Executive Ordering Racism

 FEDERAL LAW law long prohibited racism, sexism, or any form of discrimination in the workplace, on government property, or in any workplace which receives federal funding. Because such discrimination is so pervasive in american culture, federal intervention has over the years grown to include required racial sensitivity training for government workers. Part fof the training involves an explanation for its existence, consisting of a historical outline of racism and discrimination in American culture. With the stroke of a pen,  President Trump, noted racist, eliminated the entire program, ironically calling it "racist". The good news is that if Biden is elected, which seems at this point reasonably possible, he can and probably will reverse Trump's executive order with his own stroke of the pen. similarly, A Democratic president and Congress could and doubtless would reverse many of the innumerable forms of idiocy trump has set in motion during his term in office. For his entire life Trump has been a racist; forty five years ago he was indicted for it, for housing discrimination. he steadfastly denies it, of course, like all racists deny being racists. his favorite trick, which he and most other racists seem to consider quite clever, is to turn the tables by accusing anyone who broaches the topic of racism of being racist themselves. The truth about American history, the truth about American culture, is that racism, discrimination, violence and exploitation of people, resources, and opportunity have always been central to American history and culture, core American values, and remain so. Only recently have history text books and teachers begun telling the truth about this historical and cultural heritage. But in the twisted thinking of pseudo patriots like Trump and far right wingers, it is the tellers of truth who are racist, simply for having the temerity to tell the truth, that the United stats is a racist country, and always has been. Thus does Trump and his ilk deflect attention from their overt racism, which they disguises less effectively than they may think,  by shooting the messenger, and by pretending to be the true patriotic Americans by embracing a whitewashed, dishonest, hagiographic version of American history and culture, which flatters them. they think they have the high ground, but this is a false impression; criminals and scoundrels often hide behind false patriotism, and, for that matter, false religion. These false patriots, who fancy themselves morally superior because they refuse to accept the reality of their country's deep flaws and injustices, are actually the evil ones, because their entire system of morality is based on lies and deceit. We can only correct our mistakes by admitting them, and this process the false patriots will never agree to engage in.

Coming Clean On Covid 19

 DONALD TRUMP, says the great American-Trump epidemic of twenty twenty will end any minute now, his Chief of Staff mark meadows says that Covid 19 cannot be controlled. Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner says that the president will take over control of the fight against the epidemic from the scientists, as if the scientists ever had any control in the Trump administration.Presumably this means that once again Covid 19 will become a hoax, and that it will vanish by the time summer comes in twenty twenty.One small consolation is that obviously Meadows, Kushner, and Trump are obviously not conspiring, but it might help if they could at least get their stories straight and form some sort of coherent plan to deal with the epidemic.Every scientist, every epidemiologist, every high school science teacher and every intelligent person understands that the American response to Covid 19 has thus far been a chaotic, incompetent disaster, thanks to the Trump administration. We are only beginning to pay the price. Covid 19, like the common cold and the flu, will be with us forever. Just at the flu arrives every autumn, and people say that something is "going around", the coronavirus will come again and again, in cycles, ad infinitum. To effectively deal with it, maximum societal cooperation will be needed, of the socialistic sort, from everyone. Masks, social distancing, the whole nine yards, the kind of stuff our right wing mocks and ignores. At a recent Donald Trump super spreader event hundreds of attendees were left stranded in the bitter cold, with no way home, and many of them were hospitalized. A few days later, in the Florida heat, dozens of MAGATS fainted and required medical attention. Trump later confirmed that they had actually fainted in reverential awe of his illustrious self. The number of people to whom the virus has been spread from Trump ralies, and the number who have died from them, is not now known, and may never be, but estimates are that the unmasked close quarters campaign events have infected thousands of people and killed at least dozens.Even one is to many, and needless. Trump, meanwhile, mocks and ridicules Joe Biden's intentionally smaller drive in car rallies, as if fighting the virus with common sense is worthy of laughter, not praise. Dodgers star Justin Turner was removed from the final World series game when his test came back positive. After the game, he was unable to restrain himself and he rejoined his celebrating teammates on the field, where her removed his mask.American celebrity hubris. And so it goes in the United States of Amnesia. Justin Turner is probably a Trump supporters.

