Making America White Again Part I

THE ONLY WAY to actually measure a person's character is through their actions. Words are much more deceptive. For example, you could argue, like Gore Vidal once did, that we are all "racists", in that we create and maintain artificial racial distinctions and categories. Merely acknowledging the existence of distinct, seperate races rather than viewing humanity as a nearly infinite spectrum of characteristics, including skin color, is, in a way, a sort of racism. When we use words to express our attitudes towards racism, we all, universailly, to a man, condemn it, vigorously proclaim our rejection of it, and accuse others of it. That, at least, seems to be the usual pattern. Trump, for instance (I tend to not use the word "president" with his name). He, like all the rest of us, would, will, and has sworn up and down that he is the furthest thing from a racist. I, however, and seemingly millions of other Americans, including many who know him personally extremely well, do not agree. I have for a long tiem believed that Trump is a racist,I believed it before he became his current job, and, during his administrations, have only come to believe it more. I am more convinced now than ever before that Donald Trump is a real, hard core racist. He's also a misogynist and a homophobe, but that, as they say, is another matter, for another day. Dozens of books have been written about Trump by people who know hi well, personally. They all agree that he is a racist, and that he does nto conceal it in private converstaions. It has beenoften reported taht in private conversations, he ofen uses the dreaded "N" word. An "incident" that happened just the other day is a perfect example, one among many. As a country which receives millions of refugees from foreign countires, the United Sates has, and has had for a long time, official policies from the federal government concerning how the United States treats them, how many are accepted into the country, and so forth. Of course, the specifics of American refugees policy are always changing, from administration to administration, and both Congress and the president participate in formulating refugee policy. For the current year, for instance, the Trump administration, with presumably the complete approval of the Republican controlled Congress, has decided that only seventy five hundred refugees will be accepted. It has also decided that the seventy five hundred will be accepted from Soouth Africa, and will be, "coincidentally", white South Africans, allegedly fleeing from persecution by black South Africans. If this isn't a rather sneaky way of avoiding brown and black skinned refugees, and getting white refugees,I don't know what is.A batantly racist policy, with,as Imentioned, the complete apparant approval of the Republican party, and probalby MAGA in general. This sad, twisted, sick government policy has Trump written all over it, if anything does. Trump, who early in his first term clearly expressed his preference for immigrants to American from Norway, rather than those "shit hole" African countries, as he called them. Telling him that Hispanic ethnicity is broadly included in the "white" category would make no difference. He described, you might recall, the white supremacists, but not their progressive left wing opponents, as "beautiful people". We Americans tend to welcome immigrants when we need them to exploit, and to exclude them when we no longer need them. There are more than ten million badly needed undocumented,illegal people living in the U.S. currently, and even if Trump continues to ignore their vital importance to our country, we who are more intelligent and less racist than Trump, especially farmers, cannot afford to.

Trump, Testing Nukes, Terrifyingly

ONCE AGAIN I was reading headlines on a television news channel, Scripps, whith the volume down, while simultaneously listening to NPR. Once again a horrifying headline scrolled past at the bottom of the flatscreen, and once again I deliberately did not turn up the volume, because the announcer was talking about something else, and anyway, I needed no elaboration. Maybe I should turn the TV off altogether; the headlines are becoming too horrifying. this one said "Trump threatens to test nukes". I assume that at some point soon I will hear more about this latest Trump insanity. My first question is; against precisely whom is the threat directed? China? Russia? Both? As well as Trump claims to have gotten along with the Chinese head of state this week, this hardly seems like a time to issue a nuclear test threat direced at China. Not long ago Vladimir Putin made a vague threat to use nuclear weapons against Ukraine, if The United States and Europe continue to supply Zelenskyy and Ukraine enough money and weapons to defeat Russia, which they appear to be doing. More likely Trump was thinking about Russia. He and Putin have evolved into a strange sort of love hate relationship, their bromance insufficient to overcome deep longstanding subjects of disagreement between the two countries, such as, which of the two, if either, is going to be the dominant superpower on Earth during the remainder of this century, and how precisely will they and other countries work together to ameliorate climate change, to prevent nuclear war, and how to divide up the mineral resources of the planet without having wars over them. The main problem with Trump threatening to test nuclear weapons is that it highlights the somber, sobering, horrifying reality that Donald Trump, of all people, is in charge of the world's second largest and most deadly nuclear aresnal in teh world. The United States last tested a nuclear weaponry late in the administration of George Bush the first,by which time it had long since becoe evident and obvious that nuclear weapons always work, and really, never need to be "tested". When Clinton was president, or maybe it was shortly after he had left office, he made the remark that, arguably, that nobody is or could ever possibly be "qualified" to be president of the U.S., that there is no such thing as being qualified or prepared for the overwhelming job that the American presidency is. Accordingly, it is not hard to see that Donald Trump is perhpas qualified to be a ruthless, totalitarian dictator, but not qualified to be the president of the United States, or any democratic organization or country,becuase of his inherent cruelty and obsession with having total control. There are other reasons as well. Every time Trump garbles a sentence or a whole paragrpah it is painfully evident that he is intellectually unqualified due to his medicore intellect. His moral character, as we all know, is deplorable. The founders, perhaps naively, assumed that only intelligent well bred well educated men of high moral character would be elevated to the presidency. Oh, ho wrong they were,and it seems to be getting worse. Maybe I was hoping that nobody would tell Trump that the United States has several hundred nuclear weapons. Now that he seems to know, dystopian thoughts, of a madman, a psychotic tyrant, with absolute unopposed power, alone having the power to unleash nuclear war upon the world. Its a plot that can and often has made for a good,tense, exciting science fiction novel,but now that we are confronted with this surreal set of circumstances for real, in real life, I for one can and must say: it aint all its cracked up to be.

Voting For Socialism

I OFTEN KEEP the volume on the flatscreen turned down, and read the news headlines while listening to National Public Radio. I loved the one that flowed across the screen early this morning: "Trump seems to understand that he can't run for third term." This is not necessarily a great comfort for several reasons. First, of course, is that, coming from Trump,it could be a lie, just like everything else he says. Also, the word "seems" arouses anxiety. What Trump "seems" to understand can be quite different from what he truly understands. But, as always in all thing Trumpian, the real problem isn't Trump himself, who is but the tip of the proverbial iceberg, but rather the problem is the highly organized wealthy powerful organization which fully supports him; the Republican party. And, it doesn't stop there. The real problem with Trump, in all his twisted policies, rhetoric, and criminal behavior, is that he is suppported rather than opposed by nearly forty percent of the American people, enough to elect him and keep him in power. The problem is not merely that Trump would prefer to be a dictator and to remain in office the rest of his life, the root problem is that there may be as many as seventy million Americans who feel the same way,and agree with him. The fascist movement in this country is more, much more than Trump. Consider the big appropriations bill which is stuck in Congress, and could possibly forever be, as teh government shutdown approaches the beginning of its second month. Those of us on Social Security are of course hoping that the shutdown ends before November 3, but if it doesn't, definitely before December 3. At some point, the payments will stop. I do not know in detail the exact contents of the bill, but I do know that it provides a great deal of money for the military and police, rampnig up the budget to pay for a massive militarization and policing of America's city streets, Trump style. Also, it cute Macicaid and Obamacare, which is why the Democrats refuse to support it, although they don't much like hyper funding Trump's "I.C.E." Gestapo either. It is not merely Trump and congressional Republicans who want to defund, or reduce funding for soem of the most important transfer payment programs in the U.S., including Social Security, Medicare,and Medicaid. So does a sizeable percentage of the population, including many if not most Republicans. Democrats are largely united in favor of preserving and strengthening those programs. It hard to even imagine America without Social Security,and the other two. My mother told me that In 1935, when was fifteen, and Social Security started, she and everyone else she knew was angry about it, convinced that she would turn eighteen, go to nursing school, then spend a forty yer career working har as aregistered nurse, which is exacctly what she did,all the while paying into the system, only to retire much later, and not live long enough to get her money back. I asked her whether she had voted for Roosevelt, and she said she had two answers for me: "No", and "Hell no". When she was ninety, and had been drawing andliving off of a nice healthy monthly Social Security check for twenty five years, I asked her: "so how idd that damned socialistic social seutiry from that damned socialist Roosevelt work out for you, mom?" She got my point. There are as many Republicans as Democrats who benefit from Roosevelt's socialism, and they vote. Any Republican wanting to get reelected might wish to remember this.

