Being Democratically Intolerant

AT MY LOCAL small southern town senior center, about which I have written much, if you happen to mention that, for instance, you are a liberal democrat, you are at risk of being verbally attacked, or worse. This is not surprising, or shouldn't be, among people who deny climate change and human evolution, accuse Barack Obama of being a "Muslim", and who supported a self proclaimed sex offender for president. The one who attacked me is a Catholic who at the time was proudly wearing a large cross. May the lord bless our conservative Christian colleagues for their capacity to progress. My attempted tormentor, who actually accidentally, incompetently complimented me by accusing all democrats of being "intolerant". Perhaps by this she meant intolerant of people who disagree with them, or something like that. And indeed she is quite correct. Indeed we are. Why argue? We are intolerant of people who knowingly help a self proclaimed sex offender become president, and who consider it a sacred right to discriminate against gay people because on religious grounds. We democrats tend to be intolerant of people who blame poor people for being poor, and who believe that the government has no business legislating against racism, and has no business enforcing racial equality. We democrats tend to be very intolerant of those who practice or espouse unbridled, unregulated capitalism during the week, but swear allegiance to the teachings of Jesus on Sunday morning, claiming that He was a capitalist, and that Christianity and capitalism are complimentary, embodying the highest virtues. Indeed, we liberal democrats are intolerant of many things. Tolerance of the intolerable is no virtue. Not all viewpoints and ideas and beliefs are created equal. We must never tolerate the intolerable. According to liberal democrats, homosexuality is not intolerable, but racism is. Conservative Christian Republicans perhaps disagree. In short, liberal democrats tend to strongly disagree with and to therefore be highly intolerant of many of the basic beliefs of conservative republicans, but, as they say, it takes all kinds.

Setting The Religious Right Straight (or at least trying to)

IN AMERICA, there is no....war...on...religion. Flat out, straight up. the religious right would have you believe that there is, and that it is terribly brutal, unfair, and dangerously threatening to the survival not only of America but of human civilization itself. but the religious right is full of it. (and you know what "it" is). When a gay couple, madly in love, tries to buy a wedding cake from a bakery, is turned away because they are not heterosexual, even if they are Christian, and they complain about it, and hire an attorney to pursue discrimination accusations, they are not conducting a war on religion - they are fighting for their very survival in secular, civic, public american society. Neither are those who want to remove the Ten Commandments from government property trying to destroy religion; they are trying to save civilization and the American way from religious zealotry. Just so you know. In reality, the religious right, that weird union of extreme political conservatism and zealous religious fervor which currently infects the country in the form of the republican party, is the aggressor. the religious right is trying to stack the Supreme Court with right wing religious loons like Gorsuch and such, justices who somehow think that ordering a wedding cake for a gay couple who expects to be treated like everyone else is an attack on religious liberty. God, what bullshit. Hint; if you happen to be a Christian business owner, and you do business with gay people, you are not only doing more and better business, you are following on the footsteps of Jesus, by showing love to everyone, and judging no one.

Republicans Playing Games

THE REPUBLICANS' refusal to approve Obama's Supreme Court nominee their refusal to even give him a chance, even though he was well qualified, was clearly unconstitutional. remarkable how they pretend this isn't so, and how flippantly and easily right wingers stand piously behind their phony argument that the American people should choose the justices. Of course they should, which is why Justice Garland should have been given a fair hearing. Their (the republican's) gamble that a republican would replace Obama and appoint a conservative justice paid off. These people will tragically never allow themselves to admit or understand that conservatism is not a for for nor an indication of being a good jurist. The idea that a good judge is a conservative judge is sick and twisted, to say the least. A Supreme Court dominated by conservatives, which is what we are going to have soon with the retirement and replacement of Justice Kennedy, has already begun turning out crazy, stupid, wrong decisions based on right wing political ideology. Among the msot recent: the Christian religion can now be used to discriminate in the secular, public, business realm. Gay couples can be denied wedding cakes, and Sarah Huckabbee can be asked to leave a restaurant is she happens to be contrary to the owner's religious beliefs. How sick. Presumably, a Christian couple could be denied a wedding cake if the bakery owner is an atheist, or an atheist couple can be denied a cake if the bakery owner is Christian. The Supreme wrongly rules that only bey allowing the bakery ownder to deny a wedding cake to the gay couple protest religious liberty; selling a cake to a gay couple does nothing to hinder religious liberty , in fact. Christians may now legally discriminate against people of whose lifestyle or behavior they not approve, and anyone who wants to may discriminate on personal religious grounds. That fact will become evident, in test cases, soon enough. Suffice to say, teh court has unleashed a Pandora's box of discrimination lawsuits.

Seeing Nothing 'wrong With A Bit Of Shenangins

EVERYBODY IN THE GREAT STATE OF TEXAS who hasn't been living on Mars recently knows very well that the republicans control the government, and that therefore they redrew the congressional districts to favor republican voters, and to minimize the impact of minority voters. Everybody knows that. It was never intended to be a secret; the people who participated in it never tried to hide or deny their intent. Most Texans seem to regard the whole situation as normal; to the victor goes the spoils, and the opportunity to redraw electoral maps to suit the victors. What's wrong with that? It happens in almost every state in the union, and since the republicans made big gains nationally in 2010, they have essentially redrawn the congressional map everywhere to favor republican candidates, which means its going to be mighty difficult for democrats to gain much this fall. Its called "gerrymandering", after one of our less illustrious founding fathers, and we all accept it. Those opposed to it claim that gerrymandering ruins democracy by favoring one party over the other, no matter which party is doing the gerrymandering. The Supreme Court officially agrees with those who see nothing wrong with it; opponents failed to provide the court with sufficient evidence that the process was motivated by a desire to gain unfair political advantage, which is strange. since everybody else in the country knows damned good and well that the only possible motivation for gerrymandering is to gain unfair political advantage and to subvert democracy. Maybe the recent residents of Mars include our five oblivious conservative Supreme Court justices.

