Waiting For the Lord to Come, and the Virus To Go

EVERYWHERE I GO, I am one of only a few people wearing a face mask. Most of the time, I stay home. Either America doesn't care, or has given up. and the killer virus rampages across the land, killing relentlessly, turning us all into targets of opportunity. On the radio in the middle of the night they smug young girl sports talk show host made it clear that she intends to accept the invitation to the pool party, and that she does not care whether she catches the virus, but doesn't want to give it to anyone. What? There are no sports to talk about these days. Covid 10 insanity, on the air. The crazy ones say that it might be the end of the world, almost as if they hope it is, or don't care. The world will go on, for another four billion years, even if we don't, I want to but do not tell them. Even crazier are the Bible believers, the ones who say that Covid 19 is the fulfillment of biblical prophesy, that these are the final days, as if the scientifically primitive people who wrote the bible had the slightest knowledge of what would happen tomorrow, much less thousands of years in their future. The truly mentally ill are fervently awaiting the return of the Lord, in presumably a flaming chariot wielding a terrible swift sword, their mental illness manifesting itself in their complete disassociation from observable reality. These righteous, self deluded faithful needn't concern themselves with such non problems as climate change, impending environmental destruction, or global pandemics, for they have far greater concerns, the impending arrival of God, which gives them a perfect excuse to care about nothing nor anybody else. Since these disasters are our modern disasters, they must have been predicted by the Bible; how convenient to use twenty twenty hindsight to read into the bible predictions which simply are not there. Our current maladies are so severe that they can be used to justify one's religious beliefs, and the belief that followers of God foretold their future, our present, thousands of years ago, and that this truth is written in a sacred book which the modern faithful can easily hold in one hand, while waving off their responsibility to help us solve our problems with the other hand. Our righteous holders of the truth need fear nothing, nor help anyone, but can afford to sit idly by, and watch the rest of us suffer. according to the Word of God, Jesus told his friends that he would return in their lifetimes; he is long overdo. And if those still awaiting his return wish to spend their time waiting rather than helping and serving society, such is their right, and such is my right to call them mentally ill, and criminally irresponsible.

Divesting (Getting the Hell Out)

THE HARVARD CAMPUS, dignified brick, makes you feel intellectual, ready to learn and to was profound. John Quincy Adams slept here. Harvard grads get the best jobs. I dated a graduate of harvard nursing school one night, and found her lovely in many different ways. She planned to return to pursue a career at Harvard med. Harvard is my go to source for expertise, my best defense against evangelical conservatism. I never thought Harvard would disappoint me, but its stated intention of divesting its endowment portfolio of fossil fuel stocks by the year 2050 did the trick. By then I will either by ninety five or dead, and so will Earth's environment. The movement to force fossil fuel companies out of business by playing hot potato with their stock is well underway, gaining momentum. Trillions of dollars in stock have already been sold off by hedge funds, universities, individuals, et al, all environmentally conscious. The huge U. of California system is already fossil fuel free. Stock brokers who know where their bread is buttered are advising that fossil fuel stock have no future value. Harvard, the world's wealthiest university, staid and progressive at the same time, is behaving the way Thomas Jefferson did when pressed as to when he planned to free his slaves. I'll get around to it, he said, dismissively. Getting around to is just isn't good enough, at a time when Earth's biosphere and we with it hang in the proverbial balance. Twenty fifty is way late, but dignified old crimson Harvard'll come around, because fossil fuel stocks will be a bad investment and a bad albatross of a hold long before that, and Harvard, like the rest of us, wants to get out while the getting is still good.

Tweeting Racism

IT ISN'T ENOUGH that president Trump is making people sick by luring them into building by the thousands without wearing masks, and then proceeding to poison their vulnerable minds with hateful, racist, dishonest garbage. He now intends, as he long has, to abolish Obamacare by falsely arguing at the Supreme Court that it is unconstitutional, a ploy which, if successful, would effectively kill thousands, maybe millions more Americans left without health insurance. history seems to indicate that Obamacare is her to stay, for which we can be thankful. Trump's only motive is pure racism. he spent the entire Obama administration falsely, stupidly claiming that Obama had been born in kenya, now he wants to erase all vestiges of the Obama legacy. Weakening environmental protections, treating teh disastrous epidemic dismissively, eliminating federal funding for virus testing, all are actions which are killing untold thousands thousands of Americans, all in order to please his hard right wing evangelical base, whose belief that the Lord will soon return inspires them to regard the Covid 19 epidemic as fulfillment of biblical prophecy, and therefore, desirable. Those who continue to support the egomaniacal, emotionally ill criminal president are no better than he; they are accessories to crime, morally repugnant members of a criminal gang.Trump's latest childish act of inanity consists of his tweeting the message "white power". Always a coward, he claimed, or rather his spokes bimbo claimed that it was all an accident, that the president simply did not hear the man loudly shouting the racist phrase. Trump's crude behavior began long before his election, it began early in his life. We had fair warning. During his presidency, it has dramatically increased. Combined with demonstrably disastrous policies,it all renders him by far the worst president in American history, and there have been plenty of bad ones. Anyone who supports him at this point either has no redeeming qualities or character, or lives in a state od total denial.

Saving Ourselves

IN SIBERIA  there was no spring this year. winter turned into summer almost overnight. The first few days of summer temperatures reached above eighty in the Arctic circle, setting records. The frozen tundra, frozen for thousands of years, is melting, releasing billions of tons of carbon rich methane gas into the atmosphere, accelerating climate change. The Earth is dying, and we h umans are killing it, and with it, ourselves. at the rate things are going, there will be few future generations of human civilization. The way to save ourselves and the ecosystem is still available, but time is running out. It it a multifaceted approach including population control, solar energy, and reforestation, among other endeavors. World wide, we need to plant at least one trillion trees over teh next few years. The project is already well underway. Around the world, millions are being planted everyday, and many countries have instigated mass tree planting programs. We can all help by planting carbon eating trees (all trees eat carbon) in our local communities and in our own back yards. Fifteen years ago I bought a half acre of land, barren except for crab grass, built a modest house, and planted twenty saplings, and moved in. Now I live surrounded by a lush yard with a canopy of beautiful forty foot tall deciduous trees. The summers are hot where I live, but I rarely need air conditioning. The trees keep my house cool. their branches intermingle, and in them life thrives. It was once thought and assumed that trees standing near each other compete for resources, for carbon, sunlight, and water. Is nature not competition? Do all species not compete among themselves and with other species for resources and survival? An experiment involving radioactive water, a Geiger counter, and some trees on a tree farm proved otherwise. We now know that in fact trees share, that they cooperate in assuring teh survival of all, by communicating with each through their elaborate networks of deep underground root systems. Suddenly trees somehow seem more beautiful than ever. We humans have a lot to learn from trees.

Tyranizing

IT IS IRONIC that President Trump's hero is Andrew Jackson, since Jackson founded the Democratic party, and was, for the most part, a man of honor. On the other hand, Trump was once a democrat, if not a man of honor. Both men share tyrannical tendencies. Jackson usually ignored the advice of his cabinet, preferring instead to consult with his personal friends, his 'kitchen cabinet". Trump does much the same, often firing people who dare disagree with him, and relying on family members for advice. Andrew Jackson,like Trump, was elected as a populist, a m an of the people, someone who would represent the interests of the common man and not the wealthy elite. Both men entered office was considerable personal wealth, much of it acquired through dubious means. Jackson was arguably America's first Christian president, the first six having been "deists", who believed in a more scientific creator rather than a biblical one. Trump rarely attends church, and his religious views vary from time to time, he being quite willing to be a good Christian when in the presence of people who expect him to be. Both presidents became increasingly preoccupied with their own power the longer they served in office; Trump has blatantly taken actions traditionally and constitutionally reserved for Congress, Jackson behaving with such authoritarian tendencies that his one time supporter turned arch rival Congressman Davy Crockett began calling him "the government". Two peas in a pod, Jackson and Trump. Trump, the consummate christian, with all teh wives, women, and ill gotten wealth. Equally ironic it is that Abraham Lincoln was a founder of the Republican party, the anti-slavery  "free soil" party. The G.O.P. bills itself as the "party of Lincoln" what with its pure lily white racist streak, and the great prevaricator Trump the heir hilarious to honest Abe. If the Republican party wishes to consider itself as follower in the footsteps of Abraham Lincoln, it might do well to first admit that black lives matter, and to take action to do something to help improve them.

