Humanity, Committing Suicide

IT CANNOT BE REPEATED often enough that compared to climate change, the United States, and the entire world, do not have any significant issues, including the threat of nuclear war, disease, famine, war, and all the rest. They all pale, compared to climate change caused by global warming caused by human acivity, namely, the burning of fossil fuels. Simply high school chemistry explains it. Those who passed it understand climate change, those who did not take or pass chemistry do not understand climate change, generally. And being human, their lack of understanding often causes them to deny its existence, which is not only a complete travesty, but truly tragic. The reality of climate change, and its disastrous consequencs, is now with us, glaringly. And over tht next few years, its going to get much much worse, fast. With Trump coming to power in three days, the United States is on the verge of greatly increasing its production and consumption of fossil fuels, which already are at an all time high. To save the nation and th eplanet wht we must do is to drasticallly decrease and eliminate our use of fossil fuels, fast. The election of Trump, from this very reasonable point of view, begins to appear like societal suicide. Those of us who took high school chemistry must band together and force Trump and the MAGA-Republican-conservative criminally insane mob to reverse course, to accept the reality of climate change and of our desperate situation, and to work with us to solve the problem. We must convince the religious fanatics that we can't wait around doing nothing and waiting for the lord to return and take care of everything, and we must convince that science deniers that the climate will not someday suddenly, magically, take care of itself, and, as Trump says "change back" to how it was before. By allowing Trump and his forces to take power in the United States we the American people are effectively commiting suicide, and taking the rest of the world with us. Every yer is hotter than the previous year. That is now a fact of life on planet Earth, and it is not going to change. Without some drastic change in our behavior the global temperatures will keep rising until Earth is uninhabitable for humans, and for most other species of life, if not all species. Maybe withan a year or two or three technology will provide a way to remove carbon from the atmosphere in huge quntities. Removing about a trillion tons of carbon from the air we breathe would indeed end human made climate change. The question is whether we can learn how to do that in time, or at all. We certainly cannot afford to assume that we can and will in the near future, any more than we can rely on Jesus or God to come to Erath and save us, or take to heaven the saved while the bulk of humanity remains on Earth to suffer and die in suffocating carbon dioxide and five hundred degree heat while those who are saved rejoice in heaven. Those of us who understand high school chemistry and global warming must make our voices heard, now, thunderously, in unison. We must force the climate deniers in power to abandon their mass insanity - because that's ultimately what climate chagne denial is. Trump and his mob are on the verge of destroying, removing all protections for the environment put in place by Biden and previous governments, and to embark on a project to kill us all with fossil fuels. We must save ourselves, even if it means destroying them.

Putting Out Fires, Part II

HAVING AN INTELLIGENT CONVERSATION with a Trump supporter about Trump is always risky. One is at risk of being inundated with an avalanche of nonsense, falsehoods, fake facts, denial, the whole kit n caboodle. My sixth grade teacher wisely admonished us to never talk about politics or religion, with anybody. I can kinda see her point. At my local senior center, which is predominantly pro Trump evangelical conservative, I am especially careful to steer clear, for the above reasons. Sometimes, one of them overhears me having an intelligent conversation with an intelligent senior center member, and, for some reason, simply has to jump into it,simply cannot resist, or doesn't want to. I told a friend of mine that president elect Trump is accusing the California government, state and local, of being incompetant by allowing the wildfires to begin and to burn out of control, which to me is a perfect example of why I despise Trump, for his lies and vicious, false accusations. An interloper injected the thought that if the state of California would clean up its wilderness areas,and not allow them to fill up with dead branches, the fires wud run out of fuel, and would be harmless, or less harmful, or perhaps wouldn't start in the first place. Native American lands, he assserted, which are well maintained, have no such wildfires. I need to fat check this, and I will, right after I either shoot the idiot who said this, or amazingly prevent myself from doing so. I don't even know whether the guy who said this is a Trumper, or whatever,but I suspect that he is. It sounds like their kind of reasoning, ignoring obvious realities, twisting facts. Particularly, ignoring climate change, as if it plays no role in wildfires worth mentioning. I can assure the gentleman that if ever square inchhi of every wooded area or grasslandin the western United STates were pristine pure clean of dead branches on the ground, we would still have the wildfires, especially in areas which experience months of severe drought, followed by fifty to one hundred mile an hour sustained, hot winds. Every time. Anybody with even a rudimentary brain can understand that the increasing frequency and severity of wildfires in the United States, as well as around the world, is the direct result of climate change, period. And, like climate change itself, which is concpicuously getting worse fast and which will obviously continue gettign worse, much worse, in the near future, the wildfires will continue to increase in number, and will continue to last longer, burn more land, and cause ever more devastation. Simply clearing out all underbrush and dead tree branches will not be sufficient to prevent future wildfires. Climate change means extreme weather, year round. Extreme storms, extreme floods, and extreme drought. And again, its already here, and worsening, fast. Our floods, storms, and droughts will all increase in frequency and severity next year, and the next, and the next...Climate hange, caused by human activity, has for decades beenofficially identified by the United States Department of Defense as the single greatest threat to American national security, period. Not Russia, China, or illegal immigration, or terrorism... climate change. Accordingly, what are people who deny that climate chane is real, and that it is caused by people? What do you call an American citizen who refuses to acknoledge the very existence of the greatest threat to American national security? A "traitor" perhaps?