Running Harley-Davidson Out

HARLEY DAVIDSON, as iconic an American company as there is, with three manufacturing plants across America, and the most bad ass motorcycles in the world, is moving out of the country, mainly to India, where labor is cheap but mechanical expertise high. The company can no longer afford to send bikes directly from the U.S. to Europe, because of the new retaliatory tariffs America's allies are raising against the U.S., in response to Trump's attempted trade war. The president, who ran for president claiming that under his leadership American companies would start to flood back into the country from abroad, seems to have gotten it backwards in this instance. Mr. trump campaigned on a platform of Jobs! Jobs! The plan was to create them by cutting taxes on the corporate wealthy, the theory being that the corporate wealthy, their pockets flush, would immediately invest their tax savings in hiring new workers and raising wages, and also would motivate American companies to return home from overseas, being attracted by the suddenly lower taxes. None of this, so far, has happened, and the lower tax rate has been in place for six months. Trump's new tariff war is the final straw in bringing economic growth to a sudden stand still. Harley Davidson visited the White House, rolled out some beautiful bikes onto the front lawn, and President Trump swore up and down that Harley was his kind of company. Now, Harley is heading out, of the country. How ironic, that the very policies Trump promised would keep jobs and companies here, and create new ones, have instead driven out of the country his all American company. Thousands of jobs have been lost already. how many more will there be, as corporations bail out of America to avid being hurt by tariffs?

Making America Look Bad

IT DOES NOT DO AMERICA ANY GOOD to withdraw from the world, which seems to be precisely what Trump's "America First" policies entail. it makes us look unreliable, uncooperative, undependable. Instigating trade wars, withdrawing from international agreements, antagonizing America's closest allies, all of which is clearly happening under Trump, is a course of action which, if not reversed, will prove disastrous for America, and for the world. The Paris Climate Change Agreement and the Iranian nuclear weapons agreement are supported by teh entire world; except Trump and his supporters. There was no good reason to remove the United States from these accords, other than a pernicious desire to undo everything that Obama did. That's policy based on personal hatred, which is crazily unreasonable. it would be wonderful, would it not, if all the negative facts about Trump turned out to be untrue? If only his policies were truly designed to help the poor, rather than the wealthy. If only Trump were not a pathological liar, nor a narcissist. if only Trump and his followers would accept the reality of climate change and try to do something about it. If only Trump were something than what he deems to be; a psychotic demagogue, living only remotely in anything resembling the real world. For some it is comforting to know that there is na energetic progressive movement building to oppose the Trump agenda, and that people who failed to vote last time will be voting this time. To have failed to vote against Trump is to have helped elect him. We must not make that mistake again.

Promoting Evil Froom the White House

PRESIDENT TRUMP'S guest list at the white House yesterday consisted exclusively of white, conservative, upper middle class republicans who, or whose family members, have been victimized by crimes committed by brown young men who come from another country illegally and speak another language. He had to dip deep to find the folks; the facts are, quite simply, that illegal aliens, of which there are roughly eleven million in American, commit far fewer crimes per capita, or any other way, than you good, home grown white American conservative republicans. As Casey Stengal used to say: "you could look it up.". Trump, ever the media and promotion genius, who simultaneously hates the news media while taking as much personal advantage of it as possible, desperately wants us the American people to buy into his notion that the people coming to America illegally are the worst of the worst, not the best people, not people like Trump, but the worst people, criminals. Actually, it is the ambitious, hard working, good people coming here, but to acknowledge that would be too much stress for the right wing. When Trump signed the executive order formally abolishing the kidnapping of refugee children, he looked absolutely despondent, as if poison were being shoved down his throat, which, in effect, it was. What's with the victim party? To convince the American people that seizing the children of illegal entrants was good policy after all, that the entire nation should have whole heartedly, not just the avid right wing Trump supporters, and that we ought to return to it immediately, because those children might all grow up to be murderers? Does Trump and his gang of thuggish supporters, numbering, unfortunately, in the millions, want us all to embrace zero tolerance of illegal aliens, and destroy their families and lick them all up indefinitely? Two thirds of the American believe that taking children from their parents is inhumane and barbaric, which is about the same number who wish Trump and his fellow gangsters would simply...go away...

Promoting Our Bad Behavior

WE ALL RECALL the relatively recent racial incident in Philly, when two young African-American gentlemen were summarily kicked out of a Starbucks for doing nothing discernable other than being black, which, to b e honest, is one of the most personally damaging mistakes one can make in America, the land of white privilege. These particular gentlemen said they were waiting for a friend to arrive and meet them, and they declined to order anything until the friend's arrival. They never got the chance Several other patrons noticed the problem immediately and began to protest their treatment... Although the incident attracted considerable media attention, the attention was the typical fly by type, which would have vanished as quickly as it came, and Starbucks could easily have weathered the storm simply by ignoring, and letting it dissipate in the constant background noise. The tempest in a teapot would have vanished in days, gone from the public mind like all corporate corruption soon is. Not only did the coffee giant choose not to do this; it chose to actually take ownership of the event, to embrace it, to publicize and promote it. The rest, as they say, is history. the company shut down entirely for one afternoon, all hundreds of thousands of stores, and conducted "sensitivity training" for all employees, accompanied by much pre seminar promotion, fanfare, and talk. Almost as if Starbucks had decided to use the whole affair as a vehicle for an advertising campaign, a question which caused some controversy. The corporation, speaking as a human being, assured us that its motives were entirely altruistic, not commercial. Each local in store event was conducted by local management; there was not time to hire tens of thousands of sensitivity training experts. The general theme was racial tolerance, sensitivity, and blindness in a progressive, egalitarian America, or something like that. Stuff we all already know, or like to think we do.