Taking Arms against A Sea of Troubles

 THE 1994 LAW gibing internet service platforms immunity from prosecution for any content posted by their users must be repealed, according to both Republicans and Democrats, for different reasons. predictably, the Democrats have a good reason, the republicans an insane, idiotic, fabricated one. Democrats, like all other discerning people, have noticed the overwhelming volume of lies, nonsense, disinformation, and hate speech online, and have decided that internet platform providers, despite their repeated promises to clean up their act, have not done so and seem to have no intention of doing so, and that therefore the only solution is to remove their immunity from prosecution and to allow the lawsuits to freely flow, which would surely tone  down the trash considerably. Conservatives, laughably, paranoically, mistakenly believe that platform providers withhold and censor conservative material, a contention for which there is no evidence. Actually, much of the hate speech iand disinformation online, like terrorism in America, is of the far right kind. If indeed conservative content is being censored, which it is in fact not, and if it were suddenly allowed to appear online, much of it would doubtless be of the hateful dishonest kind, and, in that case, heaven help us all.If online immunity from litigation were revoked, platform providers like Facebook and Twitter would suddenly become a great deal more discerning and selective about the material they permitted, and that would probably not be a bad thing. It would likely, however, reduce the amount of right wing hate speech, which, again, would arouse the ire of right wingers. No matter what happens, we are likely to be presented with the rather amusing if disingenuous spectacle of far right crusaders for hate, complaining.In a world in which anyone and everyone were free to file lawsuits agains Facebook for publishing harmful or inappropriate material, there would still be plenty of room for more truth and education,  and suddenly the swarm of posts accusing, for instance, Michelle Obama of being  a man, or that Donald Trump is under attack by a national conspiracy of pedophiles, or that covid 19 is an overblown Democratic party conspiratorial hoax intended to undermine Trump and will vanish right after the election, might mercifully disappear, for corporate fear that such nonsense would inspire litigation. Then, the only remaining problem would be how to find a way to make the people who post such idiocy in the first place disappear, along with their hateful nonsense.

Today's High Price of Purchasing Political Power

 PREDICTABLY, the twenty twenty election is the most expensive in history. The price of politicians, like everything else, keeps going up. The total amount of political power purchasing will reach fifteen billion dollars, a wildly absurd amount. corporations purchase and own the political leaders, and therefore purchase and own us, and the country. Arguably, much of the money does no good, has no impact on elections.Billions of dollars are spent on losing campaigns. by purchasing all candidates, corporate interests guarantee that they will have complete control, no matter who wins, so form their perspective, its money well spent. The principle beneficiary is the corporate news and information industry, which reaps a veritable gold mine every election year. The dispensers of allegedly fake news, the scourge of conservatives rake in billions in conservative money, conservatives willing to overlook their complete contempt for the mainstream media to purchase political power. Despite the media's alleged liberal bias, which in fact does not exist, conservatives overlook this bias in order to buy the time and space necessary to dispense their own fake new, lies, and outrageous untruths. Overall the media are biases for neither liberal nor conservative, are neither pro left or pro right, but rather, pro profit. Campaign spending is something of an arms race, like national military spending or stealing signs in baseball. The enemy is doing it, and will do it whether we do it or not, so,we must do it too, just to even the playing field. Of the billions spent, nobody knows for sure how much is reported, how much is reportable legally, and how much is legal, and how much is "dark money". The citizens United Supreme court decision of 2010 might well have been properly decided and fully constitutional, but is among the most devastating decisions in American history, because it opened the flood gate for corporate money, and rendered a corrupt political system thoroughly, irrevocably corrupt. ironic, the cure is so painfully obvious that nobody  ever mentions it; nine little words, enacted into law by congress, which would read; "The sale and purchase of political advertising is prohibited."Nine little words. Nine little words which, if enacted into law, would utterly transform the American political system, and eliminate much if not all of the corruption. As T.S. Eliot said, "so elegant, so intelligent". But it is not likely to ever happen, because our politicians are so addicted to campaign contributions. things like travel expenses, hotel accommodations, food and drink, entertainment; the list is long. the disappearance of paid political advertising would stifle the power of the billionaires, greatly reduce corporate media revenue and profit, and leave the public at the mercy of a benevolent media to provide information on candidates without realizing any profit for doing so.Obviously, its a lot to overcome, a lot of power to work against, a long shot. Very heavy lifting. But there is no harm in dreaming about a better world, and maybe, just maybe, if the situation gets desperate enough, the is desperate measure will actually come to fruition.

