The Poor, Advocating For Change

WE ALL WANT the same things. We want everyone to have enough food, a decent place to live, and good, or at least halfway decent health. Disasters like the one in Houston tend to make this realization more immediate, somehow. We see all these people suffering for want of basic necessities, and we feel immediately compelled to find some way, any way, to help. Perhaps this Shows our good side, that humankind, in the words of Goethe, is, in the end, noble, compassionate, and good. Right now, they say the best way to send help to Houston is to send money to people like the Red Cross, or any number of different relief agencies and charities, then let the professionals sort it all out and organize and distribute the needed help. That might be good advice for all of us, all the time; when in doubt, send money. Money is liquid, and can be converted into tangible forms of aid and directed to targets by people who know how to do all this... The problem with maintaining a satisfactory material existence for all is how to get there, and how to stay there. Warren Buffet and Bill Gates have donated half their fortunes to a charitable trust, and have left the use of the fabulous amount they gave, tens of billions, to the professional decision making of professionals. Buffet and Gates both know how to make money, but, as Buffet said, they aren't experts at giving it away efficiently, so that it does the most good. Other people can handle that better. And still, fundamental reforms in political and economic systems will have to be made by humanity as a whole. A satisfactory standard of living for all people will never be possible under totalitarian governments, or economic systems which allow to wealthy to increase their wealth at will, without consideration for others. This task, of changing the world for the betterment of all, must fall to the world's non wealthy, of whom there are far, far more. The wealthy cannot be expected to advocate for change.

Trump Doing Damage To The Right

NOT LONG AGO I received in the snail mail a bumper sticker reading: Unfit To Serve: Impeach Trump. It was sent free of charge by any one of the numerous left wing organizations which send me email daily, and solicit donations from me. I thought about it, then put it on my bumper. Now, in my small southern conservative town I really, really stand out, even more than before, which was considerable. The bumper sticker expresses my general sentiments, but not really. Much as I detest Trump, I really don't care if he gets impeached, or when, or how, or for what of his innumerable impeachable offenses. The progressive movement can only benefit the longer Trump is in office, just watching him make one disaster after another. Rather like the way in which Trump pledged to do away with Obamacare after the failure of repeal and replace: just watch it die naturally, of its own deficiencies. For the moment, Obamacare looks to long outlast President Trump. In walks my seventy year old right wing black clad ponytailed friend, and he says to me: "even though I hated Obama for eight years, at least I never advocated for his impeachment." As if he, with his right wing values, is somehow magnanimous because he refrained from demanding that Obama be impeached. Wow. what a guy. What he didn't mention was that, in eight years, Obama did many things that angered conservatives, but never did or said anything even close to an impeachable offense. Obama is clean, and they know it. But, now, look at Trump. Conflicts of interest, lies, Russian spies, an unconstitutional pardon of a convicted criminal, and the list gets even longer. Its not just liberal hate filled fanatics who are beginning to suggest the possibility of impeachment proceedings against Trump. The legal scholars, independent voters, and ethics experts are now being heard mentioning the possibility. Either way, progressives, who used to be called "liberals", should be happy: one way or another, Donald J.Trump is going to do, already has done, great damage to the credibility of America's conservative demographic. Our right wants to pass bathroom laws, lower taxes for the wealthy, build a wall, kick out undocumented immigrants, and ignore climate change. In all that, there is no future, especially with a reprobate like Trump at the front of the movement.

Watching the Right Wing Implode

I KNOW THIS DUDE, he's in his early seventies, wears all black, has a ponytail, and zealously endorses conservative values, particularly economically. He's a stockbroker, with a nice office. He was thrilled when Trump was elected. The other day he said to me: "Don't you think the American people are tired of hearing about the Russians?" "Oh Hell no!" I shot back. "Russian spies are always in style, just look at spy thriller sales. What the American people actually seem to be tired of is Donald Trump, what with his thirty five percent approval rating." I liked giving that response, emphatically. He walked out of the restroom without a word. My black clad conservative friend, tired of Russian spies, but eager to read every email ever sent or received by Hillary Clinton as proof of criminal activity, including those exchanging recipes. Aren't Russian election hacking spies far more interesting than Hillary's boring, harmless, innocent, meaningless emails? Suppose the FBI had conducted a thorough investigation and concluded that Russian operatives had interfered with the election in an attempt to help Hillary Clinton get elected, but said they were unsure about whether the Clinton campaign had cooperated with the Russians. How would Trump, his supporters, conservatives in general, and my ponytail friend in particular respond? You know as well as I, they would raise holy hell, form a lynch mob, lock her up, and have a feeding frenzy. But, with Trump, our fair minded right wingers insist that investigations into Trump's conspiracies with Russians, which look more incriminating every day, are nothing more than fake news, or a fabrication by the media and the democrats to destroy Trump. What will these integrity-free dishonest right wing nitwits say if Trump is found guilty of conspiring with the Russians, impeached, removed from office, and run out of the country as a traitor, or put in prison? They'll blame it on the liberal media, and the democrats. You conservatives might want to consider the possibility that the KKK, white Supremacists, NAZIs, and the Donald Trump movement are doing nothing but destroying the credibility of the American conservative movement in general. I'll just sit back, smile, and watch it happen.

Going To War, and Living To Regret It

PLEASE BEAR IN MIND: Back in 1990, when Saddam Hussein's Iraqi army conquered Kuwait and President Bush started screaming bloody murder, then took us into war against Saddam, the American people were, for the most part, solidly, enthusiastically, fervently in favor of it. An intense wave of patriotic war fervor swept across freedom's land. Saddam was evil, and had to be stopped. The United States was the only choice to do the job. It was our moral duty to defend freedom, wherever... We've been at war ever since, without victory. That's how we got into our present mess, having since 1991 spent trillions of dollars and lost thousands of American lives, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi and Afghani lives. We the American people have no one to blame but ourselves. We wanted it, and we got it. It wasn't worth it, obviously. Like Thomas Jefferson, we must tremble for our country when we reflect that God is just, and that his justice cannot sleep forever. There may well be, after all is said and done, a special place in hell for us and our country - for what we did. First, George Bush lied to Saddam, told him it was OK to attack Kuwait. Then, when Saddam cashed his blank check and invaded Kuwait, Bush suddenly turned morally outraged, and started crying foul. Then, the American military started rapidly amassing in Saudi Arabia. Bait and switch. Pure, deliberate deception by the U.S. We the American people whipped ourselves into our usual snarling, growling, arrogantly patriotic war fever. In January, 1991, as our half million member army of liberation was settling into Saudi Arabia, among Arabic Islamic people who hate us and only reluctantly allowed America to use its land as a military base, as our army awaited marching orders, the imminent start of our righteous war was apparent. One day in response in a bustling college town five hundred people and I marched down Main Street carrying signs. Mine read: "No War For Oil". i was adamantly opposed to the impending war against Saddam. I remember being wrapped in an American flag, thinking myself clever, brave, and patriotic. Both sides of the streets were lined with thousands of people who hated our guts, and let us know it. Some guy twice my size called me a traitor, I started walking towards him, having no idea what I would do when I reached him, other than perhaps get killed, and a fellow protest marcher got between us, thereby saving my life. We reached our destination and had our speech and cheering "no war for oil" pep rally, while across the street the patriotic war mongers gathered in even greater numbers and proceeded to sing patriotic songs, babble patriotic nonsense, and disparage us. In a building above, FBI goons watched with binoculars, I kid you not. Ever the smart ass, I waved at them. They didn't wave back. It was really quite a good time, what with all the noise and adrenalin. Now it seems surrealistic, but entirely relevant, given current events. After twenty six years on perpetual war, the verdict is in. I was right in the first place, all those years ago. We formed a group on campus called: "S.A.G.E." (Students Against Gulf Engagement) Pretty clever, I'd say. Back in 1967, when I was twelve, I wanted to join the Viet Nam protests, but my parents wouldn't let me. Finally, in 1991, I got my chance, and I was right on both times. When an empire sends a half million member army halfway around the world, invades, conquer, and occupies another country, some folks are gonna be mad. Its what motivated Bin laden to destroy the World Trade Center. It was the motivating factor in the rise of "radical "Islamic terrorism". American aggression, intervention, imperial power. If only it were even remotely worth it.