Supporting Trump, Strangely

THE MOST TROUBLING THING, among many troubling things, about Trump supporters is that throughout this entire government kidnapping refugee children brew ha ha, they apparently completely supported Trump's Hitleresque policy, and they found many and varied ways of justifying it, the most common being the one asserting that if the refugees don't want to have their children taken from them, they won't break the law and try to illegally enter the United States. They get weirder. Ann Coulter, long suspected of being just a tad nutty, claims that all those hours of video of children bawling their eyes out, allegedly because they wanted to be with their mothers, is bogus, and that the liberals, democrats, liberal mainstream media, and the devil himself hired child actors to play the parts. No, I'm serious. She really said that, on television, evidently, probably on one of those crazy right wing extremist FOX shows. Unless she's insane, she doesn't actually believe it. The very fact that Trump signed an executive order yesterday ending the horrible practice clearly demonstrates, unbeknownst to him in all probability, that his earlier claims about being unable do anything were a lie. But, of course, we already knew that. Now will Trump's most ardent supporters be angry with their leader for backing down? If only he had done so sooner, much sooner, then president could have spared a great deal of anguish for thousands of poor homeless people, or, he could have helped the left wing conspiracy a great deal of money in the cost of hiring actors and staging the entire hoax which resulted in Trump's executive order. The great mystery, and tragedy, is that a majority of conservative Americans, a majority of republicans supported taking immigrant children from their parents, claiming that doing so would discourage further law breaking. It did not. That line of reasoning is ridiculous, and those who make it must know that. it is indeed sad that a substantial part of the American people are so lacking in basic human compassion, and understanding of human nature.

Mistaking Crap For Policy

POLITICIANS HAVE ALWAYS been posers, but cameras in Congress, watch out, its turned up a notch. Now America's rulers truly strut and fret, for them all the world's a stage, demagogues playing chicken and do you dare. Up the avenue, President Trump swears to high heaven that, much though he regrets it, there simply isn't a thing he can do to remedy the regrettable refugee problem, wherein children are being kidnapped by the U.S. government and hidden from their parents. Whether this is actually happening, and if so, why, has been the subject of no inconsiderable amount of disputation across the fruited plain; suffice it to say that it is happening, and we could stop it, if we wanted to. Trump could act, but he won't, instead insisting that Congress must. Congressional Democrats say otherwise; it is Trump who must act, because it is Trump who caused the problem in the first place, by allowing it to happen. Trump is damned if he does, damned if he doesn't; maybe we all are. A majority of republicans, and most of his base, supports the kidnapping, incredibly. Trump once said that the United States is not a migrant camp, nor a refugee holding center, and never will be. He left out the part where the United States, since it isn't a safe place for strangers, is not a Christian country, or at least, does not practice Christian values. One livid Trump supporter spewed: "they're trying to blame it all on Trump! I'm fed up with that crap! We're taking care of those kids".... Indeed we are, but....should WE be? Shouldn't their parents be taking care of them? And it you're "fed up" with crap, perhaps its because you're taking in too much of it, mistaking it for something else, like good policy.

Living The Harvard Life

MILTON, CONNECTICUT, is a town with a super achieving high school, academically. Many of the graduates head off to higher education at elite institutions, places like Harvard, Duke, U Conn. The problem is, the stress level among the student body is thirty percent, instead of the seven percent national average. A definite indication of success, achievement, and the good old fashioned American work ethic run amok, with a healthy does of social status and competition thrown in. Everybody in the building is aware of the stress problem; its the topic of much discussion. everybody agrees taht something should be done. The question is: what? The kids love to learn. they love to achieve, and compete. Maybe a quick reminder or two would help. The first reminder is to not obsess about, and indeed to not evern care about money. The money will be there, in due time. Focus on valuable, memorable experiences, and relationships, and learning. Learning is fun, forst and foremost, and having knowledge enriches one's thoughts and perceptions. Grades and awards are not to be worried about. All that will come with effort, which is its own reward. Milton High School does not need to start from scratch, and do everything differently. A few minor adjustments will do, designed to reduce stress, and enhance fun. At Harvard, they limit the number of semester hours a student can take, and they require all students to try a little bit of everything, to be well rounded, even in areas where oen 's talents do not lie, including athletics and art. There is more to education than success. There is fulfillment. At Harvard, they tell you to party some, and they tell you how to do it intelligently, so that it enhances, rather than hinders, one's advancement. The successful Harvard lifestyle means love of learning, love of life, and service to others. What more could anyone possibly need for stress free happiness?