Voting For More Than One Reason

 SINGLE ISSUE VOTERS are demonstrably lazy, negligent, not nearly as good at helping govern the country as they should be. There are far more issues than any single issue about which every good citizen should be concerned and informed. Most commonly the single issue is abortion. People whose every interest aligns better with a pro choice candidate often vote for an inferior anti-choice candidate, a candidate whose views on every other issue are antithetical to the interests of the voter, merely because of the abortion issue. This damages democracy. I'm pro choice, and I consider abortion to be murder. What else can it be, when a living human being is killed? My faith in God is so great that I believe that God, working through natural law, controls every movement of every particle of matter and energy in the universe, and decides whether women have abortions. If God decides to overturn Roe v. wade, she will decide to have an epidemic of women having self inflicted abortions with coat hangers in back alleys. I hope God will not decide not to overturn Roe v. Wade, and I predict that she will not, no matter how many far right ideologues conservative Republicans with whom to pack the Supreme Court . God obviously approves of abortion, or it would never happen, just as God obviously approves of, say world War Two. Either God approves of human suffering, or it would not happen, or, perhaps God is incapable of preventing human suffering, in which case, God is not God. If human suffering, including abortion ans war, occurs because God gave humanity free will, then God can revoke free will as he or  she chooses, selectively, but chooses not to.People who oppose abortion rights believe they are doing the will of God. And they indeed are.  So are the rest of us. So is every particle of matter and energy in the universe. God seems to enjoy a good, contentious American presidential election. He or she will undoubtedly proved an interesting aftermath to the election with wailing and gnashing and celebrating, and will proved an interesting supreme court session deciding whether to overturn Roe v. Wade. The Democrats should make it quite clear to their dishonest accusers that pro choice people are every bit as "pro life" as people who oppose a woman's reproductive rights. They should emphasize that pro choice people have a greater faith in God, and therefore see no use in limiting a person's choice through legislation or the courts. 

Spreading the Word of Trump, and Covid 19

 ACROSS THE FRUITED PLAIN Covid 19 spreads, like a California wildfire, while the prevaricating presidential impostor stands before his adoring deluded minions and tells them, as he has for months, that the virus is on the verge of vanishing. sadly, tragically, the sheepish sycophants seem to believe the great lie, or to pretend to for the sake of political expediency. They sit packed together at MAGA rants without wearing masks, smugly sneering and spreading mental, moral, and viral disease. Each time Trump has one of his neo-Nazi white supremacist blathering spectacles, which he will likely do until the day he dies, the Covid 19 American epidemic and the global pandemic receive a new injection of virus infected fresh air, as hundreds, then thousands more get sick due to extreme right wing deluded thinking. It is ironic that even while he is spreading death and disease, the prevaricating president claims to be vanquishing it. the newest Trump caused outbreak is within the Vice President's staff. Stay tuned, as pence and his family are in peril.Suppose everyone in the United States, starting now, wear to wear a face mask every time he or she ventured in public. By the end of winter, approximately one hundred thousand American lives would be saved. This is according to medical and scientific experts, the type of people Trump and his benighted conservative supporters ignore, ridicule, dismiss, threaten, and argue with, as they flaunt their supposed freedom to gather closely together without wearing masks, in the name of the freedom to behave insanely, spreading death and disease. President Trump's Chief of Staff told us the other day that there is no way to control the virus. so, there you have it. An open admission that the Trump administration has given up. In fact they gave up from the very beginning. Meanwhile, the raucus, unmasked MAGA rallies will continue, the super spreaders of disease and death. Evidently nobody in the Trump campaign is at all concerned about spreading the virus, even though there has already been a severe outbreak in the White House, involving Trump himself. Amazingly, not a single Trump supporter seems to care about the president spreading the virus, nor do they seem to care about the hundreds of thousands of deaths from Covid 19, as if people are going to die anyway, so why care. Trump and his heartless, mindless supporters have long since give up, and care only about their personal economic fortunes.For them the greatest pandemic in a hundred years will forever be nothing but a hoax, a manufactured made for the media event, a political conspiracy by Trump's enemies intended to damage his presidency. Fortunately, they constitute only a minority of the American people, and, with any luck, won't be around much longer to do their damage to America and the world.

