Trump, Outdoing Nixon

IVANKA TRUMP, in sworn testimony before Congress, stated that approximately two weeks prior to the election of 2020, with the president's poll numbers sinking and Biden seemingly poised to win the presidency, her father approached her in the White House, and said: "no matter what happens in this election, we'll just say that we won it. Fuck it." And that, dear reader, should have been the end of Trump's reelection bid, and of his presidency. He had been impeached twice during his first term, and for good reason, a world record. Conspiracy to interfere with an elecion. Election tampering. Treasonous conspiracy. Call it what you want, your choice. The crimes were and remain many and varied, and largely unpunished. By any name, it smacks of moral turpitude, moral depravity. One harkens back to the now infamous "Access Hollywood" episode of October 2016, the one in which Trump, who seldom seeks to conceal his bad behavior because he considers it good behavior, clearly, proudly revealed himself to be a sexual predator. At the time this seemed to spell the end of Trump's first presidential campaign, and to spell the end of his nascent political career. Trump never thought he would actually win against Hillary Clinton, who led in the polls the entire cammpaign and indeed received three million more votes than he. He never actually believed he would be elected, and was therfore wholly unprepared for the prodigious task of governing the country. As has been pointed out numerous times, this goes to the very heart of the presumed but questionable honor and integrity of the American people. It would seem, to paraphrase P.T. Barnum's famous remark, that nobody would ever go broke underestimating the moral and and intellectual integrity of the American electorate. Anyone, it now seems, can go broke overestimating it. It has also been pointed out repeatedly that, egregiously criminal as Trump's behavior is and has always been, the behavior of the Americans who elected him is of far greater concern, far more disappointing, for tacitly if not actively accepting it. This brings to mind the behavior of yet another corrupt Republican president, Richard M. Nixon. Although Nixon, like Trump, was a lifelong criminal (he purchased his election as class president in college), his crimes, by today's standards, pale in comparison to those of Donald J. Trump, aka "Don the Con". After all, what's a little petty break in and theft of documents at Democratic National headquarters between friends? And yet, the entire nation, Republicans included, rose up in outraged indignation in the summer of 1973, as the nationally televised "Watergate" hearings on "Tricky Dick's dirty tricks spellbound the nation. I skipped class my senior year in high school, to the detriment ofmy grades and parental approval, to watch on grainy black and white television as witness after witness testified as to Nixon's criminal behavior. A recent cartoon has Nixon seated next to Trump. A smirking Nixon says: "Jesus Christ, Donnie. You make me look like a fucking saint." And indeed he did, and still does. When the entire nation turned against Nixon, G.O.P. and all, and his impeachemnt and likely removal impending, or so he assumed, he saw the handwriting, and gave up the ghost politically. Nixon's crimes were mere child's play by comparison to Trump. In those days presidential intergity was still presumed, even though it shouldn't have been. We the American people seem to have lowered the bar of our moral standars considerably.

Remembering An American Hero

DAVID CROCKETT, who hated being called "Davy" and signed his name "David", was not born on a mountain top, but rather, down in a valley, valley so low, where folks built their cabins, and where the water is. It is amazing today to think of the work invovled in putting together a log cabin with only a few tools and a forest. The idea of "exercise" for its own sake was of course unknown, and entirely unnecessary. Young David ran away from home when he was about fourteen after seeing his father, who had gotten word of his truancy, whttling away at a three foot stretch of tree branch, knowing it was intended for him. He never came back. He had been sent to school by his father, but instead snuck off into the deep woods, to spend the days where he truly belonged, among the bears and bees. He belonged to that adventuresome, restless generation of Americans who were the first to get along without the guiding widsom of living founding fathers. He followed in the footsteps of Daniel Boone, his hero, who was fifty years his senior and had, like Crockett, worked his way farther and farher west to get away from "civilization", and to enjoy the company of his preferred company, native Americans. Thus he had the educational attainment level of a grade schooler. Normally he wore a top hat, after the fashion of nineteenth century gentlemen whom he sought, without much success, to emulate; the coon skin cap was a later adornment of the books and magazines which contributed to his fame, fame which he knew during his lifetime, which mystifed and at first alarmed him. He thought people were making fun of him, but was assured that they instead were admiring and emulating him, including the packs of teenaged boys who followed him around Washington City. While he was in Congress for three terms, his fame as a rugged pioneer accompanied him, and he often dressed accordingly, including the cap, to please the people who expected it of him. He was not a good representative. He missed too many sessions of the House of Representatives, bored with what he called the endless talking which never accomplished anything. He never authored or introduced a bill, but his main issue was squatters rights. He believed that the vast tracts of land west of the Appalachians which were "owned" by eastern corporations should be deeded to the pioneer settlers who illegally lived on and "improved" it by putting up cabins and farming. He married twice, and had a total of nine children by two women, three adopted, his first wife having died before the age of thirty. For Crockett the Alamo was a tragic accident of history. He had gone to Texas, like many others, to seek a new start in life, to try again to become propserous. In San Antonio, he was trapped by his fame as a brave hero into remaining, knowng that the Mexican army was approaching, and would destroy them all. A women who survived teh massacre later said that he told her that he would have run away before the final onslaught, were it not for the expectations of others. He never became prosperous. His autobiography, "A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett of the State of Tennessee" partly ghostwritten,is a delightful description of his life until shortly before his decision to seek his fortune in Texas. It is a masterpiece of American literature, and has never been out of print. His roommate and fellow congressman Thomas Chilton helped him with it (the original manuscript is in Chilton's handwriting), and no editor has ever had the audicaty to corrrect his crude grammar. His writing style served as a template for mark Twain in his famous Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn novels. In the eighteen thirties Eastern cities were full of apartments with the letters "G2T" ("Gone to Texas") painted on the front door. We'll never know for sure, but it seems likely that, even moments before his heroic death at the Aamo, he had no regrets. the front door.