Taking A Day Off For Protest

DOWN AROUND El Paso, near where refugees cross into the U.S., and near where hundreds of children who have been separated from their parents are locked up, several hundred good American citizens showed up and staged a protest against the inhumane policy of separating refugee parents from their children. Good for them. Rarely if ever in human history has a protest been held for an unjust cause. Most of the time,where you have people protesting, you have injustice being addressed. You get the feeling that the American people are on the verge of pitching a conniption over the brutality of breaking families apart for entering the country illegally. Unless Congress acts, or the president acknowledges his responsibility for and ability to change the situation, we the American people may turn out in large, angry numbers. Mainstream republicans, the kind who filled the G.O.P. before the Trump people took over, don't like the heinous policy any more than liberals. They know it could get them run out of office, fast. Trump supporters and right wing thugs, suddenly cognizant of justice and the law, are ranting about illegal immigrants deserving whatever they get. For the most part, this is falling on deaf ears, because the American people see through it. We are a society on the verge of mass protests, as revealed the day after Trump was elected, and again the day after he was inaugurated, when the streets filled with unhappy people, concerned about America's direction. the subsequent year and a half shows that their concerns were more than justified. The best outcome might be a coalescing of all forms of protest, black lives matter, LGBTQ, anti-Trump, Occupy Wall Street, to come out together in a mass display of dissatisfaction with the establishment. We'd all have to take a day or two off work, but it would be worth it. Thomas Jefferson said: "I like a Little Rebellion Now and Then".

Making the Most Of Mental Illness

ALMOST INCREDIBLY, President Trump says he hates the sight of two year old girls and boys screaming and crying their eyes out for momma, and that he, like most decent people, personally opposes the policy of separating refugee parents from their children at the border. He goes on to say, and this is the incredible part, that there is nothing he can do about it because it is a law passed by democrats and that therefore it is up to the democrats to change the law and the policy. All this is a lie, of course, pure made up fantasy, obvious, sick, pathological, the sort of which, as we all know by now, Trump offers utters as he unwittingly reveals his many mental illnesses to us all. On the other hand, its kind of funny, in a sick, weird sort of way, that anybody, let alone the U.S. President, would be crazy enough to say and do such things. In truth, the President could simply speak a word or two, or sign a document, and executive order, and put an immediate stop to the madness on the border, the madness wherein our beloved country, because of Trump and his ilk, like a savage animal. Pathological narcissism and psychotic delusions are dangerous traits in anyone, particularly the American President. We must pray. On a totally different level; there's never a dull moment, not that tht gives much consolation. What if President Trump gets North Korea to verifiably give up all its nukes, and open its doors to American style corporate capitalism, prosperity, freedom, happiness, entertainment, and video games? In that case, may the dear lord bless him. He could do much, if not that. he could order an immediate stop to separating children from their refuges parents, and he could grandiosely proclaim his intent to eliminate climate change by himself, without harming the economy, just to shut the liberals up. What a great and exciting project that would be!

Racism, Vanishing From the Earth...Someday

THE OLD FELLOW at the senior center, responding to a question, said that his birthday was Wed June 19, that he would be eighty five years old, and that his birthday was on "nigger day", the day they got their freedom, which was their independence day. Then he went on to assert that the sorriest president in American history was Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin Roosevelt as well. I immediately detected the pattern. He hated, and regarded as evil, any president who used his office to try to get the government to help people, particularly the poor, the week, and the downtrodden He hates Lincoln because Abe had the audacity to free the slaves. He hates Roosvelt because Roosevelt had the audacity to fight Hitler, a fellow racist. I live in a very small, conservative, southern U.S. town, the people of which I have often called "provincial", among other descriptors, sometimes evincing reactions of indignation. So great is my dismay at the frequency of comments revealing racism in this town, that I have thought about moving away, to a more progressive locale. I've been assured that I needn't bother; racism and other hatefulness will be waiting for me, wherever I go. I agree. To this nearly eighty five year old conservative redneck southerner, progressive reform was taboo. I wonder whether he wants to privatize or abolish social security? I actually don't know anything about an African-American freedom day, but I wouldn't be surprised if there is one, and if it happens to be on June 19. Every holiday needs a date, and Emancipation Day, or whatever its called, is certainly a noble holiday. Lincoln, it memory serves, started issuing warnings about the need of the Confederacy to free its slaves, a particularly strong such warning occurring on Sept. 22, 1862. Free them, or I will, was the essential text. It further stipulated that if the slaves hadn't been freed by January first, 1863 , then they would be, on that date, officially freed from slavery, but only in the ten states currently in a state of rebellion against the country and its government in Washington. The Emancipation Proclamation accomplished nothing in real terms, of course, much like the Monroe doctrine or other high sounding rants. The slaves had to be freed by force; Lincoln's command had to be backed up by force, at it most certainly was beginning with Gettysburg in July, 1863. The old racist must thinks it very funny, his birthday falling on "Nigger Day", the irony of it, he being so racist and all. Let him laugh; he won't live much longer anyway, and maybe the stain of people like him will finally, once and for all, perish from the Earth.