Going Low

THAT PRESIDENT RUMP,a self acknowledged sexual predator (Access Hollywood), an impeached traitor and criminal many times over, retains nearly forty percent support of the American people is a testament to the tragically low morality and intellect of many if not most American conservatives and evangelicals. But justice, as MLK said, is slow but inexorable, and events are not moving in a favorable direction for Trump and his MAGA mob. The worsening epidemic is directly attributable to Trump's disastrous leadership; he called the pandemic a "hoax", then recommend that people drink bleach, then claimed that warm weather would end the problem, then eliminated federal funding for testing, among other crimes -  the recent nationwide protests over racism and police brutality, and the nation's belief that Trump has only made the racial divide in America worse, cannot but drive undecided, independent voters away from Trump and the Republican party this fall. John Bolton's book is teh coup de grace of a long list of former Trump insiders who ran out of patience and decided to come clean and "spill the beans" concerning trump's incompetence, dishonesty, and criminality. Into the fray once again enters the Supreme Court, rulingin favor of Obama's DACA, reducing to ruins Trump's anti-immigration campaign plank, reducing his xenophobic followers to foot stomping, fist banging barbarians, their anger and disappointment reflecting their own vile low morality, their contempt for the "welcome the stranger" message of Jesus, their hollow, phony pseudo version Christian faith. The innocent children of illegal immigrants can saty, at least for now, so says the court. And although this court rendering is likely only to encourage Trump to rant on twitter and lock children in cages, again, Chief justice John Roberts has demonstrated again that packing the court with right wing ideologues results not in right wing renderings, but, at least occasionally, in compassionate and wise justice.

Hiding Racism

PRESIDENT TRUMP, never lacking for sycophantic supporters, recently was accused of not being a racist by a man describing himself as an objective, conciliatory republican. for evidence he reminded us that Trump, on his popular unrealistic reality TV show "The Apprentice" stipulated that he would her people of any race or sexual orientation, and would "You'r fired" them only for incompetence. Exonerating Trump of racism on account of a fake television show. In face, one can hire anyone for feigned incompetence or hidden racism. Trump, back in the real world, back in the day, was twice cited by teh Department of Justice for racial discrimination in housing practices, called African nations "shit hole countries', spent eight years claiming that Obama was born in Kenya, and expressed a preference for Norwegian immigrants. he was described by his long time lawyer and associate Michael Cohen as a racist, and has been similarly labeled by others from within his inner circle of associates. Pretty racy stuff.There's more evidence. White supremacists and racists adore Trump and consider him a role model. and so on. someone I know responding to my usual diatribe expressing contempt for Trump and his supporters assured me that she simply cannot bring herself to hat a human being, much as she dislikes Trump herself. Not long later she said "I hate Colin Kaepernick" while we were discussing you know what. When I pointed out the apparent contradiction, she cited me for reducing the matter to mere semantics. I meekly replied that words have meaning. Confronted with great  merit, said Goethe, the only resistance is love. I love my friend, the one who hates nobody but Colin Kaepernick, and do not intend to inquire as to whether she really meant what she said about hating, both of her remarks. This is for the sake of semantical sanity and good friendship.

Judging Not

RONALD REAGAN, whose policies in Central America alone qualify him as a cold blooded killer, had no concern for the AIDS epidemic because it afflicted homosexuals, was their own damned fault, and thus unworthy of his attention. When I was a child, to be gay was criminal, punishable by imprisonment. Today, among conservative Christians, homosexuality is commonly considered a sin, punishable by an eternity in hell. Ronald Reagan, the historical treatment of gay people by the American legal system, and contemporary conservative homophobic Christians have in common not only their contempt for gay people, but also their diabolical, barbaric monstrosity.I have heard the sanctimonious bastards, spouting their contemptible condescending blather> "love the sinner, hate the sin". "That queer crap just aint right."As if these judgmental morons, in all their feigned superiority, have the foggiest notion what is right. It would be rather simple for these hateful religious zealots to become decent people, were they so inclined.Change is always possible, if desired. ronald Reagan softened his attitude towards homosexuality, partly because of his own daughter's sexual orientation, partly because he had the decency to descend into senility with dignity, late in his first term. American society has transformed itself, through great tribulation and exertion, into a kinder, gentler cutlure in whcih gay marriage is legal.To become decent people, homophobic conservative Christians need only attest that gay people are children of God, and that we mere mortals need not judge nor hate them, nor their supposed sins, because that's God's job. We mre mortals need only act more like Jesus. One can scarcely expect, however, these immoral reprobates to conjure up sufficient moral decency or true religious belief to achieve this, or to become more like the forgiving Jesus. We can only urge them to do so, and pray for them.

Protesting

IN THE PLAY "The Night Thoreau Spent In Jail". Thoreau, in jail, looks through the window bars of his jail cell at his friend Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson asks: "What are you doing in there?" Henry David Thoreau answers with a question: "What are you doing out there?" He's asking him why he too did not protest the Mexican War, and get thrown in jail. I've been wondering the same thing about my friends and fellow progressives. Where were you at all the protests I got sun burned attending, screaming my lungs out? Black lives matter, man. In seven protests in three local towns, I haven't seen a single friend. I have no interest in excuses. So what if we're all over sixty five, and busy to boot? I once said that I never met a protest I didn't like, all protests are good, fighting injustice, but that has now changed.  I stand corrected. Recent right wing protests against social distancing, quarantining, and face masking are insane, absurd, like right wing values in general. The argument that quarantining is harmful to the economy and that face masking in an infringement upon freedom is lunacy. Not quarantining or wearing face mask is directly causing the epidemic to worsen, as we see now. Goethe said that freedom is nothing other than the opportunity to do what is reasonable under all circumstances. It is not reasonable to have the freedom to not wear a face mask in public. They're all Trump supporters, these unreasonable people, concerned more with their vanity and pride than with the lives of millions of people. Trump noticed that teh epidemic is getting worse, and blamed it on testing, so he stopped federal funding for testing, while having his insane rallies in buildings full of unmasked people. That is sheer lunacy, criminal, a deliberate attempt to kill Americans. Trump and his supporters are brining about the destruction of the United States, and are therefore criminals, and traitors.

Consolidating Nightmares

AN AFRICAN-AMERICAN LADY,properly attired, takes her adorable nine year old little boy, also properly attired, to a restaurant, and is denied entrance for being improperly attired, while inside the establishment, inside the racist eatery a white lady and hers nine year old son, similarly attired, munch away happily, undisturbed by fashion or racist police, The problem is fixed, heads roll, folks are fired. the situation need never have occurred at all. Elsewhere in these Disunited States of Amnesia another white cop  kills another black man, needlessly, par for the course.Simultaneously, all across the fruited the pathological president gathers people together in buildings for the purpose of spewing racist hatred, vomiting verbal garbage, and spreading disease. The great American epidemic multiplies and proliferates as millions of oblivious Americans trade in their face masks for independence, arrogance, and vanity. Since the virus is biased against blacks, and since modern American racism is covert, stipulate that the twin pandemics consolidate into one, henceforth known as "Covid racism"..Our twin diseases, rolled into one, simplified and categorized, like racism itself. One has afflicted us for four hundred years, the other likely will linger even longer. Our twin nightmares have added to our vocabulary. Millions of formerly marginally literate citizens now know the meaning of teh words "xenophobic", and "exacerbate". Otherwise, we have gained nothing, and lost much.

Fighting Terrorism

THERE IS A MOVEMENT, largely online, to legally label the KKK a terrorist organization, which it obviously is and always has been, a designation which would criminalize the hate group's existence. The question is: what took us so long? What are we waiting for/ The answer is simple. The refusal by conservative Christians, the conservative community as a whole to condemn the terrorist group, let alone prohibit it. Instead, politically and socially conservative Christiandom has historically chosen to actively support the Klan, to tacitly support, often to participate in it and support it overtly, or at best, to ignore it. Surveys indicate that there are no left wing liberal members of the Ku Klux Klan; membership is restricted to white Protestants, and they are all politically conservative, emerging directly from the conservative evangelical movement, the main support base for president Trump, himself a racist. Nobody knows how many people the Klan has murdered since its inception by  Nathan Bedford Forrest on Kenesaw Mountain , Georgia in 1866. Everybody knows the number is in the thousands, perhaps tens of thousands. Were it not white, conservative, Protestant Christian, and racist anti-black, in a white, Protestant, racist Christian country, it never would have flourished, it would have lost popularity and gone extinct, long ago. The undeniable truth is that the KKK emerges directly from within the mainstream American culture, and, arguably, it is mainstream American culture which should be vastly reformed, if allowed to continue to exist at all.

