Using Tools Well

ALTHOUGH I DON'T USE much social Media, I hear there's a lot of anger and meanness on it. how surprising. Just like the real world. I am grateful for the opportunity to stay away from social media, and grateful knowing its there, with its potential for human communication and togetherness. One can take pictures of one's pretty self and one's pretty house and car and post 'tm and narcissize to one's little heart's content. By the time I'm done writing my daily essay, I'm done with screens. Maybe someday I'll get another television, but for now, I'm glad to be without it, and have been for years. social media, with all its benefits, is designed, unintentionally, to bring out the worst in people, by giving them an opportunity to express themselves to billions of people anonymously, without consequences. That's powerful stuff. Tvs and smart phones, as wonderful as they are, can give one a feeling of being liberated by not having them. Proper use of all powerful tools is strongly encouraged. Military history clearly demonstrates that humans don't always get along well face to face, although most of the time we do. For the unwashed masses to be walking around attached to smart phones can be seen as a democratizing tool personal empowerment, as long as they are used for that purpose. Taking selfies or inviting strangers to comment on how pretty my house or hair style is does not feed the hungry nor raise the minimum wage.The number of Americans who do not automatically get enough to eat everyday is shocking. We could use our smart phones and all our other screens to end poverty and hunger and raise wages for the working poor, by organizing millions of poor working people to force the wealthy powerful few to stop exploiting and start helping the poor. In America, many poor people have smart phones and flat screens, and seemingly little else, amazingly. In America, where we avoid and ignore each other, we have much to learn about our poor. There is no law of nature that says that we must use the internet to convey hatred and anger to each other, and there is no reason, no law of nature, which says that we cannot use these marvelous tools to improve life for all of us, without harming anyone. May our New Year's Resolution be to do just that.

Learning About Climate Change

IN THEIR STUBBORN DENIAL of climate change, conservatives like to point to the fact that the climate is always changing, naturally, without or without humans, and that hurricanes, tornados, droughts, and heat have always been with us, long before any possible human made climate change. They like to point out that human beings are far too puny and powerless to have any real impact on the climate, since the forces of nature are so much greater than we. Although all these supposed arguments against the existence of human made climate change are ridiculously irrelevant, the last one is demonstrably false. We may be puny and small, but we sure can turn the skies over big cities dark grey with hard to breathe smog, we can fill rivers with flammable materials and then set them on fire; we can also bring water to a desert and turn it into a garden. Se, we can do some things. And just a hint to conservatives: the fact that the climate changes naturally and produces extreme weather naturally has noting to do with whether humans contribute, which, in fact, we do. Scientists have been trying to use computer models to study climate change, by making simulations using all available data, the amount of which keeps increasing daily. is it possible to look at specific weather events and determine they ere specifically caused by climate change? Not until recently, but now its possible to calculate whether any given event in the weather could have been caused by natural factors, without climate change. Are there any storms which are explainable only with climate change? it turns out that in 2016 there were three specific events that could only bed attributed to global warming: the global temperature was way higher than ever, there was a severe drought throughout much of Asia which lasted weeks, and the amount of rain that came with hurricane Harvey. None of these could have happened naturally, scientists say. The great ting about science and scientists; they only say things like that when they can provide a whole lot of proof to back it up. You can already hear the right wing, calling the study a hoax, claiming that the science is still uncertain, calling the climate science community entirely criminal and fraudulent, wanting only to make money, caring nothing about the truth. They'll want to ignore science and keep drilling and fracking, and bring back coal. These people are currently in power, horrifically. They must be removed. The only recourse is to laugh at the fools.

Being Poor And Powerless

ITS HARD BEING POOR in America, for many reasons. Particularly hard being poor and black, but that's another topic altogether. If you're poor, chances are you get stopped by the police more often than if you were wealthy. The true magnitude of this has only recently been discovered. All across the fruited plain, it would seem, local police forces' haul harmless people in on trumped up charges, on orders from higher up. It got to the point where Obama's Attorney General issued a directive to all local police departments in America to ease up on poor people. They already have enough problems. The problem is, revenue for cities and towns has gone down. You can't suddenly start to roll rich people; they're immune, by virtue of power and status. In steps the current attorney general, Mr. Sessions, appointed by Trump. he issued a directive rescinding the Obama directive; in other words, poor people in cities and towns across America are back to being targets. Defenseless poor people are ocne again at high risk for police harassment. Mr. sessions probably believes, or pretends to believe, that poor people are poor only because of laziness, and a healthy fear of the police might put some ambition in them, or something like that. In conservative ideology, everything is determined by free market capitalism, which rewards some, and punishes others. The actual truth, we know, is far more complicated than that. There are many factors which determine who is poor, who has what resources, including tax policy, which is made by the wealthy, of the wealthy, for the wealthy. The United States is owned and controlled by the wealthy, and always has been. Our famously divided country is divided by, more than anything else, the disparity in wealthy, which is enormous in America. If the division between rich and poor continues to increase, as it seems destined to, then all other divisions will increase, racial, conservative versus progressive, amid many others. Money is power because people use it to influence and control other people, by employing them. Democracy, in which everybody has equal power, cannot exist unless everyone has economic equality. We can have democracy, or economic inequality, not both. throughout history countries have chosen to dispense with democracy and encourage economic inequality, with tragic results. Perhaps there will come a time when we decide that this must change.

Helping Us All by helping The Poor

THE BEST WAY TO HELP THE ECONOMY is to help the poor, because most people are poor, and the wealthy need no further help. that should be obvious. Help the poorest among us, and the entire economy is helped, by creating millions more consumers. Tax cuts for corporations, and tax cuts for most businesses are in fact tax cuts for the wealthy. The corporate billionaires argue that by cutting taxes for businesses, they can raise waged and hire more people, and produce more. But how exactly does that work? What is it, that causes businesses to produce more goods and services, whatever they produce,, hire more workers, and raise wages? the same thing every time; an increase in demand. When you have a chance to do more business, you do it, you do what it takes, no matter how much money you have or don't have, no matter how much you pay in taxes; when you have a chance to increase business, you of it, ands when you don't you don't. that simple. Its all about demand, as every business person knows, not about what you happen to have day to day, Corporate tax cuts do not increase business; increased demand does. Demand depends on how large the market is.. Expand the market and you increase demand. Expanding the market means creating new customers, which means people with enough money to spend on what they want to buy. It means turning poor working people into fairly well paid working people, who can support families and become middle class consumers and spenders. The way to do that is to increase greatly, probably double the minimum wage. its that simple. In America, the politics and economics is skewed because a very large part of the devout Christian community has decided to cast its lot with the ultra conservative republicans, a tragic mistake from which we hope they recover. Unfettered, unregulated capitalism leaves people homeless and impoverished, and Jesus would never approve of homelessness and impoverishment in a country as wealthy as the United States. he would doubtless consider it evil, our extreme economic inequality and poverty. The basic Christian message as spoken by Jesus is to render unto Caesar and to give unto the poor. Don't loan unto the poor at high interest, give unto the poor. The new tax law claims that it will help the middle class and poor working class through trickle down economics after the big corporate tax break. A better way would be to repeal this nonsense, and replace it with a straight, simple, doubling of the federal minimum wage. Le the poor worker's protest march against our billionaire corporate masters begin!

Celebrating Christmas

I ESD RAISED WITHOUT RRELIGIOS INSTRUCTION, for which I thank the dear lord, and cherish my freedom and independence. Christmas, on the other hand, was somewhat forced down my throat. I have a very early childhood memory, I'm guessing I was anywhere from three to five, of a Christmas tree, decorated and brightly lit, and of it falling over on my sister, who as I recall sat under it, unhurt, but a bit upset. From an age earlier than I can remember the presents were under the tree, as if the whole thing were part of some tradition that had come into existence and been seriously adopted by my parents, before I had any say in in. I still love Christmas, and always have, despite my lack of traditional religious belief. I love the decoration, the decorations, the food, the parties, the presents; all of it. Receiving a veritable cornucopia of beautifully wrapped gifts each Christmas during childhood didn't do anything to dampen my enthusiasm for the holiday. It no longer matters to me the exact way in which I participate; to me, observing is a form of participation. The way we celebrate Christmas now, which is to go whole hog, is actually rather recent, not ancient, surprisingly. During my lifetime it hasn't changed much. But until the middle of the nineteenth century, Christmas was less visibly celebrated. During much of the eighteenth century, thanks to Puritanism, Christmas was illegal, because it was too much fun. When Dickens published "A Christmas Carol" in 1843, the holiday went viral, and the rest is history. Recently I've met a few people who, for some reason or another, do not celebrate Christmas. Interestingly, all these people are devoutly Christian, and their religion is the reason for their lack of celebration. One ole dude is so bible banging religious that he doesn't celebrate Christmas because there is nothing about it in the Bible. OK. fine. Ironic, since he is illiterate, and has never read the Bible himself. The family that oved in across the street from me is the nicest family in the world. A mom about my age and three grown sons. they lost their daddy within the past couple of years, and seem to be sticking together to get through that. We are friends, and help each other out. One day the mom mentioned to me that they do not celebrate Christmas, and that they are Jehovah's Witnesses. Isn't that the same thing as Mormons, or something? Similar. I really hadn't thought about whether they celebrate Christmas. Considering how much I enjoy Christmas, I would really hate to be prevented from celebrating it by something so trivial as my religious beliefs, but, oh well, their loss.

Is Conservatism Christian?