Rubber Stamping Trump

THE CIRCUS has barely but begun, but, it has begun. The confirmation hearings for Trump's incoming bizarre cabinet are underway.The Republicans, perhaps unsurprisingly, are hurling softball qestions at Trump's annointed few, evidently expecting nothing, getting nothing, and allowing the nomminees to issue the standard bland, slam dunk, sycophantic, innocuous, responses. Apologies for the mixed metaphor. In so doing they are, as usual, ignoring, overlooking, minimalizing, glaring personal flaws and egregious, often illegal past behavior. The Demorats, properly, are hitting the nail on the head, trying to force the nominees to explain it all. That approach, of course, never seems to work, not in America, the land of obfuscation. Nobody deftly dodged pertinent question any better than Secretary of Defense nominee Hegseth, who somehow managed to turn sexual misbehavior and alcohol abuse into irrelevant trivialities, if not outright irrelevancies. It has become starkly obvious what we alreday knew; that every Trump nominee was nominated by Trump for two reasons; for holding extremist conservative views and attitudes, and for absolute,unconditional, fervent loyalty to Trump. Experience and competance bedamned. Not a single Trump nominee possesses even remoely adequate experience nor qualitfications for the job for which they are being nominated. We the American people are about to be giftd with what is arguably the least competant, least qualified, least moral presidential administration in the entire history of the united States. Mr. Hegseth actually is an impressive interviewee. He presents a pleasant but demeanor, and responds to all questions calmlyand intelligently. Hee managed to preesnt himself as a champion of women military menbers and serice, to have done a complete one eighty from his prior lifelong stance that there is no place for women in the military. What appears to be a miraculous conversion. Democratic Senator Gillibrand told him so, and congratulated him on it. It brings to mind the threee Trump SCOTUS justices who told the world tht Roe v. Wade was "settled law", got appointed, then, proceeded to "unsettle" it. During a job interview, an ardent, eager job applicant will say damned near anything to get the job. Republicans control Congress, if only barely, and thus control every committee and sub committee. There is no doubt that all of Trump's nominees will pass the "test", and get the job, amazingly, terrifyingly. The most alarming aspect of these sham nomination hearings is that they clearly demonstrate another salient fact which we have always suspected; that the incoming Republican Congress is going to back Trump one hundred percent. Whatever he says, is gong to go in Conogress, if only by a narrow majority. The same for his MAGA mob supporters, who are in fact a distinct minority in America. Just yesterday the new House of Reps passed a bill that would make it illegal, nationally, for transgender girls to play on girls sports teams in public schools. The Senate will probably pass it, Trump will probably sign it, and, here we go again, backwards, blindly stumbling back towards some fantasy former great America. The regression has begun, the dark ages are looming. You can try to tell them that its impossible, that you cannot turn back the clock to a time which only exits in their imagination, but why bother? They only hear and see what they want to, as we already know.

Sentencing Trump, Finally

SO NOW, FINALLY, its official. Donald Trump can indeed be not only convicted of multiple (34) felonies, he can also be sentenced for them, even if the sentence is nothing. It is not impossible, as many have thought, to bring justice, of sorts, to Don the Con. If nothing else, it proves a point, an important one. Any time you happen to mention to one of your Trump friends that Trump is a convicted felon, you are not merely expressing your opinion; you are stating a fact, a most relevant one. Donald Trump may be the first and only American in American history who committed thirty four felonies, was convicted fo all of them, but yet, received no punishment for them, other than that they remain on his criminal record, rather than being expunged. Their usual rejoinder that the whole thing was a set up, a hit job by people "out to get' Trump remains, as always, bogus, false, an outright lie. Nor is it surprising that "they", Trump supporters, continue to tell this obvious lie; give them credit, if nothing else, they stick to their prevarications, no matter how banal, transparent, obviously false. A bit more than a week before again assuming the presidency, Trump obviously has not changed, is obviously still committed to his traditionaly method; pathological dishonesty. Wild fires rage in southern Caligornia, and both Trump and his fellow fascist soon to be vice president J.D. Vance blame it all on the California state and local governments, calling them "incompetant", funing that by now the fires all should have been out out, and that they indeed would be, were he, Trump in charge. Typical dishonest, vicious, Trump nonsense. taking this approac allow Trump to avoid any defense of his climate change denial, and it allow his to attack the Democratic party, which largely governs California, including L. A.. The low life criminal, already shirking his duties as president elect, and using a tragedy for political gain. Presumably his low life associates and supporters fully support this dishonest, criminal approach. But naturally it doesn't end there Not at all. Trump further claims that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), has run out of money, is broke. The current and outgoing head of FEMA wishes to reassure us that this is not true. Whe Trump becomes president, next week, will he continue to put for the this blatant lie, and use it an an excuse to stop giving federal aid to areas hit with natural disasaters? This is what we have to look forwrd to for the net four years; a constant avalanche of lies from the president of the United States. We know this becaue its what he did the last time he was president, its what he has been doing since leaving the presidency, and its what he's doing now, as he prepares to reassume it. It what he has done his entier dishonets life; lie. While president, it was tabulated that Trump told an average of twenty two to twenty three outright, blatant lies every day. We can expect nothing less this time.