Telling The Truth, Losing Your Job

WHEN THOMAS JEFFERSON RAN FOR PRESIDENT, he was accused by his opponents of being an atheist and an adulterer, in the newspapers. No, politics back then was no more civil than it is now. The word "adultery" amused Jefferson, because for all the world the word sounds as if it should literally mean: "the activities of an adult". Jefferson was in fact neither, and yet, is some ways, a bit of both. Thomas Jefferson, ever the complex walking bundle of contradictions. He had affairs, but only after his wife had died. He had promised Martha on her deathbed that he would never remarry. He believe in God, but not the Christian biblical version. Miracles were not part of Jefferson's world view. Jefferson's God was nature itself, as revealed through science like it was for many eighteenth century intellectuals. They were called "deists". They believed that god was inherent in the laws of nature, and deists tended to greatly distrust traditional religion as superstitious poppycock. Jefferson called himself a "primitive Christian", by which he meant that he didn't believe in miraculous divine intervention, and hes once said: "I am a sect unto myself, as far as I know"> Jefferson was particularly concerned about the power of the entrenched priesthood in civic, secular matters. Jefferson sat in the White House on one occasion, cutting a copy of the Bible into pieces, forming two piles of scripture. The larger pile, he explained, was untruth and without value, while the other, smaller stack was wisdom. "I am extracting diamonds from a pile of dung", in his words. He assembled his stack of biblical wisdom into a narrative, added his own commentary, and published it under the tile "The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth". A copy can be found in any good research library. The tragedy is that hardly anyone in America knows about all this, because it isn't taught in public schools. Heaven forbid that we should teach about our unsaved founding fathers in schools supported by the tax dollars of the Christian conservative community. But, just a hint, I whisper to you now, at great personal risk: "Nature's God: The Heretical origins of the American Republic" by Mathew Stewart explains it all. The bad news is that our beloved United States was never intended to be a "Christian" nation by anyone who had a hand in establishing it. just make sure you don't try to teach this fact in any public school in America. You might lose your job.

Driving Safely

IN 1971, when I was 16, my father, who was driving drunk at the time, which made me a mite nervous, said: "we're gonna have to get rid of these things, you know". He was talking about cars. Looking back, I think he was thinking about the air pollution, which everyone knew was a problem in 1971, as every big city in America was chocked with cars, exhaust fumes, and constant smog. I recall standing in downtown Los Angeles at high noon in 1978 and wondering why it was so foggy, until I figured it out. So we ended up with fuel efficiency standards, catalytic converters, lead free fuel, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the rest, as they say, is history. My father was wrong about "giving up cars", since there aint no way in hell we're gonna ever even consider doing that - but he was on the wright track. Cars were, and are a problem in many ways, but at least we are working on it. Many years ago I mentioned to my mother that the day would come when cars were driving by computers, and the annual number of vehicular fatalities throughout the world would reduce from about million, to zero. Her response? "Hell, we already have too damned many people in the world." Never a dull moment with my parents. Mom was quite a gal. About half of America's public schools are within walking distance of a major heavily trafficked roadway, and yes, studies have proven that the kids do inhale the pollution, and it indeed has adverse effects on them, while our society keeps its head in the sand concerning this dire fact. That, according to the National Institutes of Health. We are now beginning to keep the windows closed in schools. The advent of electric computer driven cars will make the world a better place, even though, as my mother cogently observed, it will only add to an existing over population problem.

Grieving

I AWAKENED AT THREE, and went outside to enjoy a rather tame thunderstorm. I arose for good at seven, fed the cats, and noticed that one of them was missing. I went back outside, and saw my blue point glance at me from the corner of the yard, than vanish when I took a step towards him. He has not yet returned, although its been ten days. Just this morning I heard a familiar voice in the driveway, and caught a glimpse of who I believe to be him, but he again ran, obviously traumatized. So, I have hope. When I realized he was missing, I became stricken with grief, and the grief has only slowly abated over the last ten days. My grief was greater than when either of my parents died, or when the World Trade Center fell. I reckon its al relative. I find it fascinating that the greatest emotional pain of my life was precipitated by an indoor cat getting outdoors. But I'm smart enough not to judge it, not to condemn myself, but to accept it for what it is; interesting priorities. I always knew that my parents would die, and was prepared for it, to the extent that on can ever truly prepare for the death of one's parents. I have been told by people with both pets and children that the pets are in fact children. Without children, pets assume an even greater place within the heart. I can scarcely imagine the sustained grief of people whose loved one's have vanished, and have been missing for years. There are apparently thousands of such people, and all one can do is pray for them. A wise friend of mine once wrote that a a person who has been pricked by a pin has the right to feel pain, even as his neighbor endures a knife wound. it is my belief that one should never be ashamed to feel grief, joy, or anything else. People who have inflicted death or pain upon an enemy in military combat endure great suffering, which is now coming to be called "moral penalty", or something like that. To those who have been killed in combat we rejoice at their entry into heaven. And to those who have had the misfortune to kill another person in battle we grieve that he must live in a self imposed hell, until help arrives, and is he is made whole again. To those who have suffered the disappearance of a love one, human or otherwise, may your grief be comforted.

Praying

AT THE SENIOR CENTER we pray each day before we eat lunch. This is illegal, because the center is partly funded with government money, but we do it anyway, and so far nobody has been hit with a civil suit or an indictment, or has landed in jail. Brother Harold, a retired minister, used to say the prayer each day and was quite adept at inching his way towards the serving window even while he recited the daily prayer with one eye open and on his next meal. When he moved into an assisted living facility, nobody was appointed to replace him as the daily pray-er, so we began a system of asking for volunteers. Nobody ever volunteers, so the director picks someone out. Some people, among them the most devout, never say the prayer. I am chosen often. They seem to like the way I pray, although if they thought more about it, these devout Christians might not be happy with me. I do not refer to God as "father". My concept of God has nothing to do with gender. Also, I never use expressions like "in the name of Jesus Christ." My prayer is not intended to express adherence to any particular religion, but rather, to express gratitude at the infinitely superior spirit which created the universe and gave us this wonderful if challenging life. If the Christians ever figure this out, my praying days might well be over. The term "infinitely superior spirit" I borrowed from Einstein, who also used the terms "the old eternal genius who built the world", and "the ancient one". The doctrine that a superior person like Joshua Ben Joseph was crucified to atone for my sins I reject; if anyone must die for my sins, let it be me, not a far better man than I who is guilty of nothing except making a few questionable remarks, such as putting people to death who curse the mother and the father (Mathew 15:4), among others. Since there is absolutely no evidence that there is any anthropomorphic deity somewhere beyond the sky who listens to and responds to prayers, to me the exercise is a purely emotional and psychological one; it does no harm, it brings people together, and it harms no one and satisfies everyone. I am just now starting to learn Brother Harold's technique of inching my way towards the front of the serving window with one eye open as I pray and everyone else stands motion less with their heads bowed and their eyes closed. Prayer has perks, especially right around lunch time.

Is Bannon Planning To Attack Trump?

BEWARE! Bannon, back at Breitbart, says he's gonna roar. If a right winger roars in a forest and nobody is there, or nobody there listens, does he in fact roar? A scientist would say no. Long live science. Can Bannon make the right wing agenda palatable to more than thirty five percent of the American people? Social scientists say no, bless them. Bannon, who said the Trump he supported is finished, says he isn't mad at the president, and won't attack him. Psychologists say that Bannon is indeed mad, as people tend to be when fired. If indeed Bannon is angry, and attacks Trump, it might be time to get a bigger popcorn popper; the entertainment value could be great as two titans of extreme right wing nonsense destroy each other. Maybe Bannon of them will flee the country, and parachute into another, after the fashion of Rudolph Hess. The Bannon-Trump brand of populism looks a bit too much like pre World War Two right wing populism in Germany for comfort. It isn't working in America, other than as an effective way to expose the various hate groups which exemplify the American conservative movement. A Quick glance at the KKK, the white supremacist movement, and the evangelical community will reveal hardly any liberals at all. Three peas in a pod, angry white guys, devout Christians, and corporate elites, with Trump at the helm, fully endorsed by the supposed "moral majority". In pre World War Two Germany, Hitler included corporations in his grand design, creating a comfortable relationship between business and government. Trump, with his policy of corporate deregulation, is doing something similar. And all the while, the corporations and white supremacists and evangelicals stand close by, smiling?

Bringing the World Togther, In Cyberspace

IS THE ANSWER "SOCIAL MEDIA"? The question is: how to sustain a healthy ecosystem, including humans, plants, and animals, in a world in which humans have developed high technology, with machines capable of doing great damage. Suppose we all join Facebook, all seven point three three seven billion of us. Suppose it is required, by international law. I in fact recently joined it, but haven't decided how to use it, so I rarely do. Baby steps. Maybe if everyone in the world had the opportunity to take selfies, post them online, receive comments on them, then use this platform to branch out and form a personal network of interconnectedness with the whole world, we would all become emotionally satisfied, healthy happy citizens of a socially fulfilled electronic universe, which could be translated into the "real" temporal world. Maybe the problem with the world is not enough social media participation. I recall hearing about an interesting phenomenon on Instagram, in which thousands and even millions of teen aged girls, roughly around age thirteen, gathered together, so to speak, all of them taking selfies and sending them out, then awaiting comments. This was, I believe, primarily an American phenomenon, unsurprisingly. You're in seventh grade, you're a cute girl, but you want to feel...appreciated. Suddenly, in math class, your phone buzzes, and a pic comes in from someone you've never met. You've check it out, and reply, instantly: "oh, you are sooo cute. Thnx 4 the pic". that is apparently the protocol. You send out selfies, and you receiveth selfies. the comments are always prompt, and positive. You're beautiful. you are sooo totally cute. great pic. never a negative word. to wax negative is to violate a sacred protocol. and that's evidently all there is is or was to it. Pictures, and positive reinforcement. what else do people need, in terms of self esteem? And isn't that what the world truly lacks? Whether this is still happening I do not know; it was a couple of years ago. Maybe by now the participants have entered high school, and moved on to other, more ambitious activities. I certainly hope not.

