Going To Church, Or Not

MY CAREER as a church goer began a bit more than a year ago,and may soon, as soon as next Sunday, come to an end. And since there were a scant eight people in the building for yesterday's service, counting clergy, it may well be that the church I have been attending might stop going to cchurch as well, may cease to exist. The poor little thing, with nearly two hundred years of continuous congregations, might soon be laid to rest. Of those who attend, I seem to be the youngest, and I am seventy. I never expected to attend church for the rest of m life. I have been keeping that possibility in mind, while enjoying my church experience for what it is to me; an expression of open mindedness,and a chance to do as the Romans do, when in Rome. Call it my temporary immersion into mainstream America Basically, I am looking for community, and eight people, by any standards, is, one must admit, a rather limited community. And besides, these eight people I see at the local senior center every day for lucnh, which kinda defeats the purpose. I should probably either start attenging a church with a much larger membership, or, conclude my adventure altogether, and my current minister told me so in so man words immediately after his sermon Sunday. That was the catalyst. The minister, an elderly retired attorney turned lay minister, walked right up to me after the service and, mincing no words,told me that I might be better off to settle into one of those progressive Methodist churches I have recently visited. Maybe he was thinking about my spiritual long term future, maybe he was trying to discreetly discourage an unsaved person fromsullying the pews with his unreedemable presence. Imight neverknow. I do know that there seem to be a couple of ladies who stopped attending not long after I started, as if offended by having to share a Christian religious service with somebody with the audacity to come as a visitor, not a Christian. t may be that the minister pefers two ladies to one unbeliever, wants them to return to hurch, and thinks they will if I am not not there. And indeed this may be true. Bring back the ladies at all costs. Who knows? I do know this, to which I willingly and freely attest: In more than a year of hymn singing, three per Sunday, I still have not become familiar with a single hymn, owing pertly to the fact that there seems to be an unlimited number of them, and each hymn, in the course of a year, only gets sung once, for the most part. I just stand there an humm. Perhaps the minister noticed. Also, the service includes several recitations with congregational participation; I have never bothered to memorize the words of any of them; maybe the minister noticed my lips not moving, or moving improperly. After all, its not as if he has a building full of sheep to keep track of. So, yes,I am merely going through the liturgical motions, one might say. I consider it far more important that I forgive myselffor my mistakes than anyone ese, including Jesus, does so. So, I am definitely not on track to be a true Christian. I mentioned a local Unitarian church to my soon to be former minister. He told me that he had attended it once, long ago, and that he hadfound it "too weird", "too are out there". Sounds about my speed, I told him. And indeed it might be. He told me that one need not believe in an anthropomorphic god there. That appeals to me. Whaat appeals to me even more is the fond memory of Sundays moring at home, sipping coffee in my underwear, and doing my spiritual thing within the friendly confines of the temple of my mind. Or maybe I'll check out an Islamic religious service.