Rats, Jumping Ship

NATIONAL SECURITY is not Donald Trump's concern. If it were, he wouldn't've accepted help from Russian operatives getting elected, nor jeopardized American interests by withholding military assistance to our Ukrainian ally in a failed blackmail scheme to secure damaging information on a political rival of his. Like John aid, Trump doesn't care whether foreign governments read Bolton's new book; he cares whether the American people read it. They soon will, in large numbers, and what they read should shock them, but may not, since b now this president has shocked us al into submission. How many former high ranking members of the Trump administration must become disgusted with Trump's corruption, leave, and expose the corruption and incompetence of teh Trump administration before undecided voters decide? Tillerson, Cohen, Mattis, Bolton. Comey, are but the tip of the proverbial iceberg of teh dozens of people who know Trump well, and have revealed much to us, without collusion, conspiracy, or revenge as motive and all concur: the president is criminally corrupt and competent. Millions will read Bolton's book, and it will change few if any minds. People who support Trump are not only impervious to positive moral influences and reason; any new proof of the president's criminal, unethical, irrational in ineompetent behavior have no impact, instead only serving only to harden their resolve to remain loyal to their corrupt icon, and giving them new excuses to falsely, ludicrously accuse anyone who tells truth about Trump of engaging in conspiracy, or manufacturing what they call "fake news", by which they unwittingly mean "truth". That so many Americans have sunk to sucn depths of moral depravity is shocking, disappointing, but by now, all too familiar.

Baseballing

IF YOU ARE NOT  a baseball fan, become one. If you are, we submit for your inspection, as rod Serling said, the following proposed rules changes. That the designated hitter be absent from the game for the first six innings, but allowed thereafter. Tha the tenth inning be played under normal rules, the eleventh be played with a runner on first base at the beginning, the twelfth with a runner on second, and the thirteenth and every subsequent inning with a runner on third to start the inning. Any pitcher must pitch to at least three batters, unless injured. the benefit would be that the DH issue would be resolved in favor of both sides, and teh addition of the DH late in the game would enhance scoring chances when scoring is most valuable and difficult. People by nature are reluctant to change anything they value. People are by nature conservative. Progressive policies are based on reasoning, predicated upon societal, circumstantial necessity. In a more perfect world, conservatism would suffice, and traditional would guide everything. Since teh world is seriously flawed, progressive change is called for, until it is made more perfect. For too long the designated hitter controversy, like so many of the world's fundamental problems, has plagued baseball. Conservatism impedes progress. Hitters and pitchers linger and loiter between pitches, lulling spectators into complacency, Endless extra innings drain energy and tax patience. The solution is progressive improvements, not staid conservative tradition. Now that major league baseball is returning to America, let us rejoice in both our wonderful traditions, and our capacity for change and progress.

Racing Against Racism

TEH GRANDSTAND  at the NASCAR race was nearly empty, one hundred missing fans, social distancing. Over the track flew a small plane, dragging a huge confederate flag and a banner which read "Defund NASCAR" Pretty clever for a racist idiot pilot. The plane flew over the garage belonging to NASCAR's only African-American driver, the garage in which an overreacting crew had found what they thought was a nose hanging on a door, but wasn't. The point is, it could have been. The confederate flag has deep roots in stock car racing, deep roots in the American south, deep root in America. The sport which began with bootleggers escaping the law during prohibition and which was intended only for blue collar white folk has had only seven black drivers over the decades since it became popular shortly after World War Two. The banning of the rebel flag from the sport has motivated idiots to flaunt it even more, as they have for decades. The confederacy, those who fought for it, and those who supporter it, were traitors, pure and simple. People who display the stars and bars today are signaling their racism, although they deny it in vociferous, sanctimonious outrage. Racists used to take pride in their bigotry. now, ashamed by a more progressive society, they still harbor hatred, but hide it behind a symbol of slavery. Complaints that banning the flag from NASCAR constitutes an infringement upon the right to take pride in cultural and historical heritage and free speech are as bogus as the people who make the complaints. Indeed flying the confederate banner is a free speech issue. congress, according to the constitution, cannot limit free speech, but NASCAR is not Congress, and, like parents, employers, and teachers, can limit free speech anytime it wishes. Whatever slippery slope the elimination of the flag is sliding down hits rock bottom only with the elimination of racial hatred. At the bottom of the slope the confederate emblem of traitors belongs, with the NAZI swastika and the burning cross.

Protesting

IN THE SUMMER OF 1932 thousands of protesters took over Washington D.C., the great depression deepened, and President hoover, paralyzed with indecision, did nothing except call the World War One veterans demanding their pensions communists and traitors, and have them summarily evicted, just like a good pro business Republican. Franklin Roosevelt told his wife that he himself would win the presidential election whether or not he bothered to  campaign, and he was correct. Joe Biden appears to have something of the same attitude, perhaps unwisely. Notwithstanding his current lead in the polls, he'll need to do something to beat Trump. He'll need to clearly articulate a comprehensive agenda of foreign and domestic policy, progressive, yet respectful of the political center. He'll have plenty of good advice and assistance. Biden cannot be content to allow Trump to sink his own ship, effectively though the virus and the protesting seem to be doing that. The worse the pandemic becomes, the more the economy sinks. The more economically active the American people become, the worse the pandemic becomes, a perfect storm of vicious, tangled causal connections. Considering that Trump defeated Hillary Clinton only because of foreign election interference and the vicissitudes of the antiquainted electoral college, even while receiving three million fewer votes than she, Trump's ship is a hard one to sink. Biden can count on nothing fore certain, can take noting for granted. He can spare no effort or expense in his quest for the presidency. This, because his opposition consists of a formidable coalition of criminal elements, foreign and domestic, well funded, at the head of which is arguably the most insidious, criminal, ruthless political leader in American history.

Friending

THE BEST TIME for friendship is high school, when people are not yet old enough and wise enough to despise people and to prefer solitude, friendships are formed easily and quickly, and we gather together in cliques, avoiding adults.  After that, marriage, relocations, and divergent interests sunder old friendships which are replaced by new ones, most of which, like most friendships, are temporary, with limited lifespans. One of my best college friends got married, and became ardently involved in civil War reenactments. For him they became a way of life, with the uniforms, and battle gatherings. For me, the civil War, reading about it was nightmare enough without pretending to be fighting it. Another friend never married, at least not for long, but he moved away to go to college and never came back. He became extremely interested in alternative cosmic paradigms, what is called paranormal research, while I chose to remain comfortably ensconced in the relam of traditional, empirical science. The he sealed our friendship's fate by becoming a Trump supporter; straining my tolerance past the breaking point. we all have our requirements and limitations. I consider Trump supporters to be morally and intellectually compromised, no matter whether they are good people or not. then there was my friend from high school who late in life lost his interest in baseball. Since baseball is my religion, he and I parted ways, even though I could understand his frustration at a sport in which money came to take precedence over the actual game itself. I've been to all six high school reunions, but maybe my last. I have doubts as to whether i will attend number fifty. the organizing committee is dominated by a small group of Trump supporters who believe, or seem to believe that the president was appointed by christ, sometimes I wonder whether they can tell the difference between the two. That's almost as crazy as saying that the class of seventy three is the special favorite of Alice Cooper and Three Dog Night, which, come to think of it, is a totally cool thought.

Ranting To An Empty Room

ACCORDING TO PRESIDENT TRUMP, more than one million people, perhaps as many as one billion requested tickets to his MAGA mob rally in Tulsa. At the event, the BOK arena was nearly one third empty, with fewer than sixty five hundred attendees in the nineteen thousand seat building, addled Trump supporters spreading disease and listening to their ranting racist icon spread verbal garbage. The staged area outside the arena, intended to contain an overflow mob, was empty, and was quietly and hastily torn down. The president is reportedly furious, blaming the media, protestors, and maybe the Chinese and the liberal community for his disappointing turnout, rather than blaming the true culprits; himself, and his vanishing approval nationally. As Trump sinks in the polls, his mob gang rallies lose steam. Ranting as usual, Trump spent fifteen minutes trying to explain why he was barely able to walk down a ramp at West Point, stumbling like a drunkard. He ranted for two hours, but never mentioned black lives matter, George Floyd, Juneteenth, racism, nor the Tulsa massacre of its black community in 1921. His only reference to the recent anti-racism protests sweeping the country was to accuse teh media, which he called "radical" and "fake news", of supporting the black lives matter movement. During two hours of spewing anger, hatred, insults and lies, the president offered nothing substantive, nothing positive. nothing productive. He articulated no new policy positions or initiatives to improve the lives of the American people, nothing to uplift and unite us, nothing to augment or justify the conservative agenda. Nothing but his usual venomous, hateful dishonest garbage. His audience didn't seem to mind, seemed in fact to prefer it that way,  as his morally bankrupt intellectually vacuous supporters invariably do.It makes perfect sense for a devout racist to be angered at people opposing racism. One hundred years ago H.L. Mencken predicted that under the current electoral system, eventually a complete bufoonish moron would be elected president. It was a most percipient prediction, and has come true.

