Vance, Seeing Scandal, Trump, Seeing Blood

VICE PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFUL J.D.VANCE finally, generously, shared with us his view, and thus the truth, about the notorious, infamous election of twenty twenty; rigged it was, by the most obvious suspected culprit possible; something Vance calls "big tech". Now, we know, at long last. "Big Tech" could possibly be an offensive limeman majoring in computer science, or, more likely, a secretive, conspiratorial consortium of large corporations involved with computer and other forms of technology. Folks like Microsoft, Apple, Google, and so forth. They,a bunch of Silicon Valley pointy headed elite liberal Trump hating intellectuals, somehow riged the election, and stole it from Trump. The soon to perhpas be Vice President of these United States did not elaborate on precisely how theyaccomplished this massive, seemingly infinitely complicated high crime; nobody ever does. Of all the massive fraud conspiracy theories about the mythological stolen election, put forth and widely supported by Trump supporters, not a single shred of evidence has ever been produced supporting the theory. Failure to provide evidence ultimately resulted in the FOX News corportions, a big Trump supporter, paying more than seven hundre million in damages to the Domininon voting machine of Venezuela. Maybe the "Big Tech" conspiratorial consortium should consider organizing for real, and filing a federal lawsuit againt Vance, for slander, and get a court order that he either provide evidence to support his claim, or forever shut the hell up. First and foremost, do we the American people really want to be led by an administration whose two leaders, president and V.P., claim that the twenty twenty election was rigged, that millions of criminals, rapists and murderers, immigrate here daily from Mexico, that immigrants in Ohio eat dogs and cats, and that climate change is a hoax? Is that what we want? For most of us, the answer is no. But Donald Trump was elected president with only a minority of American popular support in 2016, and there are emerging indications that he might well do so again, on November 5th. Trump's supporters desperately want to believe that immigrants are criminals, to jsutifu mass deportation of a huge part of America's dark skinned population; the motive is racism, pure, and simple. If they're going to eact our dogs and cats, they must go. Note that the cannibalistic accusations have been repeatedly refuted by public officials and many other people, that no evidence of it has been provided, that the accused have very dark skin, and that they are entirely legal, not illegal, immigrants. Legality isn't really the point, after all. Most alarming of all is that the election is very close to happening,to concluding, is very close in terms of the polls being taken and prediction being made, and that, as of now, Trump appears to be slightly ahead. If Trump wins, the United States is going down the rabbit hole of tuthoritarian, right wing goveernment, lock, stock, barel, and Bible. And if Trump loses, we are headed for another violent insurrection, even, heaven forbid, a civil war.If Trump loses, he will once again refuse to accept defeat, and claim that the presidency has once again been stolen from him, by the same people, presumably, who stole it last time. He is going to feign outrage, and use poisonous, angry, incendiary rhetoric to motivate his easily motivatable, very devoted, and extremely violent supporters to form violent mobs, and take over America by destroying it with fire and violence, if necesssary. Our only chance is to be ready.

