Making Lemonade In Reverse

 COVID 19 has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans, sickened millions, devastated nearly everyone's finances, and dramatically compromised everyone's social life, and the life of every community. Somehow, amazingly, resiliently, those of us left alive seem to be adjusting. there is a small town in middle America in which the annual Christmas parade has a special significance, is in fact larger than life for the small community. The parade has become, over the decades, the social event of the season, of the entire calendar year. everyone in town participates, and people come from miles around because of the parade's size and excitement. It is televised locally. People line the streets five deep, children up front or perched on tall shoulders. Dozens of beautifully, artfully, elaborately decorated floats glide along Main street, and blaring marching bands proudly march by,  as cheerleaders throw candy at the kids and people applaud, yell encouragement and approval, and children scramble madly after the candy. Then came twenty twenty, the virus, and it was all gone - or so it seemed. Dark, dark, quiet, sad streets. The dull silence of community fear and discontent. Nothing. Until somebody, who refused to give up, had an idea. If we can't bring the parade to the people, we will bring the people to the parade.This year the parade, slated for the usual early December, will be a bit different. It will feature the same elaborately decorated floats, the same proud  blaring strident marching bands, the pretty cheerleaders, the candy. Only this time , the parade will go nowhere. It will remain stationery, standing still. The parade will be on a treadmill of sorts, on Main Street, standing in place, proudly displaying itself before its adoring admirers. The community will drive by the parade. The community be will in motion. Families in cars, bumper to bumper, slowly parading past the parade, the kids with butterfly nets hanging out the back seat windows catching candy tossed from the cheerleaders. The nets courtesy of the Chamber of Commerce, thank you local business persons. Yes, it'll be a bit different, but these days everything is a bit different. This is a town which refused to give up on its cherished parade. This is the true American spirit, on parade, never giving up, always finding a way to succeed. This is nobility of character, and of soul. This is the America we all know, and love, the America which has not given up, the america still very much alive, very much ready to succeed again. As we learn to deal with our new reality we adjust, and we make do, and by so doing, we reveal our true selves. In america we never quit, and the show must go on.

Remembering Nukes

 THE HUMAN RACE suffers from so many self inflicted self destructive forms of damage that it can be considered a miracle that we still still exist, and that a fairly sizable portion of our species lives lives of relative comfort and contentment. Three in particular merit mention. Climate change, viral pandemics, and nuclear weapons. The first two, either of which could and might well bring about the end of humanity, have much discussed in recent months and years, appropriately. The forgotten monstrous menace, about which we have lulled ourselves into forgetful complacency through familiarity with a threat which never does more than lurk and and loom, is nuclear weapons. The fact that at least nine nations possess enough of them to do incalculable harm constitutes the anvil hanging over our collective heads. A new book by nuclear weapons researcher Fred Kaplan "The Bomb: Presidents, Generals, and the Secret History f Nuclear Wars" traces the history of seventy years of nuclear weapons over the course of every presidential administration which has had them and had to deal with them. For decades the official policy of the United States  has been and remains that it is willing to use atomic weapons first, and that any country, especially Russia or china, which attacks an American ally will be hit with overwhelming nuclear force. On several occasions the United States has come close to nuclear war, sometimes because of intelligence gathering mistakes or technical errors, there have been shockingly many instances in which atom bombs are accidentally dropped out of planes but did not explode, times when they were lost, or almost unintentionally detonated, mistakes of absent minded thoughtlessness, and every expert in nuclear arms history, every military, historical, and scientific expert agrees that it is a miracle that there have been no nuclear wars since World War Two. At one point the United States ha a nuclear arsenal of thirty thousand bombs and warheads, today, the number is down to three thousands, thanks to nuclear weapons treaties and technological improvements. When Trump took office, he asked why he didn't get to have as many atomic bombs as the other presidents had. He thought he was being cheated.

Balancing The Court, For Once

THE SUPREME COURT should be comprised of nine people who are either moderate politically, or whose politically ideology is not identifiable as either liberal or conservative.  This has never been the case. For its entire history the court has been infected blatant partisanship, because presidents cannot resist the temptation to try to mold the body in their own image, and because the court is manned, and womaned, by human beings. Our newly nominated justice is a far right extremist, nominated for that precise reason, and is therefore unqualified, like most court members are unqualified because of there personal biases, and should disqualified from consideration. What is needed is a court consisting entirely of centrist judges, or an ideologically balanced court, with equal numbers of liberals and conservatives, rendering equal justice under law. Democrats are being admonished not to criticize Trump's nominee on account of her religion. They probably have enough intelligence to not need this obvious advice. The opposition will be and should be remindful of their opposition to Reagan's nominee, Justice Bork, back in 1987, when he was excoriated for being a far right extremist, and rejected. The Democrats will and should remind the country what America would look like if decades of legal protections for LGBTQ people, other minorities, poor people, and the environment were rolled back, on the right wing basis that government had become too intrusive and is overstepping its constitutional authority. The reason this nominee is unqualified is that she, like most court members, was chosen for the wrong reason. Being a far right conservative is not a qualification for being on the Supreme court. If anything, it is a reason to be disqualified. The two suggested remedies, both gaining momentum, are to impose term limits on the court, maybe ten or twenty years, and to add new members. Also, achieving ideological balance as a requirement by screening all candidates beforehand would ensure balance. Often judges put aside their personal prejudices, and render decisions base on the facts of the case at hand. But all too often personal political biases influence and determine the outcome of the decisions, turning decisions into purely partisan ideological contests. When this happens, the highest court in the land is nothing more than another political battleground and deserves the same low marks usually reserved for the president and congress.

Trump Evading Taxes

WE NOW KNOW what we long suspected, what Trump and his supporters have long denied. We know that the president doesn't pay taxes, that he is hugely in debt, and that his finances and business empire are completely fraudulent. Than you, New York Times. And for those desperate to justify Trump supporters among you, no the New York Times does not print fake news, and least not so far, in its many many decades of publishing the world's most respected newspaper. All that blowhard stuff from Trump about being  a self made genius hard working billionaire, who wouldn't show his taxes only because they were being audited never rang true, of course. you knew there was a lie in there someplace, maybe many. True to form, there were. The president and his supporters are already calling the facts a hoax, true to form. His supporters are ad dishonest and as immoral as he. The president deducted seventy thousand dollars from his tax bill - for haircuts. Admittedly, the haircuts were worth the money; the president has magnificent hair. Granted, he has long bragged about not paying any more taxes than he has to. now he says he has actually paid millions of dollars in taxes, when in fact he has paid fifteen hundred dollars over the past twelve years. Over the past twelve years he has paid about one tenth of the taxes I have paid, and I'm a retired school teacher, not a self proclaimed billionaire. When he says he always tries to lower his tax bill, it may be the only time he has ever told the truth in his misbegotten life. And so the cavalcade of scandals and horrible words and deeds continues unabated from this, the worst president in American history. A friend of mine, who teaches junior college, had an argument with one of his students. The student lamented that Trump is the worst president in American history. My friend tried to comfort him by moderating his view. No, explained my friend, we have had many bad presidents, many incompetent ones. I assure you, there have been several far worse than Trump. made curious by his own claim, my friend decided to do some research. He decided to read a biography and to study the administrations of every president of the United States, Washington through Obama. It took him a while to do this, but finally he completed the task. he said that when he had finished, finished studying every president in American history, he realized that he was wrong, dead wrong. He realized, wit horror, than no president even came close to Donald Trump in being a horrible president. Hands down, Trump is obviously by far the worst president in American history. I told my friend that I admired his hard work, but that I have a doctorate in history, and I could have saved him a lot of trouble.

Stealing, Legally

IN THE PAST twenty years, the republicans have stolen two presidencies and two Supreme court Justices. It was all done quite legally, quite cleverly, quite immorally.  The consequences have been tragic. The 2000 presidential election was decided five to four for Bush over Gore, along party lines, when the five conservative justices decided arbitrarily to halt the recount of votes, just as Gore was edging ahead in the deciding state of Florida. Because of this outcome, the United States turned its back on fighting climate change, instead of taking strong action against it. The 2016 election was won by Donald Trump, with Russian assistance, which Trump knew about and accepted and welcomed, even though he got three million fewer votes than Hillary Clinton, Again, tragic, again, for the same reason, among others. Al gore and Hillary Clinton would have been great presidents, if only because they would have acknowledged the dire necessity of fighting climate change, rather than ignoring it. The Earth will pay for this, and with it, the human race. It is not overstatement to say that these republican presidents have probably cost us our future. The Republican refusal to give Obama's Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, even a basic hearing, was a catastrophe for America, because it deprived the court of that rarest of virtues; a moderate, fair  minded, unbiased justice. The hypocrisy of this refusal is now well known, and since Obama had nearly a year left in office, the reason cited for the refusal was and remains entirely bogus, and politically motivated. Four years later, the Republicans have once again pushed through a far right Supreme court justice, for no other reason than to try to force a far right wing agenda on the American people, an agenda which studies repeatedly prove the people do not want. The american people are pro choice and pro Obama care. The 2020 election has already begun' more than one million people have already voted. Nothing could be more obvious than thaw the nomination should wait until after the election, and the winner, the next president, whether Trump or Biden, should then make the nomination. Obama's nomination was too close to the election, said the Republicans, remember? There excuses for their hypocrisy; that under Trump the Senate and the president are of the same party, are so lame that the American people see through it, and reject it. The far right supreme Court willl try to force it extreme right wing agenda on teh American people, the american people will reject it, and, sooner, rather than later, if the country is fortunate, the republican party, with all its immorality, corruption, and hypocrisy, as well as its outdated approach, will be swept into the dustbin of history. that cay cannot arrive soon enough.