Changing Our Behavior

AMID OUR NATIONAL polarized civil war, may we never descend to such a petty level, if we haven't already, that we refuse to ever give credit to anyone who, though irrevocably ideologically opposed to us, does something of which we would strongly approve were it only done by someone with whom we agree. That's human nature; always disagree with those you don't like, and always agree with those you like, no matter what the content of their comments. It does not damage or destroy us if we sometimes give credit to our enemies for a deed or word well done. Give credit to President Trump for declaring that the United State is through with nation building, through trying to impose democracy upon people who may not want it, through trying to rebuild other countries in the image of America, with the foolish assumption that all other nations want to be exactly like us, if only they could. Three cheers for President Trump. Its about time. Does this mean that the United States will no longer engage in "regime change", in overthrowing foreign governments and replacing them with handpicked governments that the U.S. can control like a puppet? if so, whatever will we do with all our free time? whatever will the CIA do to keep it busy, off the streets, out of trouble? wasn't it the same President Trump who less than a month ago suggested that American military intervention in Venezuela might be "necessary", to preserve democracy in that economically and politically torn but sovereign nation? In 1954, the U.S. overthrew the government of Guatemala. In 1973 the United States overthrew the government of Chile. The list goes on and on? Is it now going to stop lengthening? it would be far easier to believe what president Trump says if only he wouldn't lie nearly every time hes speaks. Or if he wouldn't articulate a different policy every time his lips move. American restraint in attempting to influence the internal affairs of other nations would be a drastic departure from a two hundred year old pattern of behavior. It hard to believe it will actually happen. bu tat least Trump said it was going to happen. The Lord willing, he isn't lying this time.

Having Our Moment In The Sun

IF AND WHEN the racist right wing of the U.S. tries to have another march, anywhere, the opposition, calling itself "antifa" for "anti-fascist", might best serve its own purpose by staying away, instead of protesting across the street from them. Let the "unite the right" conservative christian racists enjoy the entire spotlight, without competition. Whether the right wingers march for statues, for a united right wing, or for freedom of speech, they are in reality marching for nationalism, racism and cultural conformity. Shine the light of truth. Let them spew their free speech to their heart's content, so that we may all listen, and evaluate. The whole world is watching. Those white robes and Nazi uniforms look great on high def flat screen TV. We want the undecided community to get a good, hard look at the extreme right, then compare those values with progressive values, starting with equality and diversity. Progressive Antifa marches should always be held the day after unite the right struts its stuff, to show contrast. No violence please. Violence among progressives allows the fascists to claim moral equality, which is laughable. Let's change "Antifa" to Anticon", "anti-conservative". The extreme right is closely allied with Christianity and right wing politics and economics. Just ask any of them. The left is allied to the sacred principle of religious diversity and tolerance. Why, exactly, is it that the moral majority is so remindful of the KKK in its support for the Christian faith, conservative politics, and Donald Trump? If the evangelical community remains in Trump's corner, and the right wing white supremacists do likewise, all of the above my live to regret it.

Surviving With High Tech

IS IT POSSIBLE for a very large number of highly intelligent beings to live harmoniously together for a long period of time with highly advanced technology? It seems doubtful. We've never tried it before, yet. Only now are we beginning to, and the early results do not look promising. Computers, for instance, do not seem to be contributing anything to human peace and harmony. Are they? Do they? Personally, my communication with people now is no better than it was in the nineteen sixties, maybe not as good. There was more face to face communication then, and that, ultimately, is the best kind. Sometimes it seems as if all our electronic communication devices impede, rather than improve, human understanding, harmony, togetherness, love, and all that good stuff. When Kirk and Spock used their communicators fifty years ago on television, I was convinced that if the day ever came when we all had one of those wonderful things, a communication device in pocket, all would be well, all problems on earth would be solved, and we would have great communication, and great everything else. I have no idea, exactly, how I came to believe this, but believe it I did. Maybe being twelve years old had something to do with it. Or maybe I had such abiding faith in technology that I assumed that between the years 1967 and 2017 technology would solve all problems, and make our lives perfect. And yes, I was among those who thought I would be "driving" a flying car soon, say, by nineteen eighty. Hell, everybody back then believed that. It turned out, I was wrong. Maybe all through the galaxy life evolves on millions of planets, reaches a certain technological level, maybe about like we have now - and then self destructs. Or, maybe we'll make it yet. If we can, anybody can.

Wondering How We Did It

TRUMP'S CAMPAIGN RALLY in Phoenix yesterday should be dismissed by the media and the America people as a joke perpetrated by a narcissist. Why, Mr. President, have a campaign rally? The election is over. Maybe Trump correctly assumes that he'll have trouble getting reelected in 2020, assuming he makes it that far, and wants an early start. He offers no hope, no inspiration, no plans. He does nothing but ceaselessly attack anyone and everyone, especially the media, who dares criticize him. Exactly what good does that do the country? The Phoenix rally was intended to harden Trump's hard core of support, like Hitler did as his reign proceeded and his popularity declined. He has no nothing else to offer. Any media source which factually reports Trump's actions and words Trump calls "fake news". Trump uses the Hitler-Goebbels "big lie oft repeated" technique more fervently but less effectively than Hitler, fortunately. At the rally, he disparaged the "few" protesters outside. There were in fact thousands of them. Doesn't he understand how obvious his lies are? If he does, does he care? Either way, its pathological, self delusional. Obama was born in Africa. Thousands of Muslims celebrated in New Jersey while the World Trade Center burned. Millions of illegal votes were cast for Hillary Clinton. The big lie. The list of pathological lies goes on...and on...the fact that he does this, while accusing everyone else of doing it, it pathetically pathological. This is not the skewed opinion of some extreme leftist wacko liberal. Trump's lies, and attacks on people are daily, and obvious. During the thirty or forty years I have been aware of Donald Trump, it has been because of National Enquirer. The glitzy, dashing billionaire New York mover and shaker, man about town, with all the glamour, trophy wives, weddings, divorces, sensational business deals, bankruptcies. Never anything redeeming. Always something crass and shallow, the society page headlines. "I'm rich"! "You're fired!" Year after tabloid year. How can we have done this to ourselves?

Bringing Rich And Poor Together

IN A COUNTRY with half its people either living in poverty or living paycheck to paycheck, a country with one percent of the population possessing half the wealth, which spends more on its military than all other countries combined, how can you expect to have widespread prosperity? You can't, because you won't. This isn't to say that most wealthy people do not deserve their wealth. And though it is true that economic growth and capital accumulation are not zero sum games; the money your wealthy friend is making does not take money away from you or prevent you from making your own fortune. But when a major portion of the population has virtually no expendable income, no consumer power, then the demand for market goods and services is small, because the very wealthy can provide only so much demand, and growth is nearly impossible. If you want to grow big, strong, prosperous market economy, you must have a large consuming population driving demand. People who previously had no consumable wealth must be provided the means of a steady income, and welfare money, when spent, stimulates the economy just like all other consumer spending. We the people must have enough wealth and income to be participants, to drive demand up, and thus, production, distribution, and shared prosperity. The poor will always be among us only if we refuse to do what is necessary to render the poor prosperous. May the middle class grow until it includes us all. the day may come, if we chose to make it happen, when nobody will be either excessively wealthy or excessively poor, but everyone will be adequately provided for, materially. We've a long way to go, but we're working on it.

Running From Hitler

ITS HARD TO BELIEVE that the World War Two generation is almost gone. Few are still alive who remember the war at all; even fewer who participated in it. The "Greatest Generation" was born around 1920, within a few years before or after. My mother was a 21 year old single nurse when Pearl Harbor "went down", and she wanted to enlist and presumably kick Japanese butt. but her father, brothers, and boyfriend, who later became my father, talked her out of it. America needs nurses on the home front, they told her. August 28 would have been her ninety seventh birthday. She died three and a half years ago, a good and long life. My father, born in 1918, got a law degree in 1940, became a junior partner in his father's law firm, and responded to Pearl harbor by trying to avoid the war by joining the FBI. He ended up in the navy, as an officer. He learned how to fly, and was stationed at the big American naval base hard against the Panama Canal. One day, flying a routine air patrol, my dad's plane was hit by a surface to air gun on a German U Boat, and he returned the damaged plane to base, safely. Safety, but not glory. It was his job to report the submarine and its location, not to engage in combat with it and sink it and captured its entire crew, although that, one must confess, would have been a truly extraordinary and heroic feat. My father, personally attacked by representatives of Hitler, retreated. Ran. Thus a member of my family engaged in a very small battle with the enemy during the second world war, lost, and retreated. It is, admittedly, tempting to twist the story a wee bit, and end up with a sunken submarine and a captured crew. We've been hearing a lot about "fake news" recently. Fake history is always with us. Not only that, but in a way we often live at least partially in a fake reality in a fake here and now present.