Putting Out Fires

I GAVE MYSELF my best Christmas ever; a new wooden floor, a new set of tires, a new forty three inch flatscreen, and, last but not least, a brand new air mattress. The flat screen comes equipped with "ROKU", which means that as long as I have internet service, I have hundreds of TV channels. As I predicted, I tend to gravitate towards about two of them, my favorite being the "Escape To Nature" channel with the never ending program "Wild Earth", which is nothing but footage, a lot of footage, of nature. News channels seem to me highly commercialized, stylized info-entertainment channels, and, at the moment, the focus is on the massive wildfires plaguing Los Angeles and southern California. A little bit of that goes a long way. What for the life of me I don't uderstand is why we haven't already built and put into operation a massive desalination facility near Los Angeles, and why we aren't doing so right now, or aren't, evidently, planning to anytime in the near future, if ever. A facility purifying (desalinating) millions if not billions of ocean water every day, and piping it all over the country, if not the continent, if not the hemisphere. If I am not mistaken, the prevailing belief has been and perhaps remains that the amount of sheer energy required to operate such a facility is so staggering that the expense is prohibitive. Again, this makes no sense to me. Simply construct and instal a solar energy facility as part of the desalination facility, and use solar energy to remove salt from sea water. Southern California is, of course, the perfect place for solar energy, and it would not be difficult harvesting an immense amout of sunlight near L.A.. Enough seawater could be harvested, cleaned, and pumped through pipes to irrigate the entire American southwest, the great Amerian desert, which for so many decades has hindred American economic progress by being so damned dry. Likewise, A single desalination facility in Africa could turn the Sahahra desert into the Sahara agricultural breadbasket and rainforest of the world, in theory. West of the Mississippi the greatest environmental threat to the United States, due to climate change, is and will be drought. This region experiences at least one, and often several, severe droughts each and every year, millions of acres of pernnially parched, unproductive land, the worst possible fire hazard. And every year, the situation is getting worse, in California, and all across the country, across America's formerly fruited plain, as climate change intensifies, worsens. By moving purified water in huge amounts from a facility near Los Angeles to locations throughout the drought plagued American southwest, this increasingly serious problem could be seriously mitigated. In the United States, particularly considering the current political climate and leadershhip, extreme pressure must be applied by the American people, pressure on political leaders to not only do something about climate change and environmental collapse, but to take drastic action of the sort which is now necessary for our future survival. Climate change is the cause of the current wildfire disaster in California. The disasters will become worse, and more frequent, soon. The U.S. federal government will soon consist largely of climate change deniers, which will be disastrous for America and for the entre Earth, if we, the American people, don't do something, don't force MAGA to accept reality.

Biden, Leaving Office With A Bang

JOE BIDEN, on his way out the door, is doing some great things. We can hope that he does even more before leaving office in eleven dreadful to anticipate days. Eleven days until armed forces of the United States of America launch air strikes against Greenland and Panama, as a warning to capitulate and submit to American territoriral demands, evidently. Biden signed an executive order forbidding a merger between Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel, a merger which would have been, probably, essentially a take over of the American company by the Japanese company. Good for Biden. The last thing the world needs is a single, huge global cartel owning and controlling the entire global steel industry, and that is the direction in which this proposed merger was headed. Both the Sherman (1890) and the Clayton (1914) Anti-Trust Acts give the president of the United States the power to prevent monopolies in any industry by forbidding corporate mergers for being "in restraint of trade". For the past fifty years, American presidents have either been unwilling to prevent such mergers, or not allowd to do so by our and their corporate masters, and as a result, every major industry in the United States ia a virtual monopoly, including industries like automotive, oil, steel, insurance, air travel, retail, and a host of others. A Nippon Steel U.S. Steel merger would create a multinational international corporate juggernaut, answerable to nobody, an independent corporate cartel entity with power unchecked by any one nation. A flurry of anti-trust action by the American government could go a long way to rectify the situation, but is not likely to happen, with the incoming Trump administration and Republican controlled Congress. In fact, Trump and the Republicans are likely to try to reverse Biden's anti-trust steel action, and to allow the merger of two of the worls's steel companies. Since the merger is desired by billionaires, surely the MAGA crowd with favor it. Biden's other heroic act before he exits is his order putting a huge amount of aread in the Atlantic ocean off limmits to oil drilling by American companies. What tha mans is that American companies will quite likely reorganize their corporations to become registered in other countries, and go right on drilling in the Atlantic. Either 0r the Trumpadministration and the Republican Congress will find a wy to resicnd Biden's cease and desist drilling order, and pursue a polic of unlimited oil drilling and coal mining, which will quite likely lead to the extinction of the human species and all life on Earth, sooner, rather than later Sooner, rather than alter, what we humans must do is to stop drilling for oil and digging for coal completely, because of climate change of the catastrophic kind, which is happening now. It has been said that Trump and the Republicans will be unabel to reverse this action by Biden, just as Trump was unable to reverse a similar action by Obama during his first administration. Let us pray that this is true. Trump's quirky criminal insanity is being evidenced, in spades, even now, as he rants and raves about the Panama Canal and Greenland. And yes, he is dead serious about this, alarmingly. He is also dead serious about reversing and eliminating all protections for the environment and eliminatng all action to reverse climate change, a policy which is not only totally insane and suicidal, but which is apparently wholly supported by his supporters. Nearly all of Trup's insane agenda must be opposed and defeated, but none more so then his suicidal climate change policy.