Opposing the World

THE CONTRAST between the searing heat in Australia, where it was one hundred and twenty degress yesterday, and the frigid cold in the American south, where nighttime temperatures descended to nearly zero degrees highlights the true nature of climate change. It seems nearly impossible to convince climate science deniers that global warming is a bit more complicated than the weather becoming hotter. But try explaining ths to your average American climate science denying conservative. Carbon traps more heat, and more heat means more movement within the atmosphere. More movement of air means more volatility, which in turn means more turbulence, more wind, more storms, stronger, more severee storms. Would anyone care to explain basic atmospheric science, basic thermodynamics, basic high school chemistry to any "garden variety" right winger. One wonders whether there are any climae deniers in America,or anywhere else, who have ever taken a chemistry class. The guy who repaired my heating and airconditiong unittoldme that he has taken several chemistry classes, and further stipulated that climate change is a "hoax". AS to whether the gentleman actually studied and passed chemistry istomequestionable. Liek Festus Haggen said on "Gunsmoke", I have my doubtfuls. They may as well assert that the laws of hature are themselves a hoax, that the simple pyhsical reality that carbon absorbs more heat then nitrogen and oxygen is a hoax, that science itself is a hoax. Are they willing to believe that carbon and oxygen combine to form carbon dioxide, that carbon dioxide traps heat, and that the more CO2 weinject into the ecosystem, the more solar radiation is tapped and the more slowly the heat of a hot summer day is dissipated into outer space, so that more remians trapped in the atmosphere? Carl Sagan,in his seminal monograph "The Demon Haunted World", gives lavish praise to the American people for their intelligence, and ability to learn. However, he gives low marks for our willingess to become sufficiently well educated to understand and accept the unavoidable reality of a warming atmosphere and planet. We have no shortage of intelligence. What we have is a severe shortage of adequately educated people in history and science. Climate change denial is a tragic phenonemon, driven purely by perceived political self interet. After all, if there is no climae change, if human activity had no adverse impact on nature, then well, we have no need to reform our economy and our way of life with regard to energy use, no need for progress or progressive politics. Without acknowledge of climate science, the capitalist system, according to which everything is for sale and all things are rife for exploitation for profit. Conservatism is resistance to change, which is necessary for progress, but hateful to status quo oriented conservatism. Like Goethe said: "The world advances only because of those who oppose it." Then too, there are quite well educated people who deny climate science, even though they know better. When one's self esteem is tied to one's long held rigidly held political ideology, or one's deeply held religious beliefs, one's mind is no more capable of opening to new information and realities than it is of rewriting the laws of nature.Climate denial is subsiding, as more people, with societal pressure building, begin to grudgingly accept reailty. When acceptance of reality threatens one's comfortable entrenched beliefs, reality takes a back seat. The tragedy is that our rapidly diminshing opportunity to effectively address our dire situation is being thrown away by those who would rather curse the darkness than light a single candle, their own.

Tearing Down the Pillars of Prosperity

OF THE SIX PILLARS of merican prosperity enumerated in the previous essay (Organizing For Prosperity), Donald Trump has and continues to undermine them all, and threatens to utterly destroy them. Trump's anti-immigrant attitude is well documented, as is his unrepentant racism, It was Trump who clearly expressed his desire that immmigrants come to the United States from Norway, which is the example he used. Presumably he would happily accept them from any Scandanavian country, except perhaps Denmark, whose people have outdone themselves in ridiculing that which is ridiculous, all things Trump. The common denominator, unspoken, is of course sking color. Aside from the fact that nobody fortunate enough to live in northern Europe has any motivation to reocate in a demographically third wofld country with a steady storm of mass murders, extreme poverty is virtually nonexistant in Europe, and is rampant in the U.S. Then too, most european countries have a higher standard of living than Americans. For the foreseeable future, the land of liberty must be content to either receive an influx of darkly pigmented impoverished immigrants, or to let its abundant agricultural harvest rot on the vine. The federal government support for education is drying up under Trump, at his direction. Too much liberal indoctrination in America's public schools, such as teaching kids to acccept everyone of all religions, sexual orientations, and political affiliations. The third pillar, broad based global access to American markets, if being drastically truncated by Trump's needless, economically stifling tariff regimen. Only a few economists favor tariff barriers anywhere at any time. Ravi Batra, in his book "The Pooring of America", points to tariffs as destructive to American national prosperity by raisng consumer prices. Its a balancing act; tariffs help protect domestic industry from foreign competition, but give consumers less choice. Certainly American exporters do not desire to run up against high tariffs in foreign markets. They want open, easily accessed foreign markets. Political stability is vital to a healthy, functioning national economy. The fact that the rule of law is a basic feature of American society, with a relatively stable political system, is not onlly beneficial to American prosperity, but essential. No politician in American history, arguably, has been more destructive to the rule of law than the current president, whose extensive criminal activity is well documented and known, but, evidently, of no importance to his cult of supporters. International trade is impossible without an international system of mutual security and cooperation. Trump, with his xenophobic policies and "America First-America alone" ideology, has undone decades of alliance building and cooperative international economics. Allies mean nothing to Trump, unless they are subservient to his positions and interests. He has alienated America's former allies. The final pillar, a politically independent and fiscally prudent monetary policy and supply is the primary purpose of the Federal reserve banking system, giving it credibility by freeing it and insulating it from all fleeting, ephemeral political considerations. Trump is the first American president, and one hopes the last one, to openly, unabashadly interfere with the fed by commenting on its monetary policies and threatening its objectivity, independence, and ultimately its effectiveness. Trump is, as the ancient saying goes, burning down teh city to rule over the ashes.For hism, simply being of service to his countty is of no value to him personaly, and therefore,quite unthinkable.