Enjoying the Moment, For Once

 UNTIL QUITE RECENTLY I was steadfastly opposed to the twenty twenty football season,, because of the number of players and the level of physical contact in the game, and the virus, and all that. But it may be that we are going to pull it off, and that the benefits outweigh the dangerous disadvantages.I listened on the radio as my favorite college team took on a superior opponent. We fought hard, and even led late in the game, but ran out of gas, and lost by a more one sided score than the game was. The stadium was almost empty, deliberately, a victim of Covid 19. The radio play by play announcer put it all in proper perspective, and picked up my spirits. It was really nice, he said, crowd or no crowd, win or no win, to be back inside the beautiful football stadium, on a beautiful early autumn day, watching a good football game on a beautiful green grass gridiron. He reminded us that until quite recently, there was a great deal of doubt as to whether he would be there at all, whether anyone would. He said that watching a football game, if nothing else, gave him and perhaps other people a chance to think about something other than Covid 19 for a few hours. I hadn't actually thought about all that, hadn't thought of it in those terms, but when I did, I realized that this good thoughtful sports broadcaster had gotten straight to the heart of the matter, had hit the mark, had articulated succinctly what was truly important about playing football on a Saturday afternoon in our year of death and disease in the year of Covid 19. I started thinking about all the things we humans do, all the trouble we go to to make our lives more pleasant and inspiring, things unnecessary to our immediate survival, things like art, music, games, parties, all the various forms of entertainment to which we devote so much of our time and effort. More than I have in a long time I reflected upon the added attractions which make life more colorful and worthwhile, and I sat back and enjoyed the frivolous football game more than ever before, even though my team lost.

Exploiting Workers and People

 WHEN A HUMAN BEING is presented with an opportunity to benefit, financially or otherwise, by abusing, exploiting, or deceiving another person, it almost invariably will. Such is the nature of the animal world,in which any and all behavior can be justified on contrived, fabricated moral grounds. We are hard wired to do this, to exploit all opportunity, for our own survival. Whether we call it good or bad is up to us, and nobody else. The best, most obvious modern example and manifestation of this is capitalism.The exploitation of all possible resources for personal profit is central to the theory of capitalism; nobody disputes this, as we outlined in the "Bible" of capitalism, "The Wealth of Nations", published in 1776, b y Scottish economist and philosopher Adam Smith. Capitalistic exploitation of workers, material resources and market conditions began early and often, most notably in eighteenth century Great Britain, in the coal and textile industries. In the early industrial revolution, in which the mass production factory system emerged in England and spread to the rest of Great Britain and the continent,, working conditions were from the beginning miserable, dangerous, deplorable. The early generations of factory owners gave no consideration to the health and well being of the workers. It was considered perfectly normal and acceptable to squeeze as much productive labor as possible out of the workers, and to spend no more money on them than absolutely necessary, in terms of wages and general factory conditions, and working conditions reflected that parsimonious approach. Maximum worker exploitation meant maximum profit, and profit was the only motive, in keeping with standard theory and practice. Employers had no obligation to ensure the health and welfare of the workers, according to the ethics of early corporate capitalism. Decades,indeed well over a century of hard, sustained, often violent struggle by organized laborers to force corporate capitalistic power into conceding the bare minimum of reasonable treatment of workers, in terms of wages, working conditions, and worker benefits, have finally at long last given some degree of comfort to the massive but exploited working class in our modern economy. Yet, the fight for workers if hardly over. Arguably, it has barely begun. Over the past forty years of conservative neo-liberal economics corporate power has done great damage to labor unions, greatly reducing their size and influence, destroying their bargaining power, leaving workers unprotected more than previously. In particular, wags have stagnated, while corporate profits have increased dramatically. Many of the world's largest corporations, many of them American, particularly such giants as Wal Mart and Amazon, have a horrible record of treatment of workers, and despite whistle blowers and bad publicity, little has been done to improve the situation. Like Karl Marx said over a century ago: workers of the world, unite! You have only your chains to lose.

Having Fun and Spreading Death

THE MOROTCYCLE RALLY in Sturgis, South Dakota was attended by something like half a million peole, and contact racing has confirmed that roughly a quarter million cases of Covid 19 resulted from it. And still the attendees will blather insanely about freedom of choice, freedom from government tyranny, and their willingness to live with teh consequences of their personal choices and actions. an avalanche of hollow shallow rhetoric, justifying stupidity and recklessness.  These idiot fail to realize that we have the freedom to behave intelligently and responsibly, and the moral responsibility to postpone personal pleasure for the sake of public safety and human health and survival. We anger Trump supporters when we talk factually and honestly about Trump in a critical manner, so we shan't. It would, however, be appropriate to talk about trump here, because most biker rally enthusiasts are Trump supporters, and mimic his behavior, his denial of the severity of a highly contagious disease which will kill more than a quarter million Americans. suffice to say that, in theory, when the president of a Democratic Republic holds political rallies in which thousands of people sit close together without wearing masks, the president and his audience are spreading death and disease, knowingly, unless they are brainwashing themselves to the contrary.That's what they must be doing; pretending. The president has a sacred duty to protect the american people, and holding  apolitical rally every few days will only further spread the disease which will contribute to the blame he is already receiving for it. The people who went to Sturgis, breathing on each other, touching each other, care more for their immediate fun and personal gratification than for the health and safety of the American people. Either that, or they fail to grasp the basics of biology. it is alarming that even after nearly a quarter million Americans have died from Covid 19, there are still  millions of Americans who are perfectly happy and willing to assemble in large groups, trading the health and safety of millions for a few hours of fun. the American people deserve Donald Trump, and they deserve this horrible disease, because they ar responsible for spreading it, and they are living with its consequences.

Having and Eating Cake

 BEFORE AND AFTER I was born, my father, a successful tort lawyer in practice with my grandfather, evidently led quite an exciting social, meaning "sexual' life. He had his women. The trauma of having been raised by a puritanical fire and brimstone mother, the trauma of military service during world War Two, and the stress of the legal profession conspired to inspire him to drink to escape, and the women soon followed. My mother, raising two very young children, just took it as it came; in those days divorce was less an option, and a far more difficult one. Many men of my father's generation automatically regarded women as play things, possessions,,,,, and extra marital affairs for them were optional side pleasures. By law, wives were their husbands chattel property, and could little of any significance, things like open bank accounts or obtain credit cards, without their husband's permission. My parents, though they did well in hiding their problems, unintentionally discouraged me from marrying by the example they set. The state of gender equality and inequality has been utterly transformed since my nineteen sixties childhood, and millions of people deserve credit for the fundamental change. none more so than Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who won five of the gender discrimination six cases she before the Supreme Court before joining the court herself as an associate justice.All of her cases involved gender discrimination against women. In one case, she effectively argued that women should be able to obtain credit cards without their husband's consent. Today it is very difficult to imagine that as recently as only fifty years ago women were denied access to credit cards, bank accounts, many social clubs, and many professions dimply because of their gender. The world has changed, in many ways for the better. Finally, the full potential of more than half the population is being realized.The secret to Ginsburg successful crusade for women's rights is that she understood that gender discrimination often victimized men also, and her fight was for gender equality across the board.For example, under law, men, unlike women, were not allowed to receive surviving spouse benefits from social security. Ginsburg's work changed that. Tragically, the person nominated by Trump and the hypocritical power grabbing Republicans will almost certainly not be devotedly committed to equal gender rights like Ginsburg, will not carry on her work and tradition, and the crusade is far from complete. Instead, it seems likely that the new right wing justice will work to roll back the clock n the name of social Darwinism and a free market society, thus negating much of Ginsburg valued work. What that means is that another brave crusader will eventually have to step forward to do it all over again.

Making the Supreme Court Conservatively Sexy

  IF NOTHING ELSE, Trump and the Republicans, true to sexually predatory form, will have nominated and confirmed to the high court the hottest justice in SCOTUS history. Great looking little gal, in the lingo of your typical red neck uncouth Trump supporter. Congratulations are also in order for those whose decision it is who lies and who lies not in state in the capitol rotunda. Ruth Bader Ginsburg breaks a long tradition of rotundral misogyny and anti-rotundaral-Semitism by becoming the first ever woman and the first ever Jewish person to so lie. We have missed many prior opportunities. The missed opportunity short list of venerable but unvenerated  women and Jews includes: Eleanor Roosevelt, justice Sandra Day O'Conner, Rosa Parks, Francis Perkins, Albert Einstein, Jerry Lewis, and Irving Berlin, among many other eminently qualified but unlaid in state people, and the beat goes on. The future, however, and the future Supreme court belong not to the venerable dead, but rather to the young and the attractive. The newest conservative trick out of the bag, the third in trump's SCOTUS hat trick of right wing interpreters of the law, is to place on the court the youngest possible person, to have the longest possible impact in remaking America in the image of of right wing reactionary radicalism. Young, beautiful, well educated in law school in the  Ivy league, ultra conservative women on the high court, reshaping America into a free market theocracy well into the twenty second century. They might as well nominate and confirm buxom, toothy, leggy FOX NEWS anchor ladies. The United States Supreme court has always been political, partisan, biased, despite the impression in our era of ceaseless partisan political feuding, that the court rised above the fray. It most certainly does not, and never has. it does not, despite its outward appearance of nine wizened, berobed paragons of wisdom ensconced within halls of marble, dispensing dispassionate justice from on high. Over the centuries, it has expanded, contracted, packed, and unpacked, depending upon the vicissitudes and exigencies of whimsical circumstance. Look for the democrats, if they come to power, to enlarge the courts and pack it with liberals in retaliation, since the constitution, by not preventing them from doing this, allows it. It wouldn't be the first time, and it won't be the last.

