Trump, Serving The Russians

THE RUSSIANS interfered with the American presidential election of twenty twenty, using social media to spread disinformation about Hillary Clinton, among other factual distortions and lies, quite possibly helping and even enabling Trump's election. No, Hillary Clinton did not operate a pedaphile business from the basement of a pizza parlor in Virginia. For one thing, the pizza parlor had no basement. A prominent Russian oligarch, during the Biden administration, came clean, and clearly stated that indeed he damned well did interfere on behalf of Trump, and that, by god, he would do it again. It seems he did it again, and again it worked, like a charm. Now a retired high ranking KGB agent, Oleg Kalugin, has come even cleaner, claiming that Trump has been a Russian "asset", working for them since 1987, that Putin has the goods on Trump, and that they have been blackmailing Trump for years. Quite beneficial to the Russians, to have under their thumb the president of these United States. Their ultimate purpose is of course to destabilize the American economy, political system, and government, and to ultimately destroy the United States, to bring it to its knees, under Russian domination, if possible. It wouldn't do Russian oligarchs, speaking on behalf of Putin, much good to make these claims if they are lies. If they are truth, it would. Trump is on notice, being reminded that they have the goods, and can pull the plug at any time. When will they pull it? When will Putin hold a press conference, announce that he is Trump's employer, and hold up a sheeth of American classified documents for the world to see, close up on the camera? Early in the Trump administration, or late? One certainty about the impending Trump presidential administration disaster is that it will, as it did before, create chaos thoughout American society. The implimentation of Trump's extreme agenda "Project 2025" will arouse a constant, steady storm of vigorous opposition. Not only will the measures themselves - mass deportations, legislative initiatives to punish gay people, protective tariffs, brutal policing, mass firings of government bureaucrats, and all the rest, cause great havoc and economic hardship, the resulting ecomomic distress and civil unrest will divide America like never before. By contrast, the present and previous national division will pale. What about the reaction of the American people to all this? The Mueller report, which was released more than seven years ago and clearly details Trump's involvement with the Russians and their election interfernce on his behalf, was hidden from the American public by the Trump administration just long enough to deflect its attention. Attorney General Bill Barr, a Trump loyalist and schill, issued instead a watered down four page version, which deflected attention from the truth just long enough to deceive the public. The trick worked. What if Putin pulls the plug? The MAGA cult will doubtless rally around their iconic savior, and retreat into a state of denial, as usual claiming victomhood. They will seek to discredit it as a hoax, as usual, despite Trump's long standing, otherwise inexplicable ass kissing of Putin, which can now be explained, despite the massive proof provided by Putin himself. The usual lines of division. Trump should be indicted, tried, and convicted of treason, for insurrection, among other crimes. His selling out to the Russians, in 1987 happened before he ever thought he might seek and win the presidency. He deserves the death penalty. Now, it seems, he is trapped, a helpless pawn of a foreign adversary with whom the United States is, for all intents and purposes, at war. Putin might even force Trump to switch sides, and support Russia in its war against Ukraine. His MAGA mob cult would likely approve wholeheartedly. It will all come out in the wash, as we say. Russia, as its fortunes in its war deteriorate, will become increasingly inclined by necessity to play its Trump card, and actualize it investment. Donald Trump, like the rest of us, will ultimately experience the consequences of his actions, whether they be facing a firng squad in the U.S., or enjoying a lavish lifestyle in Russia.

Restoring Compassion

MY TENDENCY, as I age into senior citizen status, has been towards misanthropy.The older I get, the less I like people. As a child, I was shy, but nice, and I had friends. My shyness dissapated by the time I reached high school,and I evolved into a gregarious, loquacious entity. I was popular in high school. I remember when I was about twenty, a friend said to me: "hell, you like every body". And so I did. The same friend said to me: you are always ridiculing people, putting people down.". I had that tendency too. The seeds of my later misanthropy, perhaps. People are complicated. I have thought and said often in recent years that I prefer dogs and cats to people and, in truth, I think that is true. A fairly high percentage of people say the same thing. Mark Twain's quote: "The more I learn about people, the more I like my dog", I have quoted often. The election of Trump, the various wars, all have combined to enhance my contempt for humanity. When I was a child I believed that war, faminine, and all that would be vanquished by the time I reached adulthood, or by the end of the twentieth century. Similarly, when Armstrong set foot on the moon when I was fourteen, I assumed that by the year 2000 astronauts would walk on Mars, and colonies would be built on the moon and Mars. The optimism of my youth faded, and soured into cynicism. I first heard about climate change, global warming, in 1988, when NASA scientist James Hanson testified about it in Congress, I was in my early thirties, an that spurred my encroaching cynicism. "Of our cities shall remain but the wind that blew through them", wrote Bertolt Brecht. And then, today, I saw a picture of two starving children, in Africa. A young boy, perhaps barely a teenager, is standing, his face fixed in a grimance. he himself is underweight, and he is holding another child, a little boy anywhere from two to four years old, thd child's legs wrapped around the boy's waist, his arms around the boy's neck, his tiny baby head buried in his older brother's shoulder, hiding, seeking some small measure of love and comfort, giving up. His tiny arms and legs nothing, literally, but skin and bone. Sticks covered with drawn, taut skin. The tiny tot was either dead, or very near it, certainly nearly beyond recovery. The older boy is giving what comfort and love he can to his dying younger sibling. Never in my sixty nine year long life have I been as impacted by a photograph. Never have I been so schocked, so filled with sudden despair, so truly heartbroken. The image of it reamins in me, and shaall remain in me until my dying day. I have no idea wht to do about it, other than to make a donation to the Red Cross, a food bank, some international food fund. I've done that before. Is a start. I like to brag about the number of times I have donated blood. To comfort myself that I am, after all, a decent person? This image will not let me go. It will never leave me. I am grateful that I didn't see it when I was younger. Haven't I seen similar picures before? Surely I have. I can't remebmer any of them. I try to comfort myself by reminding myself that each year there is more than enough food grown and produced in the world to feed everyone, every living person. That brings hope, but also anger, anger at the stupid inefficiencies of our tangled, greedy economic and political systems. The hope is the knowledge that it is not impossible to save ourselves, to save ourselves form our own folly. What purpose does my misanthropy serve, confronted with this? "Noble be man, compassionate, and good", said Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, perhpas the most intelligent man who ever lived, perhaps the wisest, perhaps the greatest writer. "Dark, dark, my light, and darker my desire. My soul, like some heat maddened summer fly, keeps buzzing at the sill. which I is I?" wrote Theodore Roethke. Maybe now I can answer this question, drag myself up and out of my emotional abyss. If thou gaze long into the abyss, the abyss will gaze into thee, Nietzche remnds us. I shall stare no longer. I shall reach down into myself, deep down, and find within myself my last vestage of love of humanity, and I shall nurture it, and let it grow, for it is there, awaiting a rebirth. I shall let the words of Goethe inspire and sustain me. My despair illuminates my compassion. "In a dark time, the eye begins to see", said Roethke.I shall gather myself together, and use myself for good. I will produce. Man, compassionate, and good.