Socializing

WHEN ONE OF MY high school classmates ('73, go Eagles) announced that he had misplaced his Medicare card while enrolling in the program on his 65th birthday, I nearly did the same thing, but got lucky , and avoided the hassle. he also gave me great advice as well as the bad role modeling: Ignore the trillions of snail mail promos for corporate sponsored Medicare supplement plans. We agreed that Medicare and Social Security are good deals. when I blurted out "aint socialism grand!" he at first changed teh subject, then muttered something incoherent about Social Security not being "true socialism" as proudly ignorant conservatives invariably do. If in face Social Security and medicare aren't socialism, pure, simple, which they are, then I don't know what socialism is, which I do. It is, predictably, the right wing which does not know, or pretends not to. Socialism is so repugnant to them, that they redefine it and deny its existence, which is ambient, in America, in the form of fire and police protection, public roads and highways, and a trillion other socialized services. At my local senior center, same problem: conservative stupidity. One elderly right wing evangelical reprobate insisted that "social security isn't socialism, its progress". When I courteously corrected him, he glared at me menacingly for minutes, with open hostility, a real tough guy. I glared right back at him briefly, then turned away, with better things to do. The older they are, the harder they fall, and the harder tehy hit bottom.When conservative Trump supporters in particular reach a certain age and compromised cognitive powers, they become impervious to reason, thought, compassion, and the teachings of Jesus. they even go so far as to ardently endorse a president who tried to blackmail a foreign country, lies constantly, conspires with foreign countries to win election, locks children in cages, and molests women, thus reducing their ostensibly senile selves to Trump's sordid level. medicare and Medicaid are wasted on them, and if they had any honor, they would refuse to accept these socialized benefits, since they so hate socialism. Ironic, since all seniors in America are socialized services.

Corrupting the System, Trump Style

THE ATTORNEY GENERAL is supposedly independent, independent of presidential oversight, and impartial, serving teh American people, not the president. Wm. Barr was appinted by Trump to replace Jeff Sessions because Sessions was unwilling to stop the Mueller investigation in to Trump's collusion with the Russians to win the presidency, and Bar was and is willing to defend the president and help hide Trump's criminality, instead of serving the american people. Late Friday night, ino rder to reduce media scrutiny, Barr, who lied to teh American people about the contenst of the Mueller investigation and report, announced that the district attorney for southern new York would resign. it was a lie, another lie. The district attorney denied it, and announced hsi intention of remaining in office, unless he was fired, and his replacement confirmed by the Senate, a process which would take time. Trump and barr will have to explain and justify why they fire him, or lie about it, which will doubtless be their course of action. Why is obvious. The district attorney was investigating various Trump related criminal activities, including activities by Rudy Guilliani and Trump's financial crimes. the results of the investigation, which will be completed, will be very incriminating and embarrassing to the president. Either teh current district attorney will remain in office, or his assistant will take over, the assistant being very much interested in continuing the investigations. The affair might end up in court, which will take enough time to resolve to allow completion of teh investigation. this time, time is not on Trump's side, his machinations will not work, because of the legalities involved. the attempt to derail the investigation, which might result in Trump's being prosecuted, will fail, and the american people will know the truth. Inexorably the walls are closing in around Trump, his criminal administration, his gangster associates and his gangster followers. Trump and his supporters are increasingly remindful of Hitler and his NAZI party members, many of whom remained loyal until and beyond the end of world War Two.

Being Privileged

I WAS BORN WEALTHY. Because of my parents, the moment I was born, my  entire life was paid for, subject to my acceptance of it. i accepted. I accept. when I bought land and built a house I paid for it by writing a check. My career was a matter of choice, not necessity. I am privileged, and I know it. That I not need to tell anyone that my life matters in America, nor that the lives of my ancestors mattered. Nobody needs to tell me. Whenever some stable genius suddenly becomes linguistically clever, and announces that "all lives matter", as if performing some brilliant maneuver in a game of verbal chess, as if articulating some newly discovered esoteric profundity, I want to hurl. Instead, I patronize the idiot, I agree the way one agrees with an insecure child in need of positive reinforcement. I was born white, and wealthy. I have been disrespected only by arrogant American caucasian fools whose lives matter themselves more than should actual contributions to the humanity condition, to all lives, merit. those who smugly utter that all lives matter as if presenting a lashing response to black lives matter are accomplishing only their own self flattery. They are the ones who say that since slavery ended long ago, we need to stop complaining about racism, because it does not exist. what they refuse to realize is that slavery in America never ended, it simply evolved into something more insidious, more diabolical, something less visible, but still ambient. Every university sociology and criminology has done the research, and has revealed that racism in America is systemic, hard wired into our institutions, our culture, our hearts, minds, and souls. We can never escape from it, can never escape four hundred years of slavery's legacy until we fully acknowledge it, confess, repent, and atone.Conservatives tell us that slavery ended with Abraham Lincoln and that racism, discrimination, and racism ended with martin Luther King. that, of course, is a self serving lie, intended only to comfort us and to allow racism to continue, unopposed. Even George Floyd did not end racism, cannot end it. Only we the people can do that, or if not, leave it to our descendants as our ancestors left it to us. the choice is ours, now.

Losing

WE ALL HAVE, if we are lucky, Eureka moments. I had mine when I emerged from sports fan denial and realized that for the year 2020 there will be no more baseball, football basketball, college or professional. I am emerging from denial sooner than most. Professional baseball, basketball, football are all still planning to return, as is college football for the fall. Billionaire owners, millionaire players, college administrators, all living in denial, all for the money. Money does that; it blinds. Millions of sports fans, still in denial, like Trump and his supporters in denial - about everything. Trump said teh virus is a hoax, the country will return to normal by Easter, the virus will vanish with warm weather returning, and then, just the other day, he incredibly said that the virus is going away right now. Utter denial, a Trumpian world of fantasy and lies. His supporters, ignoring the danger, ignoring tens of thousands of dead Americans and their warnings from their graves, gathering together in Tulsa to spread the virus and scream nonsense, needlessly. how how many more times will  they do this insanity? Example; one person planning to attend the MAGA mob rally, sitting in his lawn chair for days outside the arena waiting, said that he would be just as likely to catch Covid 19 at home as he would with nineteen thousand other people in a  packed arena, screaming, maskless. This is beyond mere denial. this is sheer lunacy, the abandonment of reality, a descent, seemingly endless, into sheer insanity. This is insanity just as surely as believing you have been abducted by extraterrestrials, as believing that extraterrestrials are living in disguise among us, influencing our society, as many people do, or claim to believe. This is fantasy equal to believing that torturing a man to death two thousand years ago brings eternal salvation to you when you die, or that Donald Trump is not a racist, and really, truly cares about the nation's poor. To believe taht our beloved sports are going to return this year, when the virus spreads among any team which dares to assemble for practice, is fantasy, wishful thinking. And I have fallen prey to it. but I am not alone; and at least I, finally, am awakening from my denial, recovering from my insanity, emerging fro  my dream. the rest of you will soon join me, one way or another. We are, for the moment, a nation in denial, divorced from reality.