Hating and Killing Democracy

THE GREAT GERRYMANDERING WAR has evidently beguan, perhaps inevitably. We all espouse the virtues of democracy and proclaim our support for it, but when push comes to shove many if not most of us seem to regard it with contempt, and to prefer more authoritarian forms of government. Democray, after all, is difficult, cumbersome, messy. Like my father said long ago, the best form of government is a benevolent dictatorship. In terms of sheer efficiency, that might be true. The problem is not that a few greedy, corrupt people try to subvert democracy to suit our own ends, but that all of us do, or try to. If we all care about democracy so much, really wnat it in the United States, then why can't we or don't we all work together to create the best and fairest democracy in the world, or, if nothing else, something, anything, even remotely resembling true democracy? If we all want all Americans to be politically equal and to be represented fairly, honestly, and equally in the United States government, then we would establish a fair, impartial process of districting and redistricting for the U.S, House of Representatives. Our current system is that whatever political party is in power in any given state among the American fifty nifty, so corrupts the process as to gain the greatest advantage possible for the party in power. Its done either by packing or cracking, by either concentrating voters or thinly spreading themout, depending on circumstances. Worse still is that for all appearances, American politcal culture is perfectly content with this courruption, good to go, as they say. You just don't hear the public outcry against it that you think you should,we just don't seem todo anything about it, such as establishing in every state, and or on the national level, an organized process, some sort of election commission to drawall election districts nation wide fairly, honestly, democratically. We teh American people seem, repeat "seem", to lack the political will to stop gerrymandering, which has being a part of our "democracy" since its inception. The current epidemic started in Texas among Republicans who adore Trump and simply cannot imagine a country in which progressive values and agendas are implemented. Now, it has spread to other states, as Trump's Republican party, at Trump's behest, is going lower and lower morally. In desperation, the Democrats are starting to retaliate in other states. Soweallappearto be perfectly content to live in a political system in which subverting, distorting, rigging elections in direct contradiction of all democratic values is widely accepted as the norm. Then of course there are all the other various weapons in our national attack on democracy; voter suppression, seemingly unlimited amounts of money corrupting politics by giving the billionaire class, our "corporate mastes", control of "our" political system. Donald Trump was elected by about thirty percent of eligible voters. Every Trump policy, every Republican policy, is supported only by a minority of Americans, as we are bieng governed by a minority. An overwhelming majority of Americans do not want Trump, Republican leadership,and both Trump and the Republican party know this. this is why they are trying so desperatly hard to rig the forthcoming mid term elections. Its their only chance. We the American people mcanand must stop this encroaching fascism, Trump's authoritarian leadership, as soon as possible. Voting against them in such great numbers that even rigged elections cannot save them is the best hope for creating, and preserving true democracy in the United States.

Trump, Abusing Tariffs

I DIDN'T TAKE ECONOMICS in high school or college. Finally, when I was well into my doctoral program in history, I took Econ One Oh One, a summer school class, somehow got overwhelmed by the sheer amount of material we convered, and ended up making a "C" in the class, embarrassingly. The only positive part was that the other ten students in the class were beautiful girls, and the professor was gay. Not only that, but his last name was "Gay", and we used a textbook he had written. Dr.Gay told us that he had never heard of an economist who liked tariffs. My experience has taught me that he was quite correct, and I can see why. Tariffs are nothing other than government action intended to discourage economic activity, and in capitalism, discouraging economic activity is always a no no. Actually, I encountered one and only one economist who seemed to favor tariffs. Ravi Batra, who was at SMU for decades, wrote a seminal monograph titled "The Pooring of America", in which he blamed the lack of tariff barriers for low wages of American workers, tariff barriers which, according to Batra, could have easily kept out of the country the glut of cheap foreign manufactured products which at different times do indeed seem to have suppressed the prosperity of some American companies, business sectors, and workers. What economists and experts in other areas do seem to agree on regarding tariffs is that the are, or should be, a very carefully, selectively utilized economic tool, used to deal with specific, clearly delineated circumstances. The primary purpose is to protect a fledgling, domestic industry against strong outside competition from imports from established, powerful producers. If, for example, your country and its economy is young, like, say, the United States in the nineteenth century, and you want to develop, say, your own steel industry, then you place an import tax, a tariff, on all imported steel. Another fact we can all agree on, on owuld think, is that for an American president to apply tariffs broadly, wildly, on every country and every industry in the world, and to do so unpredictably, chaotically, whimsically, is not only a bad idea, its dangerous, irrepsonsible, dmggiand to all concerned, especially the global economy. Any Americna president considering a pro tariff policy should first form an advisory group of economic experts, and use thtm for consultation and advice. Also, of course, it is Congress, not the presidnet, which has the powr to initiate tariffs, according to the United States constitution. But never do you or should you overuse tariffs as an instrument of economic or retaliatory policy. Once again, as seemingly always, Donald Trump is using his power in an illegal, criminal way. Singlehandedly imposing, then removing, then reimposing and changing tariffs on all countries and thousands of manufactured products like some drunken stock market speculator is utterly, totally insane, as only Donald Trump can do insanity...Canada promoted a video of Ronald Reagan, who disliked tariffs like the rest of us, expressing his dislike of them, in direct contradiction of current Trump and Republican policy. Trump, of course, went ballistic, and either cut off all trade with Canada, or declared war on them and launched an invasion, or maybe both. Trump has accomplished the seemingly impossible; he has ignited a trade war with our closest ally, and very nearly, a more serious diplomatic war. Amazing. We appear to be headed for several more years of economic and political chaos and turmoil under Trump. Hang on for dear life.

Marjorie, Evolving, Seemingly

I BEGAN DESPISING conservatives a long time ago, when Nixon's presidency came unraveled, after I had been a strong young high school supporter of his. I felt betrayed. Nixon, of course, was not entirely conservative; in many ways he was progressive, or at least willing to sign progressive legislation into law, such as that protecting the environment. And, all things considered, in retrospect, his crimes and overall criminality seem tame compared to Donald Trump, who, to any honest, moral person, seems like a complete reprobate and careercriminal, because he is in fact both. One of my least favorite conservatives for what seems like the bettr part of a decade has been Marjorie Taylor Greene, even since she was elected to Congress the better part of a decade ago. To me she has always seemed loud, extreme, and abrasive; when she suggested a "divorce" between conservatives and progressives in the United States, it seemed like a good idea to me. Just recently, however, my attitude about her has begun the change, becuase it seems to me that she has begun to change, to, if you will, "evolve", ideologically. Either I'm dreaming, or MTG has moved towards the middle on many issues, and, no, I am not dreaming, she is parting company with some Republican right wingers, and espousing viewpoints amenable to democrats like myself. For one thing, evidently she has decided to not accept large campaign donations from large corporations, and has begun accepting money only from individuals in smaller amounts, in a sort of grass roots populist approach. This strategy could be viewed as potentially harmful to her political future financially, or, it could be regarded as a noble attempt to transcend and eliminate the corruption within our modern political system, wherein the very wealthy and powerful control everything. On balance, this admirable approach to raising money seems likely to benefit Green. The corrupting influence of corporate money in politics is becoming a bigger issue, as it has becomes more extreme. It is possible this this new approach to her political career has taken Congressperson Greene close to many of her supporters within her congressional district, brought her closer to the grass roots, and has allowed her to gain a much greater understanding of their expressed needs,simply by listening to more of them. That is her explanation for her recent evolution in thinking,accordign to which she is parting companny with many of the policies being implemented by Trump and her fellow Republicans, such as extensive, extreme, chaoticically applied tariffs, using the military to occupy American cities, American support of the Israeli genocide in Gaza, bombing foreign countries; a whole host of Trump's policies that MTG is questioning and criticizing. Listening to her recently on an interview, I could almost imagine her, incredibly, being a Democrat, or becoming one. For an anti-Trump progressive, it was indeed a sight for sore eyes, and I started wondering nad hoping whether her apparent move towards the center might indicate a growing trend among the right wing away from extremism. Probably not, but one can always hope. It may be that her interaction with her constituents in Georgia has alarted her to a strong groundswell against Trump as his approval ratings continue to sink, disenchantment with current Republican policies, and an impending election victory by Democrats in 2026. Maybe she'll switch parties. As far as I am concerned, she'd be welcome.