Surviving Electing Trump

IN ALL SEVEN SWING STATES, according to some polls, Donald Trump has an oh so narrow lead over Kamala Harris, something like one hundreth of a percentage point, composite. This does not mean that he will win, or is even likely to win, but it does prove that he might win. In the event of this unthinkable, horrible possibility, we who despise Trump, his agenda, and his supporters with a passion must be prepared for the worst. The worst day of my life, as far as I can recall, was the day after the 2016 election, when Hillary Clinton lost to Trump. I simply refuse to endure anything that horrible again. This time, if Trump wins, I intend to have a more positive attitude about it. I will hate the outcome no less, and perhaps more, but this time I aint gonna shrink up like a shrinking violet and hide. (Not that I did that in 2016. I just felt like doing it). Actually I am proud of the way I responded to Trump's first election win, and fully intend to be proud of myself again. As Goethe said" "There is no situation which cannot be ennobled through achievement or endurance". In 2020, I congratulated Trump and his supporters, and promised to be a good loyal American, and to give Trump a chance. This I did, and, of course, it didn't work out well. If Trump gets elected in three weeks, I insist that everyone who voted for him openly acknowledge that Trump lost the twenty twenty election, and that the entire election lie fiasco was tragic, unnecessary, and unpatriotic. If Trump is elected in twenty twenty four, it will be because of the same people who have claimed for the past four years that the last election was stolen from Trump. I can and will simultaneously congratulate them on once again electing their candidate, after which I will immediately insist on an election lie retraction from them and an apology, and will formally designate anyone who fails to provide it a traitor. I wonder whether Jeff Bezos will resurrect his project of printing every lie Trump utters as president in his Washington Post newspaper - I hope and suspect he will, in the awful event of a new Trump presidency. I for one shall personally resurrect my project of keeping tabs on Trump's daily lies, which, during his first administration, averaged approximately twenty two point five per day. In the faces of Trump supporters I shall thrust the lies, and insist on a response. What I get back will, I am convinced, supply more than enough incredible material to fill volumes. By "incredible",I mean incredibly delusional, false, idiotic, ignorant, and so forth. Anyone who can intelligently defend Trump I will listen to. If, heaven forbid, they win, Trump and his criminal gang of supporters, having regained power, are without doubt going to be more arrogant, more aggressive, and more determined to implement their malignant agenda than ever. Digging for coal, drilling for oil, persecuting gays and Transgender people, neo-liberal pro-corporate economics, American isolationism, the whole tragic, idiotic, harmful agenda, every last item. This, especially, if they win back one or perish the thought both houses of Congress. If that happens, as they say, we're toast. women will become brood mares again, minorities will cease all progress towards human equality, and once again America's allies and adversaries alike will laugh and grimace in amazement at the sheer stupidity of the president of the United States. Our saving grace, perhaps our only one, is that we have been down this road before, this isn't our first rodeo, as they say,we survived it the first time, and, if nothing else, we can cling to the diminishing hope that we can survive it again.

My Dying Church

AT CHURCH YESTERDAY, we had nine people in the building, including the pianist-organist, the minister, and the "liturgist", who sits sideways on stage and helps the minister with the routine stuff. There were six of us in the congregation. We didn't even reach double digits, which is our first goal nowadays. I'm sixty nine, and was the second youngest person in the building. the wife of the keyboard man is about sixty. We all sit in the same place every Sunday, which I suspect most people do in most churches. Sitting nearest to me are four people over the age of ninety. Soon, all too soon, our congregation will be halved by the inexorable attritition of life. A group of three teen aged boys evidently has quit coming for good. They used to ring the bell before the service; now, I do it. Too bad. Our loss. And, maybe, theirs too. The minister gave another good, reasonably short sermon, mixing together scripture bits and pieces with personal anecdotes. At the end of it he apologized for having failed to pray for rain, and promised to so so on his way home. I would have been happy to do it right there on the spot. None of us is perfect, but if we trust Jesus, we are forgiven. I would respectfully add mention of the importance of forgiving yourself. He reminded us that our church is only four years short of reaching its two hundreth birthday, having been founded in 1828 just donw the road. The current building was built in 1890, and is a true treasure of antiques architecture and building materials. Its nineteenth century brick, wood, and stained glass loveliness helps draw me to it on Sunday mornings. A quaint, lovely chapel in the midle of the woods, the middle of nowhere. He, the minister, mentioned that church membership is declining all over the United States, and has declined drastically in Europe, where religion seems to be almost extinct. A hundred years ago our little Presbyterian church had a congregation of about one hundred; only twenty five years ago thirty or forty people would show up most Sundays. Reverend Bruce says he doesn't know whether our church will live to see its two hundreth birthday, but that he hopes that it does. He seemed to imply that its chances, our chances, would be better if the members conributed more to it, "more", presumably, meaning money. I beg to differ; what our church needs is not so much money, but people. The money will come with the people. I don't put much cash into the collection plate; I live on Social Security, after all, and have several cats to feed. And, actually, as much as I Like this church and the few people who go there, I cannot consider myself an actual "member", since I am definitely not a "Christian". I don't meet the requirements. I can honestly say that I personally don't have the faintest idea whether "my" church will exist four years from now, sadly. Bruce indicated that he hopes the Christian religion continues to exist in the world, notwithstanding its currently stagnant and shrinking numbers. Im not so sure I agree with that. In fact, I know I don't. Cultural evolution is as fundamental to human existence as physical evolution, and that means change. People invented religion, religion did not invent people. Organized religion has definitely served a purpose in human historical evolution, but will there come a time when it no longer has a purpose, having completed it? To me, the answer to that question seems obvious, Yes, there will. And in fact, it seems to me that this process is beginning now, and is actually well underway, the process of religion evolving out of existence as human civilization has no further need of it. Still, I tend to hope that my little church lives a little while longer.