Attacking the Faith

WHEN I SAVAGELY ATTACK the christian religion as barbaric, primitive, and cruel, tell people that I am not religious, and describe all religion as "nonsense', and then proceed to announce that I believe in god, and that Jesus is a hero of mine, the great majority of people look bemused, as though tehy think I'm crazy. I'm not, and I think they are. Or if not crazy,narrow minded. The upshot is this: God is not the same thing as religion. Nor is admiring god the same thing as religion. God is the infinitely superior spirit which, as Einstein said, is manifest in nature. Religion, of which there are thousands of man made varieties, is a human response to god, to life, to nature, consisting of groups organized around shared beliefs, rituals, and dogma. The notion of sacred scripture disconcerts me, makes me question human intelligence. The roman Emperor Constantine convened a council of cardinals at nicea, Asia Minor, modern day turkey, in 325 A.D., and the clerics voted  which ancient manuscripts to include and which to exclude from the holy writ, the canon. four gespels were voted in, fifty seven voted out. the bible became the word of god by ballot. That seems revealing, of human credulity and the willing suspension of fact. If god is a protestant, he can be neither a Catholic nor islamic. Or perhaps he is all human religions, or hone of them. It would seem that all human religions are but one of many possible approaches to God, with perhaps millions more all across the universe. Goethe makes the most sense to me: "When I realized that everyone invents his own religion, I decided to invent mine". The best statement of canonical creed, for my spiritual money, comes from Einstein"My religiosity consists of admiration of the infinitely superior spirit which reveals itself in what little we, with our weak and transitory understanding, can comprehend of reality. I cannot conceive of a personal God who would sit in judgment over creatures of his own creation. Morality is of the highest importance, for mankind, but not for God." I'll see you in church.

Fighting the Deadliest Enemy

THE VIRUS isn't going anywhere, it'll be with us a long time, and it may get worse before it gets better, according to Michael Oesterholm (sp?), director of the Center For Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the U. of Minnesota., whose book "The Deadliest Enemy; Our War Against Deadly Germs" explains that humanity is eternally engaged in a life and death struggle against the microbiological biosphere, which we can and do survive rather well, assuming we continue to fight intelligently. His other observations include: cleaning surfaces incessantly is irrelevant, hand washing and mask wearing are not, the beach is as safe as any place because its outdoors and teh wind is blowing, its safe so long as we don't hug and kiss, and having a campaign rally indoors with nineteen thousand people attending without wearing masks, while screaming in each other's faces is lunacy. So there, you have it. Most alarming is that the epidemic, by keeping kids at home and diverting resources, will most certainly result in other epidemics, including some oldie goldies, like small pox and measles, as kids do not get their vaccinations. also, of course, is the price we pay for keeping kids way from each other, and stunting their growth by depriving them of social skill development. Each time I go to Wal Mart, as infrequently as possible, i see fewer people than before wearing masks. Once again I am reminded of the self absorbed dismissive arrogance of the American people, particularly those who ignore and disrespect science, and those who listen to virus-seriousness deniers like Mr. Trump. the American refusal to to make simple sacrifices has turned the United States into a death camp, with the most severe Covid 19 epidemic in the world. Again, point to Trump and the right wing, gathering together needlessly in Tulsa to spew hatred and disinformation. The good news, if there is any, is that we should be physically distant from one another, but not socially distant, for we need each other now more than ever.

Spilling Our Future

PEOPLE WITH TVs might and should be aware that an oil refinery in Siberia recently spilled twenty one thousand tons of diesel fuel into the Ambernaya river, creating yet another environmental disaster for the Arctic, which has already had far more than its fair share. It'll take years to clean up, if ever. the other big issues is of course climate change, that carbon in atmosphere thingie according to which heat is absorbed by the atmosphere, the polar ice caps melt, raising sea level and flooding coastal cities, while teh permafrost in the frozen tundra melts, releasing billions more of carbon from long dead decomposed plants and animals, further accelerating our suicidal rush to extinction. The good news is that if you're a blissfully willfully ignorant american conservative evangelical, you've nothing to worry about, so absorbed are you in bringing back coal, bringing back trump, and awaiting the return of the lord, who two thousand years ago said he'd be right back in a jiffy. When one is awaiting imminent rapture into heaven with another forty grand gross saved souls, Alfred E. Newman, of Mad mag fame, said it best: 'what, me worry" The pandemic is cleaning up the environment, but only until the virus is vanquished, if it ever is. However, the virus has not stopped deforestation, fracking, drilling, pipelining, corporate cattle methaning, and numerous other profit seeking human crimes against nature. The good news is that when the right wing evangelical lord comes rapturing from the sky with a terrible swift sword, the trump supporters will mercifully go away, and the remaining sane can carry on with a cleaner culture, and, lord willing, can begin to clean up Trump's mess/

Dramatizing

THE PRESIDENT, if nothing else, has a flair for the theatrical. A comprehensive federal legislative package is needed to address police brutality of the anti-black kind, and to provide strict, sensible, uniform guidelines for the police profession nationally. Instead, the orange tinted show horse signed an executive order boldly asserting that chocking people is rude, and that what we the American really want is law and order, whether we know it or not. the operative word is "order". What, exactly, is order? A peaceful protest, the exercise of first amendment rights, or the disrupting of said protest with tear gas to disperse the crowd and clear the way for a presidential photo op, bible in hand, the book held upside down? Ever the junior high drama major, Trump heads for Tulsa for yet more mere theater, another MAGA mob gangster rally of the sort he began staging ten minutes after his poorly attended inauguration. Nineteen thousand angry, howling anthem standing pro fascist sycophants, protesting the protesters, gleefully letting Trump, law and order, and fuhrer-style patriotism express their cleverly concealed racism and lawd their love of the good lord. The organizing committee, MAVA (Make America Viral Again), by requiring that all attendees sign a disclaimer promising not to blame the president in the event they go viral, seems inconsistent with Trump's tendency to take credit for everything. Their stated intention of making loud noises and going viral will achieve greater success if they do not wear masks, which, you can bet Trump's bankrupt casino and other businesses, they won't.

Aborting

AMONG THE PRIMARY PURPOSES in electing Trump, evangellically speaking, was the enshrinement of an anti-choice president. Those single issue voters, and their laziness, for shame. Ironic, since the don was once pro-choice,, and doubtless has in truth never given a rat's ass, either way. Alas, dear bible banging literalists, it matters not, your vote was in vain, or vanity, your vote for the criminal gangster, except to reveal your own moral bankruptcy. Its the Supreme Court that matters, and trump can appoint people, but he cannot reason for them. if roe v. Wade, forty seven years downstream, aint settled law, there aint no such animal. No court dares overturn it, and survive.Conservative courts tend, after all, to retain sufficient sanity to recognize common sense, despite their conservatism. If only the evangelical community actually believed in god, rather than their devilish diabolical Old Testament deity plus the great reprobate Trump the prevaricator, they'd understand that god moves people from within, woman to woman. she, god, does not waste time with subcommittees, legislative process, and jurisprudence when dealing with pregnancy. Free will is a hoax of Trumpian proportions. Every particle of matter and energy behaves according to God's natural law, even at the quantum level, just like Einstein argued. God obviously approved of World War Two, or it wouldn't have happened. No, don't blame the devil; god chooses not to vanquish him. Every abortion, every particle of human suffering, is God's work. e.e. cummings got it right: If God is God, God is not good. If God is good, God is not God. You holier than we evangelical Trumpers, defenders of unborn life and the policy of locking children in cages might consider that God does not need to overturn Roe v Wade, he merely needs to guide us all, one woman at a time, and he does it splendidly.

Courting the Court, In Vain

THE SUPREME COURT'S six three decision that an employer cannot fire an employee for the horrible crime of being gay or transgender clearly illustrates what the court demonstrated five years ago when it legalized gay marriage: that packing the high court with conservative justices merely because they are conservative rather than qualified in the hope of obtaining conservative decisions and establishing a conservative legal culture through judicial renderings, a favorite Republican ploy, doesn't work, at least not always. This decision is more important than legalizing gay marriage because people do not have to get married, but, for the most part, they have to work. Sometimes, incredibly, a decision favoring liberal ideology is the correct one, sometimes not. Good judges do not care about that, and shouldn't. the constitutional merits of the case, not the politics, are what count. Hence the folly of appointing people to the court predicated on their perceived political ideology, which should never be done, but, tragically, always is, by conservative presidents and Senators. In the midst of all this, the fly in the ointment is the U.S. constitution, and its poorly written vagueness of law and language, its regrettable omissions and needless inclusions. Brace yourself for a liberal opinion. We the American people badly need a new constitution, one better suited to our modern needs and circumstances, as Jefferson predicted would be the case. There is nothing stone carved sacred about any words on any paper, constitutional, or biblical. Anything man made under the sun can and should be improved upon from time to time. We also need a new version of the supreme Court, with more members and term limits, to keep 'em rotating in office. Guaranteed ideological balance should be accomplished through testing. And that's just the beginning of the legal overhauling we need, but its a start. And, as an aside, we also need a new improved version of the Bible, a kinder gentler one, one which reflects a deity without the burden of mental illness, one who isn't a genocidal mass murderer, a petty vain  tyrant, who often behaves like a spoiled third grader. Thank goodness the American legal system is not, unlike what poorly educated conservatives choose to believe, based on the current, outdated one.