Becoming Civilized

IF THOUSAND OF POOR, downtrodden refugees are trying to get into your country, for sheer survival, and your country is arresting them all and separating parents from their children, it could, not without justification, be asserted that your country is not civilized, but rather, barbaric. or, at the very least, it could be asserted that no matter how civilized your country is or claims to be, separating refugee parents from their children most assuredly is not civilized behavior, and that therefore, your country could stand a bit of improvement in becoming "more" civilized. Quite naturally, humans are extremely creative and clever devising justifications for their various forms of barbarity, cruelty, and general uncivilized behavior. In the United States, enslavement of Africans was justified on the basis that the slaves were being given the great blessing of Christianity, and wre being elevated above their savage status in Africa. The Africans themselves were never consulted. The Trump administration's policies concerning the Mexican border were initially justified by Trump by claiming that separating parents from their children was indeed bad law, but was the fault of democrats, and, alas, is still the law. He failed to mention that he has complete discretion concerning how to interpret and enforce the law. He seems to have given up that ridiculous argument, and now allow Attorney General Jeff "once a racist always a racist" Sessions to mouth rhetoric about the blame being with the refugees themselves, whose children would not be kidnapped by the U.S. government if they had the good sense to not try to enter the country illegally in the first place. Trump the demagogue slanders people by screaming, with his frothing, ranting followers, chants like "lock her up!", and "animals!" He should focus on his own barbaric behavior. Civilized people wonders how weak these justifications will become, and how low these people can go. Many republicans in Congress do not support the cruelty, and are discovering that their constituents don't either, in large numbers. So, there is hope that we the American people might force our country to change course, and to resume a more civilized behavior. There's got to be a better way.

Relegating Trumpism To Its Proper Place

TRUMP SUPPORTERS have taken over the Republican party, and the actual republicans are in hiding, longing for better days, increasingly fearful of coming out. It now begins to seem as if the ultimate destruction of Trumpism will require an rejuvenated Democratic Party, a large coalition of progressive groups and minorities, to save the country by removing Trump and his supporters from power, and relegating them, as it were, to the dustbin of history. The real republicans don't seem to have the stomach for it. You Trump supporters will be familiar with the expression "lock her up!", of course, since you've spent the better part of three years screaming it, with no relent in sight. Now, imagine Hillary, having won the election, as president. Imagine her in Trump's situation, in particular, being investigated for over a year by a former FBI Director, for possibly having accepted Russian assistance getting elected. What would your reaction be? Would you still be shouting "lock her up!" ? You would, and you know it. How could you not? You would be perfectly convinced of her guilt in conspiring with the Russians to win the election, and you would be ready to not only lock her up, but to execute her as a traitor. And you wouldn't have the slightest hesitation about shouting it early, often, and repeatedly. So, why aren't you chanting "lock him up!" at Trump? Why has your sense of equal justice under law left you? Don't bother trying to fabricate some half baked, twisted answer. We all know why. The answer is that you have no class, no sense of fairness or decency, no sense of justice. Your political viewpoint trumps (pun intended) both your patriotism and your morality. That, dear Trump supporters, is sick and disgusting. But, all is not lost, oh dear right wing nut jobs. There is yet time and opportunity to change, to reform yourselves,, to become the fair minded decent citizens you surely must once have been, perhaps as long ago as early childhood, before the twin infections of religion and right wing politics warped you. Merely accept the fact that there has never been the slightest reason to lock up Hillary, much less bring charges against her according to due process, which you wouldn't understand anyway, and admit that the way matters stand now, there may very well, depending upon future developments, be more than one reason to lock up your leader, the Donald. In the event that there are not, Mr. Trump will deserve credit for having failed to engage in criminal activity, just as Hillary already does, and always has.

Making Peace, Strangely

USUALLY, when a hugely important international agreement is negotiated and signed, it involves months of preparation by thousands of people, just to make hotel accommodations, among other things, it involves a tremendous amount of legal analysis and international law, and page after page of specifics within the actual agreement. Not so, when Donald J. Trump is involved. In the current international agreement recently signed, the one in which North Korea mentions its intent to become denuclearized, Trump dispensed with all the details and hard work, and just went with his gut, claiming that within microseconds of meeting the North Korean dictator, hew, the Donald, would be able to get a reading, assess, and react according, producing the desired result. A couple of quick phone calls, a first class flight there and back, and there you have it, the perfect beginning to what could, or could not, become a peace process of historical profundity. Just like that. No problem. The actual document is half a page of noble Nobel?) sounding rhetoric about everyone's desire to bring about a more peaceful, prosperous, non nuclear bomb world for each and all. The document says nothing that hasn't been said time and again, including by the present North Korean dictator, but, well, you never know. the unique feature this time was the person to person face to face meeting at the summit. To Trump's credit, he is the only American president willing so far to meet with Kim Jong Un. Two extremely eccentric, unbalanced, narcissistic demagogues. We might have had a better combination, but, we take what we can get. Doubtless the Trump gang will once again raise the hue and cry for the Nobel Peace prize, laughably. Equally likely is that within days the president will regress to referring to his partner in peace as "little rocket man"...

Showing Our True Selves

NO SOONER have Christian conservatives revealed their moral depravity by electing and supporting Trump, they have now revealed, albeit unwittingly, the real reason why. It has to do with like attracting like, birds of a feather flocking together, and so forth. Their leader and role model, Donald J. Trump, is a self proclaimed sexual predator, a fact which not only did not hinder, but may well have helped his election. It has always been surprising, how little his supporters have said about the matter, and how easily his supporters, especially among the evangelical Christians, have ignored the whole mess. Now we know why. Recent revelations indicate that among the evangelicals, sexual predation is quite common, at least as common as throughout the rest of the population, if not more so. Just like the Catholic church, the evangelical community has evidently for decades been hiding this behavior from the world. A recent spate of whistle blowing, coupled with research results, is exposing the darkness. The facts are morally unfavorable, and reflect badly on conservative evangelical Christianity generally. The highly patriarchal culture has been suggested by some scholars as contributing, perhaps even fostering a culture of exploitation of women. Clever conservative Christians often argue that within their community women are not inferior or subordinate to men, but rather, they merely inhabit different roles. The clever apologists never mention that these "different roles" for women involve less power, less social status, less money, and less personal freedom. Christians, especially those of a conservative bent, are widely perceived as paragons of virtue within American society, as exemplars of good traditional American values, and good traditional Christian values. Seldom mentioned is that these values include the pursuit of personal profit, greed, exploitation, and persecution of intellectual and spiritual nonconformists, as well as patriotism and piety. Christians rejoice that their sins are atoned for by torturing a man to death. Core American values obviously include cut throat economic competition and inequality, enormous racial, gender, and social inequality, and violence. It may be time to begin a reexamination of exactly what "virtue" is, who good people are what what they believe in, and how they behave, whoever and wherever they might be.