Giving Trump the Glory

I DESPISE DONALD TRUMP, as anybody who knows me knows. I always have, since his early National Enquirer Marla Maples days. Every day my dislike deepens. I hate to call it hate. I like hearing desirable words, seeing good deeds, and noticing positive personality traits from people I dislike; it reduces the energy it takes to dislike them. Indifference is better than, and usually more effective than, hatred. Most of all, it takes less energy and stress. Indifference is the ultimate insult...I tend to call the duly elected felon by his last name, and to omit the title "president". But sometimes, as country folk sometimes say, the blind old squirrel finds an acorn. In modern lingo, algorythmic outliers. Trump did something which to my knowledge no American president has ever done. One might say Trump did something that no American president has ever had the guts to do, or the desire to do. Namely; he criticized, expressed disapproval of the actions of, of all things, Israel, the nation thereof, the Holy land, the sacred cow of nation states. Trump expressed displeasure of America's closest "ally", the great military super power descendant of the Old Testament. (The super power ststus came a bit belatedly, but better late than never,thanks to the United States.) America's authoritarian ruler was displeased because Israel violated the current but tenuous ceasefire with Iran. Good for Trump, calling Israel out,making it accountable. Arguably, the establishemnt of the modern nation of Israel in 1948, and especially the violent and chaotic way it took place, was among the greatest mistakes in history. During its entire existence Israel has been an aggressive, expanionist country, prone to start wars. Currently, Israel is engaged in genocide of Palestinians in Gaza; the word "genocide" is not inaccurate, and for anyone insisting that it is, I would respond with a quote from Davy Crockett: "If it aint (genocide), its a mite too close for comfort". Criticizing Israel is not acceptable in these United States, no more acceptable than allowing American children to read books featuring LGBTQ characters, socialist ideals, or anti-racist material. Try criticizing Holy Israel in America, and you are labeled "anti-Semitic", the worst thing anyone can ever be in freedom's land, other than "woke". I started paying attention to Israel in 1967, when I was twelve, because of their big war that year which was all over the news. I have always noticed that when an Israeli is harmed or killed by a Palestinian, the retribution is wildly disproportionate, just as it now is in Gaza. A hundred Palestinian deaths for every Isreli death. But, there is a chink in the Isralei Public Relations armor. A handful of bold progressive journalists are starting to ask the question: precisely what, if anything, does the United States gain or get by its unflagging, eternal, unconditional support of Israel? The usual, politically correct answer is something like "military and political intelligence information", or, "a strong ally in the middle east" - something vague and undefined. Arguably, the real answer is: nothing. Obama once said that if Trump and the Republicans would merely stop trying to eliminate "Obamacare", that he would be perfectly willing to rename it "Trumpcare". That was, and still is, a good idea. Just what the narcissist needs to get onboard. If the ceasefire surprisingly turns into a long lasting peace, Trump will, predictably, take full credit for it, will demand a Nobel Peace Prize, and maybe get it. And that would be just fine. Never mind that in his first term Trump tore up an excellent agrrment which the world had reached with Iran, preventing them from having nuclear weapons. Never mind that Trump had absolutely nothing to do with orchestrating or implementing the current, tenuous cease fire. Peace is worth having, even if its price is high. It isnt worth freedom and gignity, but its worth allowing a petty, evil tyrant basking in his own fabricated false glory for a short time. Well done Don-Con.

Fearing and Fantasizing, About Us

THIS SPRING in my neck of the woods, the American mid south, we had two intense periods of rain, periods where it rained nearly constantly for days, and it flooded, with a drought in between deluges, which lasted a bit less than a month. That seems like a lot of excitement for one little three month season. Almost as if on cue, on the first day of summer, the pleasant temperatures and rain stopped suddenly, and it turned hot and dry. AS the fourth od July approached, I began to pray for rain again, even though we still have plenty os moisture in the ground, owing to the spring rains. but that won't last forever, it won't last long. these ninety degree plus days will suck the moisture out of the soil and bodies of water, and more rain will be needed. I dread the thought of a summer long drought, and the sight of the trees across the wooded hillsides turning brown in August, as as happened two or three times in the past twenty years. Its frightening. Its also just what climate scientists have been predicing for decades; more estreme weather patterns, longer, more sever droughts, more violent storms, and more flooding when rainfall amounts become extreme. I have told many people that I can envision a summer, in my lifetime, (and I am seventy years old) during which the temperature reaches one hundred degresson Memrial Day, and remains there through Laobr Day, with few if any interruptions. This prediction, which I am standing by, perhaps seems a bit paranoid, and indeed I am paranoid about climate change. This, mainly because I took chemistry in high school, and I undrestand the basic science of climate change, science which simply cannot be denied, and which clearly shows exactly why climate change caused by human activity is inevitable. Hell, I wasn't a good chemistry student, but you don't have to be to understand the basic chemistry of climate change, the truth of it, like a rock falling to the ground when dropped, due to gravity. You don't have to see it drop to know that it has fallen. I can see a future in which the wooded hills where I live have become grass covered hills, the trees all gone for lack of water. The older you are, no matter who you are, or where you live, the more obvious it seems that the climate has changed, and is changing. In the northern heisphere spring now begins in the middle of calendar winter and October is becoming a summer month. I keep fantasizing about a massive solar energy collector in Earth orbit, sending huge amounts of free energy to the surface, powering desalination facilities, piping fresh water inland to arid areas, making them fertile. I imagine industrial facilities capturing air, cleaning the carbon out of it, and sending it back into the atmosphere fresh and clean, in abundant quantities, ameliorating and reversing global warming. Skyscraper cities bringing people together, while leaving most of the Earth's land area, yes, most of it, to the other millions of species of life on Earth. Earth could probably hold many billions of people under such an arrangement, still leave the planet healty and unpollutted. I hope soon to start fantasizing about somehow removing all the plastic from the Earth's soil, air, and water, and from our bodies, bloodstreams, and brains, but...I'm still working on it. As of now, it seems impossible. But so does everything else worth doing, at first.