Commemorating Ignominy, Condemning Trump

YESTERDAY was the fourth anniversary of one of the most ignominious events in American history; the storming of the U.S. Capitol building by an angry mob of Trump supporters. Perhaps a new federal holiday should be established, "Insurection Day", a holiday celebrated every four years on January sixth, when the electoral college is certified. A solemn holiday, to remind the American people of the fragility of democracy, the value and necessity of protecting it, and the utter necessity for the orderly, peaceful transfer of power. The point to be made, the essential point is, that on election night, twenty twenty, when Donald Trump announced that he had in fact won the election but that it was being stolen from him, the very moment he uttered that lie, it was completely, entirely, totally, blatantly obvious that it was indeed a lie. Beyond Obvious. And yet, Trump, most Republican members of Congress, and most Trump supporters still insist that the lie is true. Just ask them. These people, Trump, Trump's Congress members, and millions of voters, still trying to deceive themselves, to deceived all of us, and are now governing the country. Its frightening, that people of such low maral character, intellectual shallowness and emotional instability now have such great power. By now most people should have long since abandoned this idiocy, but Trump won't let them, because he continues to insist that his great election lie is the truth. It is difficult to imagine anybody doing anything more harmful to the United States than what Donald Trump did, by promoting is big election lie. Because of it, the entire country has been seriously harmed, millions of people have endured much trauma, and severel people have died, notably at the the Capital on the day of the insurrection.Trump people, all Trump people including Trump himself, should be constantly reminded of the horrible harm they have done by accepting and perpetuating the big election lie, the harm they are still doing, every day that they continue to embrace the lie. It is not inappropriate to casually ask your pro Trump friends whether the still believe that the election of twenty twenty was stolen by Biden and the Democrats from Trump. Nor is it inappropriate to openly smirk, scoff, and laugh at them if they say "yes". Had I spent the last for years believing and spouting this nonsense, and especially if I still believed and spouted it now - I am firmly convinced that somewhere, deep in the dim recesses of my mind - I would feel like a bit of an idiot. And those who still do embrace Trump's big election lie should feel like idiots, because that is precisely what they are. The people who embrace Trump's election lie tend to be the same people who embrace all the rest of the far right extremist nonsense, including anti-vaxxing, climate change denial, anti science, religious fanaticism, hyper nationalism, etc..No fewer than one hindred an dfiftymillion Americans witnessed Donald Trump's insurrection on live television four years ago. They heard his speech instructing the violent mob to attack the Capitol, and it is now well known that the whole thing was planned in detail by Trump weeks in advance.Trump's guilt is beyond dispute. Trump should have been tried, convicted, and sentenced for treasonous insurrection years ago. What should the sentence have been? Nothing short of life in prison without parole, undoubtedly. Death by firing squad, arguably. Trump, quite arguably, should be on death row, rather than on his way back to the White House.

Sentencing Trump

WITHIN A FEW DAYS, lord willing, Donald J. Trump will finally, at long last, be sentenced for a crime, or, more specifically, thirty four crimes, all felonies. The New York judge is scheduled to do this before the inauguration. Trump will become president, again, not only as a convicted felon, but as one who has been sentenced. The sentence will, it is being speculated, most likely be some sort of suspended non-sentence, involving no prison time, and perhaps no financial penalties or fines, but merely, some form of probation...essentially... nothing. Perhaps an appropriate sentence would be four years of publically supervised probation, beginning January 20, of this year, and ending on January 20, 2029, the day Trump, assuming he is still president then, supposedly, in the absence of any coup, leaves office. That, in effect is the sentence under which he, Trump, or any president, serves, and should serve, as president. Since the incoming president is a convicted criminal, and a known lifelong criminal, it is of paramount importance that we the American people pay close attention to absolutely everything Trump says or does, beginning yesterday, and continuing for as long as he remains president, even more than usual. The best explanation as to why it is legal for a convicted felon to be president of the United States since there is nothing in the constitution nor any law against it, is that the founders simply could not and did not even remotely imagine a situation in which a convicted felon would ever be elected president in the United States. Our, America's founding fathers had such little respect for the intelligence of the American people that they did everything in their power to prevent we the people from having real political power in this, our representative republic. And yet, they may have alsso overestimated the wisdom of the Amerian people two hundred years in their future. They also seemed to have assumed that in the event that a totally unsuited reprobate ever got elected by the teeming masses of land owning white gentlemen, that the electoral college would come voting to the rescue, and overturn the bad choice. As it tunrs out, the only attempt so far to use the electoral college to overturn a presidential election results was Trump's insurrection four years ago today. Clearly, neither the electoral college, nor perhaps constitution itself, works as well as the founders might have hoped, and should, arguably, either be altered or scrapped entirely. As the sun rose over frigid, snow bound Washington D.C. on January 6th, 2024, there was not the slightest indication that the eletoral college was prepared to overturn Trump's election, and to install Kamala Harris as president, on the grounds that Trump is a convicted criminal, and therefore unfit to serve. "Equal justice under law", the words which are chiseled into the front of the U.S. Supreme Court building, which has always been an observable sham, is now a demonstrable one. The American president is above the law. A person who should be in prison now and should have been in prison years ago, is set to become the nation's forty seventh president, with the power to commit many more crimes and to wreak havoc upon our cherished but allusive American democracy. Even worse, he apparently has the full support of a high percentage of the Amerian people, perhaps as many as half. Trump's lawyers will doubtless appeal the sentence, whatever it is, all the way to the SCOTUS, a total of two appeals. This will have the beneficial effect of regularly reminding the country of Trump's criminality, and inspire his followers to continue falsely claiming that Trump is being treated unfairly. At the end of the day, as we like to say, Trump will not be remembered for having made America great again, nor so much for having served two non consecutive terms as president, but for his criminality, and for the tragic ways in which that criminality directly harmed the country, perhaps irrepairably.