Getting The Hell Out

IN THE CARTOON, drawn with pencil lines and stick figures, at once hilarious and morbidly frightening, two alien beings are standing in front of their grounded spaceship. In front of them stands a large cross, and upon it, the figure of a person, presumably Jesus, being crucified, nailed to it and hanging from it. The drawing is crude, simple, without refinement or adornment, but it makes the point profoundly. The alien creatures have either landed at the actual cross on calvary, witnessing the event itself, or are standing in front of a monument of the sort one might see in a cathedral, or monument in a religious theme park,or damned near anywhere in the United States of Acrimony. There's no way to tell, and the "reader" really does not need to know. We are free to draw our own conclusions, like in all good art. Either way, the circumstance is equally bizarre. One alien says to the other: "You know what we need to do? We need to get the hell out of here is what we need to do". Sometimes in a cartoon,sometimes in other places and ways, somebody hits the nail on the head, as we say. Whoever drew this cartoon nailed it, hard. That a bloody, ritual human sacrifice serves as the central theme in a major world religion in the twenty first century says much, perhaps too much, about the state of humanity, and human nature. We still cling to an ancient, bloody religion, to the tune of about two billion paople. We cling to tradition. We are fearful little creatures, looking to the past for inspiration and comfort. Supposedly the only species of animal on the planet aware of its own mortality, we do what we can to deal with our transient dilemma and our lives of pain and uncertainty. The two cartoon aliens are not the only sentient beings ecpressing a desire to get the hell off the planet, or at least to some place far away these days. Many similar cartoons depict humans, Americans presumably, begging to board alien spacehips, not to be abducted, but to flee. Canada has reportedly closed its border, and suspended all Visas to Americans. It may not help keep illegal immigrants from the south from pouring into their beautiful country like Latin Americans into the United States. The United States, it seems, is getting some of its own medicine. Problem is, from the Canadian point of view, is that the border, much like the southern border of the U.S., is extremely long, poorly monitored and defended, with hundreds of miles of rugged terrain, and holes through which you can drive a truck, as the saying goes, without the slightest chance of detection. If Americana want to come pouring into Canada by the thousands, illegally, there is nothing to stop them. Tit for tat. Who knows? Maybe the thousands of Latinos and Latinas who sneak into the United States every day would prefer to keep heading north, to a more civilized country, but, having already traveled god only knows how many miles for weeks under extreme conditions, are simply too exhausted to continue. What goes around comes around, as we say. Of course, there are about two hundred other countries in the world, including Mexico. We the fleeing despairing many have choices, if nothing else. Maybe we Yankee gringos can start returning the favor of favoring a neighboring country, Mexico, or an overseas country, with our unwanted presence. With my degrees in European history, I'm looking at Denmark. Why all this? Well, obviously because of Trump, Trump and his multi million member gang of supporters of traitorous criminality, immorality, and hatred. Because the United States of America, after flirting with the idea for decades, has finally given in to temptation and elected her own version of Hitler, just as Hitler was elected by confused, despairing Germans. The social disease of MAGA. Precisely how many Americans will soon become ex-patriots to add to the already roughly nine million living overseas is unknown. Exodus from a sick and divided nation, fallen into chaos, confusion, and despair. Maybe the good Lord will decide when to end this horrible state of affairs, assuming it ever ends. Or maybe the end is now. Like the Doors said in their song "The End": "This is the end."