The Founders Finding Higher Forms of Faith

 THOMAS JEFFERSON was often accused of being an atheist by his political enemies. They considered it the greatest insult they could hurl at him,as Christians often do, other then his being an adulterer, which, alas, he was. Jefferson, who actually believed in God, felt bemused at his enemy's ignorance rather than insulted. Jefferson's concept of God was so scientific, natural, and logical that from the Christian point of view he was indeed an atheist. Jefferson, who attended church regularly, doing as Romans do when in Rome, and to keep up appearances and maintain his reputation, made it plain in personal letters that he considered Christianity, as he put it, "our modern superstition". The fact that as president he cut a copy of the Bible into pieces, set aside everything in it he thought noble and true and in another pile everything he thought superstitious and mythical and foolish, explained that he was "extracting diamonds from a pile of dung". Yes, he called the bible a "pile of dung". The superstitious untrue pile was much taller, it seems. He published the good parts in his own version, popularly called "the Jefferson Bible", and that was that. Jefferson wanted a higher form of communion with the awesome eternity of the natural world. The world, arguably, would be a far better place if everyone would abandon their traditional, superstitious religions, and accept Thomas Jefferson's religion, "deism", which was also the religion of most of America's founding fathers, a fact which is neither widely known nor taught in America's schools. Franklin and Paine were deists, and probably Washington and both Adams the elder and younger. Nobody is sure about Washington; he steadfastly refused to talk about his religion, and Hamilton and Jefferson had on ongoing wager, which neither of them ever collected, as to which of them could discover Washington's true religious beliefs. The deism of the intellectual founders, to quote T.S. Eliot, seems 'so elegant, so intelligent". None of this primitive, barbaric, supernatural nonsense about which many people so violently and uselessly argue and fight, and which adds nothing to intellectual enterprise, and which does so much to twist and distort small minds into useless attitudes and beliefs about all aspects of life, is worth the trouble it brings us. America's founders invented a seriously flawed albeit basically good political system, much of which is outdated, and badly in need of amending if not replacing. Their true genius was somewhat surprisingly, religious. Bye establishing the sacred principle of the separation of church and state, and by embracing a sublime sir if religiosity, as many of them did, they led by example, and example of religious freedom, tolerance, and the possibility of higher forms of inquiry and faith.

Revealing Ourselves

HUMAN BEINGS  are hard wired to disguise their true motives.  Its a necessary survival skill inherited form our remote animal ancestors. If, for instance, someone accepts our friendship without knowing that what we really want is their money or to have sex with them, we might increase our chances of getting what we want, without their suspicions alerting them to the need to take defensive, protective action, or so we are conditioned to believe. Evolution has rewarded the clever, the deceptive. Decoys work. They work in politics. Conservative republicans have presented a convincing sounding case that enacting more stringent voter I.D. laws and purging voter rolls of people who haven't voted recently are measures by which the voter roll swill be more accurate, voter fraud less likely, and elections more fair.Their true intent, however, is to reduce the number of people who vote, because when voter turnout is  high, it benefits Democrats. The people purged and prevented form voting are predominantly poor, predominantly members of the Democratic party. there is nothing in the constitution concerning voter identification. Suddenly, Republicans stray from their professed strict adherence to constitutional law, by adding impediments to voting which are not in the founding document. Similarly, as the election approaches, evangelical conservatives in particular are making much ado about the urgent necessity for President Trump to nominate and the Senate to confirm a new member of the supreme Court before the election on entirely spurious, dishonest grounds. they claim it is necessary to have a full court in the event of a contested election outcome. Their true motive of course is to pack the court with right wing justices before the Democrats come to power, in an attempt to impose a right wing agenda on America, an agenda America does not want, which a large majority of Americans reject. The aggressive behavior of the evangelical Trump base, the twisted immoral evangelical Trump base, may be indicative of an overly confident belief that their agenda is what America wants and needs. At the same time, they might wells sense that the forces gathering against them are sufficiently powerful to defeat them, and they feel they must act now, while they still can. When George Washington died in 1799, he had no idea that his political supporters and the party they founded would die soon after him. The same may prove true of Trump and his ill fated supporters and movement.

Diverging Friendship

 A LONG TIME FRIEND of mine suggested that since he and I have strikingly divergent opinions and perceptions of President Trump's "accomplishments'. we'd best refrain from further discussing the president. Unable to refrain from throwing one psrting shot,m he went on to say that 'the swamp" as he put it, was trying to "upend" the president, as he put it and his, said alleged accomplishments. I responded that there exists no "swamp:, metaphorical or literal, trying to "upend' anybody, but that there are many millions of good people, including myself, who are trying hard to remove a traitorous and criminal president. I agreed that no further discussion between us is needed, and that we could settle our differences the right way, at the ballot box. As a Trump supporter, I'm not sure how much importance or faith he places on voting, or for that matter, on the desirability of accepting foreign election assistance. With supreme effort, I resisted the overwhelming temptation to break the bargain and inquire of my friend what he lists as Trump's 'accomplishments", other than setting a new world record for average number of lies told per day over a four year period. Alas, I can only speculate. My, friend, somewhat prone to imaginative thinking might have claimed as a Trump accomplishment that Trump has rendered the "deep state" impotent, and, given a second term, will crush it utterly. he might say that Trump has extricated teh United States from all manner of foreign entanglements which not only robbed our nation of her national sovereignty, but reduced her under tyranny, as Jefferson might have said, leaving her at the mercy of a nefarious global cabal of shadowy elites whose intent is to control and exploit the U.S. for its own dark and shadowy purposes, under the false premise of internationally cooperating to fight human caused climate change, a hoax meant to facilitate the above stated dark shadowy nefarious multinational purposes, whatever they may be. He might say that the president has exposed and thus spoiled a mainstream liberal media conspiracy to "upend" his administration by spreading false information and hoaxes such as a Covid 19 epidemic hoax intended to foment discontent with the Trump administrations and incite a revolutions usurpation, a coup against Trump. My friend might insist that Trump has either drained the swamp, whatever this might metaphorically mean, or is going to do so soon, or is trying against great odds and numerous conspiracies to do so. He might say many, many things, list many supposed Trump accomplishments, of tenuous veracity at best, suspiciously dubious and illusory, make believe, fabricated,  and indicative of seriously distorted perception and twisted, tortured, unhealthy thinking at worst. but we'll never again talk about all that, guaranteeing that we'll remain friends.

Loving A Loving God, Who Leaves us All Alone

 ALMIGHTY GOD approves of abortion, human suffering, and war. If God allows free will or evil,,or the devil to exist,God is not good. Or, as A. E. Housman said: "If God is good, God is not God, if God is God, God is not good." Far better, considering the circumstances, to conceive of and admire a creator unconcerned with human morality. Or, as Einstein said: "I cannot conceive of a personal God who would sit in judgment over creatures of his own creation. Morality is of the utmost importance, for mankind, but nor for God." Traditional religions are barbaric, primitive, outdated, devised long ago b primitive barbaric cultures. American evangelical Christians are fond of accusing secularists of waging a war on Christianity, when in fact secularist Americans are simply are trying to defend an intentionally secular country , against a constant theocratic incursion into government. Evangelicals refuse to accept the reality that the United States was founded as a nation of freedom of and from religion. this allows them to embrace the illusion that it was founded on Christian values, as a Christian nation, which it was not. Religious freedom from government interference is crucial to a healthy culture, but when primitive religion doctrine impels religious zealots to try to force religion into and upon government, then the government becomes a threat to religious freedom. In america, the same people who fear that their religious freedoms are threatened by incursions by a secular government would gladly acquiesce to incursions into freedom of religion by making government conjoined to one particular religion, Christianity. Madison and Jefferson both believed that government and religion must be separated by an impenetrable wall, with good reason. God created and allowed to flourish a world filled with human suffering and injustice. It is therefore imperative that government be free of religious shackles, that it might at least have the opportunity to at least alleviate somewhat, in some small measure, that human suffering.

Upholding the Rule of Law, Or Not

 THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES on several occasions has been asked whether he will accept the outcome of the upcoming election, and whether he would participated in a peaceful orderly transfer of power to a new administration. he refuses to answer the question, by saying, "we'll wait and see". Its a loaded question, in that there is only one acceptable answer, and the answer is expected. the answer is "yes". Its like asking someone if they love their country, their fellow man, and nature, or whether thy consider it important to treat people nicely and fairly. Or whether they believe that abusing animals, women, and children is acceptable. The acceptance of election results without attempting to overthrow them by force, and the peaceful transfer of power from one public official to the replacement, particularly with regard to the highest office in the land, is the foundation of a sustainable democracy, what separates a democracy from a chaotic violent autocracy. noteworthy is not only Mr. Trump's to explicitly support upholding the rule of law, but the deafening silence of his millions of supporters. Not a single word of disagreement or disapproval has been heard from any Republican member of the House or Senate, nor from any Trump supporters across America's fruited plain. It is as if either they agree with the president, and accept his point of view, or they consider his words unimportant, some kind of joke, or, ominously, as if they agree with him. It is a pattern long familiar. The president says or does something utterly outrageous, in violation of basic precepts of decency - and his minions of sycophantic supporters remain silent, as if they are either utterly unconcerned, or in agreement with Trump's deeds and actions. Trump called Covid 19 a hoax, told us that we need to do less testing for the virus, discouraged citizens from wearing masks in public all with the tacit, silent acquiescence of his supporters.  Almost daily he holds rallies in which thousands of his seemingly oblivious supporters sit side by side without masks, while the president makes fun of Joe Biden for wearing a mask in public. The list of egregeious words and deeds by Trump which have gone unpunished by his supporters is almost endless, and goes back four years, and longer. At this point we must assume that nothing that he does will arous the disapproval of his apparently amoral followers, 

Bringing Justice

THE UNRELENTING DESIRE of conservatives to place a right wing ideologue on the Supreme Court to render right wind justice under law is predicated exclusively on conservatism's devotion to capitalism and Christianity, in that order.  Roe versus Wade empowers women. Repealing it empowers government. So much for for teh conservative preference for limited government. God, it would conservatively seem, eschews giving guidance directly to women's hearts, and prefers to work through government. Capitalism is the opposite of the message of Jesus Christ, despite vehement conservative prostestations to the contrary. Give unto the poor and render unto Caesar contradict the free market's aversion to taxes and unearned income. Jesus, horrifyingly, was at least part socialist, arguably, entirely so. If the conservative Christian community believed in God instead of that diabolical monster impostor of the Bible, they would have faith that God gives guidance to every pregnant woman. If human suffering derives from free will, god, who gave humanity free will, remains responsible for human suffering, and condones it, and condones stellar and animal evolution, childbirth, and abortion. It is difficult to imagine Jesus disapproving of any government providing health care for every citizen. Conservatives despise Obamacare because it as government takeover of the healthcare system, socialism. Racist hatred of Obama is another factor. There has never been any documented instance of anyone, including conservatives, refusing to accept the benefits of social security, Medicare, or Medicaid, government socialism all. The same conservatives would willingly hand over women's reproductive choices to government. Nobody prefers abortion. Nobody prefers oppressive government. A majority of Americans are pro choice, and a majority of Americans are supportive of Obamacare. Obviously, constitutional arguments can be articulated supporting both sides of both issues. A nation's constitution should clearly represent the best interests of a majority of the citizens it governs. Failing that, it should be deemed inadequate, and replaced.