Checking Out Churches

GOING TO CHURCH has value,and I am glad I started a few months ago. I wish, and would like to have a few more folks in our congregation. One thing seems apparant: I should probably stick with the most "liberal" denomination I can, for compatibility. It may be that, with regard to the conservative, fundamentalist denominations, my disagreements with them and abhorrance of them stem more from politics than religion. It utterly appals me that more than eighty percent of American evangelical Christians evidently still support Donald Trump. It seems to me that they should support Bernie Sanders, AOC, or both. Jesus and Trump? Gimme a break, as they say. I'm not willing to argue with these people, but I am willing to hammer them with facts. Social Security is socialism, facts like that. Donald Trump is a convicted felon. Facts like that. There is simply no way to argue against facts like this, so, I refuse to do it. The twenty twenty election was not stolen from Trump, his claim that it was has always been and remains a big lie; no argument. I am unwilling to accept or respect anybody's beliefs which blatantly contradict proven reality, and embrace demonstrable falsehood. This includes the two most important facts which conservative fundamentalist Christians tend in large numbers to deny; climate change caused by human activity, and human evolution by natural selection. Anyone who denies either of these bedrock scientifically factual phenomena is simply self delusinal, by willlfully, willingly embracing falsehood. Whether and precisely how much social interaction I should have with such people is an entirely another question. As I have mentioned previously; many of them tend to be "wonderful" people; kind, nice, intelligent, and so forth. Religion becomes a problem when accepting its doctrines requires one to deny observable, provable reality, and to embrace nonsense and lies as fact, no matter how nice and kind you are. I find it very interesting that in America the people who support Donald Trump and the people who deny climate change and evolution tend to be the same people, and that they tend to have much less formal education than people who despise Trump, and accept the reality of climate change and evolution. College educated people tend to be against Trump, uneducated people tend to support him. Trump loves uneducated people, and said so, for a reason. Liberals, and college educated people tend to understand and acknowledge climate change and human evolution; less educated people more often do not. And no, all opinions are not equal, and whereas we are all entitled to our own opinions, we are not entitled to our own facts. Thus, there is a certain body of facts upon which everyone should agree, simply because they are facts. Another of these often inconvenient but unassailable facts is the fact that there are thousands of different religions in the world, that all religions are invented by people, and that books, all books, are written by human beings, not gods. Religious people who believe and claim that only their own specific religion that they embrace is valid and true are, it seems evident to me, arrogant, dishonest, self deluded. The Catholic Church, once upon a time, condemned Galileo to house arrest for looking through a telescope. Today, the church pays for and maintains a large investment in science, including astronomy, and owns and operates at least one very large, very useful telescope, with which our knowledge of the universe expands. This proves that any religion can change, grow, evolve. Arguably, those that do stand a much better chance of long term survival those those which do not.

Suddenly Socializing On New Years Day

NW YEARS DAY, I was happily ensconced at home, doing precisely what I had planned to do on this important holiday; sit at home, avoid all human contact, and enjoy the heck out of the day, with a combination of productive activities and pleasant recreational ones.I tried this formula on Cristmas Day, it worked like a charm, so I decided to do it again. Suddenly, at about ten o'clock in the morning, my door bell rang, and it was my good neighbor and friend, Jose, hard working family man from Guatemala. I greeted him, and warmly he invited me to come to his church, which is two blocks from my house, for a lunch time chili cook off, an event in which people sample various chile recipes from various crok pots, and voted on their favorite. I've been to a couple of those before. They're fun, so I told him I would be there. Every true American should attend a chili cook off, with or without an entry. I suspect that every true American already has. It was great timing. The previous day,New Year's Eve, I had undergone, quite successfully, my first ever and last ever colonoscopy, and was primed to return to my normal eating habits following a couple of days of miserable fasting and gut cleansing. Throughout my life I have generally been willing to accept invitations to church related events, but had never been a regular church goer until a few months ago, when I found a little church I like. I stil attend, but only a handful of other people attend my church, so, I am beginning to wonder what I would or will do if and when my little church ceases to function, and goes "out of business". Would I find another church? Or would I reert to my non church going ways? At the moment, I have no idea. For this reason, I am also inclined these days to visit other churches, churches which seem to have enough of a congregation to exist into the forseeable future, just to check them out, to see what's going on, and what the people are like. As we like to say, you never know. I believe, if I am not mistaken, that the "First Assembly of God" church, a nice big, brightly painted white building which seems to include a dormitory, is a Pentecostal church. If so, then there is a good or at least a decent chance that its members speak in tongues, handle snakes, and all that. All that is not for me, that is certain. But the people I met were very pleasant to me, and I am glad I had the chance to meet them. Pentecostals also ten to be, if I am not mistaken, politically, socially, and economically conservative, which is not for me either. Then too, if I am not mistaken, a high percentage of them, nationally, support Trump, insist that the Bible is the perfect, innerant Word of God, believe that the United States was extablishedtobe a Christian country and should be a Christian country now. They are often "Christian dominionists", and, as you might suppose, I have a hard time with that. In truth, I staunchly oppose it. I not only find many of their basic religious beliefs appalling, I find many if not all of their political beliefs even more so. I met and got into a conversation with a very attractive lady a couple of years older than I, whom I would like to see again. We talked about several things, including Social Security. At oen point she suggested that we change the subject, since everybody has their own opinions. I acceded to her request, but made it perfectly clear, that Social Security is socialism, pure socialism, and that any American, right wing or left wing, who receives Social Security is participating in and benefitting from socialism, no matter whether and how strongly the social securitiy recipient hates "socialism" and wants to "keep it out of America", as most conservatives indeed claim that they do. As if socialism weren't already here, everywhere, deeply imbedded, indispensible to all of us... I'm glad I made that point, and I hope to have a chance to make it again... and...again.