God, Doing His Thing

THE GENTLEMAN HAS A POINT, and I agree with it. On a Facebook post, he says, paraphrased: "The Christian God sends himself to Earth, to be born into the world from the body of a woman, (a woman who, according to scripture quite young, and according to our modern beliefs, too young to give birth to and raise a child.) God grows up as a human being, and sacrifices himself to himself, to atone for the sins of creatures of his own creation, and to whom he bestowed the ability to sin, free will. God, in effect, sacrifices himself to himself, since Christ is God, in fact both God and man, according to church doctrine voted on at the Council of Nicea. Rather circular. Somewhat convoluted. Christian devotees use arguments such as "free will", and the mysterious nature of God. There is no evidence of free will, that it exists. There is an abundance of evidence that every particle of matter and every quanta of energy in the universe behaves according to natural law,"nature" either being the creation of God, or God itself. As a pantheist, I subscribe to the latter, as does, for example, Einstein. God, nature, the universe, the cosmos, all the same "thing". The pantheism of Spinoza and Einstein. If scinetists ever discover any evidence for the existence of free will, or discover free will itself, we must have faith that they will share it with us, and not conspire to conceal it. God splits himself, or herself, or itself, into three parts, the God head, Christ, and the holy ghost, so they say. All well and good. Whatever works, as we like to say. A religion is, after all, a theory, a belief system, an explanation for all existence, including ours. Of the more than four thousand religions on Earth, they cannot all be true...or can they? They can, however, all be false. Since I was a child I have considered the Christian religion to be "false', in that it is fiction. This is based on my reading of the first few chapters of "Genesis". By the time it gets to the flood, I became skeptcal. Halfway throgh Genesis, more so. Exodus, and the parting of the Red See, even more so. Today, late in life, more so still. But I can't prove that every word in the Bible isn't true, so maybe it is. At one point in the Bible it describes stars as glass trinkets hanging from the dome of the firmanment which, upon the return of Chrst, shall fall from the sky and shatter on the Earth. On another occasion, stars are pin prick holes in the dome, through which the blazing light of heaven shines through. Maybe, just maybe, I can disprove al that. But really, I can't, not without help. We have, very much intact and thriving, a twenty first century religion invented by humankind two shousand years ago, and better suited to the ancient world than the modern one. Christianitiy will die, as will all the other thousands of extant religions, as all religions inevitably do, unless we as a species die first. I would prefer that they not be replaced, or be replaced by a religion predicated on scientific fact, based on a reverence for nature, which is God. "I cannot conceive of a personal God who would sit in judgment over creatures of his own creation", said Einstein. Well, neither can I. Our inability to conceive of such a God has little or nothing to do with whether such a God exists. Einstein also said that imagination is more important than knowledge. I also agree with that. But imagination, like the human mind, which Einstien correctly called "weak and feeble", can only do so much. We must do the best we can with it, God, or no God.

Going To Church, For Comfort and Inspiration

TODAY IN CHURCH there were ten people in the building, including the minister, the organist, the liturgist, and, I, poor I, the bell ringer. I ring it five times five minutes before the service, by pulling hard on a long rope leading up to the steeple. I love the sound it makes, as does everyone else. A lady asked me whether I might ring it more than merely five times, so enthralled is she with it. I told her I can't, or won't, or should'n't. I have a torn rotator cuff, and it takes both arms. I am fortunate not to have made the injury worse with five tugs each Sunday. Don't get greedy. I can imagine myself being lifted into the air by the rope, and movng up and down, like a carnival ride, like in the movies. The sermon, as always, was excellent by my standards. We are all imperfect. We are all forgiven, if we want to be, if we ask to be. Doctrine says that we must ask God, or Jesus, or both, and therefrom derives the forgiveness. As far as I'm concerned, the forgiveness comes from myself, from within, from the God within me. Its all the same to me. When they say that the Presbyterian church is "liberal", I can see it. It suits me just fine, despite my contempt for organized religion. People need to gather together to share comfort and inspiration; religion fills the bill. Snake handling, screeching in tongues, demonic possession, washing away sins with the blood of Christ, I abhore. Like a good songwriter said in a lyric: "You can keep the cross, just give us Jesus". The sermon concerned in part the historical origins of the gospels. Not the legendary, supernatural origins, but the real, historical, factual ones. And now for a few facts. Nobody knows who wrote them., the four goepels. Probably it was four different, well educated men in Corinth, Greece. All of them first appeared written in ancient "high" educated, literate Greek. Mark appeared first, about forty years after Jesus died for three days. It is considered the most authoritative, although any book written forty years after the death of a person who is the subject of the book but who never met the author, which uses no "promary source" material, is inherently, by definition, Unreliable. Then came Mathew and Luke, based heavily on Mark. Last came came John, the craziest of the lot. All four tell a very differnt story about Jesus. Jesus has a different personality in all four. In a couple of them, you can't get the taciturn Jesus to say much. In John, you can't get him to stop talking. Nothing other can be expected from four different authors writing about the same person, particularly in ancient times. The New Testament was canonized at the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D.. Fifty seven versions of the gospel were up for consideration. All but four, including the gospels of Barnabus, Thomas, and Mary Magdalene were voted out; fifty three rejected in all. If all had been included, we would now doubtless have fifty seven distinctly different versions of the life of Christ. Maybe some would include descriptions of his entire life, without eighteen years of it missing. Maybe that would be more interesting. All four of the chosen have been written, rewritten, edited heavily, and changed over the centuries, so as to only resemble somewhat their original versions. Maybe they chose the wrong ones at Nicea, Turkey. We don't know what the fifty three rejects contained. (If only we did). But to me none of that matters, other than as a matter of historical truth and accuracy. One ought, it seems to me, to know how his or her sacred scriptures came into being. Most Christians settle by simply believing that God wrote or inspired the Holy Bible, and that's that. Whatever works, as we like to say. To me, it matters not, since I am not a Christian, but merely, like Socrates, an ignorant man asking questions, who like most people loves most of the messages of Jesus, but not all of them. You can keep the cross, just give me Jesus.