OUR MURDERING PRESIDENT

 WITH THE ELECTION six weeks away, and actually having already begun with early voting in a dozen states, President Trump is  holding his mass MAGA rallies on an almost daily basis, with thousands of adoring fans sitting cheek to jowl, packed in lie sardines, most of them not wearing masks. Each attendee is required to sign a waiver promising not to sue the president in the event that he or she contracts Covid 19 at the event. obviously the virus scares Trump. Or rather, the unintended consequences to him scare him, but the virus is of no concern to him, which is why he has the rallies. The events are Covid 19 super spreader events, and there is time before the election completion for thousands more Americans to be come infected an die because of these Trump events.Trump stands like a petty tyrant spewing garbage about the blame for the virus, blaming China. he calls it the "Chinese virus". Upon its arrival in America in February, it became the "Trump virus", and shall forever remain. the term "Trump" virus? may it go viral.The outlandish lies continue, It only effects the elderly with poor health, says the great prevaricator.  Most all other people are virtually immune, he lies. You will recall that in February and March, Trump told the nation that the virus was a "hoax", then, that it was no worse than the flu, then, that it would disappear, then, that it would vanish with the coming of warm weather. Al lies, not intended to aver panic, as he falsely claims, but to avoid personal responsibility. To journalist Bob Woodward, at the same time last spring, he confided that he knew perfectly well that the virus was dangerous, but he said nothing about wanting to avoid panic. Panic would have meant that Americans stayed home, avoided crowds, practiced social distancing, and wore masks in public. panic would have been a good thing. he says now that because of his great leadership, millions of lives have been spared. Two million would have been dead, instead of two hundred thousand, were it not for him. If true, which it of course, is not, that only means that his inactivity in the spring is more criminal than one can even imagine. the truth, of course, is that with proper presidential leadership in the spring, tens of thousands of lives could have been saved, the death toll could have been far, far less, and that the two hundred thousand are  Trump's  responsibility,and Trump's alone. The truth is that Trump is a cold blooded killer, a murdering criminal, with nearly two hundred deaths on his bloody hands. Trump supporters will of course laugh at and dismiss this obvious truth, that there hero is a criminal, a cold blooded killer, just as they ignore and dismiss all the other reprehensible words and deeds of this traitor criminal president. the truth, of course, is that they are every bit as guilty as he, because they voted for him, because they continued to support him even as he committed treasonous actions, Russian election assistance, Ukrainian blackmail, the list is long, and yet, they continue to support him, criminally, and traitorously.

Hiding Our Racism From Ourselves

 SHE WAS RAISED, SHE SAYS, to not date black guys. She believes, or wants to believe, that Michelle Obama is a man, or used to be, that Barack Obama was born in Africa, and that the Black Lives Matter Protesters are "anarchists". her entire life she voted Democratic, until 2008. Obama comes along, no more Democratic vote. And yet, by damn, she aint no racist. I tried to help by suggesting that she look up the word "anarchist". Her racism she unwittingly revealed by what she didn't say. Her being raised a racist didn't faze her. Just the way it was, and is. No complaints. Someone is responsible for her refusal to date black men. Its not her fault, her refusal. What she omitted mentioning is that she was raised wrong, raised by racists, that adulthood is our opportunity to transcend the mistakes of our parents, that there's nothing wrong with dating African-American gentlemen, and, by damn, she will date anyone she pleases. Modern racists are careful to disguise their racism, careful to hide it from a society increasingly disapproving of it with each passing year. So ashamed are our modern racists of their deeply hidden racism that they often conceal it, it seems, from themselves. In my childhood in the nineteen sixties racism was so prevalent that it was considered perfectly normal, widely accepted. Then seeing racism was like standing on the ocean floor and seeing water. Back then, open displays of racism were considered acceptable within the while community. My uncle visited our family in the south, he from Minnesota, and said that we all talked like niggers. We laughed uncaringly. But things have changed, and today's racists have invented all kinds of clever code words to subtly signal their racist attitudes. Trump's chief immigration adviser , Mr. Miller, a lifelong white supremacist racist, uses words like "national security" and "suburban restructuring" to signal his opposition to dark skinned people encroaching on white America. Those damned new zoning laws, mandating low income housing in middle class white neighborhoods, and the baleful influence they bring. As white Americans assume minority status due to demographic evolution,racism raises its ugly head, and then is presented in disguise to avoid arousing the ire of majority non racist America.In order to continue the fight against systemic and other forms of racism, it is necessary for good people to confront it directly, no matter what form it cleverly assumes.

Republicans, Hypocricitally Breaking their Own Rules

 WHEN REPUBLICANS denied president Obama the nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court, Obama had about one year left in office, making the argument that his limited time left disqualified him from the nomination totally false and contrived. Now the same Republicans insist that it is proper and indeed imperative for Trump to nominate a justice, and the election has already begun. Only their determination to make the high courts and the entire judicial system into an extreme right wing institution motivates them, and their states reasons, which sound less political, are false, dishonest, and devoid of logic. they would have more integrity by merely admitting that their motives are purely political, but they haven't.'.  Obviously, the election should be completed first, and the winning candidate make the nomination. Any judge whose personal political ideology is widely know to be either left or right should automatically be disqualified. Only moderates, or people whose politics are unknown or indiscernible should be given consideration for the Supreme court. The true motive of the conservative movement in trying to pack the court is to eliminate women's abortion rights, establish a theocracy in America, and to eliminate Obamacare. Even a unanimously conservative court might disappoint; often conservative justices render liberal rulings. Gay marriage is an example of this.If the court ever tries ot overrule Roe versus Wade, or to invalidate Obamacare, grab your popcorn popper and settle in; the America public will rise up and put on quite a show. A majority of Americans support abortion rights and Obamacare, strongly. to quote Casey Stengel; you could look it up.. A country full of fetuses in dumpsters, women's bodies bleeding in back alleys, and millions of sick people unable to afford medical attention does not appeal even to the most devoted right winger. A favorable unintended consequence of these nightmares would be the voting of conservatives out of office. Every day teh perfidious, nefarious designs of the conservative Republican agenda are more fully exposed, in al its hatred and inhumanity. Reasonable, honorable people want to honor justice Ginsburg's desire that her replacement be named by the next president. Often, reason loses out, but, as Goethe said, one does not always lose if one has to do without. It may be that if Trump and his gangster minions force a right wing justice upon us, the result will be the societal discrediting of modern conservatism, already in decline. That would be a good thing, and, in that sense, Ruth Bader Ginsburg would not have passed away too soon.

Home Aloning

AFTER SIX MONTHS OF IT, I've finally decided that this shelter in place self quarantining business works for me. I can still go places, I just avoid crowds, which I tend to do anyway, a crowd being defined as one or more human beings outside my own body. I'm sixty five now, most of my friends are about my age, and we are contentedly resigned to be friends from a distance for awhile. We can party later, if there is a later. At our age, it doesn't take long to party. The other category consists of friends from forty years ago who moved away long ago and didn't keep in touch. During the pandemic I've reconnected with several of them. They all seem to be doing well, and they all seem to have one thing in common.  They all seem to be bursting at the seams to share their personal interests with me, as if they're brimming and boiling over. Their interests are varied and weird. Depressingly, there's an abundance of right wing conspiracy theories and wacko political and religious beliefs among them. Also, my long lost friends seem more interested in spewing forth their strange interests and beliefs than saying hello to me or asking me whether I'm well and happy and productive. They never make any inquiries about me at all, and when I volunteer my beliefs and interests I receive no response or reaction. Straight back to their wacko right wing conspiracy theories the conversation goes. This level of self absorption I find dismaying, but upon reflection, not surprising.Indeed, my impression, gained from having lived my entire life in teh United States of Allabout me, is that self absorption is a primary American cultural characteristic, like racism or obesity. So, well, self quarantining sheltering in place suits me fine. It may in face become my mode from here on out. With regard to parties and sizzling socializing; been there, done that.For entertainment and information, I'm good to go at home. Hell, I can be just as self absorbed as the next American citizen.