Trump, Seeking An Evil Pinnacle

I'VE BEEN TO DENVER, but not to Aurora, which, like Denver, must have grown a lot over the last few decades. Evidently, in terms of population, its similar to Detroit. Trump visited both cities in the last couple of days, and insulted both, which to any sane person might seem like a terrible campaign strategy. Trump, playing to his base. Word is he is going to have a rally in California soon, proving that all he cares about is playing to his base, perhaps laying the groundwork for another mass violent uprising and insurrection after another election loss. It may be that Trump realizes that all he was lacking on January 6, 2021, the day of his first attempt to overthrow the government, was numbers, sheer numbers. According to the twice impeached former president, Aurora, Colorado is overrun with Venezualian gangs, who in effect control the city. Trump ignores the reality that in today's world, everybody carries a smart phone in his or her back pocket, and photographs everything. There are nearly half a million peeps in Aurora ready, willing, and able to document and confirm the existence of ubiquitous Latin American gangs, infesting, poisoning the blood of, and governing the city, There is, however, no such confirmation. Only Donald Trump seems to have noticed this problem. Trump has notably slandered the cities of Milwaukee, Philapelphia, and Detroit, all of which have a high percentage of African-American residents. Trump's racism is so obvious that it is not at all unfair to openly label him a "racist". If Norwegian gangs were overrunning and controlling Minneapolis or Duluth you wouldn't hear a peep out of Trump about it. If they wore "MAGA" ball caps and "Norwegian gangsters for Trump" T shirts he would praise them, and call them great American patriots. Trump must be given credit for his uncanny ability to abandon his racism the moment a dark skinnned person expresses support for him. Trump supporters, no matter how dark their skin, are simply incapable of "poisoning the blood" of America, as Trump made it clear all other dark skinned immigrants otherwise indeed do. Trump's self serving behavior he tries to disguise as patriotism, and his believers go along with it, since their values match his. It is almsot as if together, Trump and his cult are steadily ascending a mountain of pure evil perfidy. Trump is not content to launch merely one vicious line of attack with lies; he must multi task. His other target is the government relief effort following hurricanes Helene and Milton. Claiming the the Biden-Harris administration has deliberately bankrupted FEMA, that the current massive relief effort is a total failure, and that Biden and Harris care more about illegal immigrants than victims of hurricanes, and proves it by transferring money from the natural disaster fund directly to those criminal, murdering, raping dark skinned immigrants from the Latin American south. As always, all of this nonsense, all of these false claims are blatant lies, intended only to stir up his hateful MAGA voter base, and to discredit his political opposition, dishonestly, for personal gain. The tragedy is that in truth Trump and his supporters would be happy to watch the hurricane relief effort fail miserably, to watch blame for it being given to Biden and Harris, and to watch millions of people suffer because of the failure. Millions of homeless, shelterless people, hungry, thirsty, miserable, a welcome sight to MAGA Trump supporters, it would be. And, as always, the true tragedy of this is not that Donald Trump is an ammoral, vicious criminal, but that his supporters are no better than he.