Working Together To Change The Planet

WITH ALL our resources, with all our knowledge, technology, intelligence, capacity for completing enormous tasks cooperatively, you'd think that by now the human race would have solved all its major problems, and created a near heaven on Earth. Its not too late. We still can. Instead, we act like we want to make ourselves miserable, pursuing false dreams,destroying ourselves and the world. That's no exaggeration. If we don't change, we're doomed. Fortunately for us, we are starting to change. The sheer amount of light you can see coming from the sun tells you that we have unlimited free energy available now.The point is,if you have unlimited free energy, you have unlimited free everything else, including water and food. You can have, if you do things right. its on its way. Can you imagine living in a disease free world with a stable, healthy, productive population at perpetual peace? We have the power to leave such a world to our descendants. That seems like a worthwhile project, enough to keep us all busy, and out of trouble. If enough people insist that we do this, as a united human race, billions of people helping, it can be done. we still have time to bequeath a steadily improving planet to our posterity. Let it being here and now. let it begin on this obscure website. One person recruits two, both of whom recruit two more, and its begun. Save the planet. Reverse global warming, Eliminate war, nuclear weapons, oppression, eliminate disease, eliminate poverty. Create economic and political and social equality. Create a reasonable, sustainable standard of living for everyone. Distribute basic necessities. No one on this planet, even the happiest person alive, can possibly want the world to be the way it is. So, let's all work together to change it.

Seeing The Light After Liberty

WHEN DONALD TRUMP announced his presidential campaign, among his earliest and strongest support came from the politically conservative evangelical community, led by Jerry Falwell Jr. and Liberty University. Trump gave a campaign speech at Liberty, which was widely and warmly received, amid great cheering and enthusiasm on the part of the student body saved. He proclaimed himself a "good Christian", and that was enough. Trump's willingness to use the term "Islamic terrorism" evidently appealed to the Christian community. This, despite Trump's inability to to properly name second Corinthians. In front of God and student body, he called it "Corinthians two". The devout conservative evangelical crowd remains in Trump's corner, even as the President fails to to or say anything which even remotely reflects Christian values. Why indeed do devout evangelical Christians tend to be right wingers, and why do they, or why did they ever, support Trump? As master film maker Ken Burns queried: "exactly what is it about Donald Trump that is like Jesus Christ?" That's a fair question, and it seems hard to answer. But now there is a ray of hope. Graduates of Liberty University, people who got their diplomas anywhere from a few years ago to more than a decade ago, are returning their diplomas to Liberty, by mail, presumably. There is an organized project, and the return date is September 5. Presumably those returning their diplomas do not fear the loss of their jobs and careers. What took them so long? From day one, Donald Trump has revealed himself to be anything but a "Christian", in his words and deeds. Unless, of course, you believe that to give unto the poor means cutting government social programs, like "Meals On wheels", and Medicaid. It you think that, you're either a conservative, a nut case, or a graduate of Liberty U. who hasn't seen the light, yet.

Prentending To Be American

WHEN CONSERVATIVE SCOUNDRELS, which is most conservatives, are in a corner, they invariably rely on patriotism and or religion to bail them out. They are "in a corner" now, because the extreme right wing of their movement is showing its ass, and America does not like it. Look virtuous. We're all Americans. Its the nation that counts. Constant reminders of ethnic diversity and identity are divisive. what that means, of course, is that we should all embrace the prevailing mainstream white middle culture, in all its manifestations. Make America great again, The way it once was, when "Leave It To Beaver" was on prime time, and inconvenient minorities, like blacks and women, were kept in the corner. When, according to the "Make America Great Again" crowd, did America go wrong, and cease being great? Why, during the nineteen sixties and seventies, of course, when the at left, the women, the blacks, the anti Viet Nam war crowd made its appearance, and hasn't gone away. The same conservatives who condemn the mere mention of racism as divisive, stand idly by as American society perpetuates racism in every area. The conservative attitude is keep the government out of it, let society develop naturally, racism only exists when trouble making liberals start bringing it up for political gain. Conservative nonsense, conservative insanity, conservative dishonesty. Unless our American government shoves racial equality down our throats, racism will dominate America. Ignoring it, and endlessly repeating that "we are all Americans" is simply of condoning the racist status quo. Since diversity exists in America, instead of ignoring it or working to make everybody culturally the same by calling them "Americans", emphasizing conformity and ending diversity - why not celebrate it?

Unite The Right, Advocating For Hatred

TODAY IN BOSTON is the great "Freedom of Speech", "unite the right" march, rally, riot, demonstration, protest, mob, or whatever in the hell you want to call it. Its hard to decide. In general, its the same crowd of right wing hate mongers, Klan, Nazis, white supremacists, Trump supporters, conservatives, conservative evangelical Christians, and the like who gathered together in Charlottesville, VA last weekend ostensibly in order to protest the very idea of removing statues of Confederate heroes from public places. What they really and truly gathered together for in Charlottesville was what they gather together for today in Boston: to advocate for their extreme right wing agenda, which includes racism, support for Trump, and conservative Republican ideas, plus, Christianity, all rolled miraculously into one. Commenting on this gathering by forming another gathering opposing it is the coalition of sane Americans who hate racism and want to live in a racially equal and diverse country. Most of these people identify as "liberal" or progressive". They should be called the "moral majority", because they are both, but the name has already been commandeered years ago by, ironically, the conservative evangelical community, which will be heavily represented toady in Boston, fighting for the "unite the right" cause, which is neither moral, nor a majority. Today, more than ever in America, we the American people shoot our mouths off, with impunity, thanks to Twitter, and so forth. Our freedom of speech seems as safe and secure as ever before, if not more so. The best example of this is President Trump. And yet, the "unite the right" folks act as if the first amendment is in dire peril. No, they're not advocating for freedom of speech. They're advocating for hatred. These people are incredibly full of it....and guess what? A mere handful of right wingers showed up in Boston, only a few, and the rest stayed home...why? Perhaps they are intimidated by America's reaction to them .In Boston, the racial equality progressive outnumbered them dramatically, reflecting American values. Similar progressive rallies are being scheduled for other cities, rallies in opposition to racism, and white supremacy, marches and rallies unto themselves, not as responses to the hate marchers. Future racist white supremacist marches in doubt. Trump's numbers tank. Maybe we're beginning to awaken from our long national nightmare.

Race As Convenient Fiction

I'VE TRIED EXPLAINING THIS till I'm blue in the face, which attracts the wrong type of attention at the beach, but its worth explaining repeatedly, because its extremely important. Namely, there are no such thing as "races". The very concept of race is just that - a concept, which is to say, and imaginary, invented description of human skin pigmentation. We neatly, arbitrarily invent categorizes like "black", "white,' "oriental", aka "yellow", and so forth, and so on. It has often been claimed that there are three basic races, the ones just named. It certainly does seem to make the world a simpler, understandable place. The dirty little secret, otherwise known as the truth, as reality, is that every person has a unique skin color. There are as many skin colors in the world as there are people, exactly. The problem is the way the human minds works. It creates categories, and bipolar paradigms, such as up and down, light and dark, good and bad. This makes the world seem simpler, more understandable. The real world consists of an infinite variety of uniquenesses, not categories. Once you realize this, fully embrace and buy into it, which you must, because its the truth, it changes things considerably. To prove it just keep placing your forearm right next to somebody else's, anybody else's forearm, and compare the color. Every time, it will be different. You and the other person, no matter who it is, can always tell the difference in you skin colors. Go ahead, try it. Andy even if from time to time you find an apparent match, the point here is still the same: there are many skin colors, millions, not just a few, and the concept of "race" is a convenient fiction. The implications of this are staggering; of much ado about nothing.

Celebrating White Inferiority

GREETINGS FROM THE WHITE INFERIORITY movement. Although our organization could easily be called the "black, Hispanic, and other minority supremacy" movement, the fact that we are interested exclusively in our own (caucasian) well being and place within society requires that we focus on ourselves, looking inward, self absorbedly. We accept gender equality,grudgingly, but not racial equality. We, the European-American lightly pigmented skin race, wish to advocate for our rightful place in American and human society - at the very bottom. Introducing the Caucasian Inferiority Association (CIA). We advocate for white inferioricism. We're inferior, and damned proud of it, because it gives us a sense of identity, a sense of community, and a sense of purpose, of common cause. African-Americans are demonstrably superior athletically to Euro-Americans. the same is true musically, and choreographically. Although no definitive studies have shown any difference between whities and blacks intellectually, when you consider the sheer number of blacks who have attained the highest intellectual accomplishments notwithstanding their tendency to be overlooked for educational and professional opportunities, you must begin to wonder why the white race hasn't dominated society to an even greater degree than it has. The answer, we believe, is inherent white racial inferiority. In the spirit of knowing and embracing what you are, we salute ourselves, in all our glorious inferiority. Thomas Jefferson like negros. Why not? they made good "servants" as he called them, and were educable, to a point. Jefferson trained his slaves well, and had several children by one of them. But, alas, Thomas Jefferson, like everyone else, was a racist who believed are inherently, naturally inferior to whites, intellectually. Even after corresponding with a black math whiz with a degree from Harvard, Jefferson remained unconvinced. Jefferson also believed that slavery should be ended, soon, slowly but steadily, including African resettlement for freed slaves. When people decide to be racist, they stay racist, usually. We CIA members endorse the proposition that the long standing belief by crackers and honkies of their own superiority renders them demonstrably...inferior..