Trump, Becoming Human

 AS THE ELECTION APPROACHES, president Trumpp, in order to continue hsi carnival barking reality television presidency, is trying a last ditch desperation effort of a tactic; namely acting like a compassionate, caring human being. Its an obvious act, another Trump scam, a lie, and a tough one, considering Trump's normally, persistently unabashed, undisguised display of moral and intellectual depravity, but, among his mind numbed followers, it will likely work. Suddenly, from Trump, money for Puerto Rico, just as the election looms and the Puerto Rican vote may decide Florida. previously, recall, Trump ignored brown skinned Puerto Rico, brushed off disastrous hurricane damage there, resisted any attempt to provide government assistance, threw paper towels at Puerto Rican crowds, and called the U.S. territory "corrupt". now, suddenly, Trump reaches out to the island, and calls himself the best friend Puerto Rico ever had. what a laugh.Maybe the Puerto Ricans can see the great prevaricator's pandering political posturing. The president signed into law a few weeks ago a bill greatly increasing heh amount of wilderness land under federal wilderness protection, suddenly showing concern fo the environment and America's natural beauty. Trump, suddenly, the environmentalist. his entire administration he has spent destroying federal protections for the environment in favor of corporate exploitation and profit, eliminating federal regulations against corporate polluting. Trump, who like most of his supporters denies climate change, removed the U.S. from the Paris climate accords. Now, suddenly, he is a true crusader for the environment. The hypocrisy is blatant, as the criminal in chief tries to salvage his traveling sideshow of a presidency. Trump's executive order delaying tax payments for laid off pandemic workers will only delay the inevitable; the taxes will have to be paid, later, when the workers can no more afford them than now. Again, mere theater. His order postponing rent payments to keep people from being evicted is again, only temporary, and does nothing to address the real problem , nor does it give any help to property renters threatened with bankruptcy. All this is remindful of the day during the Black Lives Matter protests when Trump tear gassed legal protesters in order to walk across the street and hold a bible upside down for a photo op. Its nothing but the usual Trump parlor trick. Its time to lower the curtain on this circus.

The Religious Right, Ungracefully Bleeding To Death

 THE CONSERVATIVE REPUBLICANS, in and out of congress, will of course insist that a new member of the Supreme Court absolutely must be in place before the election. Hypocrisy, personified. Remember Merrick Garland.  They will give reasons, all of which will be false, and hypocritical. False and hypocritical reasoning is the trademark of American conservatism, especially of the evangelical variety. The real reason of course is their strong desire to make the American judiciary, including the Supreme Court, a rubble stamp for their religious theocratic and economic neo-liberal aims. They care nothing for equal justice under law, dispassionately rendered. Their only concern is the implementation of their evil, twisted, long outdated right wing agenda. Jerry Falwell Jr. is the perfect poster child for America's religious right wing. His phony, barbaric religious intolerance, hatred and zealotry> His idolatry of Trump, and his secret, hidden depraves personal lifestyle perfectly represent right wing religious America. Just like Jerry Falwell Jr., right wing religious America is falling headlong dead drunk downstairs, splitting open its craven head, and bleeding. America is rejecting the sheer insanity of its politically conservative religious based community,,because most Americans see the cruelty, hypocrisy, and moral bankruptcy of its fundamental values. One half of the millennial generation, people now between the ages of thirty eight and twenty, reject traditional religion. On all major issues, abortion rights, government involvement in the economy, economic equality, multi culturalism, ethnic, religious, sexual diversity and tolerance, and racial equality, the United States is a majority progressive country, rejecting conservative values, and, as Casey Stengel famously said, you could look it up. And now, with the Supreme Court as the battlefield, we will once again witness the desperate, last ditch attempt of the far religious right to seize and hold power, contrary to the will of a majority of the American people, as thsi malign minority mercifslly bleeds to death, saving the rest of us from their ignominious evil.

Keeping Me On My Toes

 SHE AND I became friends in college I graduated, she did not.. She married young, and ended up enduring four marriages. I never married. Over the years we saw each other less often, but remained friends. At any given time she was either married, dating somebody, or engaged in a chaotic succession of one night stands and flings, so keeping in touch with her kept me on my toes. I never knew the situation, or how it might effect me. One day I knocked on her door, she answered, and hurriedly told me that I must leave, that her boyfriend was coming right over, that he suspected her of seeing another man, was jealous, and that if he saw me, I was the man, and there would be trouble No dummy, I left fast. So, I figured I would stay away and let her call me next time, if and when she wanted. fie years went bu, and no word from her. So, I decided to try again.. This time she let me in, the coast was evidently clear. She told me that she was no longer dating the jealous guy, which was good, because, she said, he had nearly killed her. I asked her why on Earth she had kept dating him, she said she didn't know. The visit was not friendly. She seemed cold, detached, not glad to see me.. When I left after our visit, I again decided it might be best to return to my original plan, and let her get in touch with me, if and when. Twenty two years went by,no word. I lived my quiet celibate life, she went through a couple more husbands, several boy friends, and heaven only knows what else. Finally we bumped into each other on Facebook. i sent her my phone number, she called, and we spent five hours on the phone, a marathon of catching up. she invited me to visit, and I went to her house, and spent a fun filled ten hour day with her. No husbands or boyfriends she said, for the past two years. I felt relieved, for her.  I wondered how long that would last, forever she said, and I said nothing further. Not long after our visiting her home, we had another two hour phone chat. then, she vanished once again. I called and messaged her on Facebook several time, but she didn't answer, never called me back, no messages. So, once again, I decided to just wait and see if she got in touch with em, my usual game plan. A few weeks went by, nothing. Maybe, I thought, she suddenly remarried, started dating somebody, or is having a flurry of flings. Maybe she caught Covid 19 and died. I'm not sure which of these alternative is the least desirable; I think I would prefer the boyfriend scenario. meanwhile, I'll just keep waiting, and going about my quite, celibate life, as usual. It seems to work as well as anything else. Maybe I'll hear from her again, maybe not; eventually time runs out - people die.The benefit of her friendship is that she keeps me on my toes.

Being Enslaved, At home

WHEN YOU ARE ENSLAVED, you love in chains, and have no freedom. Your every move, every action, every word is strictly controlled by your master owner.  You work from sunup to sun down, if not more, under brutal conditions,performing agonizingly brutal labor, such as picking cotton, smashing rocks, digging ditches, or cleaning latrines. Discipline and punishment are constant. If you drink one sip too much water, eat one bite to much food, take a break from work for one minute longer than allotted, you are mercilessly whipped. Over the years, your back and body accumulate cuts, bruises, and scars. You can be bought and sold anytime without your permission. You might be separated from your family. if you are allowed to have a family. forever.  You never receive proper medical care, your health is always poor, and you probably die young, still enslaved. If you are confined to your own home during an epidemic, you don't really have to stay home all the time. You can drive to the store, get gas, run errands, go pretty much where you want to, maybe for a nice quiet drive in the country. Your choices are more limited than usual, because businesses and restaurants are closed, and sports and other entertainment events are cancelled. Instead, you have to pick up food at drive thru, or order a pizza delivered to your house, or cook at home if you prefer. You must content yourself to watch movies at home, rather than out in a movie theater. Other entertainment and sports replay classic games you get on your flat screen, with five hundred channels from which to choose, as usual. If you lose your job, because of the pandemic you might be able to work from home, or you might receive government unemployment assistance money directly deposited into your bank account. Your smart phone and lap top and I Pad come in handy; those hours on social media, Facebook, talking, texting, You tubing, keeping in touch with friends all over the country and world make the hours pass more rapidly. Attorney General bill Barr compared self quarantining sheltering in place to slavery. he said they are in effect the same thing, with the loss of freedom and civil liberties. He was of course speaking abstractly, legally. but actually, the two are very different. Its funny. conservatives often accuse liberals of living in a world of theory, rather than reality.

Ranking Criminals

 THE ONLY REMAINING QUESTION is whether the president or the attorney general is more idiotic, clueless, criminal, twisted, and perverse. Its either a dead heat, or Trump is up by a nose. A.G. Bill Barr, sounding like he just walked out of a bar, spoke at Hillsdale College, the sanctimonious home of extreme right wing scholarship assuming the word 'scholarship' describes self serving hagiography. Barr, who amazingly seems to have actually passed the bar exam, informed his far right listeners that the Black Lives Matter movement protesters are law breakers and thugs who are using dead African-Americans murdered by white cops as "props", and are "politicizing" the issue. Since police are public servants and employees, and since politics is the process by which it is decided who makes public policy, the behavior of police officers is arguably an inherently political matter, a notion to which  Barr is apparently oblivious. The oblivious attorney general contends that although black people are indeed in his words "treated differently" by police than white people, the difference has nothing whatever to do with racism. Excuse me?  Then precisely what is the source of the difference the oblivious A.G. declined to speculate. Bill Barr, presumably having passed the bar, fresh from the local bar, raising the racist bar. To further politicize, the Asinine Gerentological specimen says that his employees, the prosecutors within his Department of Justice, are spending way too much time prosecuting crimes, especially crimes committed by close friends and associates of Donald Trump. To investigate and prosecute Trump's buddies for criminal behavior is simply too...damned..political... Also, Barr wildly asserts that the Black Lives Matter protesters are trying to overthrow the government, and should be put in jail. He failed to mention that if ever there were a government worthy of overthrow, it is his and Trump's. millions of white white collar law abiding professionals, locked up for walking down the street, carrying signs. Justice in the land of Trump, Barr, Nixon, and Hitler. To paraphrase Trump's hero Andrew Jackson; he has made his ruling, now let him enforce it. And now, for the piece de resistance. According to the asinine Bill Barr, lock down stay at home orders are unconstitutional, and tantamount to slavery. Better that we all remain free in liberty's land to come and go as we please, and to spread a deacdy disease, killing millions. Now you decide; who is crazier, Trump, or Barr?