Making America Just Again

EXTRAORDINARY CLAIMS require extraordinary evidence, Carl Sagan famously said. He was talking, of course, about pseudo science, conspiracy theories and such, all the various and sundry sorts of nonsense modern humanity uncritically puts forth as fact, online, and elsewhere. Extraordinary claims come in all shapes, sizes, and colors. I've made a few myself, and I have learned to be prepared to back up what I claim wirh facts, because, if you don't, you have to resort to less powerful methods of persuasion, such as lies, and your "factual" claim becomes nothing more than mere opinion. In a just society, if the United States were truly a nation of equal justice under law, for example, donald Trump would not be president, he would be incarcerated, on death row, awaiting execution. Undoubtedly some would consider this to be an extroprdinary assertion, others would ridicule the mere sugestion, while still others might angrily dismiss it out of hand as nothing but a harsh opinion based on lies, anger, and unreasonable hatred. In fact, the assertion that Donald Trump deserves conviction for incitement to insurrection of a violent coup attempt against the United States government, and the death penalty, after an honest examination of the facts, is not only readily apparent, it is indisputable, based on the facts and the law. Among Trump detractors there is much talk about the fact that the president is a convicted felon, who ought properly be serving time in prison. This, due to his convictions on thirty four counts of financial fraud by a New York state court. But as time passes, and events fade into the background, there is less talk about the fact that the president never came to trial for stealing thousands of classified documents from the government, nor for his preplanned attempt to steal the presidency by violently overthrowing the federal government. Arguably, the mere fact that the Supreme Court has ruled that no American president can be prosecuted for crimes committed while acting as presidnt unto itself repeals the motto on the front of the SCOTUS Bldg.: "Equal Jutice Under Law". And every day that passes, as Trump acts with less legality and more criminality, and nothing, including seemingly toothless court rulings oppose him, it becomes ever more painfully obvious that Trump, in a few short months,has indeed become a de facto dictator, with no obligation to answer to the law. Its not just about Donald Trump. Any and all presidents who refuse to accept reelection defeat, who support their false claim of victory by organizing and leading a violent coup - deservs the death penalty. The original constitution lists only three federal crimes: piracy, counterfeiting,and treason, all punishable by death. Can you even imageine the attitude of Trumpublicans if Barack Hussein Obama had refused to leave office, and had sent an angry mob of thousands of black men to Capitol Hill to assume complete control of the government? He would have been dragged out of the White House and lynched by the "Proud Boys" and MAGA mbsters, and the military would have shot dead hundreds of Obama's black insurrectionists on the Capitol grounds. None of this should ever happen,to any president. All presidents deserve proper dueprocess,like everybody else.But they should not be placed above the law, and when they try to overthrow the government, they sould be sent to a prison cell or gas chamber, not the Oval Office.

Denying Reality

WE RESIST THE TRUTH, said Goethe, only because we fear that we would perish if we accepted it. Not knnowing the truth may be foolish and ignorant; knowing it and denying it is criminal, said somebody else. America's health is compromised by the widespread denial of at least two undeniable realities; the reality that Trump lost the 2020 election to Biden, and widespread denial of the reality of climate change. You keep expecting both of these falsehoods to vanish into thin air. Instead they linger, and threaten to permanently embed themselves inextricably into the fabric of the American narrative. What, precisely, does this unfortunate phenomenon reveal, morally, psychologically, intellectually, about the people, both individually and as a society, who promulgate these falsehoods? Why do the folks wo claimed that Trump won in 2020 still, for the most part, claim it? And how much longer will climae change denial exist? When the Earth's atmosphere is full of carbon dioxide at a temperature of two hundred degrees? There are many more instancs of mass societal delusions, historically, and present day. It seems no less amazing that a high percentage of the population refuses to accept obvious reality of human by natural selection, preferring to remain safely ensconced in the warm, comforting womb of religious indoctrination and mythology. Mass denial of Trump's election loss, as well as denial of Trump'smany crimes and lies, is quiteobviously the most morally repugnant, since it involves tens of millions of people embracing a common lie, simply becuse, as individuals, they feel safely protected by the sheer number of people who embrace it. The moral bankruptcy of so easily, conveniently abandoning the foundational moral precept of honesty, so essential to civilized humanity, in the service of petty pride or emotional satisfaction. Refusing to believe in climate change and evolution may be more forgivable from a moral stand point; after all, evoluton, no matter how obvious, strikes a serious blow to the very foundations of the deepest held, most sacred, cherished beliefs of billions of ofpeople. And yet,denying scientific reality is, in some ways does farmore harm to humanity than merely making a ridiculous,outlandish claim about a political election. Denial of evolution in favor of Adam and Eve has a certain charming, humorous undertone, without doing any direct,tangible harm. Not so with climate change denial. The world is years, even decades behind where it(we) should be with regared to fighting and successfully dealing with the Earth's collapsing ecosystem. And make no mistake; the air, Earth, and water of this planet are in deadly peril, degrading rapidly, because of human activity, and only human activity can reverse this. We as a supposedly intelligent species simply failed to recognize and acknowledge the problem soon enough. The price we are paying now will only increase. People seem surprised to learn that scientists have known about climate change for two centuries, that it was written about in the early nineteenth century. The price we are paying for decades of denial is now becoming alarmingly apparent, and will only accelerate. This reality cannot be overstated. What blow'sone's mind is the very simple, stark reality the vast abunddance of neeedless suffering we inflict upon on ourselves only because of our preference for escape from, rather than embrace of...simple reality.