Killing Ourselves With Trump

DONALD TRUMP is a bit more worrisome the last couple of days, because he seems to be trying to speak more sensibly, getting away from the pure ranting and raving and actually talking about issues, problems, policies, and solutions. Or trying to. Invariably, he reverts to raving. He can't help it. His social skill haven't improved though; he warned that if Kamala Harris is elected, all of America will become like Detroit. Problem is, he issued the warning in Detroit. The mayor responded that Detroit is alive, healthy, and growing, no thanks to Mr. Trump. That had to sting. Another problem is that Trump's proposed policies and solutions range from highly questionable to totally insane. As expected, he wants to cut taxes on billionaires and billion dollar corporations, as always. Precisely why tens of millions of working class Americans are evidently Okay with this is among the greatest mysteries in nature. Dubiously, falsely, Trump claims that the Amerian automotive industry is in dire peril, on its deathbed. He proposes tax breaks for them, government handouts, essentially socialism for the wealthy, as the solution. The Republicans have never really abandoned trickle down Reaganomics, and Trump is on board with it. Trump's other major policy proposal is nothing less than suicidal, on a planetary level, for it would ane still might lead to the extinction of all life on Earth. Right beneath our feet, says Don the Con, is an unlimited treasure trove of wealtlh , in the form of oil, coal, and natural gas. Dig, baby dig. Drill, baby drill. Bring it up, burn it, make money on it. Eliminate all government protections for the environment, all agencies and regulations. Stop production of those silly electric vehicles. Global warming, climate change, is a hoax, nothing to worry about. It has recently been reported that only a small percentage, about ten percent of we the American people actually are climate climate change deniers. I beg to differ. Not only is Donald Trump a climate chcange denier, but so are millions, tens of millions of Republicans, especially of the evangelical Christian conservative kind. If Trump gets elected, which over the past few days has begun to seem strangely possible, we can forget about the United States fighting climate change. Under Trump and the Republicans The United States will vastly, deliberately increase climate change, which will bring about the extinction of all life on Earth surprisingly quickly. Polls indicate that a slim but definite majority of Americans think Trump has better solutions for immigration, the economy, and Gaza, which once again causes intelligent, discerning people to wonder what they (Trump supporters) could possibly be thinking. However, on the vital issues of protection of democracy and women's reproductive rights, most Americans favor the Kamala Harris agenda. The American people must be awakened and educated to the fact that allowing the government to regulate the economy, including the behavior of big corporations and billionaires, is urgently necessary to keep the billionaires from rigging the economy to suck wealth and power, from the bottom to the top, which has resulted in an American society and country largely owned and controlled by the ultra wealthy elite few. Our corporate masters, as Gore Vidal called them. Ultra conservative populism results in an elite ruling class, falsely claiming to represent the interests of everyone. Its what Hitler stood for, its what Trump stands for. We dont want concentration camps for immigrants, abortion bans, book bans, A Christian country, corporate hegemony, U.S. isolation, nor cultural conformity. We want D.E.I.; Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion, and we want a totally woke United States of America, thank you.