Stealing the Presidency

IN THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1800, John Adams, the federalist incumbant, ran against his vice president, Thomas Jefferson, a Democratic Republican. The two didn't like each other. During the campaign, Jefferson paid a newspaperman, John Calendar, fifty dollars to dig up and publish dirt on his rival, which the yellow journalist dutifully did. The campaign was brutal, with followers of the two politicians trading verbal blows in the press, and physical ones in the streets. In those days the politicians themselves were supposedly above actual campaigning, above the fray, above tawdry self promotion. It was considered unseemly to personally advocate for one's self and seek political power. Candidates for high offices were supposed to be too virtuous to seek power personally, but really weren't. They did it anyway. The election lasted six weeks, and in the electoral college was close, and the contest was forced into the House of Representatives when it could not be decided by the white land owning men of America. It was a rematch of the election of 1796, which Adams had narrowly won. Also running were Aaron Burr, and Charles Pinckney. The two finalists were Jefferson and Burr, and on the thirty sixth ballot in the House of Reps., Jefferson won, after some serious horse trading. Adams was out, Jefferson was in. Adams refused to attend Jefferson's inauguration. As he and his wife Abagail left Washington, she said to her husband: "Darling, why did you allow him (Jefferson) to do that to you?" His response? "My dearest, if he wants it that badly, (badly enough to let his supporters viciously slander Adams with lies in the press), let him have it." Thus, strangely, Thomas Jefferson becomes a sort of watered down late eighteenth century version of Donald Trump, arguably, a scoundrel. Later, as Jefferson settled into the newly built White House, he got a letter from Abagail. In it she said: "I still love you and always shall, but once upon a time I respected you." Jefferson, a sensitive man who prized his reputation, must have been stung by the harsh words, although he never said. Soon thereafter, John Calendar shows up in the Oval Office, wanting his fifty dollars. Jefferson, land rich but always broke, said that he didn't have it. When Calendar suggested that he might publish an article in his newspapers about the relationship of Jefferson to his slave girl Sally Hemmings, Dreamy Tom suddenly found the cash. Speaking of Donald Trump, I have many lifeling friends who not only inexplicably voted for and helped elect our present day scoundral, but who from the beginning bought into and still buy into Trump's great election loss stolen election lie of two thousand and twenty. The bastards...I've spent four years wrestling with what to do about it. Do I maintain my lifelong friendships with Trump election lie suporters, or dump them into the garbage disposal of my life, where they probably properly belong? Supporting our traitorous treasonous insurrectionist present president reelect is to me serious business. Damn Donald Trump, damn his supporters, friends of mine or not, and damn the horses they rode in on. So what am I to do? I still haven't decided. My current thinking is that I am willing to remain friends with them, if they are with me. But I am also willing to ditch them. But I definitely do and indeed am now in the process of contacting them, congratulating them on Trump's victory, like the gentleman I am. And I will tell and am telling them, like a true plagiarist: "I still love you, and always shall, but once upon a time I respected you" Likely they won't like hearing that (who would?), and the the strain between us will become a severance. Okay, fine, screw the bastards. Don't let the door hit their butts, etc.... If they want my respect back, which they might not, all they must do is acknowledge that the twenty twenty election was not stolen from them and Trump, and apologize, yes apologize for having ever said that it was. It is even more unlikely that they will do that. After all, they are dug in too deep to get back out without losing face, so to speak, after four years of living as immoral prevarcators. Trumpers never apologize nor admit error. Such is the sordid state of their morality and integrity. The question boils down to whether my lifelong Trump friends are interested in maintaining a friendship with somebody, me, who has no respect for them and aint afraid to say so. Their choice. Either way, my conscious is clear, my mmoral values intact. What they think about their own moral values is, of course, entirely up to them, and of no concern to me. But I know damned good and well what I think. All I know is, I'm glad I am me, and not them.

Calling Out Heresy

CHRIS HEDGES is among my heroes, or role models. He is a sixty eight year old Presbyterian minister (I am 69, progressive,and attend a Presbyterian church), a progressive political activist, journalist, and well respected widely read author. He spent years reporting from various of the most dangerous war zones in the world, including Central America, Bosnia, and the middle east. He spent three years at the Harvard school of divinity, and received a doctorate in religious studies, before establishing his ministry and other careers. His many books include: "Death of the Liberal Class", "Emmpire of Illusion", and "American Fascists". The first is highly critical of America's progressive movement, seeing it as hollow, shallow, hypocritical, ineffective. The second is highly critical of American foreign policy, and the third is a reference to American evangelicals. Their movement he describes as "fascist". Hedges has described himself as a "socialist" and an "anarhist" at various times. So persuasive is his writing that even the most conservative, deeeply politically entrenched political or religious votary with the courage to read his work, emerges from the experience as either deeply troubled, converted to progressive thought, or barricade defensive. The conservative mind, of course, tends towards the latter. Hedges says that he is willing to do what the mainstrream Christian church is not; to condemn the right wing evangelical Christian community as heretical. The push back and controversy he thus engenders is of not the slighest significance to him, for he is long accustomed to it. He does not shrink from addressing his detractors, in print, or open debate. Regarding the conservative religious right, the evangelical community which elected and reelected Donald Trump, Hedge's critique is centered around the fact that the ministry of Jesus does not proclaim the gosple of wealth, nor instruct the ministers of mega churches to become super wealthy. By attaching itself to conservative politics, the evangelical community, asserts Hedges, has embraced and enculturated the worst, most destructive aspects of American capitalism, imperialism, violence, social division, hatred, and racism. Hedges is the very embodiment of Goeth's aphorism: "The world advances only because of those who oppose it." Like many far left intellectuals, Hedges' complaint about America's progressive community and the Democratic party is simply that it is not sufficiently progressive, does not fully embrace socialism, is too watered down, too fearful of veering too far from the safe, comfortable political center. He describes the recent election as a contest between corporate America (the Democrats), and oligarchical America, (Trump and the Republicans). Truly, to him, a choice between the lesser of two evils. I have never read nor heard what Hedges has to say about Bernie Sanders. My best guess is that Sanders represents to Dr. Hedges the best American politics has to offer, and his complaint might be that there simply is not enough Sanders to go around. The fact that sanders has made a powerful showing in every campaign for political office that he has entered, and has won election to both the House of Representatives and the United States Senate, where he currently serves, one might think, is an indication that for Hedges all is not lost in contemporary American political life. However, that is mere speculation on my part. With Chris Hedges, one can never be too sure of anything, and that is what makes his work so interesting, entertaining, thought provoking, and troubling.