Trying To Include

IN THE SMALL TOWN in the American south where heroically but barely I endure a pervasive and saysintellectual wasteland, there lives an African-american family, including a seventy year old gentleman, which appears to be the only black folk in town. The gentleman, only a few years alder than I< I have befriended. He does a lot of walking, and i see him often, and I greet him. I couldn't tell whether he knew anything about George Floyd, or cares, so I asked him. He said he does, but his apparent lack of specific knowledge made me wonder.Like myself, he remembers the nearly complete lack of white support for MLK walked the streets, and says he has noticed teh abundance of it now, and thinks the difference is significant, like I do. If I were to invite him to attend with me one of the numerous protests I have attended, I suspect he would decline the invitation. He tacitly accepted but actually declined the many invitations I gave him to have lunch with me at the senior center; one can scarcely blame him; during the five years I've been going he is teh only African-American I have seen within fifty feet of the front door, save for a lady who visited briefly on government business. this is, after all, a small southern town, where racism is cleverly concealed behind a veneer of voluntary segregation. I wish he would read the 1940 novel by Richard Wright "native son", a gripping description of black culture in pre WWII Chicago. I might mention it to him, though i doubt he would; his reading skills and interest I vaguely suspect. In fact I wish everyone in America and at least one person in my town would read it, other then me. The only intellectual friends I have here are in their nineties, and recently moved into an assisted living facility. James Baldwin, Lebron James, Colin Kaepernick have garnered renewed attention lately. I hope Richared Wright soon does. He might.But if he does, odds are it won't happen in my small town in the deep American south,where whatever racism there might be exists only in cleverly concealed voluntary segregation and conservative christian piety.

Going Maskless, Faithfully, Criminally

THE ONLY PEOPLE in the convenience store not wearing a mask were a young man wearing a T shirt which said "grow your faith" and his cute ten year old daughter. a surprisingly high percentage of maskers, since I live in an area dominated by conservative Christians, who of late have taken to going about mask free, taking their cur from God and Trump. While shopping maskless and advising everyone else to grow faith, the young man, seemingly smug and content, likely not a whit for the viral welfare of his daughter nor anyone else. Why bother? Merely grow your faith and all will be well. Arguably, he and everyone else would be better of by growing faith in science, which, since science proves everything it alleges, requires no faith, but only intelligence, education, acceptance of reality, and understanding.the gentleman's T shirt I presumed referred to God, Jesus, the christian faith, or all the above. there exists, I presumed, a reasonable chance that he supports Trump, that presidential paragon of Christian virtue, to, say, Hillary Clinton, a mere Methodist and faithful spouse to an unfaithful husband. Nowadays politically conservatives and faith growers make strange bedfellows, as they always have. For not wearing a face mask in public during a pandemic and for exposing his daughter needlessly to potential death, the faith grower should be labeled a criminal, and treated like one, but won't be, in freedom's land of the faithful. In traditional American conservative faith based culture, if you are black gay, non christian, democratic socialist, or if you value science more than religion, the true religion, you are out cast, subject to all manner of reprisals from the germ laden mouths of virus spreading criminal conservative caucasian Christiandom. Your best defense is to lay low, and always wear a face mask in public, partly for the sake of disguise.

Being Good Without God

RESEARCH INDICATES that atheists have higher moral standards and exhibit better moral behavior than Christians.When one considers the bahvior of self professed christians, KKK, among many others, this shouldn't seem surprising. One theory is that atheists, unable to rely on guidance form any god, must provide their own, or get it from secular sources. As to the former, as Eastern spiritual traditions assert, follow no one, for the truth lies with in you. We are all our own best teachers. AS to teh latter, secular sources of guidance on good behavior tend to rely on logic and reason, rather than superstition. Righteous outrage arises at the mere mention of godless moral superiority from saved sheep who gladly secure their own salvation at the expense of the excruciating death of an innocent teacher. Those who avoid taking responsibility for their own misdeeds, preferring to assign it elsewhere to someone other than one's self, are far more able to tolerate their own misbehavior than those who nowhere to turn outside themselves to affix responsibility and blame. It is noticeable how quickly teh righteous religious are to forgive their own sins, anticipating approval from their savior, and how reluctant to forgive those of others, instead delegating responsibility to the same savior. I believe in God, because I choose to,,,, and because I believe in natural law, which I define as God. An atheist friend of mine contends that that a religion which worships a god as a personal savior is nothing other than an excuse for bad, self indulgent behavior, and the freedom to indulge in it. Scientific research, based on fact rather than fancy or faith could not agree more.

Praising Trump, Faintly

PRESIDENT TRUMPS, whose life has been plagued by incessant criticism on this and many other websites as well as throughout the mainstream media and general population, now finds himself in the unlikely but enviable position of receiving this website's approval, with reservations. At West Point he announced that America's era of unending wars is over, that he intends to bring American troops home from foreign deployment, and that the true purpose of America's military is not to project power globally and involve itself in foreign wars, but rather, to defend America's interests on American soil. With regard to American endless wars being over; we'll believe it when we see it, but that's another matter. With regard to Trump's remarks; all hail Trump, his majestic orangeness. Now we don our MAGA apparel, if only fleetingly. Even more peachy keen would an announcement from the orange one that henceforth America's southern border would be defended by a strong infantry military presence, a veritable Maginot line of American troops, sans wall. It could be a welcoming force, not antagonistic unless need be, ready to render assistance to all who approach, especially desperate refugees, thus eliminating any perceived necessity for massive but useless walls and fortifications. Also eliminated would be any need for steel cages separating refugee children from their parents. Trump's remarks put him on the right track. Sometimes a blind old squirrel finds an acorn. Once in a blue moon, the needle surfaces from within the haystack. Once in a trillion years a billion monkeys at typewriters produce a sensible sentence, or even a great work of literature. President Trump emerges as not entirely evil and idiotic, but only mostly so, only nine hundred and ninety nine billion ninety hundred ninety nine million nine hundred ninety nine thousand nine hundred and ninety nine parts per trillion so. A brief tip of the MAGA cap, before burning it, once again.

Black Lives Mattering

IT SEEMS PRUDENT  "to explain a little why and wherefore" as Davy Crockett said concerning the inclusion of a preface in his autobiography, the phrase "black lives matter" is necessary and relevant, and the phrase "all lives matter" is not. The logic is as follows: Iin order to solve a problem, it is necessary to first identify the problem. Then begins discovery of facts, which leads to understanding, then strategy and plan formation, leading to the desired ultimate solution. The phrase "black lives matter" accomplished that, it identifies the problem, by using the word "black". The phrase "all lives matter" is obviously true, and it sounds wonderful, and I admit I once preferred it, for the same that those who still do, do. It is true, and it avoids any appearance of elitism, reverse racism, or exclusion. For that same reason I tend to prefer the phrase "black lives matter too". Adding the word "too", by referring to non black lives, digresses from the problem, however, reducing focus on it.The phrase "black lives matter" implies nothing about non black lives, human, animal, or vegetable, unless one chooses to invent the implication, and it focuses squarely on the problem, without distraction. The phrases "all lives matter" is a high minded, pleasant platitude which means...little or nothing. this, by virtue of its stating the obvious. One might as well nobly articulate that life is sacred, a miracle, or that the sky is blue, the ocean deep, the river wide. The phrase is hackneyed, cliched, hollow, rhetorical, and of no help when engaged in fighting social injustice. Also of no help is wrong reasoning. It has been said by many that it is inexplicable how a group of protesters can burn down their own neighborhood. The simple fact is, they are not burning down their own neighborhood - they own nothing, and are subject to eviction and removal and dislocation at the slightest landlordly provocation. Complaints have also been made about people like Colin Kaepernick and lebron James, asserting that these two men in particular did not suffer from deprived upbringings, and therefore have nothing to complain about. The obvious answer to this is they they are not protesting their own circumstances, but that of millions of other people. Perhaps it is difficult for critics of them, who are indeed privileged, to understand how anyone could possibly be concerned with the plight of millions of other people. Perhaps those who criticize fortunate people like James and kaepernick for protesting should do a little protesting themselves, just to get the feel of it, the feel of advocating, perhaps for the first time in their lives, for other people.