Trumpers, Trending Bad

BE DAMNED SURE that on election night twenty twenty, when Trump told his big lie, everybody who heard it, including him, knew, damned good and well, that it was a lie. Everybody. Never has a more obvious lie been spoken. Everybody knew it immediately, and everybody still knows it now. And that is precisely what makes this entire Trump narrative so amazing, for lack of a better word. The tens of millions of people who still insist that the twenty twenty election was stolen from Trump still know damned good and well that it was not. Almost immediately most Trump supporters decided to endorse the lie out of desperation and desire, and denial. They still endrse it, amazingly, and that is a huge problem, as denial of reality always is. In this case, the big lie created a catastrophe, ongoing. By now Donald Trump should long since have been tried and convicted of treason sentenced to life or death, and either executed or incarcerated. Instead, we the people elected him to be a lawless authoritarian ruler, the head of a fascist government in post democratic America. Just as half of Americans are overweight, half of them don't think nearly enough, or well. We would all probably secretly be willing to install dictatorship in our beloved country, on the condition that the dictator harbor a personal ideology exactly like our own, and ruling by royal decree, install every item on our personal agenda, whatever it may be. When we, as humans, can't get what we want by reasonable, agreed upon means and accepted processes, we are, for the most part, quite willing to abandon civility and protocol. Less than six months into the current administration, Trump "enjoys" the approval of barely forty percent of voters, and nearly sixty percent disapproval. The streets and media are full of opposition to all things MAGA and Trumpian, and current trends appear to be accelerating. It is difficult to imagine there being any improvement in Trump's approval ratings for the next three and a half years. The most likely change might be a movement of undecided or uninterested voters away from Trump, as the national and global situation continues to deteriorate. Or maybe Trump can make deals to end, amicably, the various wars and genocides in Gaza, Iran, Ukraine, among others, and usher in an unprecedented era of global peace and prosperity by shepherding humanity into a global tariff agreement. Maybe, but probably not. Te people who still embrace Trump's big election lie are now governing the country, and that is a problem. or, as the popular T shirt says "Morons Are Governing America". They deny the very existence of racism and climate change, and still don't seem to understand that removing all illegal residents from the United States would seriously harm it, among other catastrophic delusions and policies embraced by America's Trumpest right wing. For the moment we are left with no alternative but to survive, and, to whatever extent possible, resist. It is idiotic, in our modern day, for society to be burdend with tens of millions of people who pretend that the American presidency was "stolen", and that there is no need for concern about the Earth's ecosystem, or that soon God will return to Earth and solve all our problems, and that therefore, it matters not what we humans choose to do or not do. people who believe such things only to give comfort to themselves harm society and human progress, and should be opposed, intellectually, and perfectly legally.

Trump, Starting To Understand?