Accumulating Disasters

WITHIN THE PAST MONTH, no fewer than six, count 'em six tyhoons, aka hurricanes, have roared past and through the Phillipine islands. The most recnet one is making landfall at this very moment, November 15, just as the next to most recent one is leaving and heading back out to sea. A hurricane parade. Meanwhile, a massive cloud of filthy air, aka "smog", is positioned over all of south Asia, so massive it can be seen from space. The impact on the health of hundreds of millions of people will take time to assess, but will, obviously, be extensive. The smog is the direct result of human activity, although American conservatives quite likely are perfectly willing to attribute it to nature, the fact that it consists of particles and chemicals which can be produced only by industrial processes notwithstanding. The typhoons clearly prove what has until recently been somewhat in doubt; whether the frequency as well as the severity of storms will be affected by climate change. Now we know; it will be, and already is. All of this was predicted by climate science decades ago. Smog has damaged the health of millions of people for decades and centuries. Smog was thick over Los Angeles between World War Two and the end of the century, and has only been mitigated noticeably since then, as cars have become more fuel efficient and fuel and cars cleaner, equipped with catalytic converters. Dense smog from coal burning blanketed all major European cities beginning in the late eighteenth century, and continuing throughout the nineteenth. Over a four day period in 1852, thousands of people in London died from respiratory distress, as the smog became so thick and unmoving that the city was dark as night during the day time. For more than one hundred years, some perceptive scientists have known about and written about climate change. Einstein even thought it might be a good idea, to enhance agricultural production during the famines following World War Two. Even Einstein was sometimes wrong. Every result of climate change is now occuring on a regular basis all over the world. Prolonged droughts. Massive, torrential rains, and severe flooding. Rising sea levels. Massive wildfires. Summers in which scorching, record setting temperatures never abate. Winters in which winter never comes, with mild weather, even summery weather, in winter months. Tornadoes in December in the United States, to which tornadoes are unique. In the United States, tornado and wildfire seasons, once lasting only a few months, are now year round. Climate change, with serious, devastating consequences, is now unavoidable, for the present and for the future. The only remaining question is exacly how severe it will be in the future, and how much, if any, can and will we the human species mitigate it. The answer is that we have the ability to mitigate climate change considerably, and to lessen the severity of it sufficiently to give our descendants a fighting chance to lead lives worth living. So, we can. Equally importantly, will we? Will we take action in time? Our already slugghish, belated sefforts towards that end have now, sudddenly, shockingly, been brought to an abrupt halt, at least in the United States, by the election of climate denying Donald Trump. Among Trump's seemingly endless list of harmful, criminal words and deeds, the most important of all is his refusal to acknowledge and address human caused climate change. The same goes for most Republicans, and most conservatives, although gradually they are starting to awaken, and become more reasonable. They have no choice. But now Trump and his oil digging, coal burning lunacy is locked in, seemingly, for the next four years, four years during which our chances of saving the planet might well vanish, forever.

Taking the High Road, Or Trying To

I WAS WALKING, not running, on the treadmill at my local senior center. I am careful to avoid perspiring and stinking before entering the dining room for lunch. Still depressed about the election results, but becoming resolute, healing, on I strided, going nowhere, as always. Its time to resist, not lament. Into the room walked an employee, a friend of mine, working. Treadmills can be a bit boring, without music. Sometimes even day dreaming or thinking great thoughts doesn't help alleviate the boredom much. So, when I have a chance to speak, I speak. To the employee I said: "I've been getting in touch with all my friends who support Trump, and congratulating them. Much as I complain about Trump's morality, I can either keep complaining, or model a different behavior, something better, and take my behavior to a higher level. That way, when I come to the end of my days, I will know that, if nothing else, I have tried to take the high road. I have sought a better way, have tried to be magnanimous"... All this is true. I meant it sincerely. It was a bit of a trap. She is a Trummper, but an extremely good person, the sort of person who really and truly makes one wonder what the hell. She seemed to like what she heard, smiled, and acknowledged my comment, but said nothing of substance. They never do. They never respond directly to factual remarks about Trump's morality. How can they? They know exactly how horrible he is, because they aren't brain dead, despite all appearances to the contrary. I call them morally and intellectually bnakrupt, Trump supporters, but there is more to it than that. The human capacity for "compartmentalization", to embrace personal realities which contradict one's moral values, for expediency, adheres without relent. "We resist the truth only because we fear that we would perish if we accepted it", as Goethe said. People will do whatever is necessary to avoid confronting their own soul, as I think Schopenhauer said. They justify themselves by downplaying Trump's criminality and blatant immorality. "He says some pretty weird things, but he cares about the country". "I wouldn't want to marry him, but he's a damned good leader", etc. His lies thus become silly little half truths, irrelevant, his crimes become fabrications of his enemmies - by now you know the drill. When Jackie Robinson played for the Dodgers, he was booed mercilessly at home games, for the crime of being black. When Jackie hit a home run or got a big hit to win a game, which he often did, the booes turned to cheers, his crime temporarily overlooked. The Dodger fans, human beings all, were unwilling to confront their own souls, like the rest of us, content to compartmentalize. Jackie was an N word, but became an honorary white man when he brought victory. I have begun telling Trump supprters that I consider their support of Trump appropriate, because Trump's intellect and moral values are perfectly aligned with their own. I intend my observation as factual. Whether the recipient considers it flattering or insulting is their choice, not mine. I am perfectly free to regard Donald Trump as a traitor and criminal who should have been tried, convicted, sentenced to death and executed long ago. And his supporters are quite free to contort their souls into pretzels forming a cult around a man who, like themselves, hates non white immigrants, and is a racist, pathological prevaricator and narcissist, and all the rest. Cognitive dissonance works wonders. Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer. My fellow Trump despisers don't like my congratulating Trumpers. They choose another path, of anger and bitterness. Well, so be it then. I go alone. I am not done congratulating all my Trumper friends, notwithstanding my loss of respect for them. our friendship diminished, for the simple reason that we competed, and they won. But only for the time being. And, soon, when I confront my soul and perhaps my maker, I will know, if nothing else, that at least I tried, tried to take the high road.