Reading Fiction, and Loving It

WHEN the so called "lord" destroyed fifty thousand and seventy Philistines in retribution for some curious but disobedient soul taking a quick peek inside teh ark of the covenant, it came to my attention upon reading about this episode in some ancient work of fiction that the blblical god is not only fictional, but also a petty tyrant and psychotic genocidal mass murderer to boot. I was in grade school then. When he, she, or it tormented Abraham, a man of unquestionable fidelity, by ordering him to slice his own son to pieces as a show of godly love, rather than finding out by simply reading his mind, for me the deal was sealed, the die cast. I would never be a bible carrying christian. Those who worship this monster are mentally ill, I much later concluded, and thus no better then he, Thank god that there is no evidence anywhere for the actual existence of the old testament god, and an abundance of evidence against it. In a better parallel republic, the term "Philistine" is code for "republican national committee member", since the republican base is by and large a gang of philistine, meaning, people with no appreciation of or understanding for art and culture. Besides their being arguably mentally ill, onna counta their being in general trump supporters and bible based deity worshipers, the biblical god being the devil in disguise, or, better yet and much more accurately, pure fictional and nonsense.

Exposing the Right

THE VIDEO of the cop kneeling dismissively on neck, which sparked a revolution, was taken by a seventeen year old girl who is probably now hiding in her parent's basement, fearing right wing or police retaliation. Assuming she survives, she may well one day be revered as an icon to freedom, and her statue may appropriately replace Robert E. Lee. America's right wing is on the run, with good reason. The pandemic and George Floyd are ganging up against Trump and the conservatives. Trump, down by doulbe digits, cowardly but expediently canceled his MAGA mob Juneteenth gathering in Tulsa, under pressure, and the great reprobate even paid limp lip service to slavery's end, choking on every word, like Lysol. All three of his black supporters insisted he refrained, and he refrained. So much for devotion to cause. Lebron James and other athletes are starting to activate, as athletes once were socially aware, and involved in good cause, until teh nineteen seventies brought them money, and with it, a quieter frame of mind.  Back then Jackie Robinson refused to rise for the anthem, and Muhammed Ali refused to serve America's imperialist and racist interests in Viet Nam, on account of his having nothing against those Viet Cong, but having a great deal against the white folk in Louisville, who did not allow him to drink from white water fountains or walk on certain streets. Jim Brown and black olympic athletes gave black power salutes, which were really black equality requests. Jackie, like Colin Kaepernick, was no concerned with disrespecting mere symbols like a flag or a song; he had far bigger fish to fry. His disrespect he reserved for American culture and society. One might wonder why anyone with any moral credibility or patriotism would do anything else.

Joining Gangs

A GANGSTER is a member or leader of an organization, or "gang" whose membership is contingent upon compliance with all rules, regulations, and requirements imposed by leadership, and whose membership and personal safety are at risk whenever any member fails to abide by the rules, or fails to carry out instructions given by leadership. the purposes and belief systems of gangs very widely. Gangs are usually called "gangs" if they are perceived widely to be harmful to the public interest, or if they're members are widely considered to be dangerous. What, then, is Donald Trump if not a gangster, what are his followers and supporters if not gang members, and what exactly is the right wing Trump support evangelical christian community, if not a gang? For membership, one must not disagree, or disagree meaningfully, with the leader. One wears the proper hat, one embraces the accepted viewpoints. The Trump gang is very highly organized, and has a very devoted, but seemingly shrinking membership. What, for tat matter, is the christian religion, or rather than right wing evangelical portion of it, if it isn't a gang? To be a member, it is necessary to believe that the truth is contained in a certain book, that what the book, the Bible, says is absolutely true, and that all non believers are not "saved" from an eventual eternity in post death purgatory. the more thoroughly one investigates fundamental evangelical Christianity, the more one begins to realize that it resembles a gang, little different from the Bloods and the Crips, with the possible exception that those two famed African-American street gangs often do community service, and are less inclined to condemn non members to horrible presumed fates. If one is an evangelical, A member of the republican party, a Trump supporter, the requirements have become increasingly tight, and have crossed both political and religious grounds. It also seems that being "white" is part of the requirements. On the left end of the spectrum, many religions are allowed, or no religion at all, one is allowed to be straight or gay and not merely straight, and people of all colors and ethnic groups are allowed to join. On the Christian right, only capitalism is permitted. On the secular left, capitalism and socialism both have a home. The American secular left is a diversified hodge podge of religions and political beliefs, while the right is a strictly enforce Christian right wing gang. And that is the difference. The Trump christian right is, quite simply, a gang.

Striking the Stars and Bars

BE DAMNED SURE of the following: the confederate States of america was neither a noble nor lost cause, and that the American Civil Was was fought over the issue of slavery, whether to preserve it, not state's rights. Leaving the union and launching a war of aggression to preserve slavery was inherently ignoble, traitorous and treasonous, and the essential re-enslavement of African-Americans following reconstruction essentially preserved the ignoble institution, vestiges of which arguably remain to this today, as clearly indicated by contemporary American culture. In point of fact the confederfates and their sympathizers were treasonous traitors, which is why Abraham Lincoln locked up southern sympathizers in Washington D.C. and threw away the key, illegally. Statues to confederate heroes were erected long after the war, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, when southern resentment of the United States and blacks were at their peak, and white supremacy suffused southern culture as white supremacists organized in the KKK and the conservative community, and dominated southern state and local governments. Take down the statues to traitors. The argument that doing so erases history is patently fatuous; history books are not in short supply. Some African-Americans with noble intent have suggested that since the statues can harm no one unless they happen to topple in the wind at inopportune times conveniently ignores the emotional damage they do. Thomas Jefferson and Winston Churchill were racists, We could do without many statues and monuments to people. A comprehensive solution might be to relocate statues of genocidal killers such as Andrew Jackson, St. Paul, and William T. sherman in museums as art, which they actually are. In their place, if anything, erect monuments to truly great people: artists, poets, scientists, teachers., and to animals and nature.

Denigrating

TO FURTHER CLARIFY AND REITERATE,. the current president of the United States is a self proclaimed sexual predator, (although he might prefer teh term "stud muffin") a pathological prevaricator, a traitor, a criminal, and, reportedly, a mediocre golfer at best, even when he uses a foot wedge. His blatant violations of universal standards of human decency are well known, have been documented extensively in innumerable media and by eye witness sources, and are too numerous to repeat here. that his ardent supporters deny all this is much to their discredit, and renders them no better than he. The thirty nine percent of the American people who still amazingly support Donald Trump have destroyed whatever morality and integrity they ever had, if any. During the recent protests a seventy five year old man was shoved to the ground and injured by police officers, in one of many recorded acts of police brutality across the country. the man was hospitalized. Millions saw the shocking event, and many other similar ones. dishonest as always, the  president twitter tweeted that the event might have been stages by anti-Trump people to make the police look bad. As always, Trump offered no evidence to support his outlandish lie, because there wasn't any. there never is. This president is not satisfied to merely be a tyrannical, hate spewing demagogue. he has expanded his role to that of propaganda minster, his own version of Joseph Goebbels. His plan for police reform is without backbone, without substance. he simply wants police to use force "compassionately' when possible, if possible. that's it, his entire package of suggestions. Perhaps he thinks his use of the word "compassion", a concept foreign to his soul, might win back a few disaffected voters. His plan to stage a huge rally in Tulsa, without any safeguards against epidemic, requiring attendees to sign a document accepting full responsibility if they contract the deadly virus is an outrage against human health and decency, may cost lives and is only another publicity stunt for his own benefit. Each day the reasons accumulate as to why this president should not have a large fence around the White House, but a very small one, only around himself.

Loving A Dead Turtle

THE DEAD TURTLE had been struck by a car, deliberately, for her body lay at the edge of the pavement. Human vicious idiocy, yet again. She had either barely started across, or had nearly finished crossing, a more horrible thought. She was large, maybe a foot from shell stem to stern,. she had a long tail. My friend called her an "alligator" turtle, and I don't know whether he was B essing. Like Casey stengle used to say: "you could look it up." She had been very pregnant. As many as a dozen walnut sized eggs lay spilled out of her on the wicked expedient pavement, sacrament of vile humanity. I hastened my pace; my jogging companion seemed to understand. How hard is it to drive around a turtle on a lightly traveled country road? How easy to sink to one's lowest self, to become a wanton butcher of sacred life. I started thinking about abortion. I thought of the tiny lost offspring, a vast horde of unborn descendants who would now never live. What would she have named them? Then mind tortured mind, searching for some semblance of solace, went to the ones who had lived, from millions of bygone years to the present, and their success against nature. I thought of nature's imperative that many must die young, that many might live, redundancy of survival. I thought of the beautiful balance of nature, and finally found some comfort.