Trump, Digging In Deeper

IN HIS FIRST STATEMENT after the tragic white supremacist march, President Trump equated the white supremacists with the progressive people who protested against them, morally. Then, under immense pressure, he corrected himself by condemning the right winger white supremacists, but apparently didn't enjoy doing so, because the very next day he reiterated that he stands behind his first version, the extremely politically incorrect one. That's Trump; crazy. Dude's got a big mouth, flat out. He cannot stand to be criticized, and vengefully retaliates, and of course, lies like a dog. But wait. It gets even better. Or worse. Several CEOs jumped Trump's ship, resigning from Trump's economic advisory council, which Trump decided to disband, after berating the CEOs on Twitter, about their being grand standers, or something. Can you imagine that; Donald J. Trump having the nerve to call somebody else, anybody else, a "grand stander"? So now our delusionally dishonest president invents an imaginary "alt left", and places it on equal moral footing as the infamous "alt right". Maybe the alt left would indeed be nefarious - if it existed. The alt right, which is very real, is very nefarious, and is Trump's strongest support base. It becomes increasingly amazing that anyone can continue to support Trump. And just who are Trump's staunchest supporters? David Duke and Richard Spencer, white supremacists deluxe, the very cream of the white supremacy crop of bigots. Those two, plus several million of their ilk, aka the "trump base". Naturally, the Trump inner circle is attempting to distance themselves from that part of his base, even to the point of denying that white racist America is even a part of it. But, alas, it is, and a big part indeed. Indeed only thirty five percent of us support Trump, far less when you subtract the racists. Trump himself encourages this type of support by complaining about the removal of Confederate monuments and by equating Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis with Jefferson and Washington. No, Trump just could not be content to condemn the white supremacist conservative Christians, and leave it at that, because, after all, that is his base. Not only does Trump consider the white supremacist fascists to be as morally virtuous as those who oppose them, he seems to consider Robert E. Lee as worthy of honoring as Thomas Jefferson and George Washington. The latter two had considerably different attitudes towards slavery, and whether slavery should be abolished, or defended on the battle field. In life, if you choose the wrong side, you accept the consequences. Trump and his base of extreme conservative Christian racist supporters are about to figure that out, but maybe not before its too late to save themselves.

Ganging Up For Good

THERE ARE APPROXIMATELY one point five millions street gang members in the United States, excluding the Klan, the Nazis, the Republican party, and all the other far right wacko groups. Bloods, crips, hell's Angels, black, white, Hispanic - you name it, we gang well got it. Their origins are poverty, loneliness, social alienation, lack of community, desire for community, social marginalization. MS13, the famed central American gang, was formed in Los Angeles in the late seventies and early eighties from Honduran, Nicaraguan, and Salvadorian refugees coming to America to escape wars. It metasticized, and now pervades the United States of Antagonism. Deported Central Americans established branch offices in their countries of origin. There are roughly ten thousand MS13 members in the U.S., perhaps seventy thousand in central America...... Broadly speaking, any gathering together of humans can be called a "gang". Organizations like MS13 run drugs and guns, use drugs and alcohol, kill people, and hang out on street corners in groups, is the widely held notion. there is considerable evidence to support it. But weird things have happened. A fairly large number of gang members have left the gang,s and made a conscious effort to fundamentally change their course in life. Many of them try to convince current gang members to leave the gang, and do better things. there are organizations and counselors for this. Entire gangs have performed acts of incredible kindness and compassion and goodness for various reasons; before going right back to their previous style. the basic impulse being gang life, the basic human characteristic, is surely conducive to peaceful, harmonious, productive human endeavor and achievement. No gangs are not "good" per se, in many of their current incarnations. But the people who join them are - at least potentially. Mr Trump calls them "animals". The problem is, he just leaves it at that. Perhaps the president would do well to remember that we are all, in fact, animals, social animals, and that we really have no reason not to be ashamed of it, so along as we seek our own improvement.

Life After Hate; Conservative Christians Being Conservative Christians

GO INTERVIEW, if you wish, every participant in the white supremacist "unite the right" gala in Virginia. My million dollars against your cool mil that every last one of them will answer every question identically, no exceptions. Or, if any, few. 1. Republican 2. conservative 3. Christian 4. Trump voter 5. heterosexual and, last , but not least 6. capitalist enthusiast. Its dollars to donuts nobody in the whole crew voted for Hillary. self identifies as a liberal socialist. or as a non Christian of any sort. Then, remember the raison detre', the reason for the whole event; white supremacy. Racism. Were they all wearing white sheets? I don't have a TV. but go do the interviews. But go right on ahead - interview all ten thousand of them, or however many of the right wing extremist christian idiot bigots were in attendance at "unite The Right" 2017. They're easy to spot; they'll all be wearing the T shirt, for days...have they scheduled next year's event? Doubtless it'll be in the south.maybe they should promote it under various names, to appeal to all concerned; the "moral majority"..."Unite the White Right"....."Chris-Con" (Christian conservative convention)...you get the drift...If the American conservative movement isn't careful, it will, in its entirety, suffer damage on account of its extreme wing, the "Charlottesville people." Thus, Trump, Rubio, and other republican leaders are smart to disavow the extreme right wing conservative Christian hate group terrorist idiots. Trump 's first comment was inadequate; his second one, about racism being evil, which he doubtless conjured up under pressure, was much better, and for that our president deserves credit. Credit for personal evolution. For Trump, may it continue. Republican apologists might wish to point out that this extreme fringe of the conservative movement is an outlier, not the norm, not the mainstream. There is evidence to the contrary. Racism and hatred of nonwhite non traditional minorities, including sexual minorities, is a long standing American tradition, rooted deeply in conservatism and Christianity. That's just a fact. Far right white supremicist Christians have killed more people in America, using terrorism, than all other forms of terrorism and terrorists groups combined, times two. I'm jes' sayin'... Humans have three basic emotional needs: a sense of identity, a sense of community, and a sense of purpose. Joining the KKK or the neo Nazi party or some other white supremacist group fulfills those needs, but at what cost? Decency and humanity? So dominant is the Christian faith in America that the American Christian community could long ago have eliminated racism from American culture, rather than promote. Same with hatred of homosexuals, and other minorities. Perhaps now the conservative Christian can see the light, and work to purge and improve itself. Better late than never.

Fighting For Democracy For Profit, the American Way,

VENEZUELA is economically, and therefore politically, troubled, immersed in turmoil. The cause, unlike our conservative comrads would have us believe, is not socialism. the cause is the steep drop in the price of oil, and Venezuela's excessive dependence on oil exports for its national wealth. All countries beset by economic stress impose restriction on economic behavior, and often, to enforce these restrictions, they impose restrictions on political behavior. Franklin Roosevelt, upon assuming the presidency, declared a "bank holiday", in which the nation's banks were closed for several days, to forestall mass withdrawals, an prohibited the personal ownership of gold. Richard Nixon ordered wage and price freezes as a means of mitigating runaway inflation. Under Trump, the United States government has decided that the decline of democracy in Venezuela is unacceptable, and may well require an American military response. The United States of altruism, always ready to fight in foreign lands to preserve the sacred institution of democracy. or is it by chance the United States of Acquisition, aggressively pursuing the sacred cause of corporate expansion and profit,, the sacred cause of foreign investment by America's ruling corporate oligarchy? In Viet Nam, the U.S. fought n the side of capitalistic dictatorship, against the evil forces of socialistic dictatorship. Dictatorship was fine and dandy with the U.S. in Cuba, before Castro, under Batista, the dictator who welcomed American corporate investment. Castro rejected American economic imperialism, and for that, became our sworn enemy. In 1954 the CIA and the American fruit company, seeking access to agricultural land, replaced a democratically elected socialist government with a capitalistic dictatorship. In 1973, the democratically elected Chilean head of state, Salvador Allende, a socialist, was replaced by the United States with a dictator, Pinochet, who welcomed American capitalism, No, the United States of Corporate America cares not a whit for democracy in other lands. The Untied States of Acquisition wants to make the world safe for American corporate exploitation, exploitation of natural resources, and cheap foreign labor. Whether a democracy is in place in foreign lands is of no concern to our corporate masters. Whether Trump and his gang of billionaires perpetuates a fine American tradition of seeking to enrich the rich by exploiting Venezuela remains to be seen, but five'll get you ten, somehow, some way, American investment in Venezuela will come to pass.