IN WHAT MUST HAVE BEEN among his greatest revelatory moments, the sort which engendered the self descriptor "stable genius", Donald Trump shared with the nation the astounding revelation that, among the alleged thirteen million undocumented foreigners living within the friendly confines of these United States, there might, just might be one or two who have been in the country for decades, has worked the entire time at a job no native born American would want, has done a good job, broken no laws, attended church faithfully, become a pillar of his community, paid taxes, and is, in short, one whose deportation would harm America, by depriving it of an irreplaceable worker. We don't want to kick people like that out, the fuhrer amazingly stated, stating the obvious. If Hitler could have been persuaded, and some tried to persuade him, to have the same attitude towards the Jews, Germany might have won the war. All they lacked was personnel, peersonnel they burned in ovens, six million personnel, who could otherwise have swollen German armies and German factories and farms with human power. In reality, an extremely high percentage of our illegal residents, almost all of them, fit neatly into this category; too valuable to deport. Even with all the millions of Latino workers working every day in freedom's land, the united States has a severe labor shortage. A shortage, in fact, of everything, docors, teachers, roofers, everything. Everything, that is, except sneaky greedy lawyers and shady, greedy politicians. What on Earth would we the American people and economy do if we deport all thirteen million of them? Sunk, that's where. Aside from the fact that it is beyond doubt utterly impossible to deport millions of people with due process, deporting them is the last thing we want to do. And sure enough, polls indicate that we the Americna people are all down with Trump when it comes to evicting criminals. The more the merrier. But the inconvenient little fact about crime among undocumented aliens is that it is very, even vanishingly rare, percentage wise, compared to the crime rate among us good legal American citizens. We Americans want to deport the criminals, and keep the other eleven to thirteen million good, hard working undocumented workers, and,mostimportantly, we want to give them a pathway to citienship. We the American people are now by the millions telling Trump and MAGA that wedo not like their heavy handed gestaop tactics regarding deporting people, and that we will not tolerate it. Simply making naturalized citizens of them all would,and, lord willing, will, go a long way towards enhancing America's economic prosperity. Allowing large numbers to enter the country legally would ensure that the U.S. maintains a good, steady supply of workers in an otherwise again population. Most of the immigrants are young, healthy, and ambitious. capable of working hard for years. The sheer number of people who took to the streets all across the land of liberty protesting not only Trump's immigration policies, but also his blatant attempt to become an authoritarian ruler was shocking. The country, alarge majority of it, is opposed to Trump. American towns and cities were overflowing with protestors, and the only question is, how often will they be willing to repeat their protests, and with how many people participating. The future of democracy in the United States may well depend on the answer.

MAGA, Replacing Reality

I HAVE LISTENED to National Public Radio (NPR) for decades, usually hours daily, and can attest that it is most assuredly not biased in favor of liberalism. When public radio presents a program dealing with an issue of public concern for which there are opposing viewpoints both progressive and conservative, it gives advocates of the conservative point of view an opportunity to express that viewpoint in interviews, everytime, without fail. Often, if indeed not most of the time, prominent conservatives or conservative organizationts who are invited by NPR to come on the air for precisely that purpose decline the offer, and don't even bother to issue a statement of any sort to be presented on NPR programming. To whatever extent public radio fails to presnet a conservative viewpoint, the blame entirely belongs conservative, not liberal interests. Two powerful psychological forces at at work here. First, any absence of conservative values in any context, any media, provides a pretext for conservatives to make these unfounded allegations of liberal bias; unbiased reporting is construed, by default, as being liberal, and thus biased. Secondly, If given the opportunity, conservatives would almost certainly fill the airwaves with right wing bias and propaganda, omit all mention of liberal ideas and ideals, offer no liberal any opportunity to present any viewpoints contrary to conservatism, and would smugly call it "unbiased". The effort ongoing in Congress to defund public radio and television began decades ago, but has never gotten this far.Republicans have always falsely considered both to be biased for liberalism,and ay lack of bias to be de facto liberal bias. Public radio and television both present well researched, fact based, truthful information and analysis, which is precisely what right wing extremists hate. Climate change is real, racism in America is real, LGBTQ people exist,and when you talk about them without claiming they are a hoax, when any media source deals with these issue factully rather than falsely with anger and denial, suddenly, in the conservative mindset, the media is dispensing liberal propaganda and bias. The truth, about climate change, race, sexual orientation, among other issues, sounds liberal.This, because the conservative viewpoint, which embraces delusions like stolen elections, climate change denial, among many others, is so pervasivly, demonstrably false. Trump, his conservative Republicans errand boys in Congress, and the entire MAGA movement, like all fascist movements, predicated upon imposing upon the general population a false, delusional historical narrative, and an utterly false description of present day reality. No matter how accurately,honestly, and faithfully the news media mightor might not manage to inform Americans about current reality, Trump and his MAGA cult, in their zeal to permanently impose their will upon the United States, will claim that any negative information about Trump and MAGA in ay media source is false, and will attempt to suppress it, and replace it with a blatantly dishonest account of our fascist leader. The media in America is, we can only hope, strong enough and independent enough to withstand Trump's assault, and the same hope applies to the American system of education. The task is daunting, made so by the fact that the disease of Trumpism is ahared by tens of millions of tragically morally and intellectually vacuous American citizens.