Refusing To Ruin A Pretty Day With Reality

THE LUNCH LINE at the senior center moves fast; the kitchen ladies keep those blue trays sliding through the window. One at a time the hungry old folks snatch 'em up, and head for the lunch room tables. Not much time for conversation in line. So the guy behind me, a nice guy and a friend of mine, says to me "beautiful day". Standard, innocuous, lunch line stuff. And in fact it was a beautiful day; bright sunny, mild, but not hot, about eighty degrees, calm wind. The sort of day which once not so long ago this time of year have been considered a marvelous fluke, a great blessing of a pretty day in a normally blustery, chilly season, mid October. These days, where I live, in lower midwest America, eighty and ninety degree days in October are no longer flukish, or nonexistent. They have become the norm. Over the past couple of decades, around here, October has become a summer month. The guy behind me didnt seem to mind. The normal response would have been to simply smile and agree, yes, it was a beautiful day. Only I didn't do that. Sometimes I do what is expected of me, more often, I do not. Instead I sile t my buddy, and said: "True, it is a beautiful day, but I have at least two problems with it. For one, its too hot for October. It shouldn't be eighty or ninety degrees every day in October, and secondly, it hasn't rained around here in six weeks." I can't remember whether I actually used the term "climate change", or mentioned it at all, but he apparently understood my meaning, for he replied. "I can't take on the problems of the world. I have enough of my own." I also understood his meaning, what he was trying to say. He can't worry about climate change, and he can't spend valuable time fretting about war, disease, famine, or natural disasters,or any of the world's other perpetual problems which he cannot solve; he can't affored to worry about whatever it is that causes climate change, whether its real or not; either way, he has to live his own life, the best he can. It wasn't so much that he was disagreeing with me, or questioning my right or my intent is making my climate change comments. But he simply wasn't going to worry about it.The thought came to me that I might do well to learn a lesson from my friend; maybe I could use a little less fretting about the problems of the world, all of which are entirely beyond my capacity to solve, as a means of reducing the self infliced stress and anxiety in my life. Still, something about his point of view disressed me. It brought to mind all the millions and tens of millions of people who undoubtedly have the same attitude he does. Would we humans be doing a better job of addressing climate change if more of us were deeply, overtly concerned about it? My thought is that if all eight billion people on planet Earth were believers in and terrified of climate change, like I am, then maybe we humans would have the political will, as they say, that we seem to currently lack, to collectively solve the climate change problem through concerted, organized planning and action. What I wanted to say to my friend, and perhaps what I should have said, is: "You dont have to worry about or care about climate change. It doesnt matter either way what you do, or what you think. Because, sooner, rather than later. No, my friend, you indeed do not have to take on the problems of the world. Soon enough, sooner rather than later, the problems of the world, including climate change, will come straight, directly to you. Lunch, as always, was delicious, on this beautiful, summery October day.

Building A Democracy

YOU NEVER KNOW what kind of American history will be taught at your local high school. It could be evangelical Christian American history, written and taught from a purely Christian point of view, it could be conservative history, or, it could be liberal progressive history, which, upon closer scrutiny, turns out to be the most accurate version. It all depends on what state you live in, whether you live in a conservative "red" state or a progressive "blue" state, and, of course, a lot depends upon the politics and religion of your local community. Surely there are certain things, certain facts, upon which all the various and sundry versions can and do agree. Surely, one of these is that the founders of the political system of the United States did not intend to found a democracy, and indeed did not, but rather, a representative republic. They, people like Madison and even to a certan extent Jefferson, among many others, wanted and designed a system in which the people in general, the general population, would be represented by more intelligent, better educated people; namely, wealthy white Christian land owning men. The "better sort" and the "lesser sort" as Madison eloquently put it. The lesser sort, the unwashed masses, would have some limited choice in selecting their representatives, but only a limited amount of choice; these decisions, ultimately, concerning the possession of actual political power, would remain forever in the hands of the wealthy powerful few. And so it remains for us today, where we live not in a true democracy, with real power in the hands of the people in general, but rather, in an oligarchy, a plutocracy, in which real power is possessed by the folks Gore Vidal used to call "our corporate masters". We must bear in mind that until rather recently the very word "democracy" had as much of a negative cannotation as a positivie one. In the eigtheenth and nineteenth centuries the term was associated with mob rule, with political chaos, governance by a huge unruly mob of poorly educated people incapable of governing themselves, let alone a huge nation state. Today we use the word "democracy" with admmiration and veneration; such was not always the case. As we all know all too well, the problem with democracy is that, particularly in a large country, it is unwieldy, messy, cumbersome, ineffecient, and, as we see so clearly today, vulnerable to corruption, especially with money. My father, an attorney, once told me that in his opinion the best form of government is a benevolent dictatorship. Maybe he was right. Even today, there are many among us who prefer forms of government other than democracy, even though in the United States, almost all Americans claim to prefer and cherish democracy. Clearly, many if not most Trump supporters want so strongly to install Trump as president in order to enact their own conservative political agendas that they are perfectly willing to do so undemocratically, even violently, with a violent insurrection. Diversity, Equality and Inclusion are important values with today's progressive community, but not so much the conservative community. Cultural conformity is a consrvative value, but only has limited value; a thriving, healthy human global culture must be diverse, that it not be stagnant. And it must evolve. Human equality (I prefer the word "equality" to "equity") in a comprehensive sense is a modern concept, as is inclusion. But whether these values, including democracy itself, will continue to seek and gain acceptance throughout the world as well as the United States is an ongoing question, still unanswered. Our task is to help answer it.