Ringing It In

I DON'T CLAIM to live the world's most exciting life. As far as I can remember, I was asleep at the stroke of midnight, the moment 2024 became 2025, another science fiction year. I haven't celebrated New Year's Eve in nearly forty years, as best I can remember. But I had a wonderful New Year's Eve this year. I had a colonoscopy. Seriously. Just like my doctors and everybody else told me in advance, the actual procedure isn't bad at all, its the prep which is horrible, drinking that vile liquid, going to the bathroom what seemed like thousands of times, not eating for nearly two days. It was wonderful when it was all over, and I coud begin eating again. I haven't stopped since. Its probably healthy to have your digestive system "cleaned out" once in a awhile. This was my first colonscopy,and my last. The doctor was a nice young man in his forties, and he asked me, "You're sixty nine, and this is your first?" When I said "yes", he said "better late then never", or something like that. I don't have to do it again for ten years, since I had no polyps, and I can use the home "Colon Guard" method then, which I think I will. I spent my Christmas Day without even a single word of human contact, and I spent New Year's Eve having a colonoscopy, and I enjoyed the holiday season enormously. I have just about decided that being happy, under all circumstances is largely merely a matter of choosing to be. For all appearances, we and the entire world are in a desperate situation, what with all the wars, economic disasters, natural disasters, and so forth. Plus, on top of all that, Donald Trump and his criminal gang, by which I mean him, his associates, advisors, supporters, and the entire Republican party and MAGA organizatsion, is on the verge of coming to power, real power. The only recourse is to pay close attention to anything and everythign they do or try to do, and react accordingly. "Accordingly" will, undoubtedly, for the most part, consist inactive, indeed strenuous opposition. However, on the other hand, it might not. Like I told a dear friend and fellow Trump hater, we must always give credit where credit is due. If, for instance, for some incredible reason Donald trump awakens one fine day and is suddenly a good person, all the better, embrace it. Somebody told me quite recently that Trump has seid something about letting workers, good hard workers, remain in the country, even if they are undocumented, "illegal" immigrants, rather than automatically deporting all of them, all eleven million of them. I hope this is true, that he is reconsidering. If he follows through on mass deportation, it will seriously harm our economy. If he fails to carry out his mass deportation of illigeal Hispanic immigrants, as he repeatedly has promised , many of his most ardent anti-immigrant MAGA members might not be happy. Also, Trump has indicated that he would not sign into law a national ban on abortion. That might not make his ultra socially conservative evangelical religious fanatics happy. Throughout the MAGA ranks there are many who want to completelly ban abortion in the United States, and many more who want to deport all eleven million illegal immigrants. These are not the only issues on which there is likely to be a split in the MAGA Republican ranks. Climate change, the most pressing issue of all, is gaining acceptance by a growing number of conservatives, who want to address it, and yet, Trump has chosen to cast his political lot with the climate denier crowd, which will soon prove to be a serious mistake. The year twenty tewnty five must be the year in which we all agree that we have serious problems, but that if we all work together, they can be solved.

Lusting After Women, In One's Heart

NEARLY FIFTY YEARS after the fact, it is amazing how much fuss the American media, and indeed the American people made of the fact that president James Earl Carter confided to Playboy magazine, in an interview, that he had indeed commited the sin of lusting after women, in his heart, as he put it. He was sort of tricked into it, in a way. The interviewer was talking about Carter's "Born Again" religious status, implying that Carter considered himself perfect becasue of it. The future president quickly dismissed the suggestion by giving an example in which he had indeed been less than "perfect". This was the fall of nineteen seventy six, Carter was running for president, in the middle of the campaign against Gerald Ford. Ford was considered a weak and vulnerable president, in office only as a stop gap until the nation could purge itself of the discredited Richard Nixon by voting Ford out of office. Carter was way ahead in the polls, until the interview. Then, he dropped about fifteen percent, and the election turned out to be much closer than expected. Being sexually attracted to women other than his wife, was by all accounts, just about the only thing even remotely sinful that Carter ever did. That assessment holds up and intensifies among historians as the decades pass since his administration. Prominent historians today consider Jimmy Carter to have been among the most decent and intelligent people to ever have been president. Also, many historians are pointing out that the Carter presidency was characterized by accomplishments, more than by failures. Amazing, that a simple, harmless, obvious and honest statement, that he, as a heteroxexual male, was attracted to women, could almost end a presidential campaign. Contrast that with today, in which we the American people recently elected to the presidency a person who has been convicted of multiple crimes, who was witnessed by millions of people trying to overthrow the American government by inciting a violent mob, and who at the beginning of his political caeer bragged openly about being a sexual predator, a comment which was heard by millions of Americans. Trump has also been convicted of sexual harassment, and has paid big bucks because of it. It almost seems that the American people, in voting for Jimmy Cater, were looking for a saint, a saint perhaps as a cure for the criminal Nixon. Trump, on the other hand, seems to gain more support from his supporters the more criminal activity is divulged and made known by him. Trump supporters seem to support Trump because he is a criminal and reprobate, not in spite of it. Have our moral standards really declined that much in fifty years? People, as they grow older, often tend to complain that moral standards throghout society are declining, that in bygone decades, way back when they were children, that the world and the country was a more moral place. It seems as if a sizeable percentage of every generation for the past several thousand years have maintained that attitude. Plato, in the fourth century B.C., twenty four hundred years ago, complained that the young people in ancient Athens were morally deficient compared with previous generations of Greeks. The Bible deals with this theme. Obviously, there is more to civilization than a continuous, downward spiral in societal moral standards. Whether there is any truth in this alleged chronic moral societal decline, other forces must be at work as well. If there weren't, then by now humanity would have disintegrated into nmitigated, uncivilized savagery, which, some might argue, it indeed very nearly has. That we have devolved from Jimmy Carter to Donald Trump in a mere half century, however, is not a positive indicator of where we are headed, and does not bode well for our future prospects.