Trumping Science and Truth

 DR. ROBERT REDFIELD, M.D., PhD, Director of the Center For communicable Diseases, testified before congress under oath, clear headed,, neither a hint nor trace of confusion. he simply, clearly said that the best defense against Covid 19 is wearing a mask, and that the American people will be able to be vaccinated en mass by the middle of next year, but not before. Very simple, very clear. As always. President Trump was unable to keep his fat trap shut, only because someone told the truth, contradicting his lies. He hates it when somebody does that, which is about every day. The president accused Redfield of being confused, and therefor of not knowing what he's talking about. Look who's talking. The vaccine, said Trump, will be readily available before the election, every American will be vaccinated before the election, and there will be zero Americans afflicted with Covid 19, all before the election. Imagine that, Trump calling somebody else confused. All before the election. Not only that, but the two hundred thousand Americans, said the president, who have already died from the virus didn't really die, they are being temporarily held in incognito captivity by a loose consortium of liberal media, the deep state, Democrats, Black Lives Matter agitators, and China. He, Trump, being Trump, promises that he and only he can and will free the hostages, and return them safely home, before the election. Now, some of the above is true, some is not, but which is which matters not, because in the world of Trump, the difference between truth and fiction is meaningless. You might remember that in the real world the president suggested that since Lysol and bleach cleanse kitchen counter tops, that disinfectants taken inside the human body will prevent infection with Covid 19. He really said that. He also suggested that hydroxychloroquine is more effective than vaccines. He also cautions everyone to avoid wearing a mask, since masks facilitate the spread of disease. With regard to the election, the president encourages everyone who votes for him to vote twice, just in case, because his attempt to destroy the postal service has been somewhat successful. Incredibly, most of the above is perfectly true, which is why we should all be very, very afraid.

Dying Birds, Dying Earth

 AN AVIARIAN HOLOCAUST has been an is still occurring in the southwest United States, largely under the radar of our conservative corporate mainstream media and escape entertainment addicted American public. So what's a few birds? Make that a few billion.  It is estimated that hundreds of thousands have died mysteriously, and thousands more are sitting listlessly on the ground, unresponsive to people who casually walk up to them. It is estimated that since 1970 as many as three billion birds have died who shouldn't have, and that the total North  American bird population has decreased by several billion. The current problem is quite possibly related to black, grey, and orange skies filled with soot and fire from the out of control wild fires ravaging the land. We're not yet sure, though. Doubtless President Trump and his feckless followers will contrive some cockeyed explanation for the bird death spiral, having nothing to do with climate change, and everything to do with liberal, media, deep state, or Chinese conspiracies.Meanwhile, less than four percent of the oblivious American people consider climate change a top priority, surveys reveal; we've more important matters to contemplate, such as what will happen on the final episodes of the Kardashians. Meanwhile, our clueless criminal president insists that with a bit of raking and leave collecting, all would be well, and the wild fire situation would not require his attention, attention he has given so generously by visiting California and complaining about forest management, a subject which, like all subjects, he knows nothing about. Several years ago, in his usual moronic state, Trump bragged how well the good people of Norway, I believe it was, kept their forests clean by getting out into the wilderness and raking them, almost on a daily basis.Trump likes Norwegians. In fact, he wants them to immigrate her, as if they would even consider coming to a third world shit hole country, to use Trump's term, with an idiot president. Trump wants to keep the Muslims, Mexicans, and all people black and brown out of pure white America, and encourages Norwegians to come at will. But anyway, when he made his idiotic remark about Scandinavians  raking their forests, thousands of them grabbed rakes, got out in the woods, which in that part of the world are always nearby, and took selfies, rake in hand, dutifully fulfilling the fantasies of the Untied States of Amazement. Why not have fun with it? We can either laugh or cry. By the way, insects, butterflies, frogs, and thousands of other species of animals are vanishing from the Earth also, but, what the hell,  as long as Kin Kardashian is in love with somebody, who cares?

Making Things Right, Culturally

IN ART MUSEUMS all over Europe and North America are art works and artifacts from Africa, Central and south America, and Asia, plundered from their rightful owners in the larceny frenzy which accompanied European and American conquest and imperialism in previous centuries, including the twentieth. It is estimated that ninety to ninety five percent of Africa's historical artistic treasures are being held outside Africa, and have been for many decades. Throughout the twentieth century African nations, with much blood, toil, and trouble, cast off the chains of western (European and American ) imperialism. The old argument by western scholars and politicians that colonial imperialism benefited all concerned has long since been discredited. Another false contention is that African art housed in western museums is on "long term loan". This.obviously, is nonsense. Now, belatedly, independent African nations , and indeed American nations within a nation are demanding their property be returned, after years of politely requesting it, to no avail. It is not merely museums that are guilty. Much material is housed is private collections as well. Predictably, the guilty parties, governments, institutions, universities, and private collectors have gone to great lengths to equivocate, complicate, and delay the process of artifact repatriation,, even though nearly everyone concerned explicitly acknowledges the urgent necessity, cultural and legal correctness lf the process being actualized to completion. History never repeats itself, but the effects of past injustices linger long, and pollute our present day with their baggage. Americans, currently bearing the residual impact of her long heritage of slavery, know this all too well. The return of huge quantities of priceless art to its rightful owners will, superficially, culturally impoverish in a material sense those who plundered it, but far more importantly, it will redeem them legally and morally. And besides, all over the world cultural exchange programs among museums guarantee that all the world's great art can be seen, up close and personal, by any one who wants to, with a little patience. Sooner rather than later may the day come when must either travel to  Africa to see African art, or patiently await its arrival at the nearest art museum.

All Lives Mattering Not Much

 IT HAS BEEN EXPLAINED how hollow, purely rhetorical, and meaningless by being obvious is the insipid phrase :all lives matter". The blue sky is blue. The right wing is rife with insipid nonsense, employed to disguise their fundamental cruelty with hollow platitudes and non sequitur nonsense. Their cruelty consists in their, racist refusal to even acknowledge, much less support "Black Lives Matter'. To simply, jingoistically assert that "all lives matter", or that the sky is blue, are both pointlessly true.The dirty little secret is that, in the real world, all lives do not matter much, not much at all. Consider history. consider today's world. All lives matter? Tell that to the eighteen year old doughboy in the stenching, shit filled trenches of World War One, or to the millions of poor dead men who served as cannon fodder for the glory of people like Caesar, Napoleon, MacArthur, and Lee . There were more than one hundred million military dead during the twentieth century. All lives matter, but not much. And consider the fact that the twentieth century, bloody as it was, was per capita less deadly, less violent, than any other. Over the centuries, humankind is becoming less violent, statistically, so maybe there is some hope, some hope that eventually all lives truly will matter. All lives matter, but not much, not nearly as much as the parcels of blood soaked land over which they were fighting. Consider Donald Trump, his benighted, deluded supporters, the ones who sanctimoniously mouth "all lives matter", all the while dismissing and downplaying a deadly epidemic of disease and death, in preference for their vanity, convenience, and personal pride.The word "evil" is inadequate to describe any American president who would lie about and downplay a national disastrous emergency costing hundreds of thousands of lives, merely to preserve hos own popularity among his supporters and to preserve his personal political power. And there is no word sufficiently evil to describe people who would follow such an evil leader with unquestioning, unexamined loyalty, refusing to acknowledge his sheer personal greed, ambition, dishonesty, and evil, and, by virtue of their sustained acquiescence and support, their own.

Why Are We Still "Downplaying"

 MUCH HAS BEEN MADE of the recently revealed interviews with Bob Woodward and the president, in which Trump is exposed as having lied to the people about the severity of the virus, having known of its severity in February, and pretended otherwise, what he lamely calls" downplaying to avoid panic". In fact, Trump has been "downplaying "lying) about Covid 19 all along, all through the spring, summer, and right up to today. Just yesterday, he once again lied, telling the nation that "we have turned the corner" when in fact we have done nothing of the kind, the virus is worse thane ever, still out of control , and now two hundred Americans are dead from, with another one hundred thousand predicted to die by the end of the year. The president continues to lie about Covid 19, as he always has, even though its nightmarish reality is and has been well known to everyone for six months. Why? Obviously to avoid personal blame and to gain reelection, hoping that the voters will not associate the epidemic with him, that's why. Whatever panic the American people experienced has long been manifested in a flurry of mask wearing, home staying, and job losing. The panic cat is out of the bag, so to speak. For months we have been dealing with the virus in a calm, bored, dark, dreadful, sometimes humorous way, what else can we do? So how can Trump possibly claim that he is downplaying the epidemic to avoid panic? In every lie, there is a loophole. As lies are multiplied to avoid discovery of the first lie, inconsistencies emerge, and the entire network comes crashing down as one lie fall son top of the others. We've all been involved in this, we've all seen it happen, usually, embarrassingly, to ourselves. Now, as usual, its Trump's turn. Joe Biden, and the rest of America, ought to be, and probably soon will be asking this president exactly why on Earth he is still downplaying the virus, when, after all the months, there is no panic, never has been any, and never will be. Think about it. This point cannot be made too often or too strongly. Even after six months of Covid 19 hell, long after the word "panic" has lost all relevance in the midst of post panic misery, our president persists in downplaying the disaster, and has initiated or led no effort to combat it. he dismisses it smugly, while holding MAGA rallies with unmasked people packed together like sardines. The only possible reason is that the president, in his world of delusion, wants to deceive us all. Panic is no longer even remotely possible as an explanation for downplaying the virus. We have all long been award of the pandemic disaster, have already panicked, long ago.It is too late for panic, too late for lies, and too late for Trump to escape blame for his sick, twisted thinking and his failure to provide any semblance of leadership. And it is too late, far too late, for the people who still support this criminal president to reclaim any claim to morality, basic human decency, or responsible citizenship.