Organizing For Prosperity

SCHOLARS HAVE IDENTIFIED six principle forces, six pillars of prosperity responsible for the historical and current prosperity of the United States. They are, in no particular order: 1) Imimigration. The relatively esay access of immigrants to the United States, including foreign students who come to the U.S. to study in the world class American system of higher education. In a nation of immigrants, modern immigration keeps the fresh blood flowing, injecting American society, culture, and its economy with a constant infusion of energetice new human talent. 2) The steady and rich support by the federal government of education and basic research in many fields, including medicine, science, and technology. 3) Braod access to U.S. consumer markets for importers and their goods and services, which helps keep consumer prices lower, and gives American consumers much more choice. 4) An unwavering adherance in the United States to the rule of law, providing a stable environment for investment and economi growth.5) A firm network of geo-politica global alliances which help enhance political and thus economic stbility, both vital to prosperous economic activity. 6) A politically independent and fiscally prudent monetary policy and supply, bolsterd by the Federal Reserve banking system. Each of these vital ndconstructive features of American economic life contributes an almost immeasurable assitin ensuring the continuing economic success of the American experiemnt, such that it is. Perhaps the greatest asset of all in protection and nurturing broad based American prosperity merits mention; socialism. Social Security, perhaps the kingpin of American socialism, has liftedmillions of older people out of poverty, keeps them uout of poverty, and keeps them in the game economically, as spenders and consumers of American manufactured goods. When prosperity is widely shared, when even the poorest of the poor have some discretionary income. The wealthiest one percnt are only going to spend so much in the free market. No matter how wealthy, one only needs so much food,clothing, consumer goods and services, and shelter. Most of the concentrated wealth in the United States is being hoarded, not invested, and this does nothing to stimulate economic activity. The more widely distributed the nation's money supply is, the greater the consumer demand for goods and services, the more televisions and refirgerators ares bought and sold. When a vast amount of national wealth is concentrated in only a few extremely wealthy hands, as is currenly the case to a larger extent than at any time since the Gilded Age of the alte nineteenth century. The true economic power of America is being bottlenecked at the very top of the sociological pyramid stifling the kind of production and consumption which would unleash the greatest era of prosperity even enjoye by teh human species, at any time or place. Capitalism causes wealth to concentrate, invariably, inevitably, unless it is modified by a few fundamental socialistic measures, including a progressive taxaation system, and government action in favor of the poor, minimum wage and laborlaws, among other measures. A large impoverished underclass, such as that which exists in the U.S. consists of the working poor, and is a drag on economic growth and prosperity. Poor people don't spend, and do not help raise consumer demand for goods. Getting money into the hands of the bottom of the economic pyramid is vital, since teh bottom sis always the largest part of the whole structure. What must never be ignored is the reality that in any economic system, capitalism, socialism, or other, society can eitehr be uplifted or dragged down by the people on the bottom, on whose misery the wealthy elite often profit. We would do well to bear constantly in mind that all societies rest upon the foundation of its people, rich and poor, and that the stronger the foundation, the more likely the edifice to long endure.

Selectively Supporting Police

FROM THE BEGINNING it seemed apparent that we the American people would not take kindly to having our cities oppcupied by parading well armed federal troops, showing their power, and Trump's power, to the public. And indeed polls indicate that only about one third of Americans support the policy. Seventy eight percent of Republican support it, and an amazingly low four percent of Democrats approve. Trump may indeed be a complete moron, as most of his detractors allege, but he aint nobody's fool; he knows when to cut and run, when not to push a good thing too far. when to cut his losses. That the American people would protest vehemently against this blatant misuse of federal government presidential power was certianly predictable, in a country where most people don't want to be told what to do, including to have a good day. And that is precisely why we the American people badly need to ,indeed must keep getting out an protesting not only a particular crime committed by I.C.E., for there will doubtless be many more. Nor should we get out on teh streets and portes the very existence of I.C.E. If we are going to go to all the trouble of bundling up and freeaing our collective arses off for hours in the cold winter wind, snow, and slttet to make a point,let's mae a big one. the point we want to make, and must for the sake of America must make, is not merely that Trump has turned the I.C.E. agency into his personal Gestapo a murderous gang of thugs under his criminal control, but that the entire Trump administration is an illegal fascist regime in which all the important leaders in government are nothing ore than adoring, pandering sycophants of their icon hero, Herr Trump. When millions of us,all across America's fruited plain, from sea to shing sea,take to the streets to protest a specific crime of teh Trump administration, we might as well protest the entire criminal enterprise, the entire organized criminal movement. As is being and has been repeatedly pointed out, Trump's immediate inner circle of associates, his political party, and the entire Trump supporting conservative movement in America, most especially the religious evangelical conservative demographic, is as much responsble for America's devolution into fascism as is their fuhrer himself.That four fifths of Republicans favor the aggressive policing of the I.C.E. aremed forces is perhaps discouraging, but the fact fully one fifth of Republicans evidenly do not supprot Trump's policy may be regarded as no less encouraging. We can be sure that an overwheliming percentage of Americans,probably one hundred percent, do not want to to live in an America in which the federal government and in particular the chief executive are free to impose military martial law upon the population without very serious, very demonstrable reasons for doing so. Europeans,who have known real tyrany, are sometimes amuzed at how intolerant Americans are of the power of their own government, and at how quickly we are to push back against any form of perceived deprivation of liberty. Ex Congress person Marjorie Taylor Greene questioned whether conservatives would be so approving of how I.C.E treated the progressive Alex Pretti, with a bullet to the brain, had he turned out to be a MAGAt. It may be that in the word of Trumpland, it is perfectly acceptable for federal police to blow away far left liberal lunatics, but not good Trump loving American Christians. Kyle Rittenhouse showed up at a right wing protest with an automatic rifle and killed somebody with it. He was exonerated and regarde by conservatives as a hero. Ales Pretti carried a legally owned concealed handgun, never brandished it, and is being demonized by the right wing for somehow having caused his own death by carrying a deadly weapon. Incredible, the hypocrisy. If conservatives truly approve of Trump "going after" his enemies,as he openly does without the slighest hesitation or compunction,their approval of heavy handed presidens might take a deep dive when the next Democrat takes office, in three years.