Keeping Trees, Racing Into Forests

TWENTY YEARS AGO, when I bought about half an acre and put up a small, modest, ranch style house, the yard looked like a construction site, which it was, like the surface of the moon, which it nearly was. Rocks and crab grass. I nearly gave up hope, and moved out before I moved in. I stayed, threw down some grass seed, and planted about twenty saplings, oak, maple, among others. Also, along a fence at the property's edge, I allowed about twenty more volunteer trees to remain and thrive. The grass, starved for sunlight and water by greedy trees, has never done well. The trees have. Now I live in a de facto forest. In the summer, I get so much shade that I often don't need air conditioning in hot weather. The roooms are dark in the summer, but the house faces south, and in winter, with the leaves on the ground, the sun shines pleasantly into my humble abode, warming it pleasantly. I don't need much artificial heat either. I love trees, wanted it this way, and, also I thought I might be helping to save the planet. I still think I am. "Tree Keepers: The Race For A Forested Future", a new book by Lauren Oakes, not only has an appropriately named author, but a good one, and is a salient, seminal overview of an essential human activity: the reforesting of the planet. Oakes is a conservation scientist and writer at Stanford whose monograph discusses current efforts and projects around the world, from the cold north to the tropical jungles, to increase the number of trees in the world by at least one trillion, by replenishing dwindling existing forests and starting new ones. It tunrs out that there is a growing trend globally to engage in this ultra healty activity. The goal, of course, is to reverse or mitigate climate change by giving nature a chance to suck the carbon out of the atmosphere and store it in the ground, replacing it with pure oxygen, which trees do, to a "T". Estimates are that at the dawn of neolithic civilization approximately seven trillion tress lived on Earth; that number has been cut in half by yours truly, and the senseless tree slaughter continues apace, for ths usual capitalistic reasons. It is estimated that the number of trees left decreases by about ten billion per year. Trees, like animals, insects, and humans, are threatened with extinction; unless we the people change course. Lauren Oakes, an optimist, insists that we are indeed changing course, and that it does and will make a difference. On the flip side, scientists tell us that we simply cannot tree grow our way out of our desperate situation, that even if we planted one tree per square foot of land on Earth, climate change will not be mitigated or stopped mearly by adding trees. All the other well known measures, limiting human population and economic growth, switching to sustainable,renewable energy sources, will remain necessary. But there is reason for optimism. Some corporations are pledging to plant one tree for every sale they make. One tree per car, investment portfolio, refrigerator, or whatever. Governments are taking part. Saharan African countries are engaging in massive tree planting operations. It might be possible, through desalination, tree planting, and water pipelines, to irrigate our way from mass- ive deserts to lush forests. Difficult as it is to imagine the arid American west and the Sahara as lush forests, it is not an impossibility... My yard looks more like a dense forest every year, as the trees grow, and the fallen leaves and branches pile up. It takes work to keep it under control. I do the yardwork, and keep it from looking too wild. But, despite my tree surfeit, I am thinking about planting more trees in nooks and crannies. Future owners of my house are likely to take out many of my beautiful trees, and live a more normal life. But by then, maybe it won't matter, one way or the other. I will have tried to save the planet, and maybe, just maybe, I did.

Forming A Brand New Mob

AT MY LOCAL SENIOR CENTER, we enjoy a variety of activities, including field trips. We hop on the center's mini bus, and head out on the road, visiting art galleries, big kitty cat sancturies, lions and tigers and bears, oh my, attending movies, dining out, you name it, we git 'er done. We organize this by simply positioning a sign up sheet on a table near the front door of the center, John Hancock, first come, first serve. The bus can carry thirteen people, and is very uncomfortable, which by itself tends to hold down participation. It doesn't faze me, but does the more elderly and infirm. Members are welcome to make suggestions to the directer as to activities for field trips; she is quite open minded and accomodating. So accomodating that I put a bug in her ear, figuratively. She, like I, like sane, decent people, is a virulent anti-Trumper, more so than I, if that is possible. In a small southern town senior center infested with MAGA-folk, she and I, and a small group of sane decent people, hold forth, by our fingernails. She cannot openly voice her political opinions because of her position; inciting civil unrest and conflict within the organization under one's direction tends to weaken one's job security. I, however can, can openly voice, but don't. I'd hate like hell to get into a physical altercation with an eighty five year old cult member. I might get my hands dirty. But I can make suggestions for field trips. I suggested to her that we place a sign up sheet at the usual location, and that the field trip be a longer one than usual, to Washington D.C. on January 6th, which I think will once again be the date of electoral college certification. The activity: to help form and participate in, you guessed it, an angry, violent, insurrectionist mob, with the purpose of advancing up Pennsylvania Avenue from Trump speech ground zero, having assembled there, well armed, and aproach it (the Capitol building), enter it by any means necessary, shattered glass, and "compel" the Congress to cast its votes for Biden. Essentially, a Trump style insurrection, the mob somewhat different politically and ideologically than its predecessor. Why not? It nearly worked the first time. We both laughed, but she, the director, a friend of mine, vetoed the bill, citing her preference for her job and life to armed violent insurrection. Not lost in the comedic, satirical shuffle is that we the American people, by a definite majority, have elected a convicted criminal and insurrectinist as president, a previously twice impeached previous president. (He arguably belongs elsewhere, like in prison or in front of a firing squad.) My anti-"elderly insurrectionist" director friend says that she not only knew that Trump would win, but that she has given up on America. I conversely, didn't know squat; I thought Kamala would moidah dah bum, majorly. Nor have I given up on America. I shall forever hold out the hope that we the Americna people can and perhaps will someday establish an actual democray in the United States, with D.E.I. and all, a secular democratic republic, rather than the plutocracy that the founders founded, intentionally. James Madison thought that ninety nine percent of us the American people were and presumably still are too stupid to govern ourselves, so he chose not to let us do it. I tend to see his point, especially now, but yet...beg to differ. Call me a crazy idealistic democratic socialist progressive. As always, I might be wrong. But I still think the image of thirteen ederly left wing southern Baptist insurrectionist Democrats busing to D.C., armed and angry, is hilarious.