Jefferson Among His Fellow Racists

DURING THE FINAL YEARS of his life, Thomas Jefferson sat atop his mountain at Monticello and used a telescope to monitor the progress of construction of his final, favorite enterprise, the University of Virginia. Although generally satisfied with the adherence to his in drinking, gambling, and firing weapons.for the campus, he became disenchanted when the first class of students, all male, turned out to be less interested in scholarship, and more interested in drinking, gambling, and firing weapons. Fearful that his new citadel of learning might devolve into a religious seminary populated by religious zealots, he avoided hiring devout Christians for his faculty, following the advice of john Adams. perhaps that was a mistake, considering that his students behaved more like drunkards and thugs than serious students. Fast forward a couple hundred years, and one can only speculate what Jefferson's reaction would be to the erection of a statue of Robert E. Lee, or to its eventual removal amid an atmosphere of political correctness. Would he want it removed? its hard to say. Jefferson was quite fond of history, good and bad. Both lee and Jefferson, in their own ways and times, believed strongly in state's rights, and both were inveterate racists. lee, however, fought for the right of Virginia to remain a slave state, while Jefferson would most certainly have been horrified to know that the peculiar institution lasted until 1865. Although a slave owner himself, he was trapped by his inheritance of his father's slaves, and his wish was that the institution would fade away, converged on the small charming town, and marched without pain. Even as we speak, Jefferson's university and Charlottesville, Virginia is fraught with controversy, a vestige of the issues with which Jefferson and his contemporaries struggled. White supremicists, calling themselves "unite the right" marched into town, igniting violence by inspiring opposition with the stench of their presence. Unite the right around what principle; white supremacy? How likely is it that the American conservative will consider this prudent? Too likely, in all probability. Jefferson, in his 18th century incarnation as a racist, might fit in. An updated twenty first century version of dreamny Tom would most definitely not. Yes, he firmly believed that Africans were intellectually inferior to Europeans, despite being surrounded with strong evidence to the contrary. yet, he was egalitarian in spirit. he was born a bit too early to see the futility and lunacy of segregation by skin pigment. We'' see whether American right wingers unite behind the alt right, and the notion of white supremacy. Although you can't necessarily put it past them, you have faith that America's far right have enough of a sense of history to understand that this idea is far outdated, and should be relegated to the scrap heap of history. Surely Jefferson, in today's environment, would.

A Dire Warning concerning Senior citizen Christian Conservative Terrorism

BY AGREEMENT, I am no longer allowed to write about the local senior center of which I, for some strange reason, am a member. I was told by the director that my doing so was inviting a terrorist attack. I shan't attempt to interpret that remark, but instead, shall confine my remarks about senior centers to all other senior centers in this great nation, except the one I patronize, both with participation and money. Henceforth all comments herein about a senior center refer to all senior centers; except the one I attend. With regard to terrorists, one's chances of being the victim of terrorism at a senior center, or anywhere else in the United States, are far less then one's chances of being struck by lightening while driving to one's local senior center, far less than one's chances of being verbally accosted by some right wing Christian senior who is convinced that unless you embrace his or her religiosity, you are doomed to an eternity in Hades. One's chances of being terrorized by evangelical Christians in America are great. Abortion providers in particular are vulnerable to christian persecution, as zealous defenders of fetuses, seeking to do the Lord's work rather than remain content to let the Lord do his own work, oft wax violent. Those who embrace primitive, cruel religions are among the most zealous votaries of anything in the world, religious or otherwise. You are warned. When one has spent several decades rejoicing that someone was slowly tortured to death as a means of gaining personal salvation for anyone who accepts the torture and death as valid payment to God for the many mistakes God's creatures make, one tends to reach senior citizenship absolutely convinced that all who do not embrace this bizarre belief are doomed, somehow. Beware the terrorism of the far right Christian community. Their representatives, the KKK, are but a reflection of their own hearts. Consider yourself warned.

Fire and Gas, Mixing Strangely

THE BIZARRE AND UNHOLY ALLIANCE in American politics of the extreme right wing and the devout evangelical community defies reason. Devout Christianity plus right wing politics equals the Ku Klux Klan. If you don't think so, ask them. Ask the Klan. Conservative Christians should know where to find them. The Klan membership is very religiously devout, the most ardent Christians in the land, cross burning, and very, very conservative politically. Those who voted for Trump might as well sign up. The entire Christian conservative community should sign up. White bed sheets are cheap. Shouldn't the conservative community be atheistic, like, say, Ayn rand? Do guns and money really go well with Jesus? It seems doubtful that Jesus would be a staunch advocate of second amendment rights, or would advocate arming Christians with anything other than love and generosity. Anyone who thinks that Jesus encouraged people to work hard, grow personal wealth, and profit personally from business enterprise is not reading the same gospels I am. Render unto Caesar and give unto the poor sounds more like Bernie Sanders socialism than Donald J. Trump capitalism, doesn't it? Instead we have the devout votaries at Liberty University, for example, endorsing Trump, the self proclaimed sexual predator, Trump the billionaire. Christ the billionaire? Christ, the denigration monger of Christians like Ted Cruz and Jeff Sessions? The conservative Christians are more closely following Adam Smith than Jesus of Nazareth. Not that there is anything wrong with Adam Smith, other than the fact that most conservative Christians have never heard of him nor read his "Bible of capitalism", which clearly says that not only should capitalism produce equal opportunity, but equal outcomes also. Adam Smith, the intellectual father of capitalism, also says that the government should help the poor. That idea would be a hard sell to Christian conservatives, who are repulsed by the idea that government should ever do anything to help anybody.

Trump and I, Regressing

Donald Trump, in 1999, was interviewed on some TV show, and was asked, for some reason, about the North Korean problem. He might have been running for president at the time. One loses track. Trump's voice sounded clear back then, and had not yet acquired the roughness it has now. Same goes for his thinking. His responses in 1999 were clear, articulate, cogent, well conceived. He strongly indicated that diplomacy, not threats or military action, was the solution to North Korea. He encouraged people to look at the situation from all points of view, including the North Korean. Now, in response to basically the same set of circumstances, president Trump's comments seem juvenile, thuggish, and given without any deep thought. The question: what happened? Why did he became a vindictive, thoughtless, brutal person? I always like to think that as we age, we mature mentally, become wiser, more thoughtful, better. That might not be the case. Something happened to Donald Trump along the way, during the past couple of decades. He became bitter, angry, striking out at good people. Remember the phrase "lying Ted"? Ted Cruz didn't deserve Trump's treatment of him during the primary campaign, and all of the people trump attacks, including James Comey and Jeff Sessions, don't deserve it either. And now, in place of empathy and diplomacy, Trump gives us fire and fury, smugly, struttingly, arrogantly. If he thinks his fire and fury will be the greatest in human history, he forgets World War Two. I notice something similar within me. The more I age, the less I like other people. The anger, the greed, the pettiness, the history, in which over one hundred million people died in combat during to last hundred years. We are no different today. Like Trump's benefactor Robert Mercer, I prefer the company of cats. My tendency to anger has not abated as much as I would like, and the wisdom I so like to believe I have acquired sometimes seems absent. Do we actually regress with age? Does the pain of growing old derail our intellectual progress? Maybe Donald Trump and I should regress to our youth, that we might progress mentally.

The Tragedy of People Like Putin

ANYONE WANTING to gain a better understanding of Vladimir Putin can achieve this by reading "Red Notice" by Bill Browder. Browder spent a considerable amount time in Russia, and he paid attention. He details the amoral brutality of Vladimir Putin, and how he used his KGB connections and skills to catapult himself into absolute power in Russia, and how Putin extorts money from the Russian economy, making him one of the wealthiest people on the planet. Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely, so the Santayana saying goes. This truth has been proven and proven again thousands of times, but nobody exemplifies it more than the brutal Putin. The best from of government is a benevolent dictatorship. We might wish that Jesus Christ would return to the world and govern us all. We would undoubtedly live lives of complete joy and fulfillment under his wise divine guidance. But alas, we are stuck with the likes of Putin, Trump, and various dictators around the world. No, Trump is not a dictator, only a potential dictator. And so are we all. Thus, we invent democracy, and entrust governance to we the people, we the masses. And yet, we don't. Every democracy in the world, including the United States, has safeguards against giving too much power to the teeming masses. James Madison, the father of the American constitution, designed the document specifically with that in mind, hence, the electoral college, and other limitations to popular government. We do not truly trust the power of the people, and with good reason. Heaven forbid that the unwashed masses of the poor should use their democratic power and overwhelmingly majority numbers to separate the wealthy from their wealth. Madison, a wealthy man, like all of America's founders, knew this. So instead, we rely on oligarchies or dictators to rule over us, and it is they, rather than the people, who govern, and always have. Rather than the poor confiscating the wealth of the rich, the rich confiscate the wealth of the poor, which, when considered in toto, amounts to considerable wealth. The tragedy is that people like Vladimir Putin are the rule, rather than the exception.

Coming To Their Senses.