CONSERVATISM IS TRADITION. Conserving the traditions which have made this country what it is, whatever it is. And, to some extant, the world. In America, the twins pillars of conservatism are capitalism and Christianity. Call capitalism the freedom to take advantage of opportunity, or to exploit resources, for personal profit. Either way its the same, and either way it includes people. Labor, and therefore people, are a resources to be exploited as profitably as possible. The Christian religion is primarily concerned with how to deal with bad behavior. Fist, of course, define it. That's the hard part. Amid all the confusion and contradiction, consensus, at times, emerges. Capitalism and Christianity do not, on the surface, seem compatible. Jesus talks a lot about sharing and giving unto the poor, but says not a word about hard work for personal profit and personal enrichment, other than to condemn it. Conservative Christians seem devoted to free market unregulated capitalism, tend to justify personal enrichment, and to disdain cooperative, democratic socialism. Among other strong American traditions are racism, sexism, and class conflict, to go along with individualism, ambition, and personal initiative. In America, there is a strong strain of moral piety and honesty, couple with a thriving fantasy and con artist culture. Americans have almost always hated immigrants, ironically. Liberalism is innovation, change. Liberals are complainers, protesters, who don't like the world the way it is, for whatever reason, and want to change it. They usually think they know exactly how to change and improve the world, which can give one the impression that they are self righteous, self assured, and elitist, concerning their own self proclaimed talents. And yet there can be no argument with the fact that the world needs change, big change, now. Conservatives are going to have to stop trying to bring back coal. To deny climate change at this point is insanity. Liberals have ideas to solve problems such as climate change and poverty, such as replacing fossil fuels with solar energy, and raising minimum wage, but, alas, conservatives, even mindful of tradition and not wanting to change the way things are, stand in the way. There must be some way to convince conservatives that just a teensy tiny bit of change won't kill them. Conservative Christians will probably tell you that in America, taxes have always been too high, still are, and that the American capitalistic system, led by the business owners, always have and still do everything in their power to help the poor. Don't believe a word of it. Its all conservative hokem. In America taxes have never been high, relatively, and the working poor have always, and still are, exploited and abused. In America, to render unto Caesar and to give unto the poor would be a vast change, and not only that, but it would be following the teachings of Jesus, which is truly Christian.

Removing Republicans, Before Its Too Late

DON'T LOOK NOW, but here come the "friends of the Nefarious", also known as republicans, looking for ways to pay for their tax give away to the wealthy, which will cost the nation trillions more in debt unless paid for by cuts elsewhere. And where, do you suppose, they plan to look? They are going to look at cutting social security, Medicare, Medicaid, Obamacare, food stamps, and anything else designed to help people who need help. so go goes the G.O.P.. Its the way they roll. They will disguise their sinister intent by calling their nefarious behavior "entitlement reform" to make it sound, if not friendly, at least harmless, which, most certainly, it isn't. this a classic case of taking from the poor to give unto the wealthy, the reverse Christ, so to speak, and unless America rises up to stop it, the sooner Americas rises up to stop it, obviously, the better. first, cut taxes on the wealthy, claiming that by doing so everyone else, particularly the poor and middle class, will benefit, miraculously, somehow. Then,, pay for it by taking from the poor, hitting all the successful government programs which for decades have kept people out of poverty, particularly the elderly and low income people, and given them access to good health care. That's the game plan, and the amazing thing is, they are not only doing this right in front of America's face, they are actually trying to make America like it, and, to a limit3ed extant, succeeding. but not enough. Most of the American people hate this Trump billionaire corporate take over of America, loosely disguised as populism. Surely you remember Trump's populist, man of the working people campaign, with all those angry blue collar dudes yelling obscenities at Hillary, while Trump the great demagogue swore that he was the champion of the workers. Exactly how has that worked out? A billionaire president, surrounded by billionaires in his administration, enacting policies favoring billionaires, like himself. How surprising. trump will, by some estimates, pocket a cool trillion dollars from the new tax law, while the4 middle class will gain crumbs, on a temporary basis, then, eventually, pay more in taxes. Not long after the first of the year we are likely going to start hearing about entitlement reform". Just watch. When that happens, its time for the revolution to begin. Occupy Wall Street, the impeachment of trump, culminating next fall with the removal of scores of republicans from power.

Creating Prosperity With Tax Reform For the Rich

THE REPUBLICANS AND THEIR CORPORATE employers who enacted our new tax system think they are being very, very ingenious, trying to talk the American people into believing that throwing money at the wealthy is the best way to help the poor, which includes most of the country. And the-their-our corporate masters are ever so very clever themselves, Trump clever, pretending that they are immediately bestowing their newly gained tax reduction largess upon the teeming masses, their employees, with raises, even before the largesse has arrived, with the promise of more jobs soon to be created. One aristocratic sounding corporate spokesperson lady said that even if you are cynical enough to think of this as nothing but a publicity stunt, the money is actually going into the pockets of the employees. Yes, maybe, madam, but...which employees? The Ones already making several million a year? What a wonderful publicity prank! All of the right wing pundits are praising the billionaires for their generosity, and the fortune five hundred are making a splashy, temporary show of it, to go along with the rhetoric about getting government out of the pockets of the wealthy so the wealthy can instantly help the rest of us. In the nineteen eighties more Americans were willing to go along with Reagan's supply side trickle down nonsense, because Reagan was, if nothing else, grandfatherly and believable, but not trump. Now , we the people are on to the gimmick, and all the flashy, phone PR in the world will not change the fact that an overwhelming majority of Americans, the lesser sorts mentioned in Madison's writings, are strongly against the new tax scam for the wealthy, of the wealthy, by the wealthy. Like Larry Summers, current head honcho at Harvard and former economic advisor to presidents and Secretary of the Treasury said: "repeal and replace is a very catchy term, and it applies to the new law tax law perfectly". Scholars, well educated economics, academicians, are almost universally opposed to the trickle down supply side scam, Reagan redux. Yes, it will generate prosperity, for the upper one percent. But not for the seventy five percent, most of whom make minimum wage or close to it. Demand comes before supply. Stimulating supply does not increase demand. A healthy, reasonable increase in minimum wage, such as doubling it, would expand the free market by doubling the number of spending consumers in America, would create the demand needed to cause businesses to expand production and hire more workers. The answer is simple. Demand side, trickle up economics. The real producers in America are the workers at the bottom, not the billionaires at the top. Wealth begins at the bottom, with labor, not with money at the top. Its time to try to help our conservative Christian capitalistic republicans understand that, if its even possible. all we can do is try.

American Bullying, Again

THERE IS A REASON why the U.S. embassy to Israel has been in Tel Aviv all these years, not in Jerusalem, and why no American president had, until recently, moved it. And it has nothing to do with being a pussy, a chickenshit, a hater of Israel, a liberal, or a democrat, to allay the suspicions of the hard right. Just sayin'...Accepting Tel Aviv as Israel's capital, which Israel agreed to do "in the beginning", as the Hebrew Bible says, means that the world recognized Jerusalem as an international, disputed city, in which an acceptable agreement for making it the capital of both Israel and a hypothetical Palestinian state has not yet been achieved, but, by the grace of God, in whatever religion, will, at length, be. meanwhile, over the years, the Israelis have been quietly, furtively, gradually moving its government offices and functions ever more into Jerusalem, cleverly, but tragically. Regan could have moved the American embassy, so could Obama, and all the rest. But they didn't, for a reason. Trump and his supporters, as usual, implement a disastrous policy, then seem proud of it. , and threaten anyone who disagrees with it. Is this how we make America "great again"? or how we bring it to its height of arrogant empire, right before the inevitable fall? The move will probably never happen anyway; it might not even have begun by the time Trump leaves office, is replaced by some sane person, and the embassy relocation is scrapped, where it belongs. One must always leave open the door to peace, after all. And so, predictably, the world and the United Nations condemn the action, overwhelmingly, and how doe Trump, acting through the U.N. ambassador, respond to the world's criticism? Why, with threats and bullying, as usual. God, what a time to be an American. You'd be shamed, if you didn't declare openly your opposition and resistance to the Trump administration, and your determination to repeal and replace its behavior as soon as possible. Give her credit, Nikki Haley does a passable job of making her voice sound strident and threatening, as she tells the world that 'we will remember this. We will take into account which countries voted against us when we decided how to divide up our foreign aid, when we decide which countries to help and cooperate with, and which to treat with equally disrespect. We American have contributed most of the money needed to keep the United Nations running. We Americans give more to the U.N., do more for the world, give more to human civilization, and are such a perfect role model for everyone else that to do anything to disrespect the United Stats is blasphemous, and shall be met with brimstone, fury, and the gnashing of teeth." those aren't her exact words, but its the, her, our, basic message to the world. The United States of Agnagster. The classic, blackmailing, back alley bully, we, the American people, as represented by Trump the troll. Oh, how embarrassing, how humiliating. World, hear this! This idiot does not speak for we the real American people!

Trying To Survive with Trump, Or Without

ON SOME RADIO PROGRAM, some lower level of Trump's gang - and yes, it is a gang because Trump's gang is an organization engaging in organized criminal activity, aiding and abetting the destruction of the environment and the American economy, among other criminal acts - made the comment that "the president believes the climate changing, but since its unclear how much if any of the changed is related to human activity, he sees no good reason to damage America's prosperity by preventing job creation and exploitation of resources". Something like that. that's the jist of it. In other words, older wealthy business people, who won't be alive much longer to suffer the effects of climate change, find it convenient to ignore it, and to continue to develop fossil fuels, such as bringing back coal, to keep the current corporate dominated economic system healthy and thriving. Announcing that the president believes in climate change, as if a profound concession has been made by our benevolent leader. But the climate change must be natural, not man made, because the climate is always changing with, or without human assistance, and therefore human assistance can be ignored as a factor. These people are worse than crazy. they're deluded, dangerous, and downright evil. Human involvement in climate isn't clear? Excuse me, but, yes, it perfectly clear, to every scientist in the world, and every high school chemistry teacher, all of whom understand that if you inject half a trillion tons of carbon into the atmosphere, and leave it there decade after decade, and keep adding thirty billion tons every year, its going to have an impact on the climate, which means the daily weather on a long term basis, because the amount of heat that carbon absorbs and retains from the sun is far greater than the amount the atmosphere absorbs and retains without the extra carbon. its really very simple, and any simpleton can understand, except, evidently right wing capitalistic worshippers of the almighty dollar, people who are slaves to harmful traditions like exploitational free marked capitalism and extreme religious zealotry. Since the lore is coming back soon, why bother? That's the standard conservative line of bull; climate change happens all the time, its nature, there's nothing we can do about it, it isn't our fault, so why worry about it? Getting these people out of office and into therapy is becoming more crucial by the day, crucial to our very survival.