Trump, Sinking, On Both Sides of the Border

IT BECOMES REDUNDANT, talking about Trump every time you lift a pen, open your mouth, or sit down at a keyboard, but there's a good reason for it. Its important to talk about Trump, because he is, quite simply, the most important and influential person in the world. You have no idea how much it pains me to say that. Or perhaps you do. And, by all evidence, what Trump wants more than anything else is attention, a lot of it from a lot of people. He certainly has it, having, arguably, earned it through effort alone. Better to talk about him too much than too little. If you ignore a powerful influential person, such as an authoritarian ruler of a large and powerful nation, said ruler might take advantage of being ignored by doing evil things without detection, like persecute and eliminate personal enemies. It is becoming increasingly obvious that Trump, fully aware that he is rapidly heading towards the end of his time as president, intends to carry out his complete agenda as quickly and forcefully as possible. Even though he may idneed try to illegally remain in power for life, there is no guarantee of that, so he must make the most of his final three years, or so he thinks. The speed and unaccountable audacity with which he is moving forward with his attacks on alleged drug boats, his destruction and drastic renovatons to the White House property, and invasions of American cities with military force are alraming, and portend worse to come. Attacking Venezuela and building a monstrous, garganguan building right next to our beautiful White House, looming over it forever are not even the worst things Trump is doing right now. Arguably turning Canada into an enemy is. I never in my wildest imaginations thought that it would ever be possible for anybody, any American president to actually turn Canada into an enemy of the United States, never thought there would ever be anyone would would want to or try to, but, give Trump credit where credit is due; he can, in his own evil, twisted way, accomplish incredible feats. Feats such as speaking the big election lie, and convincing tens of millions of people that it is the truth. Feats like that. Most Canadians must by now hate Trump as much as most Americans do. How could they possibly not? Trump has done great harm to American agriculture, especially the beef and soybean businesses, which are, or were huge components of the American economy. Relations with both Canada and China are in the tank, largely due to Trump's hostile economic and agricultural policies. Trump's entire economic policy, from giving huge tax breaks to the extremely wealthy, to imposing tariffs chaotically and unpredictably for no apparent reason other than the misguided notion that this behavior bolsters the American economy, is, it is rapidly becoming evident, a complete disaster. Trump's approval rating has dropped to below forty percent; it will drop further, and it seems unlikely that it will ever go back up. If it reaches historical lows,which to a certain extent it already has, perhaps the current Republican stranglehold on the government could be broken, and all these disastrous conservative policies, such as ignoring climate change and alienating neighbor countries and former allies, can be reversed and repaired. Trump has stopped no wars, made no peace, but instead has started the United States on an aggressive, violent, militaristic path forward. He must be stopped. Resistance to Trump is growing, and will soon, must soon, for the sake of our beloved America, become unstoppable and sucessful.

Seeing Green Trees In Autumn

WHAT WITH TRUMP dropping bombs on boats and tearing down the White House and all, its kind of nice to get away, if only briefly. When they offered the annual "Fall Foliage" tour at the senior center, I signed up,and hopped on board the minivan with nine other old people.(I'm seventy). It was an uncomfortable ride of a little more than an hour through nice wooded areas and farmland... Our bus is a bit old, and not comfortable. We had lunch out, and it was overall a nice time. But the trees did not cooperate. They were the wrong color, green. When this activity was planned,weeks agao, deciding to do it in late October seemed safe and reasonable, but it turned out to be unreasonable. The trees had not even begun to change color, and October is nearly over.It would be not a fall foliage tour, but only another summer drive... I think we've had this happen several times: scheduling the anual fall foliage tour too early, before the fall colors emerge. I also seem to remember a time or two taking it too late, when the leaves had mostly fallen and the colors had faded. Maybe its best not to even bother to schedule this activity,but rather, to do it on teh spur of the moment, at the perfect time.Octoberis the example of cliamte change that I use most often when I talk about climate change,which is constantly.Its among my favorite topics of converstaion, and since its easy to start a conversation with anybody about the weather, I can conveniently segue to climate change, which differentpeople react to differently. This year, right now, so far, October has been more o a summer month than a fall month where I live, with daily temperatures in the mid eighties most days. Its been like that for peraps twenty years or more. People my age can easily remember when October was a cold weather month in mid America, and Halloween was always frigid cold. As we rode along thorugh the country side, chattering, I kpet looking as the green trees, and noticed that some of the were indeed just barely beginning to change color, on October 23. It almost seems as if they are starting to change later, and later each year. These days the paek color of the fall leaves tends to take place in the middle of November in my neck of the woods; fomrely the tress started changing in mid to late September, and peaked in darly october. As always, I remarked about this to the folks I was riding with, and since they were all at least eighty years old, they all were indeed aware that the climate has changed. I'm not sure they fully understand the difference between "climate" and "weather", but they knew, and know, that it is different now. When I talk about the seasons and the treees being different now, what I mean, what I inted to say is, we have a real problem, this is a disaster, a planetary, global catastrophe, happening now, all around us. That's what I intend to convey, but I'm not always sure I succeeded, perhaps because I don't jump up and down, pound my fists, and shout obscenities when I say it,but rather,I make a few factual scientific comments, calmly. Maybe I should throw in more drama, for emphasis. Many people, even old people who can see the drastic change in climate, don't seem to fully appreciate or "get" the sheer urgency of the situation. Its happening now, fast,and its frightening. When I tell an eighty year old that she might live to see a summer of constant one hundred degree heat, I usually get a bit of an alarmed response, as well I should. But for the most part, when I look around, I see a whole lot of complacency about our impending disaster. Tempting though that sort of response to reality can be, it'll take a lot more than that to actually save ourselves. disaster.

Adding To A Perfect White House

MY FFIRST IMPRESSIONS of the White House were formed, like everything else within me, during the Kennedy administration, and especially after his death. His death triggered my interest in politics, what with all the activity involved in transitioning to a new president, administration, policies, and national direction. I became a politically precocious little kid, growing to love the White House like all Americans. In my late teens I got to see the wonderful old building in person. My father and I drove halfway across the country to visit my sister, who was newly inlisted in the military and needing a little support from home, and we continued up and down the east coast, seeing Washington D.C., Philadelphia, and New York. We stayed for one night in a hotel a mere two blocks from the White House, at 14th and Pennsylvania. It was at about this time that President Ford made his famous mistake, referring to his address as fourteen hundred, not sixteen hundred Pennsylvania Avenue. The president, claiming to live in a hotel. I couldn't sleep that night, being so close to the most famous building in the world. In the middle of the night I decided to get out of bed, dress, and take the two block walk. I can't even remember telling my father. I think I simply left the hotel, and returned before he awakened. It was a moderately warm evening in March. I walked entirely around it, and lingered at the black iron fence along the way, often grabbing the bars with my hands, like being in jail. Nobody else was on the street, at two in the morning. All quiet. The president, as I recall, was not in residence, but out of town. This was 1975, fifty years ago. The house was surrounded by four small guard buildings of the sort you see at the entrance to exclusive gated communities. In each tiny telephone booth-like building was ensconced a uniformed officer of some sort, and each of the four gave me his full attention as I passed by, and even more when I stopped, lingered, and grabbed the bars. They spoke on phones to each other, or to somebody as I passed, ominously. As I recall, I was sporting the dirty faded blue jeans sandals and T shirt with long hair look of your average teenaged boy of the American nineteen seventies. A suspicious character for sure. By today's standards, with streets blocked off and razorwire everywhere, the White House surrounding area security in those days seems almost.....tame...(in those dyas you could take actul tours of the White House)....It may be that reactions to Trump's big ballroom project are divided along party lines, Republicans for, Democrats against. Ironic, since, by any evaluation, the "progressive" position is pro ball room, and the "conservative" position is against the monstrous thing being built. I have a conservative streak in me: I hate changing anything I love, such as the Yankees pinstripes of the White HOuse building and grounds.I want the Rose Garden back, and I do not want a monstrous ball room, twice the size of the White House itself, to stand next to the sacred old house, looming over it, dominating it, reminding me of Trump. For just this one issue, we have flipped sides, conservatives abandoning tradition, progressive Democrats embracing it. We the American people, whose house it is, should be making the decision, or at least brought in to consult on it. We could have a lot of fun; a national conversation, polls and surveys coming out of our ears, debates,the whole works. But Trump is trying to deprive us of all that, of course, unless the courts stop him somehow. As with everything else with Trump, its all wrong, and a great tragedy. Maybe we can somehow repair his damage, to our White House and to our great nation, when he is, at long last, gone.

Making Trump Impotent

TRUMP IS GETTING SERIOUS about ANTIFA, which is a state of mind, and, in his characteristically diabolically dishonest way, has decided is actually a well organized nationwide organization, membership cards and all, of radical left wing terrorists bent on America's violent destruction. ANTIFA is his enemy within, his version of Hitler's Jews. The fact that the recent "No King's" rally was, by all accounts, a glowing success, and the fact that the "No Kings" movement is essentially the same thing as ANTIFA, represents interesting if potentially volatile scenarios for the future, since the next No Kings rally is likely to be much larger than the recent one, and is already being planned. It is almsot surprising that hordes of I.C.E. cops and or batallions of National Guard did not descend on the rallies all across America's fruited plain, llingering and lurking ominiously nearby, seeking to march down streets filled with protesters, or actually disrupting them with violence. NO, that didn't happen this time, but what about next time? How much more is Trump going to endure, how much vigor opposition, before blowing his top altogether, and doing something dangerous, drastic, and deadly? These rumors of his declaring martial law and using the "Insurrection Act" to attack peaceful protests with violence and death are not at all unfounded, but rather, quite realistic and reasonable.. For a long time now, I have been believing and saying that Trump's support base will grow no further, that enybody who hasn't become a Trump supporter by now probably will never become one, and that therefore it will only shrink, as time and policy kick in, and Trump's policies, words, and behavior harmfully impact or simply disgust more and more people. Now, this seems to indeed be the case, as Trump's approval ratings have sunk to their lowest point ever, the MAGA rallies have stopped, and active opposition to him grows,in the polls, on the internet,and in the streets. On his first day in office in this second termTrump signed an executive order changing the constitution. No advisors, no Congress, no state legislatures participated in the process, which entailed only Trump's signature on a document he essentially wrote alone. The constitution was completely ignored, left out, violated. Rule by royal decree. Dictatorship, right off the bat. And, its only gotten worse since. This Trump dictatorship seems to enjoy the full approval and support of not only the registered Republican party, but of mainstream conservative America as well. That means that Trump has oresupport, comparatively, than Hitler had, at least arguably. What makes Trump dangerous an disastrous is not merely his ideology and actions, but rather, the fact that they can be and are being implemented by virtue of his rather substantial support base, consisting of tensof millions of people, even after all that has happened. Only the federal court system is saving us at this point. Otherwise, the government is Trump's accomplice. But there is a steady trickle of Trump supporters going rogue, and abandoning Trummp, as tariffs, government budget cuts, and other Trump policies adversely impact Repulicans as well as the rest of us. This gradual decline in the MAGA base, coupled with a steady increase in opposition in the media and in the streets, and Trump could perhaps be, if not removed from office and imprisoned, at least neutralized, rendered politically impotent, a de facto lame duck president as he slinks ignominiously out of office and into the dust bin garbage heap of tragic and disastrous history. Only this time, we the people must not allow his supporters to support his attempt to remain illegally in office by using lies and violent insurrection.