Killing Cows

THIS PARTICULAR FACEBOOK POST got my attention. The truth is, many of them do. Its almost as if some vast intelligence, perhaps of artificial origin, has been monitoring my behavior, learning about my personal tastes, and feeding me exactly what I want to see on Facebook, all for corporae profit, for the profit of a few billionaires. Come to think of it, that wouldn't be a bad science fiction movie. It was a picture of a cow, obviously entrapped by a metal barrier, being herded forward by machinary to her doom. Within moments of being beheaded for beef, she stands there, surrounded by metal walls. Her head is turned towards the camera, looking behind her, and there is a wide eyed look of sheer terror in her eyes, as if she suddenly has realized what is happening, about to happen to her. The caption says something like: "This was her last moment". It made an immediate and profound impact on me, as I am sure it did many people. I hope it has, does, and will continue to have such an impact, on millions of people, in the near future. I shared the post, ane hope it keeps being shared, by many people. I don't even remember if the post said anything further, which I am sure it did. I don't even remember the name of the organization which posted it. It must be some animals rights or humane treatment of animlas group, like the SPCA or PETA, or some such. As long as we humans are going to slaughter and eat millions of animals every day, it certainly doesn't do any harm in thinking an talking about it a little. It might even help. Its highly relevant, and appropriate a matter to discuss. I used to have a good freind who was a small scale cattle rancher. He had a couple hundred acres, a lot of grass, and he raised a few dozen head on it. He called himself a "grass farmer". A couple fo times I helped him load a calf into a pick up truck so he could take it to town, to sell, at several hundred dollars a calf. I never thought much about what I was participating in. The question I still ask, and have always asked, is, precisely: What's going on in the minds of these head of cattle? How smart are they, how aware of their situation as they approach their death in the factory beef industry? I had been told that they are too stupid to understand what is going on. And, I have heard they they are indeed smart enough to realize what's happening, and to be terrified of it. And still, I have no idea. Perhaps the answer is some subtle combination of both: of awareness, and ignorance. Either way, whatever the truth is, one truth is, or seems to be, that sooner rather than later we the human species is going to have to stop breeding and raising these large animals merely for our own consumption, because of economic and environmental considerations. In recent years corporate capitalism,in its genius, has developed synthetic meat substitutes which are delicious, indistinguishable, economic, and healthy. The people who deny this reality are the same people who deny climate change. Cattle ranching, on a small or large scale, is destined to go extinct, happily. We humans tend to read ourselves into everyting, to see ourselves in every situation. Hence, we invent religions which have anthropomorphic gods, made in the image of human kind. We tend to assume that all stray cats are wandering forlornly around, hoping against hope to be "adopted" and cared for by a human family. But is this really true? How can stray cats possibly have any idea what people are really like? I have personal evidence that it is. On several occasions stray kittnes, feral, with no previous experience dealing with humans, have shown up on my doorstep, obviously wanting to come inside my house with me. As you might guess, they all made it in, and they all stayed, for years. The same thing has happened to many people; it happens every day. Obviously, feral kittens are smart enough to understand, or to at least suppose, that we humans are good sources of food and protection. In almost every situation in which the intelligence of a non human animal is in question, we eventually learn that the animal is far more intelligent than we humans ever supposed or would have guessed. I don't feel good about what I will probably discover about cows, lined up at the slaughter house.