Hating Obama For the Wrong Reason

THE LADY at the senior center really did tell me that the truth about Obama will come out, and that, when it does, it will make Richard Nixon look like a choir boy, and that had Nixon nuked North Viet Nam, like he wanted to, it wouldn't've bothered her. She really did. You can't make that stuff up. The deep, dark secret that is going, at long last, to utterly discredit and bring down Obama. conspiracy theory in action. I laughed. I had to. but not to her face. I'm blunt, but not rude. It reminded me of the typical conservative reaction to Obama: extreme, visceral, blatantly negative and hateful. It doesn't add up. When the specific complaints about Obama are clearly articulated, as they seldom are, their sum doesn't add up to the hatred, indicating that something else, something hidden, is motivating the emotional response. Obviously, that something is racism, whether or not we admit it. usually the complaints are general and vague: he ruined the country, he brought racism back by talking about it. He was weak, Obama. Weak, Obama? try telling that the to survivors of the drone attacks in Pakistan which wiped whole families, including innocent women and children. it is easy, and so very clever, to try to disguise racism as policy complaints. Similarly, the hatred of Hillary Clinton is far greater than the hatred for Bill Clinton. could there be a bit of misogyny here? Undoubtedly. During the actual Viet Nam war, fifty years ago, I recall vividly that the right wingers wanted to nuke North Viet Nam just as badly as Nixon, their icon, did. Still think we should have done it, apparently. the sickness and evil of this position aside, the same ;people who harbor this belief are the same people, generally, who hate Hillary and Obama, hate government health insurance, love trump, and love this crazy new income tax law which will certainly be overturned in due course. Obama did not create racism, as our clever right wing deviants proclaim, merely by pointing it out; he helped to uncover it, wherever it happened to be, which is all across the fruited, in every community in America, embodied most conspicuously in the Trump gang, the same gang which tried to sell us the garbage that Obama was born in Africa, and was therefore not a U.S. citizen. Racists. To claim that Obama was born in Africa is to expose one's racism, and the hilarious thing is, these people can't even see it, because they never, evidently, take a look at themselves.

Having Lunch, And So Much More, At The Senior Center

I DON'T GO TO THE SENIOR CENTER to engage in intellectually stimulating conversation. I know better. I've learned. that would be too much to expect. These people are here to relax, enjoy the company of their peers, and drive away loneliness, not debate the latest economic or political assertions. I go for the three dollar lunches, which are generally well balanced, with plentiful servings, if at times a bit overcooked. The food is ready to go at nine, for packaging and delivery to the homebound, we eat at eleven thirty. For a single male senior, it all adds up. Most of the time I remind myself to keep my mouth shut, go along to get along, keep it innocuous. Among the right wing Pentecostals, many of whom pack heat, prudence pays. Inevitably, however, I get drawn in. I heard some percipient mention the tax bill, paired with the term "trickle down". It heartened me. I offered a comment about the need to stimulate demand, not supply, from the bottom up, for the need to expand the consumer bace, create new spenders and consumers. supply, I said, always follows, whatever the tax rate on con businesses. For good measure I threw in a quote from Abraham Lincoln, the one about labor being prior to capital. if only I had left it at that. Evidently enjoying the sound of my own voice, I allowed as how our chances of getting good economic policy at this point were comparable to getting forthrightness from Richard M. Nixon two generations ago, and how far to the left of the current crop of conservatives Nixon seems today. That sealed my fate. She had been eavesdropping, and here she came, full of coffee and vinegar, both barrels blasting. The only member younger than I, but alas, one of those gun packing hard right Pentecostals, convinced that since the Lord is on his sword wielding way, why give bother. Before I knew her finger was in my face, she her body visibly shaking. when all the facts about Obama finally come out, she intoned, he will make Nixon look like a choir boy. I tried a stab at humor. I remarked that, best as my memory served, Nixon could fairly pass for a choir boy, Obama or no Obama. It didn't work. I tried mentioning the tape recording of Nixon trying to persuade Kissinger to get on board with the idea of dropping a nuke on North Viet Nam; she said it wouldn't've bothered her a bit. I finally knew I was licked, figned a phone call, and escaped, largely intact. I admit openly that the thought of someone, anyone, not being at all bothered by a nuclear bomb exploding over Hanoi and killing millions of innocent people discomfits me a mite, but, hell, I'm used to those sorts of responses. That's why I have learned, or am starting to learn, that at a senior center full of conservative born againers, the best idea is to sip coffee, enjoy the pastry, and wait for lunch.

Learning To Love the Merit Based Mexicans

FOR ONCE in our sorry lives, let's muster the integrity to show a little honesty, and, albeit belatedly, admit to ourselves, our God, our country, and the world that when we the right wing people of America start mouthing off about illegal immigrants overrunning the country, bringing drugs, bringing crime, bringing indecency to our shores, while lowering wages for and taking jobs away from native born American workers, we aren't really concerned about the "illegal" aspect of immigrants, nor even the "immigrant" aspect, nor do we really have any idea of their real impact on the American economy in terms of jobs and wages, nor do we care about such things. What really upsets us is the fact that the people entering our beloved land of white people are not white, but brown. Our concern is purely cultural. They speak the wrong language, they probably pray to the wrong god, but more than anything, they are simply the wrong color. The white male, threatened by extinction by a tidal wave of darkly pigmented Mexicans. And the truth is, they reduce wages for nobody, they take nobody's job away, they cost the government nothing, and they pay far more in taxes than they receive in benefits, and they commit far fewer crimes per capita than we native born scoff laws. We native born would in fact be far better off to encourage the renewal of a flood of folks from Mexico to the United States. Over the past few years, the flow has slowed to a virtual trickle, as more people are leaving freedom's land than entering it, almost as if they feel insufficiently welcome, and insufficiently given opportunities to assimilate. Study after careful study illustrates the above contentions. They illustrate that Americans in general are deeply suspicious and unwelcoming of foreigners, that white Americans are normally racist, and that the people coming into this country tend to be young, healthy, hard working, law abiding, and productive in terms of actual contributions to American society. go ask the sociology departments at places like Harvard and Princeton, or any other major university. In the great white state of Alabama, home of mass support for Roy Moore, the incoming Mexican workers were reviled and shunned and tormented in places like Albertville, until, as the years passed, the Mexican children started outperforming Alabaman natives, the Mexican workers started outworking american natives, and the Mexican restaurants started serving better cheaper food than native born restaurants. Now, the town is twenty five percent Mexican, crime is down, understanding is up, and all is well in the deep south. As Goethe said: "confronted with great merit, there is no resistance but love".

Living In Nixon's Dystopia

I DID A WEE BIYT OF HISTORICAL RESEARCH, and put together a timeline. I determined that on the very day that my tenth grade English class took an exam on Aldous Huxley's "Brave New world", president Richard M. Nixon tried to convince Secretary of State henry Kissinger to get on board with the notion of dropping an atomic bomb on North Viet Nam. Serendipitous synchronicity, if ever there were. Which of the two makes for better science fiction is for you to decide. Aye doo not tink daht vood be ein velly goot ting, meester plesident. God damn it, Henry, you've got to think big. Big! Jesus Christ! Huxley died the same day that JFK did. had he lived through Nixon, he would have lived to see his dystopian nightmare essentially come true. I spent the entire summer of seventy three, right out of high school, watching the Watergate hearings on television. They turned me into a radical. I had campaigned for Nixon my senior year. Oh, the things we do when ere are seventeen. Senator Sam Irving was the main attraction, with his Tennessee drawl. I honestly thought that money laundering meant removing dirt from dollar bills. Oh, to be eighteen again. What did the president know, and when did he know it? That is the question of the ages, always appropo. Equally priceless is the recording, thanks to Nixon's private tape recording system, in which Alexander Haig informs Nixon that someone has leaked the Pentagon papers to the new York Times, which had just published them in its latest edition. soon, we the American people would know three things: 1) that the Viet Nam war was seen by all military experts as unwinnable for the United States. 2)that the field commanders had been lying to the American government concerning the war's progress, and 3) that the government had been lying to us the American people about the war, and everything else. Who leaked 'em, Al? Um, we don't know, yet, mister president. Well then, damn it al, I think we should just start at the top, and fire everybody in the whole goddamned government! At the "top", mister president? Everybody, from the top down, sir? Nixon's problem was that he never followed through. Our problem is that we keep electing to high office the people who most dearly with to occupy high office, for all the wrong reasons, and are willing to pay and get paid to do so.