Taking Notes At Church

THIS PAST SUNDAY I attended services at "my" tiny little Presbyterian church down in the valley, because its only five miles from my house,and the scenery is wonderful. I'm giving my true faith, Unitarian Universalism, a brief rest, because the building is twenty miles away, through traffic. I was ready for church this time. I had my Bible, and a notepad and pen. I intended to take notes, like any good student during a good lecture. It worked out well. The sermon was, I thought, magnificent, right up my proverbial spiritual alley, and each time the minister, a good friend of mine, referred to a particular scriptural passage, I was there. I didn't actually write anything down, but, by golly, I was ready, and could have. It brought to mine another time, long ago, when the same scheme didn't work out as well. Thirty years ago I was spending a quiet Sunday morning drinking coffee in my bathrobe, as usual, and watching a Baptist church service on television. It was one onf those "mega" churches, a local building in which more than nine thousand people were sitting in the pews, listing to a friend of mine give one of his good, southern Baptist, conservatively oriented lectures. Some of his matrial and comments I liked, some I didn't. For awhile I got into the habit of watching this church service regularly. I got frustrated when one sad Sunday the choir showed up wearing dull flat black robes insead of their traditional beautiful bright blue ones, a big mistake for television. I strongly disagreed with this change, and said so. Although the messaging from this conservative fundamentalistic church did not generally appeal to me, much of it did, and a time or two, I attended in person. The parking was surprisingly easy, and the crowd was easier to navigate than I had predicted. I sat about halfway back, closer to the back. As I had done sometimes at home, I wanted to take notes. So, I did. I felt a bit awkward doing it, ensconced as I was closely surrounded by a mob of stone still well dressed upper middle class crackers, with only my right hand oving, glideing across notebook paper, jotting words down. Maybe I kept at it a bit too long, because as the sermon proceeded, i started getting a few shifty sour slances from a few of my "neighbors", who, as the mintues passed, clearly did not like my note taking, as if it were somehow hindering or distracting from their own religious experience. Noncomformity, oh horror. Maybe they weren't accustomed to college, or high school. When the service ended, and it was time for everybody to stand there a few minutes, greet each other, and smile, I noticed that I got left out. Of course, nobody knew me. One or two of them approached me, spoke, and emmphasizing that I was a stranger, introduced themselves. But not a whole lotta friendly. At the exist, the minister, a locally famous man, was smiling at the mob as it exited. He and I had met before, he recognized me, and offered to shake hands. I mentioned that I had taken notes during his sermon, so interesting it was, and asked him whether he thought that was acceptable. He replied that I didn't need to take notes, that my heart and would would remember what I needed to, something like that. Essentially, a negative answer, cloacked in a fancy reason. And I didn't really like that, I was looking for an unqualified affirmation, wholehearted approval of what to me, an academician, is something of a sacred process, note taking. A powerful minister, rejecting even the slightest variation from the uniformity of believers within his kingdom. A tad too top heavy for me. I know I can take notes at the Presbyterian church, because the congregation rarely reaches double figures in number. Then tooo, the Unitarians seemdown with it. I have found a home, if not two.

Singing With the Heretics

AMONG MY LEAST FAVORITE people is Karoline Leavitt, Trump's schill. She isn't too far behind Trump, Putin, Netanyahu, Charlie Kirk, etc.. She recently said, I am informed, that the Dmocratic party consists of Hamas members, terrorists, raedical left wing ANTIFA criminals, commies and so forth, and so on. Her intent to give insult was greatly overplayed. She could have said that the Democratic party is made up of black and brown skinned minorities, LGBTQ people, women, and so on, and she would have been right. But, no ma'am, nobod from Hamas is in the party, Democratic or Republican. There is a difference between stretching the truth and outright lying. she crossed the line. I flipped a coin, and this Sunday I attended a Presbyterian rather than a Unitarian service, although I am a Unitarian, not a Presbyterian. Shorter drive. Our minister, a good friend of mine, said that he is tired of listening to people preach hatred from the Christian pulpit. He was, of course, talking about you know who's. Your basic, everyday, Protestant, white, heterosexual, capitalistic fundamentalist Pentecostal conservative MAGA Trump supporter. Those people. Those congregations. They're up there on the pulpit amplifying conservative lies, embracing Trump's agenda, doing everything you can do witout saying straight up that Donald Trump is Jesus Christ. Hatred of Gays. Hatred of illegal immigrants. hatred of socialists.The usual suspects, the usual spew. Chris Hedges has come right out and said what nobody else has; that embracing Trumpism as a Christian is heresy. Heresy, because the Trump agenda is the exact opposite of the message of Christ: welcome the stranger, give unto the poor, cast not the first stone, and so forth. What I want Christian ministers to tell us is to welcome the stranger, try to d something to help a stray dog, cat, or Latin American if you can. Yes, let 'em pick fruit, somebody's gotta do it, and don't put 'em on I.C.E., so the speak. Yes, we do need all those people we are deporting, and we should not be deporting them. Slitting our own throats, as they say. Sunday and Monday I conclude my religious weekend, for on Monday mornings at ten we sing gospel at the senior center, an activity I love despite my aversion to most gospel music. Our little old lady piano player told one of my fellow singers that she is worried about my eternal soul. I don't think she needs to do that, and would be willing to tell her so, but she probably wouldn't listen to me. Iam not one hundred percent sure, but I think that a big majority of my friends a the senior center are Trumpers. We get along, and seem to like each other, but I never talk about religion or politics, like my sixth grade teacher told me not to. If somebody ever praises Trump to me, I will cut lose, but nobody ever does. Weird, that I hang out with a bunch of right wing evangelical Trump Christians, and get away with it, and actually enjoy it. On the other hand, it might be considered portentious, auspcious. If I can do it, anybody can. I still say that if you believe in hell, and that I am going to go there, you are mentally ill, and a cruel bastard to boot. Most of my "comrades" at the senior center lkely believe that. hey can think what they want. I think they're a bunch of fascists and heretics. They sure are nice people though.

In the Afterglow, Some Facts

IN THE AFTERGLOW of the big street party that the "No Kings" rallies were, (I attended two of them), I reflect. They both, they one in Joplin, MO., and the one in Fayetteville, Arkansas, had the feel of a high school or family reunion; lots of warmth and empathy among people with something important in common, only, with strangers. You have no history with these people,they are straingers, but soon become friends, as you have something very very important in common, bonding you, and that something is a horrible reality; a hatred of Donald J. Trump. I started hating him in 1974, it hasn't abated, and it only grows and swells by the day. In 1974 Trump was twenty seven, and was convicted of violating the fair Housing Act, twice. He only rented his father's apartments to cackers, none to African-Americans. He and his father were racists. And it goes on from there, to the present, when Trump is becoming more of a dictator by the day, like HItler did. It is, like, sooo toally obvious. I felt I was among frinds, good people. It reignited my faith in humanity, which, like that of many many people, often flags. And now for some facts. This, for conservative consumption. Climate change is real, and caused by us. The Bible was written by people, and people alone. Humans evolved from other priates, but not from monkeys. Joe Biden won the election of twenty twenty., not Donald Trump. Henceforth I shall accept no arguments form conservatives, of whom ther are many in my life. I associate with Trumpers each and every day. We get along, but, sugmerged, contained, we have an edgy relationship, all these Trumpers and I, at the small southern town senior center where I dine daily. Hell, I sing in the gospel group, and, if i do say so myself, am the second best singer in the group. They really need me. I frigging well hate gospel music. (Its too primitive, bloody, and sycophantic.) I don't broadcast that fact, but if anybody, including my evangelical Christian friends, asks me, yes, I will allow as that I hate Trump, consider Trump supporters morally and intellectually bankrupt traitors, think religion is primitve nonsense, that all of the several thousand religions on the planet deserve equal respect, and that people who reject evolutionary science are intellectual ostriches, heads beneath the ground. I have a heady feeling from attending two big and wild ass parties on the same day, screaming, chanting, protesting. I look forward to attending my Unitarian Universalist chruch tomorrow morning, going to the early discussion group, and hashing it out. Look, I will say, we all know that evangelical Christian Trump supports are heretics and unwitting traitors, and are daily revealing their true selves, which are less like Jesus and more like some deceitful demon, like Mephistophelese. Gay people are sinners, and perverts,say the conservatives, and should be persecuted or even put to death (Charlie Kirk)... Say what? Exuse me?... Climate change is a hoax, and bring back coal? Trump, and MAGA,say this. What the hell? The Christian faith is the only true religion,say they, and if one has not been saved by Jesus Christ one shall spend eternity in hell, suffering? You..have..got...to..be..kidding...the Bible is the Word of God? For Chrissake, gimme a break! Modern conservatism, like all conservatism in historoy, is rooted in tradition, maintenance of the status quo. Problem is, the status quo is insanity and nonsense, snd msut be, wil inevitably be...replaced..Every dominant conservative position is fantasy, nonsense. Conservatives are wrong on climate change, on religion, on politica and economics, on everything. And yes, Trum pis a tyrant, a madman, a modern American Hitler. And we the people msut confront and destroy him. And we will. We are winning, and today proved it. Each day is progress. Congratulations ANTIFA heroes, comrades, and patriots! I love you.