Hoping For Trump

IF PRESIDENT TRUMP can get North Korea to give up it nuclear weapons, and create economic prosperity and intercourse with the world congratulations to him.There are reasons, however, tone doubtful about his ability or willingness to accomplish this. is it too much to hope that our American president, when in the same room with the North Korean dictator, does not address him as "little rocket man"? That would be a good start. Trump, in a nutshell, does not have a good record of getting along well with human beings, either as president, or before. In fact, his life history is littered with personal conflict, adversarial, and broken relationships. Donald Trump likes to dominate conversations,, make deals on his and only his terms, and often ends up yelling unpleasantries about people after thy have long left the room. None of this bodes well for foreign policy in general, or for dealing with North Korea in particular. When trump backed out of the Paris climate change agreement, backed out of the nuclear weapons agreement with Iran, and backed out of teh Trans Pacific Trade agreement, he angered much of the world, to his apparent pleasure. Trump seems to enjoy making enemies. Now come the tariffs, enacted with "national security" as the pretext, in typical paranoid, adversarial, Hitlerian fashion. No one would have believed that it was possible to turn Canada into an adversary; Trump is accomplishing it with remarkable proficiency. Now, all of America's closest American allies in Europe, Canada, and mexico are blamed for America's problems, which, in fact. of self inflicted. Trump's ass kissing of Putin has a twisted appearance, almost remindful of Hitler and Stalin before 1941. if Trump can get North Korea to shed its nuclear weapons, and join the world economic and cultural community, then bless him. If his/our relationship with Mr. Un goes haywire it will be time to begin describing Trump's foreign policy as an unmitigated disaster, as it nearly is now. "America First" begins to look like "America Alone", or "America Against".

Being Holier Than Thou Hypocritical

THE ACCESS HOLLYWOOD tape with Donald J. Trump is truly a national treasure, because it tells us so much about us. As you listen to it, imagine, particularly if you happen to be a conservative christian Trump supporter, that it is Barack Obama speaking exactly the same words. Ask yourself how you would react to it? Be honest. Most probably you would condemn Obama as being a criminal sexual predator, a rapist, even an animal, throwing in just a trace of a subtle hint of racism. Wouldn't you>? hell, you'd still be taking about it, if it had been Obama talking about how he can molest any woman he pleases without fear of consequences, due to his wealth, power, and fame. So why aren't you reacting that way about Trump? Why did you vote for him? Why do you still support him, and why do you ignore the Access Hollywood tape, and all Trump's other heinous behavior? Eighty percent of conservative evangelical Christian voted for Trump, and for the most part, they still support him. How incredibly immoral. by doing so, the conservative evangelical Christian community has revealed its moral bankruptcy, and astonishing hypocrisy. Like film maker Ken Burns queried: "what aspect of Donald Trump is remindful of Jesus Christ"? That's a fair question. is it the money, the women, the narcissism, the constant pathological lying? What? The day after the tape was released, causing Trump to "promise to become a better man" , and then suddenly changing his story and denying the Whole thing, the Republican National Committee asked Trump to step aside, and let Ted Cruz run for president as the republican candidate. Trump refused, and the republican party surrendered to Trump, including everyone wo voted for him. Ted Cruz is a good Christian man. Donald Trump is not. What a shameful legacy for the American conservative Christian community. And all because, among conservative Christian, the conservative politics is more importance than the Christian faith. Very revealing. Trump has a better chance to win than Cruz, and, after all, Hillary Clinton is not a conservative, so, they voted for Trump, ignoring his constant non Christian behavior. And by the way, not only is Hillary Clinton not a crook, she happens to be a good Christian - a real Christian - which anyone with a brain and a decent sense of fairness and honestly can plainly see. but trying telling that to the right wing extremist evangelical dark side folks. They're too busy pretending to be virtuous.

Waiting For The Nightmare To End

TRYING TO REMEMBER which Senator said "good people don't smoke marijuana", I finally came up with Jeff Sessions, who was in the Senate until Trump tapped him to Attorney General. One couldn't possibly imagine a crazier thing to say, offering yet more strong evidence that not only is the Attorney General, but the president who appointed him...a nut case. Good people don't smoke marijuana? Huh? Excuse me? You have simply got to be kidding me! There must be anywhere from forty to a hundred million folks in America who smoke dope, and around the world...what, half a billion? Well, what the F ever. And they're all bad people? Sessions favors using the federal government, believe it or not, to lay the heavy hand of the law upon the states, and to force those which have already legalized marijuana, which is most of them, to change course and obey federal law, under which, of course, pot is a Class One or Two narcotic, or whatever, deadly dangerous, and punishable by incarceration. Just how he plans to do this, short of a coup by the Trump administration lifting them to the status of dictators in perpetuity, is anybody's guess. Sessions also indicated that because becoming a desperate refugee from some god forsaken war torn country, and risking death, with your children with you, to get to the United States and somehow survive is, well, illegal, and that therefore, forthwith, when asylum seekers arrive at our teeming shores, parents and their children shall be separated, as a deterrent, just to show them a thing or two. If the asylum seeking scoff laws don't want the U.S. to break up their families, then by God, they shouldn't be breaking the law. Unbelievable. The tempting question is: exactly, or approximately how many millions of Jeff Session's fellow right wing Christian fanatic extremist hate mongers agree with every word this former racist probably secretly still racist demagogue reprobate spews? Meanwhile, we are left only with the option of waiting for the nightmare of extreme right wing governance to end.