MAGA, Coming To Terms

WORLD WAR TWO buffs are more likely than most to be aware that when the American army entered Germany in the winter of 1945 and took control of all the infamous concentration camps, Auschwitz, Dauchal, Buchenwald, Belsen, and the rest, they were so appalled by the conditions there that it inflamed their hatred Hitler and the Germans, and under General Eisenhower's orders they went door to door in town after town, searching private homes for German soldiers, and forcing the occupants to "please come with us". Thousands upon thousands of German civilians, nobody knows exactly how many, were force marched to the various camps and given a mandatory tour of the most gruesome, grizzly sights. They were, by all accounts, shocked and appalled. Eisenhower also invited and brought in every media source he could find, trying to flood the scene with journalists to accurately and thououghly document, beyond any deniability, what had actually taken place in these horror camps. Knowing the human capacity to deny and rewrite history for political and ideological purposes, and being a student of history himself, the five star general and future American president wanted to leave future generations no doubt that the nightmares of the Hitler era were very real, By the time the war ended, a high percentage of the German population had either list confidence in Hitler, or had come to despise him. But, there remained a significant part of the German people who stayed loyal to the end, and beyond. It has been suggested that when Trump is gone, as he someday will day (although it may not seem like it right now), there will be a vast outpouring of retribuation towards all those who enabled and support him, somewhat akin to the world's attitude towards NAZIs following the defeat and death of Hitler. And, to a certain extent, something like that may indeed happen. MAGA folk will never, we hope, be paraded past concentration camps, although they might be. They will no doubt, however, remain stubborn loyal to their iconic cult leadder forever, or will come to terms with their role as accmplices to turmoil, chaos, and social division and strife. They will have to come to terms, eventually, with the inevitability of the historical profession's unpleasant future descriptions of Trump. Trump is alienating an ever larger segment of the American people at a rapid pace, on a daily basis. For instance, the more he doubles down on ICE and military unites patrolling American city streets, the more the pushbaek, the greater the resentment among increasing numbers of American citizens. If all this ere being done by a Democrtic president, and trust me, Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton are as warmongering as the next politician, the equal in potential tyranny to any Republican who ever lived or governed- conservative Amerca would be pitching a tizzy, so to speak, in an uproar, spilling into the streets screaming for impeachment and removal. Bank on it. But these Gestapo are "enforcing" a conservative, right wing extremist agenda, not a progressive liberal one, and therefore are replacing democray with fascism for all teh right reasons, for the only right reason; the establishment of a far right wing nationalistic expansionist government, intolerant of opposition, which is inevitably, conveniently labeled "treason" and "terrorism". The terrorists, of course, are in plain view. They are Trump, his adminsitration, and his entire MAGA support base,the insurrectionsists of twenty twenty. Since they cannot implement Trump's fascist far right agenda nor remain in power long by legal, democratic means, they will do what Hitler and the NAZIs did, which, once in power, consists of destroying and radically alterning existing institutions and norms to suit the right wing fascist agena, and to ensure its invulverability to opposition or any threats to its power. The conspiratorial sounding claim that Trump will never surrender power nor leave office willingly seems less far fetched by the moment.