Gore Vidal, Writing History

GORE VIDAL never attended college, preferring instead to educate himslf. In that he was quite successful, and earned his living as a writer by the time he was twenty years old. Although he obviously didn't need a college education, I would have recommended one anyway; he probably knew a great deal more about history and political science than about chemistry and physics. One never stops learning. I much prefer his non fiction to his novels, although both are of the highest quality. He described himself as the official national historian of the United States, not because he actually held that position, but because he claimed that of all the historians writing about American history, only he told the truth about it. Most American hstory, he asserted, is hagiography, history written for the primary purpose of making its subject matter look good. Vidal died several years ago. Had he lived,he might have developed a revised view; nowadays historians are more inclined to provide a balanced assessment of American history, rather than an intentionally flattering one. Vidal's contribution consists mainly in having directly and unabashedly confronted the substantial "dark side" of the American sage. Westward expansion he saw not as a glorious taming of a wild frontier and the establishemnt of civilization to replace primitive, barbaric, savage native culture, but rather, as genocide. The post Civil War industrial revolution in the United States he saw not only as the emergence of an industrial, capitalistic economy which brough unprecedented prosperity to the American people, but rather, as an era of brutal exploitation of the wroking class. He pointed out that the factory and hourly wage system which emerged late in the nineteenth century was seen by many of its contemporaries as a form of slave lavor. He informed us that in the United States there are two governments; the cosmetic one,which exists only for appearances, consisting of the three well known branches of government, and the actual government, which consists of the corporate oligarchy, the corporate plutocracy. This he called "our corporate masters". Like most historians Vidal was a progressive. Progressives are drawn to the historical profession largely because history itself is a progressive process. History is change. Not all change is progress, but all progress is change. Conservatism, rooted in tradition, is less concerned with actual history, but more with maintaining the status quo and cultural traditions. Since conservatism resists change, it resists history. Vidal detested Ronald reagan, as did most liberals, and called him the "ancient, acting president". A juicy thought is contemplating how Gore Vidal would have dealt with Donald Trump in his articles for "The Nation" magazine. Not kindly, we can assume. By nt having a formal college education, Vidal contradicted the norm. The pattern is: people who attend college and attain college degress tend to be liberal, those who do not tend to be conservative. The pattern is clear, and well established. Hence college campuses are seen as, and in fact are, bastions of liberalism. Intelligent, well educate people tend towards progressive ideology. This is why it is amusing when consrvatives denigrate the intelligence of liberals. Liberals are not the ones dwelling in ignorance, lacking education. College campuses have not been "taken over" by liberals. They, and education generally, are merely more attractive to liberals than to conservatives. Vidal believed that conservatives tend to lack a basic understanding of historical provesses. This is born out simply by speaking to an average conservative. We will never have a Gore Vidal assessment of Donald Trump. The loss is ours.

Discovering Christopher Columbus

TWO DAYS AFTER "Indigenous People's Day" came and went, a notion struck me that I had missed out on the big holiday. I must have slept through the parade and fireworks, somehow. Invitations to local celebratory parties failed to arrive in time or got lost in the mail, and neither I nor any of my neighbors put up decorations. What happened? Someone pointed out, quite correctly, that seeing Christopher columbus as a mass murdering genocidal criminal is nothing new. His priest, who was with him on at least one of his four voyages, wrote in his journal that he feared for divine retribution against the whole enterprise, based upon his belief that murdering or maiming eight million human beings, regardless of their primitive, barbaric, unsaved lifestyle, would find favor with neither God nor Jesus. One must admit, he had a point. When Columbus got back to Europe after his final adventure, Europe, especially Spain, which had funded him, had had quite enough. Too many nightmarish, fully corroborated anecdotes. Christopher Columbus got in big trouble, and stayed in it for the rest of his life. By the time these United States of America was born, hagiography had taken over. Columbus had become a hero, his vast crimes swept under the rug, so to speak, where they remained for centuries, until, actually, rather recently. Nobody ever told me the truth about Columbus, none of my teachers, from grade schhool through European history graduate schhool. I was on my own. Finally, Howard Zinn came to my unenlightened rescue, in his massive seminal work "A People's History of the United States", I think he title is. The fact that we now acknowledge the great explorer's genocidal tendencies has, at long last, come home to roost, as it were. Finally, at long last, we accept the truth, having exhausted all other options, to paraphrase Winston Churchill. Permit me to hazard a bit of speculation. I'd bet my house that the above named "indigenous people's, variously known as "Indians", "savages, and "redskins", would be quite willing to return their "Indigenous People's Day", in exchange for the tens of millions of their people who were slaughtered by European bullets and diseases, and for the millions of acres of land stolen from them. You can damned well keep your pandering "Indigenous People's Day". We can agree that naming a holiday after somebody hardly compensates for grand land theft and genocide. Good try though. I once got into an argument with somebody concerning the actual number of native American who lived in North America at the time of Columbus, and the number of them slaughtered in the manner noted above. Its an argument nobody can win. Nobody knows, or ever will. In the first paragraph of his journal, Columbus wrote, paraphrased: "We dropped anchor and waded up on to the shore. We were soon met by a large number of natives, naked savages adorned only in gold trinkets. they were beautiful people, quite friendly, and would have done anything for us. They are going to make excellent slaves." Ungrateful for the hospitality, Columbus promptly stole their gold, cutting off an untold number of fingers, hands, legs, and arms to get it. Conservatives would have us regress to the name "Columbus Day", and resume our celebration of a genocidal criminal. No dice. The cat, as they say, is out of the bag. We can't offer proper redress by returning the stolen land and stolen lives, but, by God, we can honor their souls by trashing Columbus and honoring their memory with a name change. Its the best we can do, but hardly enough.

Trump, Making Peace, Sort Of

GIVING CREDIT where credit is due is among humanity's most cherished principles. In that sacred spirit, congratulations are due president Trump, so we are told, for having brokered a peace arrangement between the Paletinians and the state of Israel. Point number one, an immediate cease fire, has been a success for three days, now, there are "merely" nineteen ore points to be accomplished in Mr. Trump's twenty point plan. The fly in the ointment is that two of the twenty are seemingly well beyond the reach of those involved; the disarmament of HAMAS, and the declaration and establishment of a Palestianian state, although most member nations of the U.N. have alredy issued such a declaration. As long as Netanyahu remains in office, it seems etreely unlikely that the nation state of Israel will give the Palestinians such status, or that HAMAS will willingly disarm. The peace deal seems doomed to failure. Trump is being give credit for something he had nothing to do with;the fact that after two years of bloody, devastating war, peace has broken out only as a last resort. The damage has been done, it is a peace agreement awkwardly positioned atop tons of rubble, death, and human misery, a peace accomplished far too late. What alternative is there for the pelestinians? Their entire "country", GAZA, is in ruins, and nearly seventy thousand Palestinians are dead. The war has utterly devastated Palestine. As for Israel, their genocidal war has succeeded only in rendering Israel a pariah in the global community, their brutal, ruthless slaughter of thousands of Palestinians will forver be included in its legacy. Suggesting to two enenies that it is time for peace is made easier when the war has lasted so long, and has been so destructive that nothing is left, and peace is the only alternative. It is as if donald Trump showed up at the last minute, polished the handrail of the golden escalator at Trump Tower, then claimed credit for having designed and built the entire building. This will not stop Trump from doing everything in his persuasive propagandistic power to to convince the world that he and he alone overcame enormous obstacles, persisted courageously, and, undeterred by circumstances, managed to singlehandidly forge a permanent peace where before it seemd nearly impossible. Trump, the great hero, promulgator of peace on Earth, more effectively preserving civiliation than any peace making effort in human history. Winston Curchill sadi that Americans can always be counted on to do the right thing, immediately after having exhausted all other options. Hamas and Israel deserve the credit for ceasing hostilities, not Trump. what coice did they have? Palestine is in rins, incapable of doing nothing further in an armed conflict other than dyng in large numbers, and Israel, under the gun of global condemnation, made the prudent that enough genocide is enough - at least for the time being. Israel knows full well that it can return to complete the job later, with the full support of its puppet client state, the United States, which can always be reliably counted on to do precisely whatever the biblical nation of Israel, so important from the evangelical Christian viewpoint, most fondly desires. Trump had about as much to do with bringing peace to the middle east as he did in bringing the Russian war against Ukraine to an end. The war of Israel agaisnt Palestine is nor finished, far from it. that fact will not, however, be sufficient to curtail the victory lap which Trump will be taking for a very long time.