Hiding Behind Barr

 FOUR SHORT YEARS  and a seeming eternity ago, Bill Clinton bumped into Obama's attorney general, country star Loretta Lynn, on a big town tarmac. Perhaps you remember. They conversed, the former president having walked from his plane to hers. They kept it light and coo, so they said, though she admitted to being a bit nervous. After all, the vast right wing conspiracy was at the time digging deep into  imaginary dirt on wife Hillary, and Obama's A.G. was expected to be neutral, if not actively involved and cooperative. All hell broke loose throughout right wing Clinton hating America. One of my best friends cried foul, I suggested that he might be a bit angry,and he called me a maniac. We haven't been close since. Compare that instance of potential but unverified attorney general corruption to Bill Barr, his relationship to President Trump. The purpose of the attorney general of the United States is to represent the legal interests of the American people, not the president. Supposedly, the A.G. is an independent office, although appointed by the president and approved by Congress. When the Obama attorney general met with Bill Clinton and chatted, America's right wingers assumed, incorrectly, without any evidence, that they were conspiring to derail existing investigations into Hillary Clinton, investigations which eventually yielded nothing anyway. That was the whole extent of corruption within the Obama administration's attorney general's office. that's it. It was truly much ado about nothing. Flash forward. Bill Barr withheld the Mueller report form the people, then issued a four page summary, completely mis- characterizing the report, making it sound as if it exonerated Trump,w hen in fact it did just the opposite. bill Barr has repeatedly looked the other way from Trump's, and assisted the president in obstructing justice by refusing to compel his to release financial documents, and by refusing to investigate Trump's many violations of the constitutional emoluments clause. and just recently, and most shocking of all, the attorney general has assumed the role of Trump's direct attorney, representing him in one of the any sexual molestation lawsuits against him, this one involving Trump's defamation of one of his many accusers. Trump fired his previous attorney general, and appointed Barr knowing full well that Barr would effectively act as Trump's personal legal body guard, representative, and defender, against all constitutional and legal tradition. it is truly appalling. And yet, you hear not a whimper of complaint from the same sanctimonious people who protested so vehemently about a conversation between Bill Clinton and Obama's attorney general. Once again, as always, America's right wing Trump supporters have proven themselves shamefully hypocritical and corrupt. They  should, as usual, be ashamed of themselves, but, as usual, are not, nor will they ever be.

Ending Normal Days

 TWO TOO EXTREME weather events occurred side by side in the great American west just recently which defy logic and meteorological tradition, and make one's hair rise in dread and horror. On the west coast, an extreme heat wave, more intense than any before seen, sent temperatures soaring in big cities into the one hundred and twenties, for days at a time, helping to touch off the apocalyptic wild fires so much in the news of late. Simultaneously, a huge super frigid cold and wet front came plummeting down from the Arctic, and into the Colorado Rocky Mountain zone, which resulted in Denver's temperature plunging from a hot dry one hundred degrees to a snow filled twenty degrees in less than twenty four hours. Talk about a sudden change in wardrobe. The clashing weather systems made for meteorological mayhem out west.The extremity of all this is, as always, exactly in keeping with predictions scientists having been making, and we have been ignoring, for decades. For our conservative friends, there is one silver lining: the air quality in Portland, Oregon, along with the rest of the Northwest, became so choked with soot that it became the worst air on Earth, worse than even huge coal burning cities in India and China. This meant that the Black Lives Matter protests on Portland, which had gone on uninterrupted for four months, were severely hampered, as the participants, covered in soot and choking, were scarcely able to see each other or read their protest signs, let along make an y impression on the rest of the world. This has not been reported in the media, there's too much else to talk about, but the streets of Portland are now wide open, available for conquest by Trump's storm troopers and all many of right wing militia groups and their confederate flags, swastikas,  bibles, and assault rifles. Climate change is here, and here to stay, as are massive wild fires, which are already spreading all over the world, including soon into the Eastern United States. Laughably, tragically, much of the conservative evangelical community will and already has begun to proclaim that all this devastation, all this human misery, is God's wrath and judgment for something utterly unrelated, like, say, the existence of gay people. That, of course, is sheer deranged lunacy, of the usual sort. Meanwhile, a majority of the Republican party still clings to its deranged belief that climate change is either a liberal or Chinese hoax, they are't' sure which, and president Trump goes toddling right along, appointed people who see no problem with the environment to environmental jobs . Many of Trump's evangelical followers still insist that climate change is a moot issue, because, whether or not the climate is actually changing will never matter, because the lord, with fiery chariot and terrible swift sword, is soon to return, and rapture all the believers into heaven, leaving behind the poor misguided liberals and climate scientists who should have kept their mouths and computers shut in the first place, voted for Trump the savior, and waited, along with the elect, for the smell of a fiery chariot lighting up the sky as it plunged towards Earth, and the end of normal days.

Changing the Subject From Trump

 THE OTHER GUY couldn't get his credit card to work at the gas pump either, so we both masked up and went inside. the problem turned out to be the internet, or lack thereof. I had never known, but now do, that pumping gas relied on the internet. I joked about my mask motif with the other guy, with my favorite college team on it. The other guy remarked that he wish he had a Trump mask to go with his Trump hat. I realized with horror that the gentleman, about my age, presumed that I was a trump supporter -isn't everyone? I muttered something about seeing him at the ballot box, and I think he understand, at last.  My next encounter was with a young Hispanic man, my neighbor's employee, with no accent. He had never heard of Watergate or Bob Woodward, the Bob Woodward of now, not then. His truck's trump bumper sticker made his loyalty quite clear, his accent was all American, and he not an inkling that anyone named Bob Woodward had interviewed anyone named Donald Trump, nor of teh uproar precipitated by the recent revelations of said interviews.My initial horror at his ignorance and Trump support subsided into resignation. Why should I expect anyone who supports Donald Trump to have heard of Bob Woodward or of his interviews with Trump? And even so, by now those who are aware of it have decided that its all fake news, a liberal or Chines conspiracy, correct? Intrepidly, i explained to the young man the interview's contents, Trump's dueling versions of the virus, the whole story. You might imagine what happened next. The young conservative gentleman with Hispanic ancestry and blue collar social status mumbled something incoherent about history, maybe something to the effect that Trump's burden consists is undoing all the havoc wreaked by Obama and Black Lives Matter, and immediately changed the subject to Nancy Pelosi. Warning; Trump people, when confronted with facts, will invariably try to change the subject to Nancy Pelosi, as if there is relevance in so doing. something about her having been seen without a mask in Chinatown. Pure fiction, of course. It was at this point that nightmarish reality fully hit me. Trump will be reelected, that is how stupid forty nine percent of the American people are. He will spend the rest of his life in office, and I will spend the rest of my life in some twisted, grotesque Q-ANON version of hell.

Wishing It All Away

 MUCH TO THE PROBABLY CHAGRIN of much of America's white Christian conservative white supremacist community, the Black Lives Matter movement (which in my humble opinion should be renamed "Black Lives Matter Too") has trickled down into and permeated small town America, even in the deep south, in a small town in which I attended several BLM protests. One of them consisted of about fifty high school girls, whit,e Christian, and yours truly. I loved it, they loved it> I was their token "little old man". In a similar small town nearby, the mayor ran out of patience. To paraphrase "I wish all them folks comin' down here a politickin' would just pack up and go on back home, and leave us alone." I'm just guessing he was referring not some traveling troupe of twenty twenty Trumpers, but rather, to BLM people, perhaps even African-American ones. What were his plans for the local BLM people, black and white? After all, they are already home, unless the mayor wanted them in quarantine. Should all MAGA people self isolate also? When an elected official doesn't specify, questions arise. The mayor might have served his self expression better by simply clearly stating that he wanted everyone associated with Black Lives Matter to leave town, without letting the door touch tush.What his honor wanted, it seems, was to live in a Black Lives Matter free bubble, and he wanted it to be his own town, for his convenience. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we were all mayor, free to pick and choose what we wanted to wish away, and free to wish it all away? In my bubble town of the mind, I would immediately wish away Trump and all his supporters, whom I, frankly, detest. Next, I'd get rid of the white right wing evangelical Christians, because after several decades of listening to them tell me that I'm going to Hades in a hand basket if I do not embrace their religious views, I'm wishing for different treatment. My dearly departed mother had a trick which makes me laugh to this day. Whenever religious propagandists, Jehovah's Witnesses or whomever, would knock on her door, she'd answer, and, after they introduced themselves, tell them that "I'm Catholic, and I'll pray for you at mass". She wasn't, of course, so she didn't, but they didn't know that. I never had the heart to remind her that it would have been easier for her to simply not answer the door, but, where's the fun in that? Nor do I have the heart to suggest to the mayor that while the Black Lives Mater people are out in the streets, they won't be there long, and all he has to do is ignore them, and they will, at length, go away.

Shark Baiting

 THE VIDEOS are always impressive, darkly, ominously lurking fear, just what the networks, their corporate masters, and their viewers want.We are transfixed, intrigued. the dorsel fin of a fifteen foot great white must protrude out of the water for effect. At least one clueless dude sun bathingly languishes in a kayak. The variety of nearby recreational boats with pretty people aboard is pure multi culturalism. In the real world, whatever that is, shark attacks happen rarely per capita, but when they happen they happen at least in part because invincible human beings ignore warnings given by people whose job it is to pay attention, issue warnings, and to protect people from sharks, and from a much deadlier danger, themselves. Ever see a rock climber defy death and ask "why"?  Ever been cruisin' along the interstate ad a steady seventy, looked in your rear view mirror at the millennial hottie applying lipstick and texting two feet behind your rear bumper? don't say no. If not, you haven't lived, and in fact you've almost died, probably quite often, without thinking about it. I confess to having eaten at least one cheeseburger and one cheese and bean burrito while allegedly driving. Is it just me, America, or homo sapien sapiens? Are we crazy, or what? Are we torn between two lovers, acting like a fool, trying to decide whether we really are invincible or trying to fulfill a death wish, since we will all die soon anyway? Do we challenge and defy death by swimming with the sharks because we think we will never die, even though we see people all around us dying every day, or because we know we will, and are resigned to it?  The dorsal fin never sinks beneath the water, the terrible triangle circling the oblivious sun bather drowsing in his kayak. Its almost as if the fangy gape mouthed monster understands that she is being watched intently in fearful admiration, and wants to appropriately impress her admirers. She's hungry, and a kill would be nice, urgently expedient. If only one of these long limbed primates would carelessly dangle an arm or a leg in the water. They always do, eventually, stupid things. Its happened before, it will happen again, with enough patience, enough waiting, it happens every time. the perfect moment, the sudden lunge, the desperate helpless thrashing, thick red blood in the water. Patiently, circling...circling...