Teaching the Right Bible

THE REPROBATE REGRESSIVE STATE OF OKLAHOMA hs decided that it needs to buy fifty five thousand Bibles for the state's public schools, to implement recently passed legislation requiring that the Christian bible be taught in public schools, perhaps, high schools primarliy. According to requirements imposed by the leglislature, the Bibles must be the king James version, and must include copies of several seminal founding documents in American history, including the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. I vaguely seem to recal that there was one other..was it the "Gettysburg Address"? Probably not. It turns out that the only avaialbe bible which could supply this many copies and meet the requirements for inclusion of patriotic documents happens, just happens to be...Donald Trump's golden Bible, the one he is peddling, with his autograph on it. One of the main proponents of all this religious zealotry illegally imposed upon the public school system is a state legislator who describes Oklahoma public schools as "atheist indoctrination centers", and described teacher's unions as "terrorist organizations". It is beyond dispute that many if not most far right wing extremist conservative evangelical Christian Trump supporters agree with these descriptions, ardently, to the point of harboring a deep distrust and hatred of American public schools generally. To these unreasonable brainwashees the traditional, sacred seperation of church and state is actually a war against Christianity, and secular schools, or secular anything, is anti-Christian, reprehensible, and dangerous. Proponents of the "Bibles in school" project in Oklahoma ansd other states claim that they are merely acknowledging the reality that the Bible is central and fundamental to human history and culture, and should be taught in schools for that reason. Whereas it is perfectly true that the Bible is of fundamental importance, the most important and influential book in world history, this fact has absolutely nothing to do with the true motives of those religious political conservatives, mainly Republican Trump followers, who want to force the Bible into public schools. They actually want to force their entire religion into public schools. They want to make America's public schools Christian, again. Among these Bible pushers are many "Christian Nationalists", who want to make the entire country a Christian nation, with Christianity the official, mandatory religion of the United States. The true "terrorist organizations" are not teachers unions with educated, progressive members, but rather, regressive reprobates who want to force the Christian religion and the Bible into pubic schools, while prohibiting any mention inside the schools of LGBTQ people, racism, wokism, socialism, or climate change. The "vast right wing conspiracy" as Hillary Clinton so eloquently and accurately put it, is strong as ever and will stop at nothing to impose its unrealistic, delusional agenda on the entire country, by force, if necessary. Climate change, racism, wokism, socialism, atheism, gay people - all actually exist in the real world, and will not go away by playing make believe that they do not. Ironic, that they so fervantly want to force down the throats of America's children that most make believe thing of all - the Christian religion, as revealed in the most popular book of fiction ever written.