Starting Or Stopping Insurrections

DURING THE INSURRECTION of January 6, 2021, then president Trump sat in the White House and watched it on television, rooting for the insurrection to succeed, rooting for the violent mob to actually ovetthrow the government by intimidating it into stealing the presidency from Biden and giving it to Trump. Appropriate was Trump's rooting, since the mini revolution was entirely Trump's idea, the violent insurrectionist mob was following Trump's orders. Trump's attempt to illegally remain in office by staging a coup. Fast forward to the present, and we see Trump, again president, reacting to a peaceful protest in Los Angeles by sending in armed forces to stamp it out, thus exacerbating it, and turning it violent. Trump clearly wanted and intended a peaceful protest to become a violent insurrection. For this he had, and still has, the enthusiastic support of a vast majority of Republicans and conservative Americans generally, including and especially the devout Christian demographic. Trump supporters today seem to regard the insurrectionits as heroes, and were pleased when Trump pardoned them all, early in his second term. Can you imagine what would have happened if, heaven forbid, two weeks prior to leaving office, President Obama had convened a political rally near the White Hosue, and exhorted thousands of angry young black men, well armed, to "go to the Capitol and fight like hell"? Of course you can. Every Republican member ofCongresswould have whipped out a smart phone and called the National Guard, the Capitol police, and every branch of the United States armed forces, demanding intervention. The African-American insurrectionists would have been gunned down, mowed down, like red ants sprayed with Raid. A violent mob of white Christian consrvative proto-MAGA types would have surrounded the White House, crushed through the iron fence, stormed into the Oval Office, dragged Obama out onto the well manicured lawn, and lynched him. An apparently inevitable, undeniable fact is that as we go forward, opposition and resistance to Trump is going to grow and swell. Street protests against Trump's heavy handed immigrant deportation policies are already spreading to many other American cities, and, as the gestapo styled I.C.E. raids begin to take place all over they country, they will only fans the flames higher. If Trump sends the American military into these cities, as he already has in Los Angeles, the arrival of authoritarian fascism in the former republic will be a fully established fact. Ironic, since placing the United States military at the Mixican border, currently illegal, could be a peaceful and effective way of organizing and bringing sanity to the current immigrant situation. Sending active duty military into American cities to crush protests is illegal, always has been, and should forever remain so. Immigration does not have to be a divisive issue in the U.S.. Everyone can understand teh benefits of maintaing a highly organized,efficient of controlling immigration, welcoming large numbers of valuable immigrants who will contribute to the U.S. economy and society, while bringing an end to the steady avalanche of illegal immigration which has been impacting the United States for nearly two hundred years. As for the roughly many millions of immigrants already living in the U.S. illegally; most of them deserve and should be offered a reasonable pathway to citizenship. Americans generally will do the right thing, the sensible thing, the reasonable thing, usually after trying all other options. Trump and Trumpers won't even do that much, a fact which constitutes the single greatest threat to American security.

Trump, Making Insurrections Out of Thin Air

BY THE TIME Trump is finished deploying military forces to Los Angeles, there will be a concentration of troops in southern California exceeding thte total number deployed in Viet Nam at the height of American involvement in that civil war. In 198, the U.S. had more than half a million man army in that country. So far, a few hundred Marines and a couple thousand National Guardspeople have arrived in L.A.. Not a bad start to a massive invasion, but utterly useless in dealing with a peaceful, lawful protest, other than to add anger and protestors and turn them violent. The point being, Trump's actions in recent days regarding events in Los Angeles are irrational, indeed insane, turning a relatively harmless sitatuation into one truly dangerous and chaotic. Create the problem, solve it. Fan the flames, put out the fire. Take credit. Let's compare emergencies. On January 6, 2021, a violent, well armed mob of insurrectionists attacked and ransacked the nation's capitol building, killing half a dozen people and nearly succeeding in overthrowing the United States government, on behalf of Trump, who sat in the White Hosue as president for hours, watching the insurrection on television, encouraging it, doing noghint to stop it. Now, in the city of angels, a group of largely peaceful people stage several dsys of peaceful protests against the Trump administration's blatantly illegal deportation project, with an army of gestapo-like I.C.W. thugs knocking down doors and dragging people out into their front yards, and throwing them out of the country. Trump claims it is an insurrection, and sends in the army, illegally. Thus goes our fascist leader's attempt to manufacture not one insurrection, but two. The peaceful protest in California Trump calls an insurrection, then seeks to turn it into precisely that. This is fascism at its most hideous best, straight out of the Hitlerian playbook. The powers of state concentrated in teh hands of an elected dictator, for safekeeping. Trump, der fuhrer, using the American military as a police force to govern the nation by force and ensure the the implementation of his fascist agenda. This is not a panicked, hysteriacl reaction to normal circumstances. Calling Trump as fascist ruler is no longer an exaggeration. Its reality. Is it not a law, a law passed in 1877, which says that it is unlawful to employ the regular United States armed forces in police actions within the borders of these United States? Into many American cities might our criminal president send military forces to disrupt protests against his fascist authoritarian administration? The precedent has now been set, without any apparent opposition, other than the lawsuit agaisnt Trump now filed by the governor of California. Ho hum. If there isany justice left in the United States, Trump will. sooner rather than later, facecriminal charges, conviction, and punishment. The proper and appropriate penalty for insurrection against the United States government, of which Trump is guilty beyond any reasonable doubt, is death. And, more than ever, more than at any point in his now ten year old political career, those who support Trump are, merely by virtue of their support for treason and crime, criminals and traitors.