Defying the King

TRUMP'S GESTAPO, the I.C.E. agency, was created decades ago, under Bush or somebody, and has merely been placed on steroids by El Trumpo. The fact is, European caucasians have tried to slam and keep the door to American shut behind them from the git go, American immigration policy, like tariff policy, has roller coastered up and down since their inception. Dark skinned people from other races are only welcome in America if they come here to be slaves, or cheap labor, which is essentially he same thing. Donald Trump the great racist, is not alone in his expressed preference for immigrants from , for example, Norway, the land of lilly white tall good looking people. The country with the tallest people in the world on average is the Netherlands. They are always welcome. There is no waiting line of people from Canada or Europe seeking entrance into these United States of Arrogance. For the most part, people coming here, from anywhere in the world, are either desperately escapng circumstances so intolerable that going anywhere would be an improvement, or coming here looking for drugs and sex. They certainly know where to look... Generally the Earth's caucasians enjoy a high standard of living,the Orientals a rapidly rising level of affluence, and the dark skinned humans are being left behind, Racism is certainly not a uniquely American cultural characteristic, although it takes it to a new level. On this planet, heretofore, it has been effacacious, so to speak, to have a lightly pigmented epidermis. And, being tall helps. Tall people tend to rise higher in the social hierarchy, economically,and so forth. I recall a statistic indicating that with every one inch increase in height, on average, people earned thousands of dollras more income annually, on average. We similarly reward good looks, physical attractiveness. Anyone who doubts the deeply imbedded pettiness of human beings in general, in human nature generally, needn't, shouldn't. People who say that this ICE occupation thong is not about immigration are quite correct. It is about Donald Trump turninng fascist,or manifesting his inherent fascist tendencies, by going after his opponents, whom he correctly percieves as enemies. Donald Trump has an extraordinary,nearly unique ablity to turns his opponents into enemies, with their willing cooperation. Glaringly obvious is that this entire charade, involving the National Guard and ICE has absolutely nothing to do with immigration per se, although indeed that is part of it. More importantly, it is Trump's way of testing both hhis supporters and the sixty percent of Americans who dispiese him to determine precisely how far he can go in exercising authoritarian powers. He is counting on his supporters either quietly acquiescing to or approving of his Hitlerian actions attacking democracy.Early incications are that they are doing precisly that, these conservative champions of free expression and individual liberty, eager to mistake the protestors against fascism for "radical terrorists", meaning anyone who opposes Trump and the new Republican fascism. Fascism is precisely what it is, and what the G.O.P. now climbs into bed with, in support of Trump's ongoing illegal, fascist seizure of personal power. Calling out the troops show off executive power,and and shows Trump standing up to and owning the libs. As an unintended consequence, it may well also inspire the libs to take to the streets on ever greater numbers, in defiance of the king, just like their ideological ancestors, Patrick Henry, Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson and the gang.

The Air, Getting Violent

ACCORDING TO MY FATHER,when I was a pre toddler,I was sitting in my "high chair" (Do they still have those, or have they vanished off the market for being top heavy) one fine morning,eating my bowl of Malto O Meal, flinging it ll overthe room with my little yellow plastic spoon, when my mom noticed that I was staring out the kitchen window, utterly transfixed with enraptured fasciaation, eyes wide with apparent amazement. Mom asked dad: "what's that kid so interested in?". Dad,a lawyer accustomed to weighing evidenceand drawing conclusions, resposnded: "Its raining. He's amazed at the rain. he's never seen it before." I don't remember the incident,but knowing me,I an imagine being amazed and confused by rainfall. I stll am, in a way, seventy years later. Mom, a nurse,was utterly fascinsted by the weather. It was her favorite topic of conversation,any time,with anybody, as everyoe who knew herwas aware. Every day she watched the news on TV, but turned the volume and focused her full attention on the boob tube when the weather report was being given. She enjoyed talking about the weather as much as I enjoy talking sports, politics, and religion. I can recall getting frustrated with her sometimes,and trying to change the subject, However, now that I am a senior citizen, I notice that I have,over the years,gradually become more inerested in the weather. I've always been profoundly impacted by it, since so many of my favorite activites are outdoors. The mere fact that I am old enough to have seen the drastic climate change ofthe past fifty years. Every living person over the age of say, fifty, has personally experienced climate change, and will tell you so. Conservative old people easily relegate it to the category of "naturally occcuring", refusing to acknowledge the obvious, that climate change is at least partly, probably mostly, and perhaps exclusively caused by human activity. Of course we can not say hat the climate wouldn't be changing without human beings; you can never prove that something doesn't exist, only that it does. Rush Limbaugh used to say that nature itself is so huge, so powerful, and that we humans are such small, unimportant little creatures in the braoder context of the universe, that we couldn't possibly have real impact on this planet and its environment. As usual,Limbaugh was wrong. Huge indeed is the universe, but not so much is this planet, which in our modern era of communication and transportation seeems increasigly small. I remember awakening in the middle of the night when I was in ninth grade, and seeing four inches of snow on top of the garage, with snow pouring down in a torrent. We ended up with a foot of snow, and missed school for four days. I loved every moment,but started getting restless about missing too much school. My largest snowfall is little over two feet, which I have experienced twice, I waled outside one day when the temerature was one hundred and ten, and one morning when it was minus twenty. On both occasions I was aamzed at how briefly I was able to endure these extremes. I lived in Aspen for one full year, includinga winter, but that particular winter there was a winter drought in the Rockies, and surprisingly little snow. In a few days when our current snow, which might top out at about one foot, start to melt, we will quite likely return to the drought we were having until it fell. All forms of extreme weather will eventuate from now on. In time climate change deniers will understand that climate chnge is real,an that it will minifest in extreme weather of all kinds; hot, cold, dry, wet, violent, extreme. The more carbon, the more heat, the more heat, the more violent the atmospheric motion. I fear we haven't seen anything yet.