Looking At It, And Asking What It Is, And Not Knowing

A CYLINDRICAL, CIGAR SHAPED OBJECT has entered the solar system, presumable made of rock and metal, presumably of natural, unintelligent origin. its orbit is hyperbolic, and it is thus no exaggeration to say that it has not recently been in orbit around the sun, but has instead newly arrived from far away, very far away. Which raises the question: where did it come from? What's it made of? Does it have a purpose, if of intelligent design? NASA is all over it, as is SETI, the Search For Intelligent Life project. In fact, a cylinder is the perfect shape for an interstellar spacecraft, due to the likelihood that such a craft will encounter numerous collisions while traveling through space with tiny but potentially devastating objects. The cigar pointed head on moving forward minimizes the exposed surface area. An outer covering of ice or rock would be far better than metal, absorbing rather then being punctured by colliding micro objects. The SETI organization, aware of all this, is studying the apparent asteroid intently, just in case, bearing in mind that the object is moving in the exact sort of trajectory which would be used to slow down a spacecraft in its approach to a star. So, its probably an asteroid, wandering in from some other star system, having travelled billions of years and trillions of miles before getting here. But its worth finding out for sure, if we can. Who knows? Certainly nobody on Earth, at least yet. We humans, who rarely know anything, seem to have a hard time saying "I don't know". We have a hard time being humble. We prefer fiction to ignorance. So, our lives and libraries fill up with false theories and speculation which fails to pass even the most cursory test of reason. Thus a collection of ancient manuscripts becomes the sacred, inviolable Word of God. The universe fills up with sentient beings who, though they reside only in our most hopeful imaginings, nevertheless infiltrate our society, disguising themselves as us, exerting secret sinister control over every aspect of human civilization, controlling us without our even being aware of it, expect for those few fortunate, super percipient people among us who know all about it, but are either unwilling or unable to share with us the precise manner in which they alone became privy to this esoteric, profound knowledge. We prefer fiction to ignorance, our imaginations to hard, cold fact. Every shred of evidence strongly hints of the existence of a cosmic design, and its creator. and of a universe filled with an infinite variety of life, including highly intelligent advanced species. Military fighter planes and commercial pilots often report flying objects, unidentified, performing incredible feats of flight high in Earth's atmosphere, and the people making these reports are of the highest integrity. so, who knows? Perhaps we are being observed by highly advanced alien aviators. So, who knows> We most certainly don't. As of now, we simply do not know, even though we are steadily approaching, so we believe, greater knowledge. meanwhile, the more hopeful and imaginative among us continue to lure us into the falsehood of fantasy and fiction, which is no replacement for verified fact. Goethe said: "God gave us the acorns, but he will not crack them for us". Confronted with this reality, our on recourse is to keep cracking.

Fiction As Fact: Struggling For A Decent Life

IN A RICHARD WHEELER NOVEL, set in the copper mining bonanza of butte, Montana in the 1890s, a miner's wife if barely able to feed herself and her three children after her husband is killed in a mining accident. Multi-millionaire copper kings own the mines, and pay the miners bare subsistence wages for endless hours of back breaking, grueling toil, toil which often cripples or kills them with sudden accidents, but eventually kills them all, with black lung disease, consumption, and other forms of cancer. It takes hundreds of years to destroy the tyranny conferred upon the lower class by those with wealth, power, and privilege. it is a battle still being fought today, but particularly virulent in the late nineteenth century, as America's booming post civil war industrial revolution, in the context of government subsidies for business owners and neglect of worker's rights and welfare, engenders a labor union movement which sweeps across the industrial complex, and is met with government sponsored violence and repression. Throughout America, workers were routinely killed in strike breaking violent retribution in the late nineteenth century. The skinny, half starved miner's widow becomes aware of the socialist movement sweeping out of Europe and across working class America. She joins the movement, and receives pamphlets describing for the workers the forces arrayed against them which produce their dire, impoverished, slave like condition. "Red Alice", as she is called in Wheeler's novel "The Richest Hill On Earth", goes into forbidden miner's bars, delivering her pamphlets, making her argument for more aggressive action by the miner's union, the Western Federation of Miners, and urging common cause with the social labor movement. The filthy, coughing miners, sipping their ail after ten hours of drudgery, are receptive to her ideals, but fearful of corporate retribution in the event their tame union becomes too vocal in demanding fair treatment. Then, as now, neither major political party represents the interests of the working class, being controlled by the wealthy elite. Red Alice understands the need for a third party, one which advocates for the poor working class, just a people today recognize the same need. At the end of the novel, the entire copper mining industry is consolidated into the Rockefeller Standard Oil trust, and Montana and its state government come under the control of east coast billionaires. A meeting of the millionaires in Butte celebrates monopolistic consolidation as being in everyone's best interests by producing a greater general prosperity, devoid of the inconveniences of free market competition and frivolous lawsuits of those opposing the cartel clogging up the judicial system. as the wealthy elite leave the building, there stands Red Alice, out in the cold, barely able to cover herself with clothing, holding a crudely lettered sign which reads: "capitalism is theft". A Rockefeller man asks who she is, and his attorney informs him that she is really nobody, of no real concern to anyone. If any of this sounds familiar, it should.

Coming To Terms With Truman

WHEN HARRY TRUMAN BECAME PRESIDENT, he resigned his position as grand master of the Missouri masonic lodge, and my grandfather replaced him. My father, a green lawyer hanging around, asked the new president what he least liked about the job. No privacy I can't even take a leak alone. Give 'em hell harry, ever blunt. I was a high school senior on Christmas break when Truman died. I drove three hours, stood in line all night outside the Truman library, freezing, and was rewarded by spending three minutes walking around the flag draped honor guarded elevated casket, while my flashcube camera failed utterly. To me, it was worth it. My mother, correctly, thought I was crazy. the actual problem was that I was seventeen. she offered to save me a trip and take me downtown to a mortuary to view as many caskets as I wanted, but I politely declined. She could never show me one with a dead president inside. In graduate school a professor asked the seminar members to assess whether Truman's legacy was rising or falling within the historical profession. Ascending, I asserted. He corrected me. In the nineteen eighties, it seemed, harry was losing esteem. but not now. Now, he is ascending, and has risen to number six on layman's and scholar's lists. The most recent book "The Accidental President" by A.J. Baime, is a good read, but doesn't offer much new scholarship. Truman is well documented. It may be that the definitive work on harry S. Truman has not yet been written. In the Truman library, there is a section devoted entirely to the nuclear bombing of Japan. Visitors are invited to put their thoughts in writing. opinions vary widely; there is no consensus. I wrote that both bombs were unnecessary, that during the summer of 1945 the Japanese government was communicating with the Russian military, seeking a way of approaching the Americans concerning possible surrender terms. I wrote that by august 1945, the Japanese military was entirely destroyed, and that the reason for the bomb was to convince the Russians not to enter the war against Japan, and to announce to the world America's intention to dominate it after the war's end. And I wrote that Truman was well aware of all of this, as indicated in his diary. Baime offers nothing other than the conventional rationale for the atomic bombs, disappointingly. I love and admire Truman, partly because of his abrasive honesty, partly because he was born only a few miles from where I grew up. Much as I malign him for dropping the bombs, for failing to complete the New Deal, and for igniting the cold War with an irrational fear of communism, I admire Truman because he was confronted with a set of circumstances and adverse responsibility unparalleled in human history, and he had no choice but to do something. I admire him for doing something............THANK YOU FOR SHARING THIS SITE WITH YOUR FRIENDS!

Choosing Our Poison

MY FATHER, who fought in and lived through World War Two against Hitler, Mussolini, and imperial Japan, said that d benevolent dictatorship is the best form of government. Certainly the most efficient in getting things done than messy, sluggish democracy. If Jesus Christ were to return today, preferably with and olive branch and without a sword, and preferably not fo the purpose of rapturing the elect into heaven with himself and allowing the rest of us to dwell in chaos and misery, but rather to install his benevolent governance upon the world, count me in. I would have no objection, and neither would, I suspect, most other people. presumably, under a Christian dictatorship, wealth would be distributed equally, and utopian communism of sorts would adhere. Competition for resources would cease. Political power would also be equally distributed, since nobody would have any, Jesus having all of it. Democracy is in theory an excellent idea, but doesn't work well, and cannot exist without economic equality, as all capable social analysts understand. Plato and Aristotle knew this, as did Jefferson and Madison. Only socialistic democracy is possible, and even then corruption sets in, leading ultimately to authoritarianism. nearly all of us share a common assumption: that government of some form is a necessary evil, that without some form of government chaos would ensue, and the world would revert to savagery. Surprisingly, there are exceptions to this belief. There are people who espouse the elimination of all forms of authority, submission to authority, and obedience, including all forms of government. They are of course called "anarchists", and are generally regarded as being, by definition, extremely radical, unreasonable, even mentally unstable. Even more surprisingly, far from being mentally ill, many anarchists are among the most respected intellectuals in western culture, past and present. Among the most presently prominent is Noam Chomsky, perhaps the most respected American intellectual everywhere in the world, outside the United States. Chomsky envisions a classless, governmentless society, organized into local councils of workers, working by agreement. A quick google search of the key word 'anarchism" or "anarchists" yields a vast body of literature on the subject. The more apparent it becomes that Jesus has no intention of intervening with a benevolent global dictatorship, and the more apparent it becomes that no form of government devised by humanity is satisfactory, the more one might wish to consider an option almost universally but perhaps mistakenly considered irrational: a world without government.