Trump, the Posing President

HUMOROUSLY ENTERTAINING, Trump's lame attempt to promote himself as a viable candidate for a Nobel Peace Prize. Doubtless he'll be doing the same thing next October. Hopefully, the committee won't be gullible enough to award next year, or any year, to the con artist, the pandering poser Trump. There are surely people all over the world, such as the Venezualian lady who won it this year, far more deserving. Israel and Hamas deserve the credit for their cease fire, not Trump, and only as a last resort, tragically. They agreed to stop the killing only after doing as much killing as they could. Trump claims to have stopped no fewer than seven wars this year, close observers say the number is much closer to zero; this is all part of his delusional approach to reality, a mental condition which seems to need attention now, but probably won't get it. In another typically delusional act, Trump signed an executive order formally designating ANTIFA a terrorist organization, even though it is in reality only an attitude, opposition to fascism, fascism such as we now have in America, thanks to Trump and MAGA. Trump is getting serious about ANTIFA and the "enemy within", which consists of everyone who didn't vot for him. What the enemy within needs to do is to provide Trump and the world with a dsiplay of massive, overwheliming leggally expressed opposition, to mkae it perfectly clear, as Nison used to say, that Trump's "enemy within" is not some tiny black hooded cabal of violent left wing extremists, but rather, a substantial, identifiable majority of the good law abiding mainstream American people. Hitler has his Jews as his enemy within, Trump has decided to include all progressives, which he calls in blanket form "the radical left". He probably should narrow it donw a bit, if it isn't too late; identifying an "eneny within" which is more numorous than your own support base might not be the most intelligent strategy. Maybe simply limit it to Democratic Scialists, or something. The problem is, so many Americans despise Trump that his actual enemy within is a strong majority of all Americans. Trump won last year because the American people mistakenly thought he could improve the ecoomy, and becasue he ran against a woman. Trump wouldn't have a chance if he ran today, despte the continued solid suport of his MAGA base. Again, a majority of Americans are "progressive", especially relative to issues such as usig the American military to occupy and police American cities, and using the notorious ICE agency to harass, kidnap, and deport dar skinned Americans. Evidently somethig like eighty percent of Republicans support the military invasion of our cities, but a majority of Americans, including most Democrats, oppose it. We'll find it interesting keeping our eye on Trump as he involves himself in a reconstruction plan for GAZA. Theinteresting part will be how he manages to so insert himself as to give the appearance of strong, effective presidential leadership, while profiting personally, financially. His supporters will be amazed and entranced by Trump's profiteering in GAZA, they will worshipfully admmire it, as they do all of Trump's criminal behavior. Trump, to his worshippers, is at once the prince of peace and the law and order bad ass. The devastating but unavoidable reality is that Trump's criminality has the full acceptance, support and assistance of a determined "group" of insiders, associates, and millions of adoring sycophantic supporters who probably should support Trump, and in many important ways are identical to Trump. MAGA may take this as a compliment. It shouldn't.

Priming the Capitalistic Pump

CAPITALISM, and all the prosperity associated with it, starts at the bottom of the pyramid, where most workers and all poor people dwell. Lincoln, paaphrased here, said it best: "Labor is prior to and superior to capital, and should always be given the first consideration." I have made this argument, the following argument, to at least a couple of intelligent, well educated conservative pro capitalisim people, with, I think, some degree of success. At least, they seemed to buy into it. Societal prosperity begins at the bottom, not the top. Labor preceeds investment capital. In. a consumer based free market economy, demand preceeds supply. Aggragate consumer demand, at any point in time, determines supply, according to basic economic law. To increase prosperity throughout society, demand must increase, and this means increasing the number of consumers with sufficient disposable income to be able to demand and purchase consumer goods and services. After all, a limited number of consumers can and will only purchase a limited number of, say, refrigerators. Capitalistic growth requires population growth. John Maynard Keynes pointed out that under the capitalist system, there is in theory an unlimited potential for increase of material wealth,a dn that, in theory, any given population of people, if allowed to benefit from the productivity of capitalism over time, will eventually racha a state of satiatio, of having alll the goods and services anyone could possibly need or want, in a word; enough is enough. Kaynes talked about the ultimate of apitalism, and what might replace it. IN a thought experienemtn, hepostulated the theoretical economic state in which the entire universe is filled with manufactured material wealth, and ther eis noroom for life itself. Much like the god father of modern capitalism, Adam Smith himself, Keynes advocated for a capitalistc economy, but recognized the philosophical and moral questions implicit in its implenmentation. You have to take care of the people at the bottom of the pyramid first, and work up. Trickle down, supply side economics,known in the U.S. as "Reaganomics", is a sham, a scam, and always been. Adam Smith said it best, in his seminal "bible" of capitalism, "the Wealth of Nations": "All government action favoring the poor is desirable, no government action favoring the wealthy is desirable." If you increase the number of people at the bottom, the poor people, who have steady, disposable income, through employment or government handouts, you increase the number of people able to demand, purchase, and consume goods and services, and thus, the wealth of everyone from bottom to top, including wealthy business owners. Everyone benefits. One does not grow the economy by giving tax cuts to the wealthy, but rather, by getting monsy ito the hands of the poor, and therefore turning them into consumers, demanding supply.AdamSmith argued that free market capitalism should and would automatically "the invisible hand" distribute wealth widely. Instead, our modern capitalism seems to concentrate wealth in the hands of an elite few, almost as if ultimately one single human being will be the ultimate winner, and own all the world's wealth. Everyone, including the wealthy, is better off when economic equality is widespread. It is far preferrable that the working poor get their incoem from honest work. However, I've never seen a business, large or small, turn down a customer who wishes to make a purchase using a cashed welfare check.

Trump, Exacerbating Climate Disaster

ONLY IDIOTS deny that climate change is caused by us people. We've had the information for a long time, and now the evidence is all around us, daily. Now, we are all witnessing the change. Climate change deniers are motivated by political ideology; if climate change is real, and human made, then the proressives, horror of horrors, are correct after all, and their vision for our economic and political direction gains validity, unthinkable to conservatives. Meanwhile, every year is hotter than the previous, and its safe to predict that 2026 will be no different. Both polar ice caps are melting, as we have long known, as are the world's glaciers, at what to scientists is a ahocking and alarming rate. Almost everyone is finally aware that climate change is very real, and proceeding at an alarming rate. Within a few years Earth's climate will be drastically different, and far less hospitable for human civilization. Frighteningly, most of us now living will be alive to experience this drastic change. Millions of tons of water from melting glaciers are running into the ocean from Antarctica and Greenland especially, causing sea level to rise rapidly; within a few years coastal cities all over the world will be flooded, going underwater as ocean covers land. We humans have a big job ahead of us, desalinating sea water and moving it from populated areas into deserts and agricultural areas. The current U.S. president, acting more like an authoritarian fascist dictator than an actual president, asserts that the United States should "annex' Greenland, Iceland, and Canada, none of whom have the slightest interest in the idea, unsurprisingly. Over the next few decades all three are likely to become productive agricultural centers and rapidly growing economies, as their climates warm and the ice, snow, and glaciers retreat. Greenland and Iceland should trade names. Iceland is much greener than Greenland, and Greenland is much icier than Iceland. Too late to worry about it now, maybe. Arguably, climate change will eventually improve the climate of all three by moderating it. The flip side of this is that the climate of much of the United States will definitely not improve form our poit of view, but instead will become drier, hotter, lessfertile, with more and more extrems weather patterns causing massive property destruction and rising injuries and deaths. In the United States, like most of the rest of the world, a high percentage of the population livfes extremely close to the ocean coastal areas, which are highly developed with billions of dollars of valuable property which is increasing threatened by rising sea level and severs storms. Shockingly, tragically, almost unbelievably, the United States under the Trump administration is not only doing nothign to prepare for and mtomitigate the future damage, but is actually pursuing policies guaranteed to accelerate the looming climate disaster, and to make it as horrible as possible. Trump is trying to revitalize the dying coal industry, disastrously, and has totally eliminated all attempts by the United States government to fight climate change, an even greater disaster. United States policy under Trump seems suicidal, because it is suicidal, and must be stopped, and reversed, by whatever menas necessary. For the moment, an extremely loud and constant expression of disapproval by a majority of Americans is vital, disapproving of Republican energy and economic policies, replading them with beneficial ones, such as mitigating climate change. First, we must at least try to convince our MAGA brethren and sistern that climate change is real.