Drinking Trump's Kool Aid

I MUST ADMIT that I am a bit obsessed with climate change. Trumptards would probably derisively, cleverly describe my condition as "climate change derangement syndrome", or worse, since they believe that climate change does not exist, and is either deliberate hoax intended to facilitate the concentration of political and economic power in the hands of liberals, or something like that, somehow or other. Mentally ill people often think themselves quite sane, and all others the truly ill. Nonetheles, I think about it a great deal, probably every few minutes, and I talk about it whenever I can. I can, of course, anytime I want, but one must be careful. People, at least Americans, don't seem to like talking about it. Either it bores them, or they say that since we can't do anything about it, why talk about it? The answer is, of course, that we might very well indeed be able to do something about it, but only if we talk about it, or at least talk about precisely what to do. I often tell people that I can understand why my sixth grade teacher admonished our class to never discuss two topics with anyone: religion, and politics. That might work for religion, but in a country in which we the people are tasked with the heavy burden of governing ourselves, how are we to govern ourselves if we never talk about governing? Good question, I think. In the United States, governning democratically means talking about it. It seems like more often than not I quote Goethe in these essays. Goethe said, paraphrased: "It is not enough to merlely cite a problem. One must offer a solution." Now, I kind fo agree with that,kind of don't. Its the only Goethe quote I can think of that I might not fully agree with. It seems a bit idealistic and needless to me,to require that everyone who identifies a problem offer a solution to it. Anyone who is old enough enough to remember several decades of climate know that it has indeed changed. They have lived, are living through it. They know that climate change is real, whether they attribute it to human activity, nature, or God, as religious folks tend to redundantly do. (Since everything is caused by God, including human beings, their thoughts, and their deeds, sure, climate change is caused by God). But if they've spent their lives working and caring for a family, they've been busy, and cannot possibly be expected to offer any valid, informed opinion concerning what to do about it. We cannot all, after, earn doctorates in climate science. There is more evidence, much more, proving that cliamte change is real and that we are causing it than there is proving that the holocaust happened. The debate is over,and has been for a long time. People who deny climate change at this point are no less willfully self deluded than those who still claim that Trump won the election of 2020. It is observable that these tend to be the same people, people who believe in an anthropomorphic god in the sky, elaborate, make believe conspiracies, and whatever easily discredited nonsense such folks embrace for the sole purpose of seeking confirmation of their personal biases. We Americans are most accomplished at twisting reality to suit our political purposes. Trump supporters have taken this art to new height of refinement, with no end in sight. The Trump administration is more like a drunken, abusive uncle than a big brother, spewing irrational justifications for irational actions. Anybody who believes that a huge frozen island in the arctic is vital to the survival of the United States or that America's cities desperaely need extra help policing themselves is drinking the party Kool Aid, unaware that it might very well be full of poison.

Planting Trees

THE COLORADO RIVER originates high and tiny, as all rivers do, and gathers togerther significant water as it wends its way towards the Pacific. It look like many different rivers in one as it proceeds. At some points its slow and deep, at others, rapaciously rapid kayaking. The problem is that we humans are sucking it dry, and by the time it flows into the sea, is but barely a trickle of its former self. The imposition of neolithic "civilization" upon a dry barren bioregion, and the consequent enormous expansion of cities and populations throughout the American west Rain has probably been at a premium for at least thousands of years in this part of North America, and more so now, as climate change raises average temperatures, increases wind speed, and lowers annual rainfall. If climate change is a hoax, it is impressive in its ability to make the weather look much different now, on an evidently permanent basis. The two main water reservoirs in the area,Lakes Meade and Powell, are now both one third full. They have been shrinking gradually and steadily for twenty years, as they receive progressively less inflow. One theory is that when the current extended drought ends, they will return to their prior normal levels. Nobody can offer any evidence to support this presumption, for their is none. The more likely scenario is that the drought, which has lasted wenty two years, will continue, that future annual rainfall will not relturn to previous levels. Since the global amount of fossil fuel emissions is still increasing by about two and a half percent per year, despite the rapidly slowing rate of increase, since the world leaders and industrialists still seems intent on basically doing business as usual, our precarious circumstance only becomes more dire by the day. The good news is that many of the world's cities are breathing claner air as internal combustion engines are rapidly being replaced by Electric Vehicles. The bad news is that rapid as the conversion to solar and wind energy is, as many E.V.s as are already on the road, the billionaires and millionaires who make the decisions in the fossil fuel businesses are fighting tooth and nail to retain teh current energy system as long as possible, until they can squeeze every last dollar out of it before reluctantly abandoning it. One thing these dicisions making coorporate executives know full well is that they and they people they care about will be long dead by the time the entire bill comes due, and mother nature on Earth, in Earth's ecosystem, falls deathly ill. Talking and writing about climate change and the death sentence it gives life on Earth will accomplish nothng. Only drastic,fundamental changes to our energy and economic systems will save us. In Ethiopia there is aproject ongong to plant one trillion trees. the actual number may be five trillion. It is estimated that there were "roughly" seven trillion trees on Earth at the dawn of humanity, and that we have cut down about half of them. Many of the saplings in Ethiopia are already in the ground, with thousands of workers planting more every day. Why not do this in every country in the world? Although we will not be able to tree plant our way out of the climate crisis, it is indeed one of the many measures which must be taken to reverse the decline and avoid the death of the ecesystem. People as individuals, all over the planet, can undertake similar projects. How many millions of Americans, for example, have plenty of room in their spacious, grassy lawns for a few trees? The dread of leaf raking is no excuse. When I planted doens of saplings in my yard, my mother told me that the day might come when I regretted it. Although I could see her points, the day never came, and seeminly never will. I love my forested front and back lawn, leaf covered and all. If you just leave leaves alone, they break down, and nourish the soil. And besides, any excuse to avoid yard work will do.