Putting Our Minds To Work, And Facing Reality-

RIGHT QUICK LIKE, let's have a quick review, and get a few things about racism clearly understood. These understandings are neither conservative, nor reflect well on the conservative point of view, which is to be expected. First, racism is not as old as the hills, goes the myth, as old as human culture, dirt, sliced bread, or anything else. Actually...not. Racism was invented in the middle of the fifteenth century, in a biography of Prince Henry the navigator, in which the explorer justified enslaving Africans on account of their skin color. He felt like he needed to say something, as if some little moral tingle in the back of the Princely navigator's mind impelled him to logical, foolproof justification. Before then, all the way from ancient times, folks justified hatred and violence and slavery based not on skin color, but on general cultural characteristics, like: those damned Romans wear funky clothes and eat bullshit and can't sing, so kill em'!... Before Prince Henry, you simply don't see skin color mentioned, ever, because, folks back then were evidently smart enough to assume that everybody has some skin color or other, and um, well......so frigging what? What counted among the ancients were clothing, language, customs, religion, etc.. Racism was invented by modern man to justify slavery, and it took hold more deeply, came into full bloom more completely, deeply, darkly, and strongly..in the good ole USA, than anywhere else, where it remains. America was from its beginning built by slaves, beginning in 1619 when the Jamestown greed heads (who came to america seeking gold, silver, and slaves, not freedom and virtue and Christ) started it......America's wealth, white European-ness, and power, and arrogance are a perfect set up for epidemic racism.... Myth umber two, circulated widely by racist conservatives, is that racism is a thing of the past, that we have utterly eliminated it from america..Do we even bother to talk about this one? (PS:we're as racist as ever, as indicted by arrest, incarceration, and economic data..ask any sociologist)...thirdly....racism, say some white Americans who desperately want to justify their own racism and hatred, "racism works both ways"...this sounds like it makes sense, but in fact, it doesn't, and it is a pernicious lie. Racism is a one way street, starting with whitie, and leading to the darkly pigmented side. Imagine, if you can, that you're black. You have two choices as to why to hate honkies. One choice is, the color of their skin. The second choice is, 246 years of slavery, followed by over one hundred years and counting, of discrimination and Jim Crow and segregation, and now....this...our America, of 2018. Which reason do you choose? Which reason would you CHOOSE? (duh) BE honest. Or, if you happen to be an upper middle class conservative cracker, at least take a stab at thinking, and reasoning...and putting yourself in the place of "those" people.. It'll be hard, but have faith in yourself. After all, haven't you always said that we Americans can do anything we put our minds to? The last but not least misconception people have about racism is that people can be accurately divided into "races", that there are only a few different skin colors, and we all have one, or another of them. Wrong. Fact is, everybody has a unique skin pigmentation, and the concept of "race" is merely a device, a fiction, to enable us to understand, or think we understand the world better. We don't, of course.

Accurately Evaluating

THE PHILADELPHIA EAGLES, well rested from their Super Bowl victory, were allowed by their employer to decide for themselves to whether to accept the president's perfunctory invitation to the White House. A few of them decided to go, the rest, exercising the same good judgement which resulted in championship play calling, declined. According to rumor, those willing to attend were the thirty percent of the team consisting of European-Americans. Gee, one wonders why? The 1974 federal rap against Donald and his dad Fred for housing discrimination has long been forgotten - the rap wherein Donald wrote the letter "C", for "colored" on all applications for housing presented by African-Americans. The Trumps bought their way out of it, quite understandably. The "birther" thing, in which Trump spent the entire Obama administration proclaiming Obama's African birth, only to retract it when he became president, then blamed it all on Hillary Clinton....one never knows just where an NFL football might get the idea that their president is a racist. Nobody on the Eagles team,as a point of fact, ever kneeled during the anthem. The president, upon being informed that he would be visited by a tiny fraction of a football team, spared himself the humiliation of rejection by canceling the entire affair - strike first, hit hard. Professional athletes of the African-American don't like the current chief exec. Wasn't it Lebron who called the jerk a "jerk", or a "punk"? Lebron James might have a future in coaching, if he ever stops playing; he has a real eye for talent.