Keeping Up With Trump

IF YOU DON'T write about Trump every day, or every couple of hours, you risk missing, will have missed writing about any number of crimes committed, false, idiotic words spoken, or harmful actions taken by our very own tin horn tyrant, as they might say on "Gunsmoke". So vile and disgusting is he that it becomes temting to ignore him utterly, to imagine him out of existence. But that would be a mistake. Trump is important, made so by us, and his existance demands close attention. Trump's deployment of the California National Guard to insert its nose into and fan the flames of the ongoing protests against Trump's deployment of the Gestapo (Immigration and Customs Enforcement {I.C.E.}) in Los Angeles, kicking down doors, dragging the residents outside, deporting them without due process or decent treatment. Normally, any presumably sane American president would call the governor of California and the Maor of Los Angeles, and find out what's going on. Then, working with both leaders, he or she would develop a plan, with teh president paying close attention to and following, as much as possible, their suggestions. Afterall, its their state, their city. But not Herr Trump. Without so much as a text messsage to or from California, teh fuhrer orders troops to go in and quell the alleged "rebellion", as Trump and his propaganda minister, Frau Leavitt, faslely describe the situation. A peaceful protest, megaphones and colored signs, transformed by our newly fascist federal government, spewing Trump's verbal garbage, as a "rebellion", and a "riot", purely for political gain, as an expression and demonstration of authoritarian power. Wasn't it Trump who wanted to downsize the federal government, and transfer more responsibility for their own well being directly to the states themselves? And behold MAGA nation, tireless champions of populism, government from the ground up, who usually get all giddy atteh very thought of the iconic phrase "state's rights". Online, Trump calls Governor Newsome "governor "Newscum", and probably marvels at his own cleverness. In prototypical American style, Gov. Gavin files a lawsuit against Der Administration. If the famously liberal ninthe federal circuit judge in San Francisco puts a "stay" on teh National Guard deployment, what are teh chances that Trump will obey it, and instantly rescind his order? Above all else, Trump wants the protests to be rebellions and riots, because, after all, they are all progressives, opposed to both Trump's immigration policy and Trump himself, cardinal sins, according to der fuhrer. Trump wants chaos of his own creation to serve as his vehicle for gaining authoritarian power and higer levels of popular adulation among his fascist cult, if that's possible. Start the fire, watch it burn a bit,then, heroically put it out. Take full credit. Excoriate the progressive population generally,teh source of all violent anti-social behavior. The insurrection at the capitol was only minor disturbance; these anti-deportation protests in L. A. are deadly serious,the real deal. The great American conservatism fun house easily, automatically distorts reality into whaever twisted, unrecogmizeable shape that suits the current needs of a backward looking people and political ideology. Along time ago,a frend of mine, after examining the political landscape, openly decalred that whereas he had no real idea what was going on in this country,but that he was certain of one thing; whatever it is, it hasn't run its course, it aint going away any time soon.