Climate Change, Converging, On Us

THE HURRICANE, according to the emerging scientific consensus, was a product of climate change, at least in terms of severity. Not that it wouldn't've occured naturally, without any climate change. But it would have been much smaller, and the winds less violent. Helene, or whatever her name was, was a monster in terms of diameter, and in terms of wind velocity and rain amount. The notion that a hurricane could ever seriously impact western North Carolina with extreme flooding and wind damage to this extenst would, until just a few days ago, been thought impossible. Climate change is basic science, basic physics, common sense. If you add a trillion tons of carbon to the atmosphere, the atmosphere traps and stores more heat, and a warmer atmosphere can absorb and retain more water vapor, as water on the surface of the planet evaporates more rapidly. Hence, when it rains, it pours. Not only does climate change exist, it would be impossible, according to the laws of nature, for it not to. Plus, it has arrived, Climate change is here now. A few hundred miles west of the hurricane devastation, where I live, we are in the midst of what is quickly becoming a sever drought. In September, it rained exactly twice, both modest rain showers. No rain so far in October, although its still early. There is no rain prediceted, however, for at least the next ten days. Today it will be nearly ninety degrees today, and tomorrow, Friady, October 4, 2024, the temperature will reach the low nineties. The prediction is for it to reach the lower nineties every day for the next week, without rain. I spent the summer wondering what October would be like, whether it would be like traditional, normal Octobers of teh past, or a month in which the temepratures reaches eighty five degrees daily, a summer month. For about the last fifteen years or so, where I live, October has become a summer month. Summer in my area used to last about three months, weather-wise. Now, its more like five months. It is a virtual certainlty that many hurricanes in the future will also be gigantic monsters, larger in extent and severity by degrees of magnitude that anything we have ever seen. Whether there will be more frequent hurricanes remains uncertain, but indications are that indeed there will be. Most of the roughly one trillion tons of carbon that humanity has dumped into the environment over th past couple hundred years has ended up in the world's oceans. The warming oceans are putting more energy, wind and water, into violent storms and hurricanes. We, humanity, must develop technologies to remove carbon not only from the Earth's atmosphere, but from the oceans as well. The current trend is for the oceans, and all life in them, to die within a few decades as they grow too warm to support life. If and when that happens - and it is happening now - all life on Earth will die, including us. The science of cimate change is so simple that not only can anybody who took chemistry class in high school understands the workings and the reality of it, but so can anyone who attended grade school and paid attention dirung general science class. Climate change should be and must become required curriculum in all public schools at all levels. Instead, in many states dominated by Republicans, laws are being passed prohibiting the teaching about climate change in public schools. One of the core principles of conservatism is climate change denial, which, like conservatism generally, is disastrous for the future, and the present. Our only hope is education.

Debating, Denying, Distorting, Destroying

THE VICE PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE, like most debates, could be called a draw. Vance was smooth, solid, steady. Walz was folksy and appealing, and got better and stronger as the affair proceeded, after a shaky beginning. The most outstsnding, incredible aspect of the debate was Vance's persistant refusal to acknowledge reality, on a wide variety of topics. J.D. Vance, with his Ivy League education, best sellling author status, and meteoric political ascesion, simply will not concede that Trump lost the last presidential election, that the presidency was not stolen from him, nor will he acknlowledge that the capitol insurrection was Trump's responsibility. Nor will he, unsurprisingly, admit that he and every other American "citizen" who supports Trump in reality a traitor and criminal, by virtue of supporting, assisting, abetting, enabling, a traitor and criminal; namely,Trump. Continuing to claim that the election was stolen is bad enough, but for J.D. Vance, it gets worse, much worse. He refuses to acknowledge the reality of climate change as well. Climate change deniers are harmful not only in that they do not help fight climate change, but they also they support policies which cause it. Donald Trump is not technically an ardent, fervant, devoted climate change denier. He has often said that he is doubtful, skeptical about it, and believes that it may be a hoax. But as time goes by, he seems to have firmly insinuated himself into the climate change denial community. And because of that, J.D. Vance must do likewise, although he probably would anyway. And, the cherry on top of the ice cream Sundae of right wing reality denial is of course, the one which has recently gone viral, in which Trump, Vance, and presumably all of their MAGA cult followers insist that Haitian immigrants in Ohio are eating dogs and cats. Vance refuses to give up this fantasy, as do, presumably, American conservative evangelical Christian Republicans in general. Any reasonable person might and probably should find it alarming that the two men running for the two highest political offices in the United States, live in an entirely unreal world of their own in which the presidency was stolen from Trump, climate change does not exist, dark skinned immmigrants eat dogs and cats, and the biggest problem with the United States is that it is not controlled by Christians with Christian values and beliefs. More alarming still is that there is a huge percentage of Americans who have exactly the same set of delusional beliefs. Thank the gods that be that it is, indeed a minority. If this "community", which is essentially the Trump MAGA gangster cult, ever returns to power, it could be disastrous, not only for America, but for the world. Harmful though it is for anybody to refuse to acknowledge the reality of climate change, having people in actual positions of power who deny it is a disaster, at this point. We can no longer afford to give them power or enact their insane policies. During the debate, Walz as wise to emphasize the reproductive freedom issue, and Harris and Walz needn't be concerned about the immigration issues, for, as Walz pointed out, it was Trump who prevented the United States from enacting a meaningful, effective immmigration legislation. A majority of Americans want immigation into the U.S. to be organized and orderly, but dont want to harass and persecute undocumented immigrants, as Trump does. And a majority of Americans want American women to have the right to choose. Trump and the Republicans are choosing to deny reality. The Democrats can win by simply acknowledging reality, and telling the truth.