Defeating Roy Moore, For Starters

ROY MOORE is not an outlier, to borrow a currently fashionable phrase. He is a direct manifestation of the culture of Alabama, conservative, backward looking, confederate proud. I once lived there. The land and the people are beautiful, over friendly, albeit resistant to positive change. Bull Connor and George Wallace wre likewise products of the white Alabama mainstream. when Wallace ran for president in 1968, my sister and I were walking with our father towards the auditorium where he was scheduled to speak, and we found out the speech had been canceled due to his having received a death threat. My loss. Donald trump got elected either in spite or because of his proclaimed pride in his sexual predation. He bragged about it, numerous women confirmed it, and Trump's supporters either ignored or supported it, whichever. Maybe both. Now, at least one hundred members of congress are protesting it, his accusers are reemerging, and we shall see, to borrow a quote from the Lord Cornwallis, who takes the glory from this field of battle. Would Roy Moore have enhanced his chances of being elected had he emulating Trump's behavior, by proudly coming clean? Perhaps. conservative evangelical Christians support trump, they support Roy Moore, and they supported bull Connor and George Wallace. Are they proud of this? re the folks at Liberty University proud to support Donald Trump? Doug Jones is pro choice, and, like all pro choice people, pro life. Nobody hopes for abortions to happen. Pro choice people believe that a woman and her God should choose, not the federal government. Pro life people, who want a small government to stay away from their personal wealth, and who profess a love of God, suddenly want big government to control a woman's reproductive choices, and they want to leave god out of it, strangely. obviously, the Christian god either condones abortion, or is powerless to prevent it, or could prevent it but chooses not to. No wonder conservative Christians worship him they fear not to. no wonder they don't trust him; they perhaps shouldn't. Anyone who voted for Roy Moore voted for a man who disobeys the law, tries to impose his religious beliefs upon the public, and who does not trust God to deal with the unborn in his own way. When several women accused Al Franken and John Conyers of sexual misconduct, they resigned. What should Donald Trump and Roy Moore do, other than leave the public limelight? The fact that Roy Moore was not elected to the U.S. Senate, though greatly fortunate, changes nothing. Even as Doug Jones closes the gap between republican and democratic representation in the Senate, and espouses good policy, the conservative evangelical Christian community and the extreme right weing of the American electorate remain joined at the hip, thinking themselves righteous, working all the while to turn back the clock, reverse progress, and turn America into a theocracy of darkness.

Being Afraid

WHEN ALBERT EINSTEIN was a teenager, Germany was a newly formed country, proud, full of itself, an embryonic empire on the verge of exploding into European prominence, proudly nationalistic and highly militaristic culturally. In later life, living in America after World War Two, Dr. Einstein reflected back on how his upbringing in Bavaria instilled in him a loathing of all things military. He recalled the near daily military parades in 1890s Munich, and how it impacted him, such that the very sight of men in uniform, rank and file inspired him to question the intelligence of those participating. In America, we've had our own cyclical love affairs with ourselves, our country, and our military. We are having one now. The nightmare of September 11, 2001 propelled America into a hyper patriotic mindset, from which we have yet to emerge. We continually remind ourselves that those who served in our military are heroes, on a par with police officers. Our flag waving and national anthem singing have reached epic proportions. The very moment we meet someone who once served in the military we obsequiously offer our deepest gratitude and sincerest thanks. We have fallen in love with our armed forces, which are always prepared for was, and have been since the second world war, partly because we live with a chronic, pervasive fear of attack, both from within, and from the outside. We jump at our own shadows. Although terrorists= attacks are less common than lightening strikes, we behave as if an attack is imminent. Increasingly, our most mundane daily actions are caught on camera. We live in a virtual surveillance, police state. The advertising on this website, and everywhere else, is targeted directly towards you, because our corporate masters have enough information about all of us to do so. They know all about us, and they know how to use the information. Their corporate tools of implementation, our elected politicians, are cosen for us by corporate money; our votes for them are mere rubberstamps. The only thing we have to fear is feat itself. WE have a lot to fear.

Dying To Deny Climate Change

RUSH LIMBAUGH has often said, and still says, that climate change is a hoax perpetrated by liberals, and that the human species is so insignificant in the greater context of nature that we are incapable of having any real impact on the environment. This, although our present age has been designated by scientists as the "anthropocene", the age of man, the age of human domination, control, and reshaping of the planetary environment. Climate deniers, like rush Limbaugh, are almost entirely concentrated among older people, baby boomers and beyond. Millennials, while deeply immersed in their forms of fantasy, tend on the whole to understand basic chemistry and to accept the reality of climate change and the causal connections between added atmospheric carbon and heat retention. People inherently tend to resist whatever truths they perceive inimical to their own perceived interests. Millennials also exhibit a trend towards renunciation of material wealth, and concern for the environment; but, alas, so did the baby boomers, long ago, before they became rich. Donald Trump will almost certainly be the final American president to be a climate change denier; it is inconceivable that America would elect another, as the millennials assume more power and the older generations fade away. When the baby boomer generation is gone, future generations will marvel that there was ever a time when a substantial portion of the population denied climate change. irrefutable facts, overwhelming evidence will at length force people to change their beliefs, but research has shown that the process takes about two years, at best. Our beliefs are deeply held, and resistant to reason. The parents of the baby boomers never fully embraced the fact that cigarettes kill people, and that seat belts save lives. by the time they started to, it was too late for them. About half the baby boomers will forever deny climate change, unto the very day when they lay on their death bed, on some warm January day, not far in the future.

Trump Brings his Racism To a Celebration of Civil Rights, Spewing Insincere Garbage

THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI is celebrating its bicentennial, and christening a new civil rights museum. Old Miss has come a long way from the days of "Mississippi" burning, and Emmit till. Nor long enough; racism malingers, but fifty years ago a civil right museum was unthinkable, because civil rights did not yet exist, but were still on the battlefield. president Trump appeared, and made a speech. Nothing more inappropriate ever occurred in Dixie, nor anywhere else. trump's remarks were canned, hollow, and banal, referring to the totally terrific struggle of the African-American people to achieve equality. Trump and his kind think that the struggle against racism is long since over, since they don't notice it, and he probably thinks that a museum dedicated to the struggle is racist, and place African-Americans in a position of preferential elite status. there is a reason why civil rights leaders, the people who actually made progress happen, people like John Lewis, boycotted the president. The reason is that the president is a racist himself. his appearance in Mississippi was a mere photo opportunity, a concession to the requirement that politicians be at least occasionally politically correct. the nearby protest make the point quite clearly. In 1974, managing his father's apartment properties, Trump put the letter "C" on all applications for living quarters from African-Americans , the "c' standing for colored. he had to make sure that daddy and everyone else knew in advance the skin pigmentation of potential tenants. They didn't get the apartment. Much more recently, Trump spent the Obama administration as a "birther", ignoring berth certificates and eye witness testimony to proclaim that Barack Hussein Obama had actually been born in Kenya, not Hawaii. the nurse who delivered the future president, still alive, had a different memory, and thy shared it, but Trump and hs gang of right wing extremists racists conveniently ignored the facts, as is their wont. The only possible motivation for the birther movement was racist based hatred. To claim otherwise is to be a reprehensible liar. Good ole white boys have become ashamed of their racism, and whereas fifty years ago flaunted it, now they try to disguise it, without success. No, trump did not belong in Mississippi for the kick off of the civil rights museum, and the people who did belong stayed away, repulsed. One can grudgingly respect the honesty of confederate flagging openly racist rednecks, for their honesty if not their values and intelligence. Trump is of the far more common insidious type. Morally challenged, but too cowardly to admit it, because he knows exactly what a reprobate he is.

Hating Education, Conservatively

FIFTY EIGHT PERCENT OF REPUBLICANS say on surveys that they believe colleges and universities have a negative impact on American society. This is a verifiable fact. The other forty two percent either don't care, do not understand the question, or were not aware of the existence of colleges and universities. Seventy two percent of democrats say that universities have a positive impact. The other twenty eight percent are possibly referring to the immense burden of student loan debt accrued by many graduates. According to most republicans, education is bad for us. Their complaint, of course, is that they see institutions of higher education as bastions of liberalism, where such things as evolution by natural selection are taught instead of creationism, where Karl Marx is mentioned, and where professors of economics regularly offer proof that neo liberal supply side economics has a negative impact on society, and proof that the United States has a violent and sordid history. It is an observable fact that university campuses, particularly elite institutions like Harvard, Berkeley, Princeton, and M.I.T., are predominately inhabited by left leaning scholars, both professors and students. This has long been true. This raises the question: why? Why are universities not primarily the home of evangelical conservatives, or just plain political conservatives? One theory is that universities are places where highly intelligent well educated people tend to gather together, and such people tend to be progressive, tend to be the sort who recognize the need for change in human society, rather than defending the status quo, tradition, or cherishing the culture of bygones days, the sort of people who want to "make America great again", by turning back the clock. Conservatives have long been opposed to the public school system, because it fails to reflect conservative values such as unmitigated competition, blind patriotism and christian dogma, and tend to inculcate an attitude of cooperative endeavor among children. Heaven forbid that we should assign the title of "winner" to all who participate and compete, even those who do not dominate and win first place. Using every trick in the book, including reducing property taxes, promoting private school vouchers, and so forth, American conservative are seeking to undermine public education, and are openly contemptuous of higher education, with the exception of bible colleges where the bible is taught as the inviolate word of god and the American constitution is taught as a sacred document, and American history is taught exclusively as the manifestation of a shining city on a hill. Evangelical Christianity, belief in the perfection of the bible, and right wing nationalistic pandering patriotism, which ignores America's many and blatantly tragic evils, go hand in hand, and since good universities, and good junior colleges prefer telling the truth about human origins and the limited value of supposedly sacred books, and the truth about America's tragic past and present, they quite naturally have no place in the value system of evangelical conservatives, who are congregated in the republican party, the party which has only contempt for education, truth, and compassion.

Agreeing To Save Ourselves

THERE ARE SEVERAL BASIC PROBLEMS, man made, threatening human survival, all interrelated. Rising sea level, insufficient food and water resources, global warming, all have the same cause; the use of fossil fuels and the misuse of chemicals. they all have the same solution; solar energy. The solution is at hand, available. Turing sea water into fresh water through desalination has long been possible and implemented, but at much too great a cost. The cost of solar energy is rapidly declining, as production efficiency increases, and will soon price coal, oil, and natural gas out of the market. We will have the luxury of saving ourselves and the planet, without upsetting the sacred capitalistic applecart, evidently the prime consideration. Our dire agricultural and water circumstances are precipitated by overpopulation and the fossil fuels needed to sustain it, leading to vast abuses of agricultural land, over farming, chemicals, and so forth. All this leads to eventual food and water depletion, as we see now. So, we need to get rid of fossil fuels, we need to leave them in the ground, where they belong. The generation of huge amounts of solar energy, now possible with solar energy collectors in space and better technology and economic models on earth, is imminent. We can convert billions of metric tons of sea water to fresh water, solving the fresh water shortage and mitigating sea level rise simultaneously. Using nano technology, scientists have recently developed an inexpensive way to desalinate, using solar energy, which involves evaporating sea water through a thin membrane, and collecting it in tanks for transport and use. Pipelines of the sort previously used to transport oil will suffice nicely. This method is simple, and fool proof, making it suitable for human use. This means we can now begin converting enormous quantities of sea water, reclaiming desertified regions, grow crops and plant trillions of trees economically, and save ourselves and our environment. The depleted sol will recover, and as human population growth levels off, prosperity can be guaranteed for all. This will required more cooperation than competition, and a lessening of the incentive for individual profit and wealth. the only problem will be convincing republicans to assist us in the task of saving our species, all other species, and the ecosystem in general.