CLIMATE CHANGE is not only very real, and very much the result of human activity, it is progressing far more rapidly than anyone had previously realized. Every few months the science is updated, amended, improved, and it reveals onrushing planetary disaster. Now is the time to push the panic button, to take drastic measures. Instead, we have an American president who promises to bring back the coal industry, and whose press representative, Mrs. Conway, declares that although, yes, climate change exists, the proper course is to balance efforts to mitigate it with the dire necessity of increasing economic growth, to balance the interests of business with the interests of humans survival. Of all the bullshit emanating from the White House these days, this is possibly the most egregious. Well, at least somebody in the Republican party believes in climate change, instead of the fantasy that billions of tons of carbon can be injected into Earth's atmosphere without consequences. Every four years the government researchers release an updated report; the latest report was released, actually leaked, today. Its real, its happening now, the effects on weather are apparent, and will get worse. The temperature has risen by an average of over one degree during the past sixty years, and its only getting started. Nobody in the world except the republican party in the Untied States denies the dire emergency humanity, and the rest of the animal and plant kingdom, faces. Thus, Noam Chomsky, eminent M.I.T. academician, maintains that the republican party is the most dangerous organization in human history, for the simple reason that only the republican party is recalcitrant, unwilling to accept reality, and, tragically, the republican party possesses, for the moment, enormous influence. The fact that injection of massive amounts of carbon into the atmosphere warms the planet has been known for two hundred years. Einstein thought it would be a good idea to deliberately cause the planet to warm, in order to increase agricultural yield, incredibly. Sometimes, even someone like Einstein can go astray mentally. We should probably ease up on the republicans - just as soon as they come to their senses.

Letting Go

SOMETIMES, ITS BEST to just...let...go. Fuggattaboutit, in new Yoik-ese. What, precisely, is the point of, say, holding a grudge? A"grudge" i would define as becoming angry at someone, and remaining angry for an extended period, say, more than ten minutes. what is the point? what benefit is there is anger. particularly prolonged? To all my former friends who for some reason have chosen to remain angry, displeased, or disenchanted with me for more than ten minutes, my only response is pity, for you. The fact that you shun me relieves me of the necessity of associating with a petty, vindictive person. As i walk away, i forgive you, but am concerned about the address tress to your life which can only be the product of prolonged resentment, or whatever you want to call it. Whatever I call it, you, most assuredly, will insist on calling it something else, and justifying it. Perhaps one does not always have to be right. Another option is to remain silent, to overlook what you perceive to be the flaws of others, and, although this may sound incredible to you - to forgive. I should know> An investment broker stole fifteen thousand dollars from me. this caused em considerable anxiety and anger, because I am far from wealthy, am much anger, and could have used the money for retirement. But, oh well. I got tired of being stressed and angry. So, to hell with the money I assume he will get what he deserves, as i assume we all do, in the long arc of justice that is sometimes slow, but inevitably bent towards justice. I feel better already. To my former friends, fortunately of whom not enough are in this category to worry about, I say; give it a try. It is a remarkably liberating feeling. I feel better already.

Giving Trump A Chance

ON ELECTION DAY, and again inauguration day, I promised myself to give president Trump a fair chance, and I'm sticking to it, despite the fact that he seems to be doing everything wrong. His most recent ass backwardness is the immigration bill. It would reduce legal immigration by half. If we want the American economy to grow, like we say we do, we should increase, not reduce, immigration. The American work force is aging, and the number of new workers again into the workforce is inadequate. A growing economy requires a growing population, and without immigration, the birthrate of "native" Americans does not meet the demand for human capital. Framers, fruit pickers, and landscapers are all badly needed, should be encouraged to come here, and should be paid well, to expand the consumer base and increase the purchasing power of the general population. What does it matter whether an immigrant can speak English? That skill can be learned. Poorly educated immigrants can be educated. Most immigrants are young, healthy, and ambitious, ready, willing and able to improve their skills and education level. There is a tinge of racism in this proposed bill. Fortunately it will never pass. Everybody deserves a chance, we all agree. Let's continue to give our president a fair one. Maybe he'll decide to rejoin the global climate change agreement, stop posting inane remarks online, start telling the truth from time to time, and accept the realization that this in no time to cut taxes for anyone, especially the very wealthy. He deserves a chance.

Remembering Chat Rooms, Pensively

I WAS FORTY FIVE years old in the year 2000 when my mother bought me my first computer, an HP with an 8 gig hard drive and something like 32 megs of RAM. (does that sound right?) She paid five hundred dollars for it. What a way to treat a 45 year old kid! Like everybody else at the time, I signed up with AOL, and became addicted. It happened almost immediately. I discovered AOL chat rooms, which tended to be online hook up joints, and instant messaging, which was the vehicle to cement hookups. the chat rooms were organized by topic: sports rooms, knitting rooms, rooms for thirty somethings, etc. But no matter what the supposed room topic, folks always seemed to be on the make, for sex. Meet 'em in a chat room, corner 'em in an instant message. In those days people were driving and flying all over the country. I tended to prefer that they come to me, but wasn't adamant about it. I tried not to travel outside my own state. One must have limits, you know. I understand how Facebook and other social media became popular, but I still don't understand why chat rooms became unpopular. They were flat out fun. Too much acrimony? Isn't acrimony what we all love? Maybe not. Chat rooms and instant messaging went so well together, I would think that there would be plenty of room for all our social media, and chat rooms as well. Guess not. Actually< I heard that chat room still exist, somewhere. Does AOL still exist? Nowadays, in or era of fake news, one hardly knows what exists, and what doesn't. In a chat room, you can either participate, or just sit there and read what other people have to say, as the words enter from the bottom, and scroll up to the top, then vanish. I remember spending happy time sitting at my computer, a good book in hand, and occasionally glancing up at the chat room. Multitasking! chat room were about as addictive as Facebook, which, I am told, is very. I finally joined Facebook, but it just isn't the same, somehow>. why do people prefer it? Maybe because they can express their narcissism (see my pretty house!) without having to deal with a bunch of inane comments from strangers. Well. at least we still have venues for inane comments from strangers.

Loving Stray Cats

THE STRAY CAT ISSUE - and yes, it is an "issue", to use one of our currently favorite words, because it is a situation which demands some response or other from us - is a difficult one for us who love cats. We cat lovers would like to see every cat in the world curled up asleep in the loving arms of a human benefactor who feeds and cares for it. In American alone, there may be as many as thirty or forty million strays, to go with our as many as eighty million "owned cats". Cats, which originate in Africa like the rest of us, have, like humans, taken over the entire world, and there are stray populations nearly everywhere. They are quite popular in Rome, where you see many cats, but few if any rodents. The most difficult part is when some cute friendly stray cate decides it wants to live with you. Then, it becomes your issue. So far its happened tome four times, with a fifth looking to join our family. Twelve years ago I bought land and built a lovely home, which I intended to keep spot free forever. Instead, I have three indoor cats, all of which came to me stray, wild, feral. I cat whispered them into being tame, and now, they are irredeemably spoiled. The only way to prevent this is to chase them out of your yard, early on, which I will not do. I start out by ignoring them, which inspires them to think of me as malleable, usable. In this they are quite correct. I cannot allow a cat to go hungry. it comforts me to know that they tend to be pretty good at foraging on their own, in either urban or rural area. Local animal shelters are starting, I understand, to adopt a "no kill" policy for stray animals. Id only we could spay, neuter, and vaccinate the stray population, and adopt it out to good people. ON the other hand, it may well be that a thriving population of stray cats is part and parcel, evolutionarily, of human society, along with, lest we omit their mention, rats. My heart still goes out to stray cate, because I know how loving and affectionate they can be, but maybe I needn't worry. Maybe they prefer it that way, maybe they don't know any other life, wouldn't have any other life. maybe everything is just fine the way it is. Just to be on the safe side, however, it would be nice if each of us could, at least once, do something nice for some stray cat.

Trump, Still Campaigning

DONALD TRUMP LOVES CAMPAIGNING soooo much, loves the crowds, love the attention, that, although he has long since won the election and assumed the office of the president, he continues campaigning. Trump's post inaugural campaign rallies are utterly indistinguishable from those during the actual campaign, the ones that got all the attention, much of it negative. Its almost as if he doesn't realize the election is over, and he won. The things he says and the way the crowds react is as crazy as ever if not crazier. They've even dragged Hillary Clinton's effigy back out onto their sordid, salacious stage, for some more abuse. "Lock her up"! chant Trump's foaming furious followers. The FBI must by now be getting tired of investigating Hillary, finding nothing, and clearing her name. Trump's screaming rhetoric is more bombastic, less sensible with each rally. The crowd roars its approval when he proclaims that all currently ongoing investigations of him, particularly those having to do with Trump's alleged involvement with Russians helping elect him, is nothing but fake news, a plot hatched by the mainstream liberal media, and for that matter the entire left wing movement, to bring him down. Trump, his flunkies, and his adoring followers never bother to explain exactly how the Democratic party, the mainstream liberal media, and the progressive community managed to arranged for all sixteen government intelligence agencies to announce that the Russians attempted to influence the election in favor of Trump. However they did it, it was quite a feat. If the libs have that much power, then why don't they just walk in, and take over?