Downplaying, Avoiding Blame

 DONALD TRUMP, attempting to present himself as a sort of savior for America, is now claiming, incredibly, that he deliberately downplayed the severity of the virus in order to ensure that we the American people did not break down into a national panic. He must think that we the American people are cowards and idiots, three hundred million of us, who simply cannot handle the truth, when the truth is unpleasant and requires strong action. The truth, of course, is that when it became obvious that Covid 19 was going to spread out of China and unto all the world, Trump himself panicked, and saw his reelection chances being damaged by having an epidemic sweeping the nation as the election approached. He downplayed it, hoping that the rest of us would do likewise, and told us that it would go away with the coming of spring and warm weather, because he wanted us to believe that it would and no matter how bad the epidemic became, he wanted us to believe that it was not a serious matter, that it had nothing to do with him or his leadership, and that he was saving us from it, not exposing us to it by lying about it and by doing nothing to stop. it. Had he taken strong action at the national level, the virus would have been stopped, but he was uncertain of that, and certain only that by taking such action, he would draw attention to it, instead of distracting us from it, and thus we would associate the virus with him. As Bob Woodward himself has pointed out, Trump chose to go down the road of deceit, instead of leveling with the American people, and trusting us to do the right thing, to make the necessary adjustments to our lives to thwart the epidemic.Trump's behavior not only has totally destroyed any faith we might have retained in his ability to provide strong effective leadership, he has cost the United States tens of thousands of lives, directly, through his lack of appropriated and proper action, thereby  turning himself into a cold blooded killer. I can no longer count the times I have thought or remarked that just when you think Donald Trump has reached bottom, he sinks lower. Its true every time. This is no hoax, this is not fake news, and nobody can claim that it is, neither Trump nor his equally immoral followers. By mercifully sparing his poor weak children, the American people fear and panic by sparing them the truth, Donald Trump, by also failing to lead a strong, organized national response to the epidemic, has killed nearly two hundred thousand people, and counting. there will be  many more. For this, he should be impeached, triad, convicted, removed from office, and incarcerated as a murderer, the murderer that he is. To paraphrase Jefferson: I tremble for Trump and his supporters when I reflect that God is just, and that his justice cannot sleep forever.

Backing Black Lives

THE NBA )basketball) and the NFL (football) are, athletically speaking, overwhelmingly majoritarian African-American, much to the probable displeasure of America's conservative Christian white supremacist community. Ensconced within their anti Covid safety bubble, the NBA players are adorning themselves with not only teh usual team names and player uniform numbers,but also message like "Black Lives Matter" prominently displayed on their jerseys. The franchises, an all white billionaires club, mostly conservative, are possibly not happy with this arrangement, perhaps snarling beneath their billionaire breath, knowing it will alienate some viewers, but are strangely powerless to prevent this player's public plea for progress.The owners have money for a reason; they're smart, and they understand; if you can't beat 'em, join 'em, or at least let 'em self express. The NFL players are doing the same thing, as their tenuous under attended by design season of Covid contact football commences.Black Lives Matter, printed in bold letters in the end zones, all over the player's Jerseys, and so forth. Before the games, the players, seventy percent black, are gathering together for a bit of kneeling and are interlocking, while the fans, a large percentage of whom are right wing white men, boo mercilessly, thinking social commentary ought not be part of the pre game festivities. Millions of right wing American men, forced to choose between an ongoing never ending pay per view insulting affront to their latent racist right wing, or to turn off their cherished favorite team, just as the ball is kicked off. Donald Trump must be turning over in his grave, which is to say, the intellectual graveyard of his mind. As we sometimes say; too damned funny. Since the seventy percent of NBA and NFL stars are black, what can they do? all that blackness means nothing to the Trump loving self proclaimed not racist at all white right wing community, so long as the boys play good ball, win, and stay in their appreciative place, loyal to their systemically racist country, uncomplaining. It just too damned bad that the players don't exactly share the white right wing male version of thiri place in society, and that, after all, they are all too human, with feelings to boot.

Hanging With the Cool Folks

 DURING THE SIX MONTHS that our tiny town senior center has been closed, and daily lunches have been handed through car windows slowly moving through the parking lots, all masked up, I have missed my progressive Democratic friends ( we used to call ourselves "liberals", but the right wind demonized the word) and have enjoyed the merciful respite from the far right devil worshiping MAGA Trumper evangelical gangsters. Thomas Paine, who invented the American revolution and wrote "The Age of Reason", excoriating the cruelty of the biblical god, and Bertrand Russell, whose essay "Why I Am Not a Christian" says it best, agreed that, as Russell said: "Cruel men invent and worship a cruel god whose cruelty they use to excuse their own cruelty." The people I don't like at the senior center are the people who worship the cruel biblical god, and almost invariably support Trump, as if one requires the other.My friends are the ones who do neither. Invariably the progressives, with their liberal politics and beautiful, benevolent deity, are the far more pleasant people, with pleasant, cheerful personalities. the adherents to the scriptural deity and Trump, the right wing fundamentalists, are generally stern, gruff, judgmental, unfriendly, snooty. And why not? Deep down, they know that they are doomed to decompose into dirt, and that their wait for the return of their lord in his fiery chariot wielding not an olive branch but a terrible swift sword is laughable, ludicrous, and futile.They must know this, unless they have brainwashed themselves beyond any semblance of sanity, which, as evidenced by their unshakable devotion to the criminal, traitorous, pathologically dishonest present president of the United States, they may well have.

Trump, Mercifully Sparing Us

WE FINALLY KNOW WHY President Trump ignored the pandemic from the beginning, dismissed it, prescribed ridiculous cures such as bleach, claimed it would be gone by Easter, and told us that it was a hoax, only a little flu.  Not because he is a callous, clues idiot, as we might have suspected, but because his cup runneth over with mercy and magnanimity. In his kind benevolence he feared we all might panic, might run crazily down the streets of America arms flailing, a fate from which he generously spared us. That he ignored the virus because he wanted the voters to ignore it and not blame him for it, for doing nothing to stop it, perish the thought. Trump downplayed Covid 10 out of concern and mercy, my butt. Better to stick to the incompetence, clueless theory of Trump. did he really think that if he talked honestly and prepared national plans to fight the virus that millions of Americans would lose control of their senses, and ransack cities in sheer terror and madness? Or did he think that in our panic, we all might go out and buy masks and personal protection equipment, self quarantine, and social distance? that is of course precisely what more of us should have done earlier and more often, but many didn't, thanks to Trumps's merciful prevaricating. Trump's mercy has so far cost anywhere from fifty thousand to one hundred and fifty thousand American lives, and counting. The number will only increase. Neither his immoral clueless followers nor the politically inert have ever taken this disastrous epidemic seriously. Just today Trump held one of his gangster MAGA campaign rallies in Michigan, thousands of people, packed together like sardines, no masks, spreading disease and death. All across the fruited plain they party on, oblivious.Only the left wing radicals have worn masks and had the sense and decency to stay home and stay safe, out of concern for public safety. Thank you very much, Sturgis bikers. Trump wanted Covid to quietly go away and the public to either blame the Chinese or nobody, so he pushed a false narrative, an insane line of drivel, all lies, week after week, month after month, as revealed by his tape recorded interview with famed Watergate journalist Bob Woodward. Lest we forget, we were to inject bleach and Lysol to cure the virus, America would reopen by Easter, and the epidemic would end with the advent of warm weather, in the lunatic universe of President Donald Trump.

Paris, Parading

 HOW OLD is Paris Hilton now? Like, maybe thirty five? Or is she, like Annette Funicello,  your prototypical eternal teenager? Well, like, whatever. No matter how hard she tries, Paris simply cannot seem to elude the harsh glare of the celebrity spotlight. Especially when she's running towards rather than away from it. Now, she's complaining, again, and law suiting, again, about her upbringing, about her time spent in a tough love boarding-reform school in Utah, to which she was kidnapped and summarily sent by Nick and Cathy Hilton as a last resort, in her chaotic teen years, in a desperate to save her life and straighten her out a bit. The allegation is that the young recalcitrant lady was disciplined a bit too hare, licked in bare rooms naked, that sort of thing, and it may well be true. Stay tuned. This reality drama, you can sense, has but barely begun. Paris, much like her immaculately groomed and mad up parents, seems to have wanted somewhat more than her allotted fifteen minutes of fame, and, like Nick and Cathy Hilton, she, like got it. Teen sex videos, her the star, the high profile glam parties, the clothing, or lack of it, the whole gamut, she ran it. The great Hilton celebrity parade stopped. She was raised that way. Raised to have no idea how clothing thrown on the floor got clean. Raised never to have heard, until early adulthood, if you can call it that, of Wal Mart. Wealth, privilege, and the never ending noble cause of getting as many people as possible to pay attention to it, were her and her parent's cause celeb. to this I can relate, because Kathy and Nick are my age, and I have often wondered how on Earth I would have raised a daughter like Paris without losing my sanity and blood pressure monitor. i wouldn't have. Praise be to Nick and Kathy. We insecure baby boomers were raised religiously with the gospel of wealth and upward mobility, and, for icing on the cake, power and prestige. We were taught, aglow on victorious post war euphoric fantasy, to take these values to heart, to worship them, and to either achieve them or applaud those who did. Hence the Hiltons, hence Paris. Since we don't change much after childhood, Paris will likely always be either running away or towards the bright lights and cameras, her parents will remain impeccably groomed and class conscious, and most of the rest of us will forever remain firmly ensconced on the sidelines, applauding it all.