Committing Clerical Suicide With Lies

 'THE MYTH OF A CHRISTIAN NATION" How the Quest For Political Power is Destroying the Church", by Greg Boyd, is a book title which beckons you to open the book and read,if you are an intellectual with an inquiring mind, or to add another good book to your index of forbidden books if you happen to be a conservative evangelical Christian, intent on perpetuating the false narrative that the United States of America was established as a "Christian nation, and remains one today. the monograph actually concerns itself with the fact that the church, any church of any religion, was never founded for the purpose of obtaining and exercising political power in the temporal world, but rather, for the purpose of worshiping and creating a connection between humanity and God. That the United States was founded by its framers to be a Christian nation, upon christian principles, is, in today's terminology "fake news", and has long been the prevailing narrative of the Christian community in America, an example that American Christians have from the beginning bought into the false notion that the church should be involved in and indeed dominant in the affairs of state. This false notion is quite the opposite of what both the founders of the christian church, particularly Jesus, and the founders of the United States intended. Another excellent book: "Natures' God: The Heretical origins of the American Republic" by Harvard historian Mathew Stewart examines the same issue not from the point of view of the church, but from the point of view of America's founders.  By allowing itself to be drawn into political affairs and the struggle for political power in many areas of the world, the church has in recent times lost its primary focus, and thus its main source of strength, its spiritual and moral energy, in favor of crass, mundane life in the political swamp. By deceiving themselves that their religion is somehow the official or state religion in the United States, and that the U.S. was in fact founded upon Christian rather than enlightenment values and principles, the Christian community has lost focus of both its role in connecting with God, and has polluted the secular civic realm with false narratives and values. Just as Madison and Jefferson intended, there should be an impermeable wall separating church, all church and all religion, and all functions of the state, of the government.All the founder intended all citizens to have complete freedom of and from religion, and for religious tolerance to be universal. To educate the conservative evangelical Christian community with this truth is a tall order, because we are dealing with people good at indulging in denial such as denying the scientific fact of human evolution by natural selection, denying the true intent of Christ and America's founders, and denying the urgent necessity of combating and reversing climate change. That is a considerable amount of denial. When one denies both historical and contemporary realities, one become impervious to truth and reason.

Sharing My Thoughts At A Cost

 I HAVE OFTEN told people that my two purposes on Facebook are to promote this website, and to oppose President Trump and the conservative agenda. Friendship formation and enhancement is not in my game plan. I much prefer doing those things in person, having found that long distance friendships, old and new, lack much. I believe that the concept of a "Facebook friend" is a mere contrivance, which can mean whatever the user wants it to. I load up on Facebook friends, the purpose be to increase to the max the effectiveness of my two pillar agenda. I live happily within my social media bubble. Trump supporters and conservatives seem to me like some sort of distant country, foreign, alien, and malign. The closes I ever come to having a conversation on Facebook is when I read other people's posts and respond to them, or when I make comments on my own posts. If someone wants to talk, I offer to do it on the phone; most people pass. Inside my Facebook left wing bubble we all get along swimmingly, for the most part, because we agree on most matters.it almost seems as if we are informally competing to see who can make the most unpleasant comments about Trump and his hated supporters. I got my first personal taste of exactly how rude and anger my fellow progressives can become when I harmlessly, or so I thought, posted a comment to the effect that if Amy Coney Barrrett is confirmed to the Supreme Court, not only will it not be the end of the world, but it might do little or no harm to progressive causes, since often in the past people who have joined the court as staunch conservatives have tended to move to the center or left while serving on the court, and sometimes render rulings which actually favor the progressive point of view. That got me in a lot of trouble. My mistake was in underestimating the potential for leftist wrath. I stopped counting the number of "eff U's hurled at me, stopped trying toe explain that we're all on the same side, and decided to just go hide under a rock for awhile, and have a good laugh. One of my Facebook friends and apparent admirers is an eighty five year old man from Pakistan who has lived in the United States less than five years. He congratulated me because he sensed that I am a truly devoted person who is always working for good causes. I found that flattering, and , I hope, true. he and I have in common that we despise Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Modi. I gave him my phone number, and he called me.His heavy accent did not impede our conversation, which went well. He said that social distancing and stay at  home restrictions imposed by the virus are making him very lonely, and I encouraged him to keep up his spirits, and to realize that this too shall pass. As I usually try to do, I kept the phone chat short, and I don't think he liked that. later, back on Facebook, he seemed cold and disappointed in me. I would almost like to ask him how many other people even bother to talk to him on the phone at all, but I will refrain. As easy to offend and quick to anger as people seem to be these days, I don't want to stir the pot. It just reminds me that for me, social distancing and sheltering in place are working out, altogther, rather well.