Trump, Dumbing Down

DONALD TRUMP made it abundantly clear, in his own special way. All those Russian aircraft destroyed last Sunday by Ukrainian drones were just sitting there, motionless, out in plain sight doing nothing, harming no one, when they were ruthlessly attacked. He went on to predict that Russia will respond to this attack. He may as well have accused Zelensky and the Ukrainians of war crimes consisting of wantonly damaging and destroying the property of a sovereign nation. Trump has already essentially made himself into a vassal of Vladimir Putin, and begun the process of realigning the United States with Russia, a fellow fascist authoritarian leader aligned against corrupt, democratic Ukraine. Meanwhile, our Secretary of Health and Human services, the agency which is systematically being dismantled by its current leader as part of the remade MAGA America project, in response to a question about impending Medicaid cuts, reminded us that "everyone has to die", while standing in a cemetary for emphasis. Thus we witness the level of intellectual thought, discourse, and policy formulation within the Trump administration, in all its glorious absurdity. Itw rude, and therefore wrong, for Ukraine to destroy its enemy's motionless bomber aircraft, and its useless to spend money on poor people, because they're going to die, eventually, anyway. As always, the most horrifying part of all this is that Trump, it has long been agreed, is not a cause of anything, but rather, a symptom of much. Trump's hatred, anger, and immersion in false alternative realities are all characteristics rampant throughout contemporary American culture, and deeply embedded within it. They are, arguably, core American values. Just as there are multiple personalities bureied within us all, so national cutlures, especially one so diverse as that which blends together seemingly mutually exclusive cultural characteristics in the United States. How can anyone who pays the most cursory attention to the American media fail to conclude that violence is deeply rooted in American history, values, and modern society? Conversely, economic facts require one to conclude that we teh American people are simultaneously quite greedy and extremely compassionate and generous. Its own foundation and evolution based upon genocide, violent conquest,and slavery,there is no nation on Earth which stands so firmly opposed to those things than the the U.S.A..A large portion of the American people, conservatives, harbors the utterly false belief that not only is much of the federal government useless and wasteful, but that much of it, many of its bureacrats, are in fact aligned in opposition to fundamental, traditional Americans, and perhaps even ready to turn the country over to communists. Hence, Trump's insane, chaotic destruction of much of it. The highly questionable meme about China ripping off the United States, a favorite right wing rant, underscores Trump's frenetic, illegal, chaotic tariff policies. I little historical research reveals that between the two, it has mostly been the United States which has done the ripping off regarding China. Trump's war on Harvard is a blatantly obvious manifestation of the religious right wing's attitude towards science, education, and progressive thought generally. Harvard will probably kick Trump's ass in court. But if they don't, then woe be to America, or the curtain will be falling, and the dark ages returning.

Trump, Dictating

IT CAME TO ME in a "Eureka" moment, a nightmarish jolt of awareness and panic. A truth I didn't and still don't want to accept. If (when) this beautfully big bad bogus bill passes the Senate and is signed into law by his majestic mental illness highness, which it most certainly will be, Herr Trump will have effectively if not formally become the first American dictator, or Imperitor" if you prefer ancient Roman tyranny. This, preciesly as MAGA nation desires. I took the time to become at least marginally knowledgeable about the infamous things contents, and was, and still am, horrified. Not just by the massive cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and to taxes of the inordinately wealthy. Nor to the boondoggle budget busting military budget. There is, among all the inummerable harmful provisions insmallprint,anespiecally nasty , nefarious one which effectively makes the American president avirtual dictator. Trump, and all future presidents, social democrats included. In a nutshell, the provision eliminates the power of the courts to enforce contempt of court citations. By so doing it essentially makes decisions rendered by the courts mere suggestions. Normally, any disobedience of a federal judge's instructions is addressed by a contempt of court citation, followed by, if not renewed compliance, then arrest warrents. The SupremeCourt ordered Trump to bring the illegally deported gentleman back to the U.S. from El Salvador, and Trump is, at least for the time being, refusing to do so. It begins to look increasingly as if Trump will soon have established a new precedent; the president of the U.S. is immune from all court verdicts and decisions. I am absoluely convinced that I am far from being teh first person to have figured this out. Soo, I assume, especially after the bill passes and becomes law, the media will be full of discussions and analysis of this brand new legal situation in the formerly land of liberty.When Bernie Sanders or AOC become president, the Republicans will doubtless hasten to the Hill to repeal the law, but will it be too late? So far, hundreds of lawsuits have been filed against Trump contesting the constitutionality of his endless executive orders, nearly all of which are indeed obviously unconstitutional, and overwhelinglly the lower courts are agreeing, and squashing or staying Trump's criminality. There is no sign that Trup and his rogue administration of criminals and gangsters will obey or respect anything any court says. By the time the final disastrous Republican bill becomes law, they may not have to, safely, according to the new law. Youmight havethought that MAGA America would advocate for a law explicity conferring on Trump the title of "Dictator for life". And, indeed, they may well exactly that. Stay tuned. But this contempt of court trick is, by comparison, subtle and clever, for a bunch of right wing rednecks. You might have wondered whether the extremist right wing mind would even possess the intellectual aptitude for such legalistic shenanigans. Never underestimate your opponent.