Stepping Up

BITTER AS I'LL BE if Roy Moore is elected to the U.S. Senate next week, part of me will laugh, most of me will roll my eyes. its neck and neck; likely he'll get elected. it will be further verification that America has lost its moral compass, from the folks who brought us Trump. Why bother demanding that who have bee repeatedly accused of sexual misconduct resign their jobs and political offices, when we the American promote and elect them in the first place? Trump's behavior, Roy Moore's behavior was well known well in advance. We were warned, and choose not to care. IN America, when a political candidate presents an agenda which meets with our personal approval, we put on blinders and become unconcerned with personal behavior and morality. that says much about us, who we are, and who we have allowed ourselves to become. All of these high powered men in business, entertainment, and politics now losing their jobs as multiple accusations mount were already long known by many for their serious indiscretions, before and during their term in office. that fact reflects on us as much as them. Long before Bill Clinton became president his behavior was known by many and largely ignored. The same is true of Roger Ailes and Bill O'Reilly in their careers at FOX. The same is true with President Trump. the same is true with Roy Moore, and for him, it is not too late to act, although we probably will not act. They all could have been stopped, but nobody stepped up. Now, too late, when the damage is already done, America finally speaks up, and begins to take action. In the United States of America, women are objectified, and women objectify themselves for personal gain. Careers are built upon the exploitation of the sex appeal of young women, with their willing cooperation. The women in front of the camera on FOX television wear miniskirts and show cleavage in front of millions of viewers, willingly. Nearly every program on television has covert sexual content. In the United States of America, human dignity is sacrificed and human sexuality is exploited for profit at the almighty alter of corporate capitalism. American tend to regard American women as objects to be exploited, because thay are trained to do so. For an American man, a sexual "conquest" is a badge of honor. American women, from the beginning, are trained to exploit their own sexual attractiveness for personal gain by being desirable to powerful men. They act the part, they dress the part. A few hours spent walking across any public university campus reveals this. We elected Donald Trump, and we may well elect Roy Moore. if so, we will get what we deserve, and what we have created for ourselves.

Baking Wedding Cakes For All, Or None

THE CHRISTIAN FAITH BASED BAKERY in Colorado which refused to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple and was convicted of discrimination by Colorado law, will have its day, actually about thirty minutes, in Supreme Court. They will argue, of course, that by being forced to cater to gay customers, they are being forced to violate their religious beliefs. The other side will argue that, when someone goes into business, the business operates with the permission of the public, and must therefore serve the public, all of it, regardless of race, gender, creed, sexual orientation, and all that. Assuming history and precedent is any indicator of the outcome, the bakery will lose, and will be required to bake wedding cakes for all betrothed or none, including gay couples. For awhile now this bakery has suspended baking wedding cakes for everyone, including the heterosexual marital community, and by having done so has lost about forty percent of its revenue, so say the owners. This might be the final solution. That seems like a heap of lost revenue for the sake of religiosity; and a testament to the sincerity of the bakery owner's beliefs. A spokesperson for the bakery, perhaps its attorney, posed a hypothetical in which a pro choice bakery might be required to bake a cake with the message "abortion stops heartbeats" inscribed upon it. Or that a bakery owned by Muslims might be required to put a depiction of the Christian holy trinity on a cake. One obvious answer to this clever hypothetical ploy is that whether or not one is pro choice or pro life, abortion does indeed stop the beating of a heart, and that therefore the presentation of this message cannot be considered objectionable to anyone. Whether one is a Muslim baker or not, placing a depiction of the Christian trinity on a cake does not in any way imply implicitly or explicitly that the cake baker believes in the Christian trinity, but rather, that the customer does. Baking a cake for a gay couple does not, or need not have anything to do with whether the bakery approves of homosexuality. Besides, a gay couple wanting a wedding cake, merely by wanting a cake, is not presenting any political, social, or religious message, such as the trinity or a stance on the abortion issue. They are simply wanting to have a wedding cake. We have a conservative Supreme Court, so conservatives might be expecting the court, when its decision is handed down in June, to affirm the right of Christian bakers to refrain from making wedding cakes for gay couples, while making cakes for straight couples. They are likely to be disappointed. Recent court rulings, on Obamacare and gay marriage, for example, came from the conservative Supreme Court, in which conservative justices rendered rulings favorable to liberals, rather than conservatives, thus transcending their personal ideology for the sake of well rendered, logical law. Liberals need not fear conservative justices. When the liberal position is the correct one, such as in the right of a gay couple to do business with a business which serves the general public, its position will prevail, as it will almost certainly this time.

Compromising One's Values

ONE MONTH BEFORE TRUMP'S ELECTION, when the Access Hollywood tape was released, in which Trump proudly proclaimed himself a serial sexual predator, his running mate, Mike Pence, like all other devout Christian conservative republicans, had a problem, and a choice to make. A choice of religious morality versus political expediency. They made their choice. In every case, political expediency trumped religious faith and morality. Pence, who like Bill Clinton and many others wanted to be president since he was in high school, offered to replace Trump as the presidential candidate, and to run with Condoleezza Rice. The republican national committee took another approach: to mitigate, ignore, and disavow the Access Hollywood tape. Two days later Trump himself saved the day, and his own campaign, by arranging for all the women who had accused Bill Clinton of sexual misconduct to attend his debate against Hillary Clinton, as if by bringing back memories of Clinton's indiscretions Trump could expunge his own, which, in the eyes of his supporters, he could. Every day during his service as vice president Mr. Pence is faced with the contradictions between his devotion to Christ and his willing subservience to Donald Trump. the dissonance must be considerable, and there are people close to Pence who confirm that it is. it is even speculated that Pence will serve out one term, then either leave the administration or challenge Trump for the republican presidential nomination in 2020. Trump meanwhile, continues to try to assuage his own guilt by pointing to other people, usually Hillary Clinton, most recently by accusing her of lying to the FBI, this accusation itself being a blatant lie. that Donald Trump ever accuses anyone else of telling lies is audacious almost beyond belief. Mike pence, who started life as a Catholic but converted to evangelical Christianity while a young man, is a man of principles, with attendant political aspirations. It must be truly agonizing for him to sever in the Trump administration. had he not accepted the V.P> nomination, his political career would have been over, so unpopular was he as governor of Indiana. And yet, Pence, more than anyone, understands that Donald J. Trump is the very antithesis of Christian values. Perhaps he feels deep down that he can make a difference, can offset the vile influence of Trump, and thus serve his God, his country, and his conseience. If only all the other Trump supporters felt the same way.

Enjoying Good Fiction From the Wrong Source

DONALD J. TRUMP is not the world's greatest purveyor of fiction and denier of reality. But he's right up there with the very best. Certainly he competes for the "honor" with America's extreme right wing, including the conspiracy theorist crowd, and stands up well against Barnum, Bailey, Speilberg, Disney, and the3 best that fantasy and science fiction have to offer. The president's latest excursion into the realm of the unreal involves the recently passed tax reform bill for which Trump blithely claims all his wealthy friends, of which he is quick to point out he has many, are allegedly angry at him. he further claims that the new law will cost him bigly; in fact Trump stands to gain roughly one billion dollars in tax savings. If wealthy people are angry at him, it can only be because he surpasses them all in arrogance, a sense of personal superior and entitlement, and prima donna demeanor. Power, fame, and wealth corrupt, and of this ancient truth Trump is the primo example. Having been in office for nearly a year, trump now declares himself the most accomplished president in American history over the same period of time. Apparently his prep school education did not include an examination of the Roosevelt administration in the year 1933, or the Roosevelt administration in the year 1901, or, for that matter, any of the first years of any previous administration. the tax bill is his only accomplishment, if redistributing wealth to the wealthy can be called an accomplishment. Let us recall that there is no border wall, no removal from the treaty with Iran, and no repeal of Obamacare, which Trump himself promised and made his signature agenda. The nation and the world are indeed fortunate that trump hasn't done more in office, and that he has in fact done very little, other than hastening the destruction of the environment through inaction on climate change. His latest flight of fancy? That Hillary Clinton lied repeatedly to the FBI, without consequences, while his former national security advisor, Michael Flynn, lied, and paid the price. if the president were familiar with the fact of fact checking, he would know that there is not the slightest bit of evidence that Hillary Clinton ever lied to the FBU, and that the FBI has said so. More probably, he does no it, and pretends not to, which is an indication of a delusional mentality. Our only consolation is that we all enjoy good fiction. the tragedy is that we expect it to derive from good writers and movie makers, not from our national leadership.