Changing Course

THE TRANSFER PORTAL has closed, and all the players have presumably landed where they want to be, or think they want to be, at least for the next year. It is now possible, under certain conditions, to play six years of college football to play until you are in your mid twenties, and make millions of dollars. The pandemic forced the decision to make up for playing time and games lost, financially. College athletics is now professional athletics but newly so, and so far,there are no rules on exactly how the system is going to work. For the time being, it works completely chaotically. Small college athletic departments do not generally rake in the millions of dollars of revenue that major universities do, and their future survival, financially, seems in doubt. Everyone hates teh current situation, and everyone agrees that it is unsustainable, and will have to be replaced bysome organization system. A high school classmate of mine fifty years ago played college ball, then played a little while in the NFL, and I told him that if he played today, he could make at least five million dollars a years in college, for at least four years. Conservative eonomics would suggest that doing nothing, simply leaving the situation alone, and let free market forces drive intercollegiate athletics economically is the best course of action, because, like every other segment of the economy, the free market always corrects itself, always naturally balances itself, and distribuet wealth where it should. Simply allow money to change hands between universities and student-athletes atlete-studensts?) however it chooses, and it will all come out in the wash. Wealthy people are wealthy for good reasons, says classic capitalist theory, and wealth is ultimately distributed fairly, in ways best for everybody. The other day the Los Angeles Dodgers, who have replaced the Yankees as the evil empire with ulimited money power, signed a very good ball player to a contract worth two hundred and forty million dollars for four years, sixty million dollars a year, to play baseball. Professional and collegiate sports is more popular and lucrative now that ever before. Of course the money in college athletics is not distributed equally. The million dollar quarterback superstar shares the same locker room with the penniless back up kicker. Offensive linemen have so far not gotten the same wealth as the quarterback,but without them, the quarterback wouldn't have a chance. But that is starting to change. If capitalism distributed money fairly and appropriately, arguably, then one percent of the population wouldn't oossess thwenty percent of the national wealth, etc. Conservatives might claim that socialism,government meddling in the economy of America, a growing trend, is the root of the problem of inequality of wealth. They also might claim that without government interfernece in wage and labor laws stifles economic growth and initiative. A more realistic analysis is that just the opposite is true. Government involvement tends to distribute the wealth more widely and fairly, and to prevent wealth and power from being even more concentrated than it already is. It wouldn't do anybody ay good if one person, say, an Elon Musk type, eventually accumulated all the wealth in he world, which is exactly what will happen if current trends continue, which they cannot. We cannot allow them to.

Nourishing Liberty With Blood

A HIGH SCHOOL CLASSMATE of mine, whom I consider a lifeling friend, said to me, paraphrazed: "Who would have thought that violent barbarians would ever attack law enforcement officers for doing their job,upholding the contitution." I instantly volunteered myself as an example of someone who indeed would have thought it, and did. Anybody who knows history and understands people would have to, but I didn't say this to my friend. Instead I pointed out that we the American people have a long history of violent opposition to perceived government tyranny, going all the way back to the Boston Tea Party, if not earlier.I mentioned several instances, inclluding the draft riots of 1862, the Bonus marchers of 1932, and eh Viet Nam War protestors, among others. In a democratic country where people know they have tp assembly and peacefully protest, they asssemble and peacefully protest. Problem is, there are bad apples in every basket, including protestors and police. After all, the event which created the United States of America was a violent revolutionay rebellion by the American people against their government. It merits mention that, in the grand scheme of things, by comparison with most overseas colonies owned by European nations, that the British colonial rule over the American colonies was relatively lenient, somewhat hands off, not entirely repressive. Of course, the rebels themselves, all ginned up on propaganda from rabble rousers like Thomas Paine, were for the most part, ready to go to the mat by April 1775, when the war actually began, and were in full uprising mode after January 1776, by which time Paine's mini book "Common Sense", ahd sold half a million copies throughout the colonies, ginning up the folks. According to my dear friend's criteria, most of America's liberty loving heroes were violent barbarians. I have two complaints about my beloved Christian conservative Trump loving, and I mean "loving" full cult member high school classmate: When we were in high school, teh only thing he talked about with me was how many of our female classmates he had had sex with. Ever since, at every class reunion, he talks to me about all of our classmates with whom he allegedly used to have sex. Whether its all true, part true, or complete B. S., I don't know and I don't care. TMI, either way. The main tehing I have against hi is that he is a far right wing Trump loving Christian conservative. I don't like thsoe people generally, but many of my good friends are among them, and rather than end friendships, I choose to give them a pass, a "Pardon" if you will,and to avoid all talk about politics with them. Sometimes, this strategy works, sometimes, not so much. Well, and then, at least I try. I'm glad I didn't all my buddy a fascist or anything like that. If an American president signs an executive order on his first day in office anouncing a change to the constitution, I complain about it. If he keeps stealing powers he does not legally have, I turn it up a notch,the complaining. I consider anyone who claims that the election of 2020 was stolen from Trump a liar and a traitor. Period. If our Christian conservative Republican countrymen want the military and federal police in the streets of American cities, knock yourself out. Go ahead and try running for office on that fascist agenda. In fact, in during this administration, there has not been a single reason, anywhere, to activate and call out either the National Guard or the I.C.E officers and deploy them in large numbers on main street. Not one single reason. Trump and his MAGA supporters offer only nonsensical excuses which make their fascist proclivites eminently transparent,invented, fabricated, imaginary emergencies, phantom, invisible mobs of radical liberal anti-Trumpers attacking good Christian conservative Americans and destroying the country. Fascist propaganda, fully supported by Trump's fascist leaning cult. It is vital to call out and aggressively fact check every utterance by our temporary fascist masters. even more vital is to resist Trump's fascist leaning adminstration, and get out in the streets in huge numbers, peacefully but asserively protesting,as often and for as long as it takes. Like Jefferson said: "The tree of liberty will from time to time require the nourishment of the blood of patriots and tyrants".