Reaching the End, Finally

THERE ARE EXACTLY FIVE WEEKS until election day, and, according to the polls, the presidential election is a dead heat, dead even. That means that either candidate could win, both have about a fifty percent chance. Voting has begun, and from now until election day, more and more people will be voting early, by mail, or in person. There are two things for which we all ought to be grateful. One, Biden isn't running. And two, soon, it will all be over, one way or another. I would have been worried about Biden during the entirety of his second term, as would I suspect many other people, and am grateful to be spared that. Whether he would have survived an entire second term is, of course, highly questionable. If Trump wins there is enormous turmoil dead ahead, because Trump and his people, MAGA Republicans and their seventy five million members, will be pushing their radical, ultra conservative agenda, hard. And a majoritiy of Americans will be opposing it with equal vigor, in the media, in Congress, and every everywhere else, and neither side will surrender. If Trump loses, we'll go through all the election denial drama, again, in some way, shape, and form. I must assume, though I may be wrong, that the drama will be less intense than before, and that Trump will have fewer gangsters on his side, claiming that the election was stolen. There won't be nearly as potent an uprising this time. Again, I may be wrong. This time, maybe MAGA will ctually succeed in overthrowing teh government, preventing the electoral college from being certified, replacing Harris electors with Trump flunkies, stealing the presidency for Trump, and, suddenly having a didtatorship in America, like Germany, 1933, under Hitler. One thing we now know is this: this scenario is not impossible. In fact, it seems to be far more possible than neraly anyone could have possibly imagined a few short years ago. Never before in American history have so many Americans engaged in organized, traitorous treason, and this includes the Civil War as the seventy five millino member MAGA movement, and their heinous, infamous, traitorous, treasonous attemptt to violently overthrow the American government. Worst of all, they, the traitorous MAGA gangsters of Trump, are for the most part still very much with us and among us. The thought that this loathsome rabble might actually succeed in getting Trump elected in five weeks, this stark reality, is so horrible to contemplate as to be nearly beyond contemplation. Much, of course, depends onw hich party controls Congress, or whether each party controls one of the two legislative bodies.Republican congressional control, with Trump as president, would embolden the MAGA movement so greatly that it wouls seek to implement every item mentioned in the infamous, utterly reprehensible "Project 2025" agenda, including replacement of the governemnt with Trump loyalists, and installation of the Christian Nationalist agenda, abortion bans, book bans, persecution of LGBTQ people and immigrant minorities, to which Trump would gladly accede. He doesn't give a damn one way or another, about any issue, inclduding religion and reproductive rights; he only cares about maintaining his status as a wildy popular cult leader. When Trump first entered politics, comparisons of his MAGA supporters to Hitler's NAZI movement, which some percipient people presented, I dismissed as overwrought, distorted, exaggerated. I no longer do. Our best hope is that there are indications that Kamala Harris is going to win the election, unless Trump eeks ot narrow victories in all the "swing" states. Either way, fasten your seat belts.

Evolving

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

The Sex Fascists, Closing In

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

Book Banning

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

Who's Blaming Who?

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