Trump, Bringing Trump Down

TODAY PRESIDNET TRUMP said, tweetingly, that he fired Michael Flynn for lying to the Vice President, and for lying to the FBI. At the time of the firing, in February, Trump only mentioned the lie to the V.P. as the reason for Flynn's firing. Flynn was a major member of Trump's presidential campaign team, then became his national security advisor after Trump was sworn in, before being fired only a few weeks later. By giving out this new version, Trump has, presumably accidently, without thinking, incriminated himself, badly. At the time of Flynn's firing, the FBI had not yet fully investigated Flynn, and did not yet know that he had lied to them. How did Trump know? He knew because he knew what Flynn had said to the FBI, and knew that it was a lie. That's the only way he could have known. Flynn told the FBI a lie about his contact with the Russians, and Trump must have known the truth about it. This means that Trump knew all about his campaign's involvement with the Russians all along, which is the question being investigated by former FBI chief Robert Muller. Not long after Flynn's firing, Trump tried to get FBI director to relent in his investigation of Flynn and the rest of the campaign, evidently knowing that Flynn had lied to the FBI. This is obstruction of justice, for one thing. Immediately after today's disastrous Trump tweet, Trump's lawyer came out and said that in fact Trump did not write the tweet, but that he, the lawyer, wrote it. The only problem with this story is that Trump tweets bright and early every morning, and each tweet has his name on it, and the POTUS logo, and all that, and millions of people read each tweet. this is now becoming big news, and as the day goes only will become ever bigger, a major scandal. You can't blame trump's lawyer for trying in desperation to save his client, but, unfortunately, the attempt is lame, and anyone can see through it, see that is is a itself a lie, intending to cover for the president. So, we have another presidential scandal which makes Watergate look mild by comparison. It should be enough to bring down Trump. He will now have to either seriously consider resigning, or drag the nation through the agony of another impeachment proceeding. When all the investigations are finished, and the facts are out in the open, they will easily be enough to remove Trump from office, and place him in prison, sadly.

Doing It Backwards

I BELIEVE IN HIGH TAXES and big government. We achieve more by cooperating in large numbers than by competing as individuals, although there is value in both modes. Surveys reveal that most Americans want a strong military, well maintained highways, bridges, and roads, social security, Medicare, Medicaid, police and fire protection, among other services, and they want to pay about ten percent of their income in taxes. Needless to say, the math doesn't add up. There is a common misconception that individuals can spend their money more intelligently, which means on what they need, than the government. People in fact are accomplished at spending their own hard earned money on cigarettes, alcohol, video games, and escape entertainment, while the government is not, and the government is more adept than people at spending public money on the military, roads and highways, police and fire protection, among other services. High taxes fund projects, such as scientific research and education, which yields future prosperity and well paid jobs. Between 1945 and 1980 taxes were high, the middle class was large, the wealthy and poor working classes smaller, much smaller than now, and America was at her historically most prosperous. The magic formula is high taxes, a large public sector, and investment in research and education, essentially the opposite of the formula now in use. Throughout American history government has subsidized big business, and failed to support the interests of the poor working class. Government investment in growth areas within the private sector, such as high tech and medicine, indeed yields results, but government support of financial services in particular has been to the detriment to most segments of the American economy. Cutting taxes on the wealthy does not produce prosperity; it produces wealthier wealthy people, or added production without increased demand. Redistribute wealth unto the working poor through tax and wage policy, and prosperity is increased through increased demand. High taxes are not a burden if net incomes are increased. The great tragedy of our modern politicians is that the policies they enact are diametrically opposed to the prosperity they claim is being enhanced.

Trouble Teaching

WHEN I WAS TEACHING MIDDLE SCHOOL, three seventh grade girls approached me one day, and began a conversation. They asked me whether I was married. Harmless enough. Normal interest in and curiosity about one's teacher. No, I said. Do you have a girlfriend? Red flag. I should have stopped it, but that's not me. I avoid danger, but not potential danger, not in circumstances where there should be no danger, and in which communication can have good outcomes. The question should have been harmless, and in a healthy culture would be. But not in America. So, I said yes. They wanted to see a picture of her, know something about her. So I showed them one, amid a field of red flags. An act that should be harmless. They agreed she was pretty, and they were quite correct. Then one of the students said that she wished she were pretty too. Amid flying red flags, I immediately assured her that she was, and that boys would soon be seeking her attention. At that point, I knew my job was on the line. Sure enough, the principal, a friend of mine, called me in. Red flag. The parents had called. There was a problem. He assured me that I had a wonderful career ahead of me, anywhere I might chose to go, that the world was my oyster, that he was certain that I understood, and that he was grateful not only for my good attitude, but also for my hard work and years of good service. He found it particularly ironic that I was the most caring, most loyal, and best teacher in the building. We parted amiably. I will always remember him as one of the few administrators I personally liked. My teaching career, though rewarding and interesting, (if not financially), never really worked out the way I had intended. A certain percentage of those who read this article, thousands, will suspect me of pedophilia. Those people are twisted, morally bankrupt, like the greater society. I had a lot of different jobs, temporary, substitute. But I have no regrets. I learned much that I might have learned nowhere else. I learned never to tell a student that she is pretty, even to save her self esteem. If a female student stands closer than twelve inches, back up, and if necessary, keep backing. And by all means, never tell a high school history class that Thomas Jefferson was essentially an atheist, and that he considered Christianity nothing but superstition, and harmful to society. In America, telling the truth, with the intent of educating and helping people, can get you into big trouble.

Visiting The FBI

IF YOU'RE LOOKING FOR the office of the local branch of the FBI, you probably have a problem. Either you've done something wrong, accidentally or deliberately, someone has done harm to you, or, through sheer stupidity you have allowed someone to harm you. I plead option number three. I invested half my retirement savings with a con artist. Locally, the Bureau occupies the third floor of a prestigious bank building, granite, marble, glass, and steel. I only got lost twice, once outside the building, once within. Not bad, considering my directional disability. My nickname should be "GPS". After following the arrow on the sign which read "Federal Bureau of Investigation" down the hall all the way to the end, I stood before a dark foreboding door which I sensed was a foot thick. I pushed the buzzer, which made an ominous noise. I heard a metallic clanking sound, and timidly tried the door, which opened. In I went, and found a metal door-shaped rectangle straight ahead, leading into an austere formally decorated room. There was a way around the rectangle, and I considered taking it, then asked the severe young woman behind a three inch thick pane of presumably bullet proof glass whether I should step through the rectangle. She said yes, unsmilingly. I accidentally smuggled my car keys through, hoping it wouldn't lead to trouble. At the glass pane, I apologized for my informal attire, and explained that although I never dress properly, I usually do better than this. She didn't laugh. I decided to abandon humor, and I explained my reason for being there; to attempt to persuade the Bureau to launch a criminal investigation. She slid a paper through the slit at the bottom of the bullet proof pane, the type you see at ticket windows. I smiled, and said thank you. She didn't return the smile. I filled out my personal info, and a description of my complaint; that I had been victimized by financial fraud. One quick page. When I handed it back, she explained to me that the agent wasn't in at the moment, and that he would call me. I had noticed, during my paperwork, that at least two very official looking men in suits and badges come and go, and I would have gladly settled for a chat with either one of them. AS I prepared to leave, I thanked the stern young lady behind the glass barrier, and smiled. She didn't smile back. but said you're welcome. I have only spoken to FBI employees a handful of times, but none of them have ever smiled at me, and they all have seemed deadly serious, and downright eager to complete their conversation with me. On the way out I noticed a stack of thick booklets lying on a shelf titled "Your career with the FBI" on the cover, and a photo of a young attractive woman, broadly beaming. I fleetingly wondered about false advertising, but let the mater drop, because I had made it back through the metal detector with my car keys and no sirens, and thought I should quit while I was ahead, and safely leaving the building.

Trump, Trending Towards Treason

THE CONSUMER FINANCIAL PROTECTION BUREAU was established in 2010 as part of the Dodd-Frank financial services reform act, all intended to limit the power and ability of big financial services firms to, quite frankly, further enrich themselves by screwing people out of their hard earned money. The CFPB is one of those government regulatory agencies which simultaneously protects the common citizen from the evil designs of big business - to the extent that big business has evil designs, which, indisputably, it does, at least occasionally. It also serves the interest of the preservation of capitalism, by preventing big business from destroying itself and the capitalistic system through predatory cannibalism, sort of like, say, the Securities and Exchange commission. By providing necessary regulation for the establishment and preservation and enforcement of fair business practices, in other words. In other words, the sort of government agency which conservatives tend to despise. A perfect example of what free market fanatical money freaks call "big government", on which right wing greed mongers blame all social ills, real and imagined, insanely, the very term "big government" having been repeated like a mantra so often that the very term inspires fear and loathing among the uninformed. Donald trump, the current don of the right wing money grubbing crowd, hounded the head of the CFPB into resigning, then broke the law by appointing a replacement, a man who loves money but hates government. According to law, the deputy director of the Bureau should have assumed control. Trump thus continues his pattern of, as Jefferson said, eating out the substance of the people, by quietly dismantling their government. He has placed, quite bluntly, more wolves in more hen houses than a corrupt poultry cartel seeking to destroy competition. Also, he has utterly failed to fill thousands of government jobs with warm bodies of any sort, thus "hollowing out" the government, as a pundit put it. This is because trump and his ilk disdain any person, place, or thing with the potential to ameliorate capitalistic excesses, and its victims. Every executive agency, every cabinet level department is grossly understaffed, one full year into the Trump administration, by design. The government is running on fumes and memory. Has Trump gotten around, at long last, to appointing an ambassador to South Korea? (hint: no) A rather important position to leave unfilled, one might argue. Rex Tillerson, who soon might himself be on the way out, assures us that the state department has indeed not been hollowed out, apparently failing to notice that thousands of experienced, career diplomats have quietly left the building in bewilderment and presumed disgust. Tillerson's crime, it seems, is that he believes that diplomacy can on rare occasion work, and he does not think it is necessarily a good idea for the U.S. to exit the Paris climate change agreement, nor the nuclear bomb treaty with Iran. Trump has said that diplomacy is a waste of time. Treason is narrowly defined in the constitution as leading a military insurrection against the United States. If it were more broadly defined, our political parties might constantly accusing each other of it. If treason were defined more accurately and broadly, president Trump could be accused of it on at least two counts: that he is attempting to destroy the United States and the world by refusing to fight climate change he pretends it doesn't exist), and that he is attempting to destroy the U.s. government by refusing to allow the number of people necessary to operate it to work for it. Also, by appointing people to operate it various agencies and departments who are seeking the destruction of the agencies and departments to which they have been appointed.It is also increasingly likely that Trump cooperated with Russian operatives to assist in his election, and it is perfectly obvious to any competent ethics attorney that Trump's business empire presents a virtual cobweb of conflicts of interests with the presidency, according to Richard Painter, the world's leading authority on the matter. Amazingly, none of this meets the definition of treason, but seems good grounds upon which t initiate impeachment proceedings. To actually commit treason, Trump might have to give a wink an a nod to his white supremacist supporters for further terrorist activity, or incite terrorism or war by re-tweeting anti-Islamic propaganda, or making a few crass fat jokes about the North Korean dictator, while a crude intercontinental ballistic missile lurches lazily towards, say, Mara Lago.