Toning It Down

THE MISS AMERICA PAGEANT is no longer the miss America pageant. It has become something else, whatever it might be. A competition, perhaps, to display the most refined social skills, emotional IQ, and general perspicacity? Americans are renowned for their lack of communication skills. We talk over, around, past, and simultaneously, but rarely with. In deference to this cultural characteristic, the girls'll be asked to demonstrate their social charms, their ability to alternately transcend and conform to the national behavioral norm. Texting and tweeting will become discrete categories of skill assessment. Gone, come September, will be the swimsuit competition, one and two piece alike. No more negligees, and no more high heels. Vicarious would be sexual predators, all across the fruited plain, will be changing channels. We are becoming more correct, politically, socially, sexually, socio-economically, but, most of all, let us hope, sexually. The "Me Too" movement is impacting the fundamental fabric of salacious American society. A Victorian renaissance looms large. The full length, shapeless black dress, sans buttons and neckline, highlights the slender ankle contest. My father bragged to me that he could bend his secretary over his desk any damn time he wanted too. I believed him, and still do. That sort of behavior was not uncommon in less open times. In nineteen forty Miss America was promoted as a dazzling display of buxom, curvaceous cuties. America is a land where capitalistic sexual exploitation for profit runs head on into our prudish, puritanical past - and present. In the land of fantasy, sex and sin mix marvelously, dangerously. Mr. Weinstein began his career a few decades too late, when the casting couch was replaced by sexual harassment. The day may come when we finally decide whether we wish to be without sexual restraint or without sin. our European role models have found what seems a suitable balance. Surely there exists a balance suitable for us.; we just haven't found it yet.

Bringing It, and Getting It (No Good Deed Goes Unpunished)

AT THE SENIOR CENTER, I got a little burned out on mashed potatoes and gravy. Nothing wrong with taters, but, well, once a week is quite enough, if not a bit much. So, I resolved to do something about it. With permission from the supervisor, I made and brought from home a fine batch of macaroni and cheese, which, for some inane reason, is never on the menu, which is generated at the state level, bureaucracy in action. Immediately, if not sooner,, the fireworks began. You cannot serve that,she said, because there isn't enough for everybody, and everybody is going to want it. No, I replied, some people will still want mashed potatoes n' gravy, and the mac n' cheese will simply be an option.After I wrote it on the dry erase "chalkboard".. and was severely chastised for shamelessly promoting my own concoction. Yes, that happened. So, I erased it. Why bother? From that point, things only got worse....member after senior center member had an idea about my macaroni and cheese. I should place it on aa table in the dining room, in plain sight. No, I instead should place it in the kitchen out of sight, and offer it, but only if there were enough for everyone. I must immediately erase it from the daily menu board. OK, fine. It got erased, it was hidden away in the kitchen, and only a few people even knew about it. fine, then. When confronted by work place harassment, go to the top. The director told me that henceforth, when I make mac n cheese, I am free to do with it as I please, to serve it to whomever I please, without guidance or advice. I feel vindicated. I hope y'all enjoy your mashed potatoes, with or without gravy, and next time I'll bring my mac n cheese, cook it only for myself, and maybe eat it out of sight, un-bothered by nitpickers, nags, and control freaks of ancient vintage.

Attacking Science

CONTRARY TO STANDARD CHRISTIAN CONSERVATIVE MYTHOLOGY, science, not religion, is under attack. There is still a church on every corner, and folks are still free to attend. Defending secular society against religious encroachment, trying to keep religion out of our public institutions, is a defense action, not an attack. Religion is destroying itself, as church membership shrinks across Europe and the United States, confronted with scientific, factual reality, its own outdated doctrines, and the rising tide of less religious millennials. The difference between science and religion is that science incessantly seeks to improve itself itself and increase human understanding of nature; religion remains mired in rigid, anachronistic dogma, derived from far more primitive, less enlightened times gone by. The Bible says that the world is flat, and the bible is wrong. Science would be incapable of assuring us of the reality of human made climate change, for example, without the exhaustive research and redundant independent verification inherent in the scientific method.Religion, meanwhile, offers only fantastic, unreasonable doctrines rooted in nothing but superstitious fantasy, promulgated by tyrannical unreasoning authorities ,concerned primarily with the perpetuation of their own status. religion is demonstrably false. Science advances human happiness and prosperity; religion fosters fear, ignorance, and intellectual stagnation. And yet, science is under attack by people who fear its ability to supplant their own deeply held, comfortable superstition with a better, more accurate description of the universe. Those who deny climate change, who strive to inject creationism into public education, who deny evolution, and who question the of modern medical treatments, such as vaccines, are the attack dogs of darkness, are truly dangerous and destructive of human progress, and will do the world a great favor when they quietly vanish from public discourse.

Letting Go of One's Right Wing Nose

DURING A RECENT CONVERSATION with one of my few conservative republican friends, I reiterated my inauguration day pledge to give the new president a fair chance, and that, as the new president has become the old president, and I, having given him that chance, have found him sorely wanting on account of his policies. My conservative friend, like many other republicans, confided that he voted for Trump only to prevent Hillary Clinton from becoming president. Hillary is possessed by the demon of wanting to give unto the poor. The hold your nose and vote for trump crowd overlooks the fact that a Hillary Clinton presidency could have given republicans an opportunity to oppose and prevent her policies by exposing their inadequacy, and to replace them with better ones, thus proving the superiority of conservative policy. My friend said that he would have liked to have seen Ben Carson nominated; I suspect that many republicans feel the same way, and that they would have relished the opportunity to prove that they are not racists. Ben, African-American very conservative HUD secretary,, is cutting back on HUD housing assistance for the poor, putting extra burdens on four million poor Americans, true to his conservative, social Darwinistic roots. Ben Carson qualifies an an "Oreo", if anyone does. However, no one does. One need not be white to be conservative, to favor arming all good Americans, or to favor bringing back coal, and ignoring climate change. Most Trump supporters have long since let Go of their noses, and have long since forgotten Trump's pre election self proclaimed sexual predatory behavior. His conservative evangelical Christian base has proven especially adroit at letting go of their noses, to the extent that they ever held them,and embracing the render not unto Caesar give not unto the poor conservative agenda. After all, Trump opposes a woman's right to control her own reproduction decisions.