives that they are primarily responsible for propagating it. To most folks it simply means awareness and acknowledgement of enduring system racism in the United States, to conservatives it means being a far left wing extremist radical as if anything could be anywhere near as "radical" as contemporary mainstream conservatism. Neither NPR on radio nor PBS on television has ever told a lie, or made a factual misstatement without correcting it. What they put on the air is only verified fact, scientifically based. They both are national treasures, educating and inspiring millions of Americans. That Trump and/or his people consider it "woke propaganda" is laughable. Anything which is not far right wing extremist blather is to them woke propaganda, or liberal extremism. Anything. Both NPR and PBS are intelligent, educational,and, in sort media of the highest quality, and thus, of course, antithetical to all things currently conservative, which eschews truth and reality in favor of conspiracy theories. The Orwellian notion that what Trump is up to is the deliberate "dumbing down" of the general population as a means of imposing his will with as litle reasoned resistance as possible begins to seem ever more plausible. Trump, MAGA, the G.O.P., and white evangelical conservative America all have the same cultural agenda, and to contemplate it causes shock and horror among the culturally literate, and approval only from narrowminded far right wing dilettantes. Libraries full of patriotic hagiography and Christian "literature". Censorship run rampant, with book bans and even burnings. The Kennedy Center performing only patriotic gibberish. Educators at all levels selected for employment on the basis of their meeting certain basic conservative ideals, such as complete and utter conformity to conservative values, including rejection of all things woke. Denial of systemic racism, religious diversity, climate change, and alternative sexual and gender orientations are all pillars of contemporary conservatism, and Trump and MAGA happily, vigorously seek to enforce obedience. The Republicans in Congress appear quite content to abrogate their responsibility for law making, and to happily delegate it to Trump, as his supporters for the most part utter not a peep of protest against an authoritarian fascist governing by executive decree. Trump told us that he runs the United States and that he runs the world, and we who beg to differ must see to it that he does not and never does any such thing, no matter how fervantly or violently his adoring cult seeks to enable and make it so.

Making Columbus Great Again

DONALD TRUMP evidently intends to make America great again,like it used to be before civil rights, feminism, and gay rights, and political correctness, partly by making Christopher Columbus great again. That may not be all it takes, but, well, at least its a start. Everybody has probably noticed that beneath a crushing wave of progressive political correctness and more accurate and honest historical awareness among the teeming masses, Columbus has been and is still being vanquished to the proverbial historical dust bin, and replaced with "Indigenous Americans Day". On his first voyage, Columbus offered a fortune to whoer sighted land first. When a sailor did so, our boy, our icon regretfully informed that he himself had seen land a few minutes before. Columbus kept a fascinating journal. At one point he seemed to indicate that his ships were being followed by bright submerged lights. UFOs? When they dropped anchor in the Dominican Republic, (Hispanola), he wrote something like: "We dropped anchor and paddled to shore. We were immediately greeted by throngs of naked natives, wearing only gold jewelry. They were beautiful, healthy, happy people. They greeted us warmly, and were most friendly. They offered us everything and would have given us anything. They are going to make excellent slaves." For real. What Columbus did was torture and murder millions of them, in order to steal their gold and control them, and gave them European diseases to boot. Throughout American history, since July 4, 1776 if not before, we Americans have created fictional anrrative to replace our actual history as a nation, and replaced actual history with this fantasy, a very pleasant fantasy intended to indoctrinate American children, and hence American adults, with devout patriotism, by ay means necessary. Its called "hagiography". Over the patfew decades, beginning within the American historical profession and spreading to the teaching profession there has been a sort of awakening, an awareness of the fundamental dishonesty of the traditional narrative, and a belief in the utter necessity of teaching history, not hagiography. Accurate, honest American history if often very ugly and sad. It is muh much more than a glorious telling of a glorious tale of a shining city on a hill, as Reagan liked to say. Nowadays in public schools there is more effort being mae to learn the lessons of history, rather than ignore them as before, and repeating them. Christopher Columbus was, above all else, a monster and a mass murderer,and when we finally mustered the courage and integrity to start aknowledging that,the backlash began among conservatives, who, in keeping with the basic nature of conservatism, prefer tradition and hagiography to reality. All across Americas fruited plain mobs of conservatives are fighting hared to bring back hagiography, to downplay the uglier side of their nation's history, adn place full emphasis on only the positive and glorious. Donald Trump, his supporters in full denial of his pervasive criminality, patriotically reinstates Christopher Columbus as a hero, a great and brave explorer, the discoverer of America, or, at least the Dominican Republic. Why not? Making America great again means remaking it the way it used to be, in all ways, when minorites were grateful for their place in the corner out of sight, men were men, and America was a white, straight, Christian nation, and Columbus was great.