Calling A Tax Reform Spade A Spade

I MAY ONE DAY receive from Harvard an honorary doctorate in neophytic economic hypothesizing. Other than that, I have little hope of formal credentials. I've had exactly one (1) undergrad economic class, for which I received a "C". Still, I'm smart enough to see that only twenty five percent of we the American people approve of the tax bill currently on the verge of being passed by our conservative congress. Some call it tax reform, Trump calls it tax cuts and a totally terrify oh so cool /Christmas present for the American people, credible economics and other discerning people call it a charitable contribution to the very wealthy. Another possible name is "The Top One Percent enrichment Act of 2017". Trump is so great a grandstander that he is actually prevaricatingly claiming that all his wealthy friends, of whom, he reminds us, he has many, are angry at him, presumably for stiffing them in favor of the working poor and middle class. More Trump rubbish, Piled Higher, and Deeper. A doctorate of deception. It is amazing that anyone would any longer believe anything that the prevaricating president spews, and most likely nobody does, other than the diehard right wing nationalistic sycophants who voted for Trump through sheer anger and ignorance of their own interests. Equally amazing is the earnestness with which the republican party promulgates policies demonstrably unpopular with the American public, by virtue of their being demonstrably inimical to its interests. Refusal to address climate change, refusal to support, repair, and strengthen Obamacare; you name it, the more we the people want to have it done, the more the grand out of touch party refuses to do it. Dynamic scoring, a system which conservatives tend to love to use to predict the probably effects of tax cuts for the wealthy because dynamic scoring tends to maximize the growth potential of trickle down economics, trickle down economics being a demonstrable fraud, tells us that the tax bill, if enacted, heaven forbid, will raise the federal deficit by at least a trillion dollars. Even the tools of the right wing trade are turning against them.so, there is yet hope that one or two republican Senators will retain their sense, and do what is right for the American people: scuttle this abominable bill in the swirling waters of the historical toilet.

Asking Questions

MY MOTHER, who would now be nearing her one hundredth birthday, once told me that when she was a little girl, her favorite word was "why"? She said she became known for using it, for asking questions about causation. "Why" is always a tough act to follow, a difficult question to answer. Mom had the makings of a scientist, but turned to nursing, succeeding. I take a different approach. I rarely ask anyone "why". I prefer the challenge of answering that for myself, and trusting my conclusions. Instead, a pepper people with questions about themselves. They seem to enjoy it. I do it for all the right reason; genuine interest in people, inherent curiosity, a desire to connect with others. I notice that in general people ask very few questions about me. My oldest and dearest friends seldom ask me anything about my current life. The few questions I receive come from strangers. maybe my friends think they already know all about me, which they don't. Maybe they think they already know enough, and maybe they do. For those who don't ask questions, the loss is theirs. Social psychologists say that people who ask questions of others about others became popular, are perceived as nice, and connect easily. Everyone's favorite of conversation is herself. In a normal, conversation, if you talk about yourself without being asked to, eyes glaze over. Talk about her, she perks right up. Basic human nature. there is, of course, a thin line between curiosity and being nosy. That line is usually drawn very close to the other person's nose, due to vanity. so, go ahead and fire away! Maybe you'll get that first date, or make a new friend. There are hazards, I got kicked out of my local public library for talking too much. this, in a library in which the employees gab like a gaggle of magpies, about nothing. Most libraries prefer quiet. Not only did I talk too much, doing in Rome as the romans do, but I asked too few questions of the library director. I should have encouraged her to talk - about herself. I could have avoided eviction. The deism of Thomas Jefferson or the flat earth paradigm of the bible were topics I should have avoided. I bored and offended her with my sinful blasphemy. I should have talked about her instead. The silver lining is that I am now forced to seek out other libraries, where challenging conversations are acceptable, and I can ask questions of people who are sufficiently interesting to provide worthwhile answers.

Trump, Insulting At Every turn

PRESIDENT TRUMP never misses an opportunity to slander a good person, behave like a barbarian, or emulate an ill mannered petulant child. The more inappropriate the occasion, the more likely the emergence of the tempestuous Trump, as often attested. And why not? The American presidency, more than any other position, is replete with perquisites, pernicious and otherwise. Several days ago, for instance, the contributions of native Americans to the U.S. victory in the pacific in World War Two, which consisted of the Navajo language, linguistically inscrutable, having served as the perfect vehicle for indecipherable encoded messages. There stood the president of prevarication, with guests, with a portrait of Andrew Jackson in the background. Old Hickory, you'll recall, hated Indians, and bullied the Indian Removal Act through a divided congress in 1830, precipitating the great Trail of tears death march of the Cherokee nation from their rightful lands in Georgia, which the U.S. had promised them would remain theirs forever, to Oklahoma. Thus all Indians were relocated west of the Mississippi, as per Jacksonian policy. For decades the Cherokees refused to trade in twenty dollar bills. Davy Crockett, who loved Indians, because they saved his life twice, reminded his congressional colleagues that a promise is a promise, which didn't endear him to his frontier constituency, nor to fellow Tennessee native president Jackson. The two men hated each other, after an auspicious beginning to their political relationship. Crockett took to calling Old Hickory "the government", a grave insult in a time of unpopular government, implying tyranny. Trump could easily have taken the Jackson portrait down for a few minutes, but chose not to, deliberately. why waste an opportunity to insult someone? He wasn't done. His next target was Senator Elizabeth warren, who wasn't even in the room, and irrelevant to the occasion, and therefore a perfect target of trumped up viciousness. Whether or not Senator warren has a single drop of native American blood within, she likes to say that she does, just like we all take pride in our personal heritage. Ancestry matters, particularly to Americans, most of us being, after all, interlopers in our own homes. I'm full blooded Bavarian dairy farmer, and damned proud of it. So what's the point, other than sheer vindictive spite, of slandering Elizabeth Warren in a ceremony intended to honor native Americans by calling her "Pocahontas"? Nobody but Trump and the conservative extremists of questionable character who support him thought it was funny..........................PLEASE TELL YOUR FRIENDS ABOUT THIS WEBSITE! THANKS!

Smoking As Fun and Death

WHEN I WAS NINE YEARS OLD, in 1964, the surgeon general issued the first government warning about cigarettes. I, being gullible and impressionable, took their world for it, and to this day have never smoked a cigarette. I'll have to live with the consequences. I grew up in a cloud of second hand smoke. Apparently everyone assumed that once the smoke was out in the open air, it magically became harmless, and kids were immune to it. In those days a major league baseball game was played in a fog, and the smell of cigar smoke was ambient, as baseball fans of a certain age will recall. I watched my Yankees play shrouded in smoke, and didn't mind, since I knew of no alternative. I lived in a house filled with smoke; mom and dad, and everybody else in America, thought nothing of it. I remember thinking cigarette ads on TV were sexy. a full minute of pretty girls smiling seductively while smoke belched from their noses, handsome cowboys riding into the sunset (of their lives) looking strong, the announcer declaring that he would walk a mile for a Camel, and that Winston tastes good, like a cigarette should. it is not difficult for me to comprehend that in the nineteen twenties smoking was promoted for its health benefits. In the nineteen sixties it was all about sex and self esteem. In all the movies, the cool people smoked, and in all the television shows, likewise. Finally, with people dropping like flies, ciggie advertising on TV was banned, and dire warnings began to appear on packs. At the time, a pack of cigs cost forty five cents. Requiring a business to place warnings on its product about the ill health potential of the product is highly questionable from the standpoint of free enterprise, the first amendment, self incrimination, and government overreach. There are, however, extenuating circumstances. An activity which kills four hundred thousand people every year and costs hundreds of billions in medical expenses, it can be reasonably argued, merits government intervention. Of all the smokers who harm their health and the health of others, few can pay for all the medical expenses. The rest of us do, including non smokers. Classic economic theory holds that the free market works well when everyone behaves rationally. smoking, it can be argued, is not rational behavior. Over the years tobacco companies have been required to put ever more dire warnings on their packaging. May be hazardous to your health has become will kill certainly kill you. Tobacco companies have been hounded for decades by local, state and federal governments, forced to pay hundreds of billions of dollars in punitive damages. and yet, nothing seems to work. people still smoke, although in far fewer numbers, fortunately. Now, after an eleven year court battle, tobacco companies will be forced to condemn themselves on television, using frightening language. That won't help much either. There is nothing new to tell us at this point. Tobacco companies have for decades spiked their punch, adding addictive ingredients, and have lied about it. Their harsh treatment by government can be seen as justice long delayed. We have forced them into attempting corporate suicide, and still they endure, by transferring sales to China. The lesson we have learned is one we already knew; that people cannot be prevented from killing themselves, especially if they are doing it by having a good time.