Keeping the Faith Among the Faithless

BILLY GRAHAM, among all the myriad preachers who have dotted the American landscape preaching salvation through Jesus Christ, was arguably the most compassionate, astute, and politically savvy. The other preeminent ones, including Jonathan Edwards, Cotton Mather, and Billy Sunday, among others, were more inclinded to preach a message of hellfire, damnation, and divine retribution. Edwards' metaphor in which even the most devout Christian, while alive, dangles perpetually over the flaming pits of hell, held back and hanging by only a gossamer thread of the thinnest kind, in constant peril of the thread snapping at the first trace of sin, exemplifies this darker, terrifying brand of the Christian faith. Billy Graham did things differently. Rather than try to frighten people into accepting Jesus Christ as their personal lord and savior, he preahed a message of love and compassion, beckoning folks to join the flock with love and kindness, in keeping with the message of Jesus. Noteworthy is that through his entire career, not a hint of corruption surrounded or sullied him; for all appearances and in evident fact, Graham was spotless in terms of personnal comportment, personal morality and financical conduct. He avoided the temptation of enriching himself at the expesnse of those seeking salvation by giving money to his minsitry. Few others can say that with honesty. Himself, like most devout Christians a conservative, he saw , well in advance of the evangelical political avalanche-like entry into the political arena of the late seventies and early eighties. He predicted and saw the advent of the "moral majority", the pitfalls of a marriage between religion and politics, especially the politics of the far right. He said, paraphrased, that he had deep misgivings about the possibility of a union of evangelical Christianity and the far right wing political community, because, as he put it, the far right political community has no real interest in religion. He didn't spend a great deal of time elaborating on this, peferring, as always, not to alienate anyone by disparaging them, but it seems apparent the the reverend Graham undrstood one salient,irrefutable fact: that whereas left wing people are far less likely to embrace the Christian religion than are conservatives, they are nonethelsss, in their political ideology, much more compatible with the actual teachings of the savior. Render unto Caesar. Pay your taxes to the government, give your heart and love to God. Give unto the poor. Embrace voluntary personal impoverishment. Was he talking about, in spirit, tax and spend redistribute the wealth bleeding heart liberals,or make your own way by hard work and get wealthy conservative Republicans? The answer seems evident. Barry Goldwater, as conservative as it gets and a man of deep religious faith, had the same misgivings. He said that he lamented and feared the day that the Republican party would be takon over by "preachers", meaning that a political party which combined conservative politics with evangelical Christianity was not something to be desired. Such a marriage would limit the party to a single religious ideology and costituency, in a nation with growing religious diversity. And, by pinning the evangelical religious movment to a single political party, the evangelical Christian community would be similarly constrained and limited. And yet, their warnings were not heeded, it happened, religion and politics were formally mixed together, and here we are, with an extremist mainstream political party, extremist in religious and political ideology both. On the surface, at this moment in history, it seems to be succeeding. But it is a ticking time bomb, an explosive stewing poison which cannot endure. The inherent contradictions are too great, the internal stress too great. But the line has been crossed, and the problem is, how to keep the faith while joined at the hip to a political agenda which represents essentially the diametric opposite of what the Prince of Peace preached. For those intent on trying, good luck.

Playing the Blame Game

THE STOCK MARKET is up, unemployment is down. Wages are up, inflation is down. And yet, we are told by the experts that surveys indicate that the economy, stupid, is the primary reason for Kamala's defeat at the hands of a convicted felon and his political party of insurrection-approval. As Festus Hagen used to say on "Gunsmoke": "I have my doubtfuls". Three fourths of the American people disapprove of their personal finances, and at fault is the American economy, and thus, American political leadership. Four years ago, only half of us the American people said this, at the end of Trump administration number one. Questioning the experts is not necessarily a matter of far right wing populist revolt. Sometimes it makes sense,especially when expertise is predicated exclusively upon opinions gleaned from Americans. A friend and neighbor of mine, from Guatemala, told me that he has noticed that for Americans, somebody else is always responsible for their hardships and unfortunate circumstances. During the fifty years I have been buying my own groceries, the price increase in food has been constant, relatively steady, and inexorable. No U.S. president has ever, by his lomesome, been held responsible for it. When prices rise, on anything, they rarely if ever go back down, despite Trump's campaign promises. Inflation has always been accepted as a fact of life. As one of my professors in graduate school put it: "they always clipped coins". Grover Cleveland-like, Don the Con J.Trump reenters the White House for a nonconsecutive presidency residency redux. Is it really the econcomy that got him there? Or are we really so infatuated with gangster like Al Capone and Jesse James that we prefer perfidy to virtue? If indeed the Democrats have gotten out of touch with the American working class it was by virtue of advocating for stronger labor unions, higher wages for blue collar workers, and improved working conditions across the board. The federal minimum wage remains a seven bucks and a quarter an hour, since 2009, not because of legislation sponsored by Democrats, one can rest assured. One can hardly imagine a stranger, less predictable way for a politcal party to get out of touch with the working class. If the Republicans party has for the first time ever has gotten itself in touch with the working class, it did so on the backs of resistance to labor unions, opposition to increase of the federal wage and wage increases for hourly blue collar workers, reduced corporate taxes, and tax breaks for billionaires. What a way to endear one's politcal party and economic agenda to the hard workers of America! One senses, if one is objective, that something else is going on. But what? Overwhelmingly, those defecting from decency to Trump are white. That's a start. Increasing numbers of Latin Americans legally in the United States resent the influx of their illegal countrymen. Okay, fine. So they voted for Trump. Why not? He promises to get rid of all eleven million of them, a promise neither he nor anyone else can keep, without creating mass chaos and sinking the American economy. Send several million farm workers and construction workers packing and see what happens to the price of eggs and houses. Why has there been a shift among African-Americans from Democrats to Trump? Well, its only a slight shift, and its black men, not women. We'll have to keep trying to figure that one out. Meanwhile, white men will continue to support Trump, and women of all shades will continue to oppose him, though in insufficient numbers to matter, and we can all comfort ourselves by pretending that racism and misyogyny have nothing to do with it.