Converting Gay people

THE SUPREME COURT will today hear oral arguments in a case involving what is advertised as "conversion therapy", but could and probably has been called other names as well, such as sexual brainwashing, indoctrination, or torture. This of course is a process in which a gay person undergoes "therapy", mostly verbal,to try to convert a gay person into a straight person, from homo to hetero. Since we know that homosexuality is associated with a specific gene, the efficacy and desirability of this is a subject of much debate. Paying attention to this Supreme Court over a long period of time clearly shows that it is extremely conservative in its current make up, and likes to rule in favor of conservative points of view. Equal justice under law, as long as its conservative, with a conservative bias. Conservatives like conversion therapy. More to the point, conservatives do not like homosexuality or, apparently, homosexuals themselves, although most would probably deny that. They view conversion therapy as a sort of liberation, or salvation. Progressive, who tend to see homosexuality as natural and harmless, tend to strongly oppose conversion therapy, indeed to despise it, seeing it as a sort of torture. The fact that it is illegal in about half the states and strongly frowned upon in several others indicates that a high percentage of the American population embraces the progressive, toleratn attitude towards homosexuality. Advocates and practiioners of conversion therapy, essentially teh hoophobic community, shall argue before the esteemed far right wing justices that it is unconstitutional to ban conversion therapy on the grounds of first amanedment free speech righs. That argument seems to have strength. If they are smart, which surely they are, they, the defendants of conversiont herap, will not try to argue that it is a vital, hearly, and essential community service, a medical service, helping people regain their health by ridding thme of the sickness of being gay.They may well believe exactly that, but are probably smart to keep it to themselves. The overwhelimng evidence, overwhelming proof is of course that conversion therap is indeed a form of torture, mental torture, psychological torutre, which almost invariably does immense psychological harm to those who are subjected to it. Most member so this SCOTUS were rasied Catholic and remain Catholic, with very conservative cocial values. It can almsot be assumed that they personally simply adore conversaion therapy,and do not like homosexuality. Five'll get you ten that, a few months from now, their ruling comes down to us from on high, and consists of a proclamation that it is indeed an unconstitutional infringement on American freedom to prohibit the barbaric practice. Soon thereafter, perhaps, the nation will experience a "conversion therapy craze". like the Cavy Crockett craze of 1955, or fur babies, or something, and LGBTQ's from all across America's fruited plain will be rounded up by Trumpian executive order, and harded into clinics for the Mitigation Alliance for Gay Alleviation (MAGA). All bad jokes aside,it seems almost inevitable that we are about to experience a boom in the conversion therapy industry in these United States of Abberations, dressed up as "Opportunities" for gay and lesbian people. Brick 'n mortar clinics, website online, a social media presence, the whole works. An entire American sub culture, brought to you righteously by the conservative evangelical fascist community, under God, under Trump. Which is the more fascist and authoritarian, conversion therapy, or prohibiting it?

Trump, Sending In the Troops

I COULD MAKE A LIST of all the crimes Trump has committed, all the decisions he has made, actions he has taken, words he has spoken which to me were entirely stupid, evil, or some combination thereof, and I could even put them in order of severity. Of course, all of it would merely be IMHO. But, I don't bother. At the top of the list for me would be the big election lie, and the insurrection, for instance. Now, in my mind, there's a new contender for the top spot on the list, the most harmful, stupid specific act of Trump. ...drum roll...Ordering National guard troops sent in to Washington D.C. is now "taking the cake", so to speak. Trump's worst of his worst. So far, as of October 6, 2025, the nation's capitol is the only city into which said guardsmen have been injected, if memory serves. Chicago, Memphis, Seattle and Portland, among many probable other cites, are currently on Trump's hit list a places he plans to invade soon, but as of yet, has not. Hell, at this point, is is not unreasonable to wonder whether every city in the United States above a certain population might eventually "host" an invasion from the American military, acting as Trump's personal police, illegally policing American citizens. There are two encouraging signs, from the point of view of people who oppose all this. First, nationwide, as well as especially in the cities themselves, public "backlash", or "pushback" as we like to say nowadays, is significant, outspoken, vociferous, vehenment, and, growing. Equallly encouraging is the fact that a federal judge has ruled that it would be illegal and unconstitutional for Trump to invade Portland, either with Oregonian military personnel or military imported from California which tricky Trump tried to do before said fed judge issued an additional ruling, ruling that illegal as well. If a federal appeals court does not overturn this decision, and restore Trump's right to invade, then surely the Supreme Court will, since the SCOTUS has clearly revealed itself to be Trump's personal lap dog in all legal matters. The three judges Trump appointed are paying him back handsomely, consistently, predictably issuing rulings precisely as Trump wants them, with but few exceptions. The federal judiciary has thus far protected the American people from much of Trump's malignant agenda, executive orders, and policies. For that we should be grateful, But we have been warned, by more than one expert legal mind, that we ought not rely exclusively on the courts sytetm to protect from all things evil, MAGA, and Trump. They simply can't; courts can only do so much. No, for our own protection, we the people are left to do the protecting ourselves, to protect ourselves from our authoritarian fascist ruler. Nothing that Trump or anyone could possibly do as president is more fascist, more proof of fascist intent and ideology, than sending the American military into American cities to police the American peope, in direct violation of the law. And yet, eighty percent of Republcians fully approve of it, probably because Trump did it, and Trump can do no wrong, Had Obama or Biden done likewise, Republicans would have been universially outraged. Trump's malignant narcissism, his need to be important and powerful doubtless contributed to this capricious policy. Republicans who support it can hardly claim, as they always have, to favor "small government". This militariztion of American streets is hardly the behavior of a small government. MAGA nationwide seems all in on Trump's authoritarian fascism, alarmingly, so it will be the responsibility of the rest of us, the Trump hating American majority, to rise up and force Trump to stop his assault on American cities and the American people.

Trump, Making Enemies Within

TRUMP, during his rambling, often incoherent speech to America's inconveniently assembled generals, referred to what he called "the enemy within". He did not, however, precisely define the term. We may assume, however. that he was referring to any and all Americans who oppose him and his policies. In other words, a majority of the American people. When one reflects that a clear majority of the American people oppose Trump, the apparent fact that Trump seeks to silence or eliminate all opposition, a seemingly dauntig task, takes on ever more alarming, desperate overtones. People who hate Trump are inclined to make comparisons between Trump and Hitler, not without a certain degree of justification, base in facts. One major difference between the two, however, is that Hitler was much more popular than Trump, Although Hitler's political party was elected with only a small plurality of German votes, Hitler himself, by the time he had been in power only a short time, had experienced a surge in national popularity, perhaps due in part to the excessive emphasis on patriotism with which his propaganda minister and government inundated and saturated the German people. The entire time Trump has been active in politics, his approval rating has been far below fifty percent, and he has gotten only a little above forty percent of the vote. Otherwise, there are far more similarities than differences between the two. Both Hitler and Trump created foreign enemies for the purpose of unifying the German people, and they both invented internal, domestic enemies to strengthen the support of their loyal supporters. Hitler was so popular and authoritatian that few who oppsosed him dared to speak out, thus forcing der fuhrer to fabricate an invented, contrived internal enemy, "Jews". As they say, whatever works. Trump cuts right to the chase by designating all who oppose him as "enemies of the people",failing to mention, wisely, that the enemies of the people significantly outnumber "the people",aka, MAGA folk, Trump supporters. "The radical left", is Trump's term for "the enemy within", and whereas it is indeed true that most Trump opponents are progressives, there are a certain percentage of conservatives, small in number though they may be, who do not support Trump. Trump, it seems, is insufficiently conservative for many true right wing extremists, and simply much too immoral for a certain segment of the evangelical community, those who practice what they preach. Again, the problem with Trump' enemies list is that it is just way too long. He doesn't have it narrowed down enough. By defning most Americans as his enemies, he creates the very enormous army of angry, motivated citizens it takes to defeat him. Trump can send as many national guardsmen into as many American cities as he likes, but he will simply not be able to arrest his way or deport his way out of the problem he has; of standing in direct opposition to a majority of the American peole. The more good, harmless, innocent American citizens Trump harasses with his military Gestapo, the lower his approval numbers go. Trump's enemies are not the enemies of the people. Trump's enemies are the people, a majority thereof. Like all fascist authoritrians, Trump tries to equate his personal opponents and enemies as enemies of the people, or of the country. The exact opposite is of course true: those who oppose Trump are the true patriotic Americans, at least as patriotic as Trump supporters, but far less misguided.