Killing Ourselves With Trump

BT NOW EVERYBODY KNOWS, or should know, that Donald J. Trump possesses absolutely no redeeming qualities, not a single one. Its been written about in books by people who know him well, repeatedly. You can listen to him speak, and read what he tweets, and tell. Trump is obviously mentally ill in a variety of ways that only the experts could ever help us understand. The pathological lying, the grade school level discourse, all of it. Not surprisingly, nearly all of his stated beliefs and policies are not only wrong, but terribly wrong, as if deliberately the diametric opposite of good reason and choices. His blatant favoritism towards the ultra wealthy and complete contempt for the poor are so transparently obvious that one wonders why on Earth or in hell any sane semblance of a good citizen who happens to be anything other than wealthy would ever even consider voting for and supporting the wretch (Trump). His policy of deporting eleven million people, millions of whom are gainfully employed, is the exact opposite of common sense, because it will seriously harm the American economy, including greatly exacerbating food inflation. So much better it would be to simply station the military at the border, monitor every square inch of the border, and conduct immigration on an orderly, organized basis. People already living in the United States undocumented, illegally? Provide for them a pathway to citizenship, based on hard work, obeying the law, and paying taxes. These millions of undocumented immigrants already generate great prosperity for the country, and can generate much more. Why throw it all away, other than because of petty racism, which is mainly Trump's motive, and the main motive of his followers? The list goes on, and is long. Trump if wrong, dead wrong, on every issue, and no more so than on the only issue which really matters; climate change. The time has come to double down, triple down, trillion down on the progressive point of view, the correct point of view, that climate change is real, is caused by human activity, and is becoming a disaster rapidly, and we must do somehitng about it, now. Trump and his tens of millions of MAGA supporters, by choosing to ignore climate change or pretend that it does not exist, are attempting to commit suicide for the human species, and for all life on Earth. Even if they are unaware that they are doing it, which evidently they are, they are still doing it, killing themselves, and the rest of us along with them. If the United States actually follows Trump in his insane climate beliefs, the planet may become a complete carbon inundated wasteland by the time he leaves office, if he ever does. Fortunately, it is clear that there will be, all across our lovely land of liberty, concerted efforts, at the local, state, and regional levels, to combat climate change by relacing fossil fuels with sustainable energy sources, and by improving manufacturing and agricultural practices, making then "greener". This will occur, with or without Trump. We who oppose Trump must begin now to repeat and echo the dire urgency of fighting climate change, rather than increasing it, as Trump's pro fossil fuel policies promise to do. We the American people must raise such an outcry agaisnt Trump's climate change approach that we force him, by a sheer act of mass coercion, to completely reverse it. Electing Trup, allowing him and his MAGA mob to come to power, was and remains a national and planetary act of suicide, if only because of the climate change threat, because of the dire, urgent reality of impending doom which we currently face. As for those who support Trump? Fine. Go for it, as we like to say. But if you want to live, if you want your children, grand children, and great grandchildren to live, start fighting climate change now, and pursuade your cult icon, Mr. Trump, to do likewise. Our lives, all or our lives, literally depend on it.

Lighting Up the House

AS THE SUN ROSE behind dark clouds and heavy rain Christmas Eve, I realized that, so far, I have had perhaps the most pleasant christmas seasons of my life, or close to it. In fact, I cannot remember even a single unhappy Christmas season in my entire life, which will reach seventy years in April. As far as I can recall. They've all been joyful, including this one. Not one single, dark, depressing Christmas. I consider myself very fortunate. I bought my own presants this year, for the most part. That's fine. A brand new beautiful wooden floor in my house to replace the twenty year old worn out permanently stained pest infested carpet. Forty three hundred dollars, worth every penny. They did it all in a single day, amazingly. A new set of tires. A nice new air mattress which a lady at the senior center blew up for me, and on which I am now comfortably sleeping, and, last but certainly not least, a brand spankin' new forty three inch flat screen TV, whci to me seems huge, on accounta it is replacing a thirty three. Also,some other nice gifts, for others. A shiny new trinket shaped like a dragon, for my keychain. A plastic drinking container filled with trail mix. A plate full of delicious cookies. Some Christmas cards. I am grateful for all of it. Not long ago, while dining, having lunch, as I do daily during the week at the my local senior center, where the kitchen staff is excellent and the food delicious, I mentioned to some friends that as far as I can remember, I have never had a bad meal in a restaurant, ever. As I keep thinking about it, I think that is true. About a month ago I ate at a nice family restaurant with the entire congregation of my chucrh, about fifteen people, a gift from the cuhurh, which I thought was very nice. I thought the chicken fried steak might have been a bit tough, and might have tasted a bit like licorice. But, overall, no problem. It was still a delicious meal, and free to boot. During our daily meals at the senior center, my friends and I spend a fair amount of time discussing the meal at hand and food in general, which is easy to do when in the middle of a delicious meal. As I extend my reasoning and reflection to other aspects and portions of my life, I seem to arrive at the same basic conclusion; that, on the whole its all been good, very good. I don't have any serious regrets about my education, my career, my tennis game, or my love life, over the course of my life. This Christmas season is moving along fast, like they all do, and will be over soon. I started early, with the house lights, as always. I strung some of them up on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, and added some more every day for about a week, until the house became very brightly lighted up. I became quite proud of them. In my neighborhood, only a few houses decorate for Christmas. So proud was I of my artwork that when the senior center loaded up the bus for the annual Christmas lights tour, I requested, believe it or not, that they drive by my house, which they dutifully did, twice. The only problem was that two other members of the tour, perhaps thinking themselves being slighted, insisted on the spot that we drive by their houses as well. I thought it was a boring waste of time, but at least I learned my lesson. I will probably begin to take it all down shortly before New Year's Day. My childhood Christmases were a beautiful Christmas tree, with many presents under it,school plays and concerts,food and friends. In 1968, when I was thirteen, I watched on television as three astronauts circled the moon on Christmas Eve, while I was sick on the couch with the flu, until Christmas Day, when, miraculously, I awakened very early, fully recovered, feeling great, ready to start opening all those beautiful, brightly wrapped presents.