America, Resisting Occupation

I AGREE WITH President Trump that the people protesting in the streets in Iran are on the right side,that the Iranian government should be overthrow and replaced, and that the United States should support the uprising,and should openly say so,should declare our allegiance to it. The harsh, brutal theocratic government of Iran responded by calling Trump a "criminal",which is of course quite correct, but not something we need or want to hear from the criminals who oppress Iran in the false name of religion, just as our Amcerican version of religious fanatical politics, the Christna nationalists, sek to reduce our beloved Americaunder the uoke of religious tyranny, seemingly. The Iranian uuprising is evidently going to fail, putting the United States at even greater odds with Iran, and it will be interesting to see how Trump deals with Iran. It seems possible and even likely that he will soon unleash considerable military firepower on them, and it will be interesting to observe the reaction of MAGA, and of is staunchest supporters. Keeping the United Staets out of these kinds of foreign military entanglements is precisely why Trump got the support of America first conservatives. Donald Trump, champion of popular resistance to government tyranny. Go figure. Its a considerably different story in the United States, where Trump hates criticism and opposition so much that he labels opponents of his administration and policies "traitors", and threatens to take action against them,almost like what a fascist dictator would do, one of which Trump is, with increasing frequency, being accused of being. It will be "interesting" to observe what Trump does with both the National Guard and the I.C.E. agency, the twins tools of tyranny very much at his immediate disposal. Whether or not he requires Congressional consent to do this or do that is beginning to not matter, because Congressional Republicans appear content to let Trump usurp their legislative power. There are a few rumblings of discontent among Repblican politicians who know damned good and well that Trump is hugely overstepping his authority, but not only are afraid to do anything about it for fear of losing the next election, but who actually agree with Trump's policies, notwithstanding the fact that he implements many of them illegally, without Congressional consent. And that, of course, is the crux of Trump's continuing support, and always has been. His supporters largely agree with his policies, especially on topics like immigration and issues like LGBTQ rights and social issues. There is a limit to how much military the American people will tolerate in the streets of its cities. Opposition to this will coefromboth teh left and the right. f I.C.E.and the National Guard present too heavy a presence for too long a time anywhere in the country, a majority of the local population will grow first uneasy, then alarmed, and finally will demand a return to normal life.There is a limit to which Trump can play this militaristic game, and get away with it. It is not likely to help improve his approval ratings, which might be beyond repair, since they have never been high. Sixty percent of Americans do not merely opppose Donald Trump, they despise him. Trump is one of those "love him or hate him" people, and the love is in the minority. Assuming he seesteh trap he's in, Trump will eventually be forced to declare the streets of America safe,a dn withdraw his troops. The American people do not want their cities to be occupied by oppressors.

Enjoying the Trump Clown Show

THERE ARE, as many know, a million reasons to despise Donald Trump, and they generally fall into two or three main categories. One can despise him politically, for his horrible policy positions. One can despise him morally, for his evident complete lack of morality.. You can despise him for his stupidity, humorous though it is juxtaposed against his self proclaimed genius. If we who despise him for all one million reasons are honest, we'll admit that we actually like his stupidity, that we enjoy it not only because of the ammunition it gives us, but for the sheer its sheer hilarity and entertainment value. We who pay attention and keep track of Trump inanities all have our personal favorite examples. My all time number one favorite Trump stupid statement might still be his remark in a speech on the Fourth of July 2019 that Geroge Washington's army captured every airport in America during the Revolutionary War. He later claimed that he had misread the telepromtor. Uh huh, sure. That excuse only goes so far,which is nowhere. On onohe roccasion he gave credit to the Covid19 viruse for ending World war Two, in 1917. While the pandemic was raging during hi sfirst term, he said that if we stop testing people for the virus it would stop spreading. You couldn't make that up. An anti-vaxxer, his suggested cure for Covidwas inject bleach and horse dewormer into humans.This witch doctor remedy actually gained some degree of pupularity among his cult followers. Donald Trump,the self proclaimed "stable genius" gave humankind the ultimate means by which to disrupt and destroy powerful hurricanes and tornadoes; drop atomic bombas on them. We must hope that the never issues an executive order to drop a nuke into the eye of a storm. The president seems to have no more aptitude for geography than he dos for meteorology. Once, during a meeting with the Premier of China, Trump mentioned to his fellow head of state that China and India do not possess a common border. One might justifiably wonder precisely what, if anything, the stable genius thinks separates the two countries. Similarly,he wonders, he said, why on Earth we can't just call Great Britain "England", and leave it at that. Ever the transactionist, The Donald never missed an opportunity to upgrade, particularly when it comes to size: he suggested making a trade, Puerto Rico for Greenland. Whether he made this offer directly to the government of Denmark in Copenhagen, or he tweeted it on "X", or something, is unclear. Suffice to say, the offer, no doubt, still stands. Maybe teh Danish shuld give it some thought. Nor does American history seem to suit Trump's special kind of stable genius. He mde a few remakrs about the great abolitionist Frederick Douglas, all of the remarks in the present tense. It soon became obvious that the stable one was under the false impression that Frederick Douglas is still alive. That, of course, it true only in a spiritual sense. Trummp is well knwon for being a non drinker and non smoker, much to his credit. On the other hand, maybe he could us a few drinks. He is also a non exerciser, which is far different from booze and cigarettes, We all need exercise, as we all know. But not Trump. He believes, apparently sincerely, that the human body only has so much energy in it, that exercise shortens life by using up the body's energy faster than it should. So far no fitness guru has written a book promoting this point of view. It may be that those who do promote it are either dead, or upublished. But as we all know so well, our president is not one to rely upon the expertise of anyone other than himself. So, its settled. What I hate about Trump,above all else, is his alley cat morality. His politics is a close second. But I have to admit that I have grown rather fond of his stupidity, because for all the frustration associated with it Trump's stupidity does have the endearing quality of being consistently hilarious.