Trump, Killing Us All With Coal

CRAZY AS IT MAY SEEM, for Trump, it isn't. For Trump, crazy is the norm. He plans to spend half a billion dollars to "reinvigorate" the coal industry. And, in an unintentionally but related move, Trump canceled federal funding for climate change research and mitigation. Precisely where he plans to get the money for the coal industry, and how he plans to allcoate it, remains unclear. Maybe Congress will appropriate it, and Trump will redistribute it among the various coal companies, to give them an economic boost, to upgrade facilites, pay CEOs more, whatever. The coal industry, as everybody except Trump seems to know, is already dying a natural death, according to the time tested fundamental principles of supply and demand free market capitalism. You'd think Trump would recognize and appreciate that, and leave well enough alone. But no, not Trump. Natural gas is pricing coal out of the market, as are other energy sources, especially wind and solar energy. Using tax payer money to assist a naturally dying industry is pure socialism of the Republican kind, the kind that does not work. Capitalism will kill coal; simply let it die. Trump's chaotic ill considered policy simultaneously subsidizes the coal industry and eliminates funding to research and mitigate climate change, a perfect recipe for the eventual extinction of all life on Earth, in effect, planetary suicide, courtesy homo sapiens. At the precise moment when the fate of not only humanity but all life on Earth hangs in the balance amid rising temperatures globally, Trump actively facilitates this looming disaster by simultaneously dumping huge amounts of carbon into the atmosphere, while ignoring or accepting the disatrous consequences. "Bringing back coal" is an idiotic idea, from both the liberal and the conservative point of view. For the environmental "wacko" libs, as Rush Limbaugh used to call them, burning coal, or any other "fossil fuel" means adding still more carbon to an ecosystem already overburdened with it, carbon which causes increased heat absorption, globally warming, climate change, and, ultimately, human extinction. It seems to make sense, if you thinking about it, because it does. Its simple scientific fact. Anyone who has studied chemistry knows and understands this;unfortunately, much of teh general population has not studied chemistry, enough to fill the ranks of a massive climate change denial community, namely, conservatives. To conservatives, bringing back coal defies capitalistcic principles; conservatives simply seem unwilling to accpet the reality of the cost effecicncy of natural gas, and the ultimate wordwide use of wind and solar energy, accpmpanied perhaps by nuclear and geothermal energy. Trump's insane pro carbon anti-environmental energy policy, fully embraced and supported by conservatives, is a perfect prescription for climate disaster and humn extinction. This is the most egregious aspect of Trump's criminality. Investors and workers in the coal industry will be fine, as they move into other investments and jobs. Meanwhile, climate change is advancing at an alarming rate,far faster than scientists had ever thought it would. We simply cannot afford energy policy to be controlled by conservatives who favor continued use of fossil fuels. Fossil fuels have already done far too much damage, and must be phased out, fast. Our very survival depends on it.

ANTIFA Is Winning

IT BEARS REPEATING: ANTIFA is winning, because ANTIFA is a progressive movement, and the progressive movement is winning. On every major issue, polls and surveys indicate this, and in a democracy, polls and surveys are revealing. They matter. The numbers back up the facts. A majority of Americans now support gay rights. Its "trending", as we say. In the future, gay people are not going to be perseuted, sent to prison, forced to hide in closets. They are going to be accepted as equals in every way, shocking though this notion might seem today. Similarly, individual differences in skin pigmentation will be accepted by all without prejudice. Likewise, gun violence won't be tolerated anymore. Climate changed denial, a conservative policy, will be replaced by climate action led by progressives, as acknowledgement of the problem becomes universal. And best of all, fascism and authoritarian forms of government in general will not be tolerated or allowed in the future. Democracy will reign supreme, globally. Liberal democracy, complete with fundamentsl rights for all, including food, clothing, and shelter, will be the normm. ANTIFA was founded during the Black Lives Matter movement, expressing a wilingness to use violece, if necessary, to protect and defend BLM protestors from violent white supremacists. Dressed in all black with black ski masks and assault rifles, a photo of a small group of menacing looking people made the rounds, went viral, and forever cemented the false image among conservatives of a violent terrorist organization ready to provoke confrontation and conflict with all things decent and conservative. There was, however, no organization. Nothing of the sort ever happened. No actual organized group calling itself "ANTIFA" ever formed. And, to this day, none never has...ANTIFA never became an organized entity, but has remained only an ideal, a concept, an attitude, and remains so today. For some reason, the right wing refuses to understand and accept this, or cannot. Laughably, hilariously, Trump recently signed an executive order formally declaring ANTIFA to be a "terrorist organization", albeit, evidently unbeknown to Trump, one which does not exist. He might as well have signed an order declaring opponents of abortion, anti-abortionists, "ANTIBO" a terrorist organization which in fact they all too often are, especially when bombing abrtion clinics. A huge majority of Americans are strongly opposed to fascism. Daily, however, it seems more evident a Donald Trump, MAGA, the Republican party, and the entire American conservative movement, evangelical Christians and all, embrace fascism. They have all, seemingly, abandoned democacy. Trump has gained too much authoritarian style power, and actively embraces too many fascist policies to not be labeled a "fascist". It is insulting to label Trump a "fascist", but accurate. Trump's stupidity, and the drastic shortcomings, lack of wisdom and intelligence, of the American people, made obvious by his election, are tragic, and, in a sense, humorous. The problem with democracy is that it requires a reasonably intelligent and educated public, and it takes a lot of effort and work. Democracy is not for the ignorant or lazy. In order to work, democary must become easier, and more efficient. Voting by mail, phone, or on the internet will become the norm, as progressive anti-fascist ideals are broadly implemented. Primitive practices like voter suppression and gerrymandering will become extinct. Above all else, ANTIFA means progress, and only fascists resist progress. ANTIFA is winning...

Trump, Grooming His Generals

THE CONGREGATION of generals, from the beginning was weird, a weird idea. Why bring together hundreds of high ranking, indispensable people suddenly taken from their jobs from all over the world, brought to an auditorium in Virginia, just to tell them that the military must become tougher? Trump and Hegseth could have done that with a video conference call, or a recorded messages, sent to each general and admiral individually. They were packed in like sardines, perhaps the most stoic, stern, seething group of older white men seen together since a KKK funeral. They obviously didn't want to be there, didn't think they should have to be, didn't applaud, smile at, listen to, or respectthe two speakers, Hegseth and Trump. Maybe these older men thought that the Secretary of War is too young for his position, too young, inexpeienced, unaccomplished, and morally reprehesible. They are quite correct, of course. Hegseth, in some progressive circles, is being called a "DUI Hire". You almost hope that sticks. He doesn't. He reportedy doesn't like like the descriptor. He told "his" genrarals that the American military has gotten soft, and must toughen up. Standards are declining. Too many enlisted people are out of shape and overweight. Same with some of the generals in the hallways of the Pentagon. But more importantly, said Hegsteh, the military needs an attitude adjustment, and by that he seems to mean that every last race of progressive thought needs to be scrubbed, eliminated form the minds of all military personnel. No more DEI, and especially, no more "wokism". (The number of active military who actually know what "woke" means has not been determined.) Women will have to pass the same physical fitness tests as men. One set of standards, in all areas of endeavor, not two, teh same for both sexes. Transgender people will henceforth be considered unqualified for military serice of any sort. One might ask how long it will be until the same prohibition is installed for gay people. Perhaps the most shocking, oplitically incorrect remark made by Hegseth saw his assertion that in the past, too many otherwise unqualified people have been given promotions because of their race and gender, their minority status, and that being black and or being female are not criteria for advancement. This is the end of the politically correct military, in which diversity is encouraged, and equality and inclusion are automatic. Hegseth, at least, spoke coherently, if nothing else. Coherently, if not wisely, intelligently, or reasonably. Trump, by contrast, was entirely rambling and incoherent in his rather lengthy remarks, and the expressions on the faces of his alleged "listeners" clearly indicated that they thought so. Trump's entire appearance was a disaster. He obviously expected a roaring, clapping standing ovation, but got only a sea of icey cold stares. But this needless assembly of high ranking officers had a far more sinister, darker purpose, a purpose which was not entirely accomplished in one sitting, but has certianly been given a good start. It is the process of transforming the Americna military, all of it, into one vast, united army loyal directly to Donald Trump alone, theleader, without regard for loyalty to the United States constitution, oranyting or anyone else. The army is to vecome Trump'sGestapo,a nd he essentially said so, telling the assembled generals that from now on, the main enemy of America is the enemy within, menaing, of course, the America which opposes Trump, all Americans who oppose Trump and resist his leadership, the "ANTIFA" crowd. Trump intends to turn the military into his personnel police force with unwavering loyalty to himself, and to use it to subude the American people by iradicating all opposition to his control of the country, making them utterly subervient to himself. And that is precisely why we the American people must resist Trump strenuously, remove him from office, and why we are all, ultimately, ANTIFA.