Policing Properly

MANY YEARS AGO my roommate's girlfriend, while driving late at night on a busy but dark street, struck a pedestrian, killed her, and left the scene, without, according to her, ever really knowing for sure what had happened. suspicious though this sounds, I tended to believe her. She was sentenced to one year in the county jail. When I visited her, through the thick glass pane I was satisfied of her sincere remorse.  Not long thereafter I spoke to the sheriff at a county political party (Democrat) gathering, mentioned that I had visited the lady, and was satisfied that she had learned  much, and was truly remorseful, ready to get on with a productive life. Not long thereafter her sentence was reduced, and she was released. i confess I felt a certain sense of satisfaction, especially towards the sheriff, and pleasure at my apparent role in the matter. The sheriff, already a friend and political comrade of mine, immediately became my favorite law enforcement officer.Until now. Now I have a new hero cop; the sheriff in Flint, Michigan. You probably saw him on national television. he stood with a group of protesters, and told them, as he stripped off his body armor, that he was removing his weapon, helmet, and armor, and becoming one of them. he told them in a loud voice that he was there to help and protect them, not to stifle or oppose them, and that he would do anything in his power to be a friend, and fellow citizen, a concerned citizen, for he respected their purpose. You'll recall the crowd started chanting 'walk with us!", and he said in return" "OK, let's walk". and they did, and the protest proceeded peacefully. This was a perfect blueprint of what a law enforcement office, policeman, sheriff, national guard, whatever, should be, and how he should behave. In our haste and urgent national need to reform our law enforcement in America, let us hope that this kind and brave gentleman becomes the role model we so badly need, and that we can, at long last, h ave peace and contentment in our streets and communities, with a bond of trust and love between us the people and our law enforcement officers, who, after all, are supposed to be our heroes, not our enemies.

Looting Life

SINCE THE MIDDLE of the fifteenth century Europeans have been invading, attacking, conquering, occupying, plundering, and colonizing Africa, in order to steal natural resources, mostly mineral wealth. The process is ongoing, and incomplete. Racism, of which there is no mention in any document before 1450, was invented as justification for the theft of nature's most valuable resource: human beings. The other justification for black slavery, employed until 1865 in the United States, was the Christian religion. the benighted savages were finally being given a purpose for which to live, and were being led to Christ. They had been removed from countries which Donald Trump would later describe as "shit hole" countries. Slave holder thomas jefferson informs us that African-American men prefer white women, and that African-American women prefer gorillas and orangutans with whom to mate. when he was in his forties Jefferson, who was known to prefer light colored slaves, began a sexual relationship with a fifteen year old slave, which bore six children and lasted the rest of his life. their descendants are with us today. Jefferson's lady was one eighth black, and quite beautiful. Anyone who thinks that American racism is going to be protested out of existence in 29020 is no more perceptive than Jefferson in such matters, and likely less so. And what about you? If you haven't been pretesting in the streets lately, what's stopping you? The United States of A. was founded by a gang of traitor whose rebellion against their country consisted of violent military insurrection, treason. Its growth was facilitated by the mass murder and genocide of an existing civilization, and the kidnapping and enslavement of another. Systems of oppression were put in place the vestiges of which remain, and are threatening to undo our nation today. Colin Kaepernick did not protest against a song or a flag. he had and has far greater concerns. He knelt in protest against a system of oppression, against a corrupt society and culture, and the country which established and maintains it. Colin Kaepernick does not disrespect a national anthem or flag. he disrespects a culture and society which has revealed itself eminently worthy of disrespect.

Disguising Racism

HAVING BEEN IMMERSED in within the venerable, veritable bosom of comfortable middle class American society fo' sixty five years, I know a gang of racist denying racists when I see one. I see them all the time, at senior centers, in churches, and in many other places. I see them incessantly. My comfortable, entitled, privileged lower middle class life is inadequate to its intent to color blind me. i can see skin color, no matter how hard I might try not to. We are all racists, in the sense that we distinguish between races. I find hilarious the expressions of sanctimonious moral outrage unleashed by conservative Christians at the mere mention of the remotest possibility that there might be the slightest chance that somewhere deeply ensconced within their minds might lurk, hidden even from themselves, a racist molecule. Racism is easily disguised. Well disguised people, fearful and resentful of possible exposure, do not submit willingly to the exposure of their true nature. Today's racists, unlike those fifty years ago, are ashamed of their racism, ashamed of the reaction they might get from others, and so they try to hide it, not always well. Obama was elected because the United States has a large progressive constituency, in fact a majority of American are liberal on most social and economic issues, and, when they vote, they win elections. Trump was elected as a backlash against social progress, spearheaded by conservative evangelicals who apparently prefer law, order, and divided culture to unity and progress. Within the Trump supporter community racists are a clear majority, and most of the hateful vitriol directed against Obama was based on racism, even though nobody is willing to admit it. Our current civil strife may well be a purgative much needed to expose the sources of racism and, it is to be hoped, its cure. the source is obvious; mainstream american political conservatism.

Kneeling

COLIN KAEPERNICK'S genuflections of yore and lore were not, it should be obvious, displays of disrespect of anthem and flag. Give credit to the QB for knowing a rousing beer drinking song when he hears one, one with a tidy set of revised lyrics, suitable for American patriotism, and an attractively decorated piece of rectangular cloth, decorated with tri colored stripes and stars, symbolizing unity of many, purity, courage, and nationhood. Colin Keapernick means no disrespect to flag or anthem. he has nothing against them, for he knelt on neither. Colin Kaepernick intended much more; he intended to express disrespect for a country. Or rather, he intended to express disrespect for a nation whose behavior often merits it, and always has. it is not unpatriotic to disrespect one's nation when the disrespect is merited. One can love one's nation, or one's parents, or one's friends while failing to respect their behavior. Such disrespect still leaves much to love, much to respect. The world advances only because of those who oppose it, said Goethe. All revolutions, American, French, French, Russian, explode into existence through collective anger, accumulated rage. Only when those unaffected by circumstances behave as if they are, to paraphrase Franklin, do revolutions succeed, let alone start. Where law is injustice, resistance is duty, someone said. Only change brings progress, and change often requires more than resistance; it requires revolution.

Looting

THE AMERICAN NATION was founded violently, in a traitorous insurrection, Popular American history glorifies the "Boston Tea Party", which was nothing other than a wanton act of looting involving the destruction of private property by a gang of armed thugs. The scenario is familiar, especially in light of present day difficulties. Thomas Jefferson, America's foremost founder, believed that it would be necessary to have a violent revolution in the United States about every generation. Or, as he said: "the tree of liberty shall, from time to time, require the nourishment of the blood of patriots and tyrants." the American people ceaselessly venerate its military forces and military power, especially since nine eleven. We also cherish our nearly uninterrupted history of highly organized, socially sanctioned violence, our wars of aggression. We erect statues and monuments to military heroes, elect them to high public office, and we build monuments to our wars, including the immoral ones. Any society truly dedicated to the established and preservation of peace would celebrate peace, not war, and would study its wars of history with reluctance and sadness, and would erect monuments to peacemakers and poets.

Vaccinating

In 1955, one week before the death of Albert Einstein and two weeks before i was born, the final test was completed on the polio vaccine of Jonas Salk, and it was pronounced ready for manufacture and distribution. Unfortunately, much of the first batch was contaminated with live polio virus, and tens of thousands of Americas contracted polio after having received the vaccine. Dr. Salk said that for the first and only time in his life, he felt suicidal, even though he of course was blameless. This disaster, now largely forgotten, spurred a widespread public distrust of science, and vaccines in particular, which slowed the process even further. During the summers of 1956 and 1957, the swimming pools in my hometown were closed for large parts of the summer, just as pools all over America were closed, even though the vaccine was available, and the great mistake had been corrected. A dead virus makes a great vaccine, a live one does not. We are fortunate that Jenny McCarthy was nowhere to be seen at the time, she not having been born yet. It is she, you may recall, who a few years ago promulgated the nonsense that vaccines cause autism, she having gotten the spurious information from a quack doctor, later discredited. The great mistake was a product of corporate mismanagement and corruption, not bad science. But alas, science always eventually corrects, but capitalism and the free market does not. The 1918 flu pandemic resulted in the development of a flu vaccine, twenty two years after teh fact, in 1940. The fastest development of any vaccine ever was the one for mumps, which took four years.