Strangely Stinking Animals

FROM THE BEGINNING, I thought Kamala would win, big. But of course, I thought the United States would win the Viet Nam War, and that the Yankees would win the 1964 World Series. As a great ancient Chinese philosopher adroitly said,"only fools predict the future". I can't recall exactly when I, listening to National Public Radio Tuesday night, first realized that Trump would be elected. Seems like it was rather early. Assuming the Republicans win the House, and that seems likely as of this writing, NPR might well be among the better things in life which becomes extinct, along with the worst, the human race. I can scarcely imagine what mental and moral contortions of pretzel logic one must put one's self through to convince one's self to support Donald Trump. Despite troves of material available on the subject, despite my ruminations over the past nine years, I still just don't get it. His supporters are perfectly well aware of what a reprobate he is; the trick is to realize that they support him in spite of this, perhaps because of it. Morally and intellectually, his supporters remind me of him. I tell them that, and they don't seem flattered. When Trump was elected the first time, I congratulated him. I did the same thing this time. That's what people of high moral character do, rather then deny their election defeat and attempt to violently overthrow the government. You give people a chance. Donald Trump had his chance, the first time. Trump admires tyrants, and has promised to become one. He won't find it very difficult. More than sixty five million Americans have given up on democracy, and want a "strong man". Moral character matters not. One sixth of all Americans who believe that Trump will be an authoritarian president voted for they tyrant-elect. Not long after Putin attacked Ukraine, the twice yearly congregation of latent fascists, CPAC, met. The crowd chanted: "Rush-uh..Rush-uh"! Russia, formally, is a republic. So is the United States. Like 1933 Germany, we have elected our tyrant. Donald Trump, like any other American president, can lower the price of groceries only by visiting thousands of grocery stores, strutting up and down the isles, and marking down the prices by hand. Aside from an impending criminalization of LGBTQ people, the construction of holding pens for brown skinned immigrants, the engraving of The Ten Commandments upon the Lincoln Memorial, and changing sides in the Russo-Ukrainian War, there is the matter of climate change. We have switched sides, and are now allied with he forces of global destruction, fossil fuel billionaires and all. Look for the atmospheric carbon content to exceed 500 parts per million by the year twenty thirty. December will become a summer month in the northern hemisphere. Already the multi billionaires, Musk, inc., are relocating to Washington D.c.. The great American plutocracy, always extent but long hidden in murky realm of smoke filled room pseudo anonymity, shall now come out into the sanitized light of high noon. The cockraoches will scatter, but gather together elsewhere, to aid and abet the new tyrant. Officialy, the United States will be a plutocracy, as it has always been informally. It gets worse before it gets better. Like all illness, this one must run its course. "In the earthquakes to come, it is to be hoped I shan't allow bitterness to quench my cigar's glow", wrote Bertolt Brecht. He also wrote: "I make friends with people. and I wear a derby on my head, as others do". I say: "They are strangely stinking animals". And I say: "No matter, I am too".

Voting

ON FACEBOOK, in response to the question of whether I had voted early, I responded that indeed I had, early, and often. Aside from the fact that I was making an obvious joke, some too serious liberal told me that I should not have said "often", because ("coz") by so doing I was "playing into the hands" of MAGA folk. Instead of answering, I posted an emoticon depicting the shutting of my big mouth, and then another, depicting a rolling of the (my) eyes, which I intended as an expression of ridicule of the suggestion not that my comment had been unwise, but that I was playing into someone's strategic, ideological hands, stoking flames. I heard, read nothing further. The exchange was, apparently, complete. In fact, playing into MAGA hands was precisely my intent. Stir the pot a bit. Lookit. If Kamala wins there will be a civil war, or something closely resembling one, vote joke or no vote joke. What I say has little bearing on this dreadful circumstance, since Trump and his basket of deplorable insurrectionist mobsters is already foaming and forming at the gate, foaming at the mouth, ready to spring into action and pounce at the first indication of a Trump electoral loss. And spring and pounce it surely will. Nobody cares, nor needs to care, what I think, say, or do, about anything, including our roiling American body politic. As for me, I, like Neil Diamond sang, am "like a man with a tiger outside of his gate", who "not only could'n't relax but could'n't relate." Safely so ensconced I sit, awaiting the election results like everyone else, willing to come out and engage, tiger or no tiger, but preferring not to. My voting often reference was quite obviously a humorously intended reference to the enduring Trump mob of gangsters and their continuing outlandish accusations of election theft, then and now, which I in fact find not only deplorable, but, verily, garbage. As for Hillary Clinton's infamous "basket of deplorables' comment in 2016 which probably cost her political capital and votes; she, in my humble opinion (imho) was, at the beginning, middle, and end of the verbal scandal, was in fact, quite right. As I recall, she made no retraction, nor, imho, should she have. And now lame duck president Biden clearly referred to Trump's supporters, in toto, as a (presumably immense) floating pile of garbage, then, under pressure, took it back by "clarifying" it, which, imho, he should not have nor need have. After all, at this point, what's he got to lose? And why not stick to the truth, to what he clearly meant and intended? After all, when Der Trumpster, his mind ever in the proverbial dumpster, referred to beautiful lovely Puerto Rico as a "floating pile of garbage", did he not, as they say in John Grisham novels and television law dramas, "open the door"? This, aside from the simple geological fact that neither Puerto Rico nor any other island "floats". But how can we expect a person who claims that George Washington captured airports, windmills cause cancer and psychiatric distress among whales, and that Italy and the United States have been allies for thousands of years be expected to understand basic geological reality? But show me a Trump supporting evangelical Christian who refuses to consign folks with religious differences or opposition to Trump to hell, and a Trump supporter who openly acknowledges that Trump's great election lie of twenty twenty was indeed a lie,and that the subsequent well planned and orchestrated violent and nearly succesful insurrection was a terrible idea, and maybe, just maybe, I will cease to refer to the MAGA movement as a basket of deplorable pile of garbage, or whatever. Maybe, but don't count on it.