Losing Sperm

YOU CANNOT EVEN BEGIN to imagine or count the number of imminent catastrophic global cataclysms which stalk us daily. Climate change is only the first of a long list, the tip of the iceberg, the melting iceberg, so to speak. Where do you start? Every high tide, it floods in Miami, Florida. Its only going to get worse. The weather is becoming crazy, everywhere. American health is a train wreck, especially with the fast food, television, and obesity epidemic, in that order, with most of us evidently doomed to die from diabetes or caring for autistic people. We might want to consider taking these self inflicted epidemics seriously. Equally alarming, the average sperm count of the average American man is way down, it has been discovered, and probably worldwide as well. Stay tuned. Presumably research is already well underway, somewhere, to find out exactly why men are losing their sperm, and what to do about it. According to scientists, this is a new and alarming discovery, because if it continues, humanity will become extinct, soon. Are we spending too much time on the cell phone, gents? Should we stop crossing our legs, guys? Or have several generations of briefs pinched us too much? Back to boxer shorts! By mid century, the human population is predicted to be around nine billion, and maybe ten or eleven billion by century's end. This is not considered sustainable by the scientific community, those same people who tell us our sperm count is down and our planet is warming fast, due to our lifestyle. What do they know? Is it even remotely possible that the declining sperm is nature's subtle way of helping us avoid the "population bomb"? (see Paul Ehrlich)

Defending White America

DONALD TRUMP'S Department of Justice, headed by the much beleaguered alleged former racist Jeff Sessions, intends to file a lawsuit against universities, which are to be accused of using affirmative action to discriminate against white people, believe it or not. The federal government, filing lawsuits against state owned universities for obeying affirmative action laws enacted by the federal government decades ago to guarantee opportunities for minorities. Now, the feds, under Trump and the right wing junta, think that the majority, the whites, have been unfairly victimized due to providing too many opportunities to minorities. The right wing is becoming increasingly obsessed about the imagined dwindling population and influence of Caucasian-Americans, and particularly the dwindling numbers and influence of Christian Caucasian-Americans, as if there existed some sort of organized, active persecution of the poor beleaguered white race, as if hordes of dark colored non Christians were pouring across America's borders, threatening our very way of life. Leave it to Mr. Trump, aka "the Donald", or perhaps "the don" would be a better title, to look out for American white folks, to save them from their unfair victimization. Looking out for white mainstream Christian America has always been a staple of conservative politics. You can always count on, and have always been able to count on, the American conservative community doing whatever it can to promote the interests and well being of white, Protestant, heterosexual America, bless its sweet right wing heart. Behold the Ku Klux Klan, which so boldly upholds the social status of white protestant Christian heterosexual capitalistic America. A close look at President Trump's proposals for new immigration laws, conservative to the core, besides tearing families apart and giving preference to English speaking skilled workers, would also have the effect of "whitening up" the folks entering our dear diverse country, a fact which is doubtless not lost on the bill's creators, and easily hidden, plausibly denied by them. Fortunately, this horrible immigration plan will never see the light off day. The Statue of Liberty, which promises refuge for poor unskilled people, shall not be belied! Trump's crazy lawsuits against universities for assisting minorities will never fly either, much to our good fortune. Have heart, my fellow Americans, we can and will survive the craziness of our presdient, no matter how crazy it gets!

Saving Football From Itself

TODAY'S FOOTBALL PLAYERS are bigger, faster, stronger, and better than the players fifty years ago, during my childhood. That's true of athletes in every sport. The style of play has changed in every sport as well. I remember college football teams had offensive and defensive linemen who weighed 240 and 250 pounds, probably averaging fifty pounds less than today's linemen. And they still had trouble catching up to the quarterbacks, who tended to be smaller back then. Now, linemen are not only huge, but quick and fast as well. They tend to catch quarterbacks when they chase them, making life for the modern quarterback especially dangerous. Most quarterbacks get injured numerous times during their high school, college, and pro careers. When I was a kid players made tackles with their heads up, back, and out of the way. Now they lead with their helmet, perfectly willing to engage in contact to their own head. Blocking and tackling, as I remember it, was originally intended to be completed as efficiently as possible, as effectively and mistake free as possible, without regard to the force of impact. Now, its all about hard hard can I hit somebody. it seems to be the result of the demands of an increasingly violent culture, where violent entertainment makes money. And because football is nowadays all about hitting hard, making high impact collisions, we have an epidemic of brain damage among football players, it seems. This poses a threat to the very survival of the sport, as people are likely to turn against it. The solution is right in front of our face. The unnecessary roughness penalty flag. A rule could be implemented requiring that all blocks and tackles, all "hits", be made with the least amount of force and impact needed to complete the task. It would seem strange at first, and all the bad asses would make fun of it, would suggest that the players wear skirts, but we'd all get used to it, and it just might save the sport, and a lot of brain cells.

Ending War, For Real

SINCE 2014, we have been "celebrating" the one hundredth anniversary of World War One, which at the time was called "the war to end all wars". Didn't quite work out that way, eh? Now, as we approach twenty eighteen, we approach the end of the anniversary. Like all wars, the first word war, which ended in 1918 with devastation everywhere, was a complete nightmare, far deadlier and more horrible than anybody could possibly have imagined at the time. The war shocked the world so much that the world began taking drastic measures to prevent or ameliorate future wars, the Geneva conventions, and such. Horrible wars have always spurred frantic attempts to create peace, which have never worked. At least, not yet. But hey, why don't we try it again? Why don't we, as a species, the next war that comes along, - and of course knowing us one will come along any day now - declare it to be "the war to end all wars", and swear up and down, swear upon the Bible or whatever, every last one of us, that there will never again be warfare upon this planet. This time maybe we, unlike our ancestors, will really mean it! On the other hand, you know what they say about people who keep doing the same thing, expecting different results. So be it. We're crazy. Humans are crazy. As if that were news. Surely we can count on people like Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump to initiate a new war somewhere reasonably soon, considering how god like they both seem to consider themselves. Another possibility would be to choose a currently ongoing war, like the one in Afghanistan which the Untied States has been prosecuting for, oh, decades, and declare that when it ends, there shall be no more war, that the great war against whoever it is the United States is fighting in Afghanistan is now designated; the war to end all wars. There's only one problem: who's to say that this particular war will ever itself end?

Respecting the Law

OUR ESTEEMED BUT a bit beleaguered Attorney General Mr. Sessions, speaking to a bunch of cops, said to them that respect for law enforcement is the basis for safer communities, or something like that. True, but bland. Leave it to a southern conservative with just a smidge of racism in his background to offer rock solid but boring, banal platitudes. but we mustn't complain. At least Mr. Sessions, unlike his boss, didn't tell the nation's cops to start beating up accused criminals upon apprehension, much to his credit. Actually, more is needed than respect for law enforcement, to obtain safer communities. Not merely respect for law enforcement is necessary, but, more deeply, respect for the law, that ornate platform elevating the human species above the rest of the animal kingdom, as a wise man once said, elevating us above savagery and barbarism, which is exactly where we'd be, without law. Then, there is respect for civilization, or the idea of civilization, from which law cometh, the idea that a large number of fundamentally fearful and often violent animals can cooperate to build an organized and productive society, in which violence is kept to a minimum. Hell, the human race only killed one hundred million people in military combat during the last century. That isn't too bad. It could have been worse, although its hard to imagine how.. Is stone age civilization more peaceful? Not according to the plains Indians of the old American west. Not according to their documented behavior. Stone age or high tech, humans are often violent in large groups, ironically, because it is those large groups, and the cooperation they foster, which permit our very existence.

Removing Putin

VLADIMIR PUTIN SAYS he is tired of waiting for relations with the United States to improve. He's tired of waiting. The poor dear, how horrible. The dear leader should never have to wait for anything. God, what a fraud. How do you Russians tolerate Putin? by force? There can be no other explanation. Force, and a shocking and pervasive lack of popular political will. Isn't it time for the Russian people to organize, take over the country, and rid yourselves of the tyrannical, diabolical, and deceitful Putin? He's worse than Trump, and that's going some. We in America obviously have our own work to do. Putin, waiting for relations with America to get better, and tired of waiting. As if he himself, the great Vladimir, has no power to help make them better. With the snap of a finger, Putin could stop conquering other countries, stop fighting the Syrian rebels, and stop meddling in the elections of other countries, most particularly American elections. But not Putin. Never. Instead he runs his country like a criminal organization, as he stealthily tries to recreate the old Soviet empire, which, it could be argued, the Russian people themselves do not really want. Somehow it is nearly impossible to believe that the Russian people, so good hearted, really want their government headed by a ruthless dictator who overseas nefarious attempts to influence the outcome of political elections in other countries, especially the United States. We the poor workers of the world must unite, and rid ourselves of all these insane head of state, especially Trump, Putin, the dictators of Syria and North Korea, among others. Obviously the leaders named above are not at all similar to each other, in terms of their actual influence over their countries, but they all have one important thing in common; they cannot possibly be the best their country has to offer, and should be replaced post haste. But it would require massive poplar uprisings.