Writing the History of Trump

 UNLESS DONALD TRUMP secures sufficient last minute assistance from Russia, is able to convince several million Americans that one thousand daily deaths and eighty thousand daily infections are signs of a vanishing virus, is able to muster a large enough army of white supremacists to intimidate voters online and at the polls into voting for him, and can benefit substantially from ongoing republican efforts to suppress the voted by making it difficult for poor people, Hispanics, and African-Americans to vote, he may lose the election. Every indication is that Biden will win the election in a landslide, and our modern polling methods render such indications both relevant and accurate, despite what many people say and believe to the contrary. it is becoming evident, however, that Trump and his minions truly believe that they will win, above and beyond simple denial of reality. They're undoubtedly remembering Trump's unlikely electoral college victory in twenty sixteen over Hillary. They seemingly are overlooking fundamental differences between twenty sixteen and twenty twenty. Trump is running on a four year record, not mere bombast, anger, and promises.There are four years fewer old voters, and four years more young voters.Trump has not expanded his base; if anything, it has shrunk. The Black Lives Matter movement andCovid 19 and Trump's response to them may have pleased his base, but have alienated most Americans. both sides expect victory, and whichever side loses will erupt in protest, accusations, and lawsuits. If Trump loses, large or small, he and his gang will cry foul, because the margin of loss was too large, or too small. If Biden loses another Hillary Clinton type electoral college and popular vote victory the streets will fill with Democrats, and you can expect to find me there among them. It won't take historians long to begin chronicling and evaluating the Trump administration, and the process will continue for hundreds of years, improving over time. History written immediately after the fact has primary source value, and history written long after the history was made builds upon the primary source history as a foundation and, with perspective, improves upon the early history. The best biographies of Lincoln and Jefferson, for example, of the hundreds which have been written, have been written since the year two thousand. The best history of Trump will appear far in the future, long after we the living are dead, by historians not yet born. The early histories are starting to come out, and will never stop coming. So it goes for all world leaders. The historical profession is always the best source for history, and it will tell the truth about Trump, the unflattering, sordid truth, and the MAGA minions won't be around to white wash and lie about it. As for now, they can only ignore it, as they always ignore reality, or, they can cal it a conspiracy,  as if a book written by a single historian can possible come from a conspiracy of one.

Never Voting Republican

IN 1972 I was a high school senior, and I campaigned for Richard Nixon, and for a Republican gubernatorial candidate whose last name was the same as mine.  I wasn't old enough to vote, so I can still say that I have never voted for a Republican. it is remarkable how far to the right the Republican party has moved since then, since Eisenhower and Nixon. The 1956 republican party platform sounds like it was written by Bernie Sanders. it is hilarious listening to conservative lamenting that have moves oh so far to the left. Conservative lies and nonsense are seemingly ceaseless. Bill, Hillary, Barack, and Biden, all centrists, can't hold a liberal candle to Humphrey, McGovern, McCarthy, and Bob and Ted Kennedy. Not even close. The liberal era began with FDR, and ended with Reagan. the conservative era began with Reagan, and, God willing, will end with Trump. a long dark forty years, sandwiched in between the simpleton Reagan and the diabolical criminal Trump. Today's Republican party advocates unfettered corporate capitalism and inaction concerning our grotesque and widening economic inequality, social Darwinism and inaction concerning our systemic racism, preferential status for the Christian religion in violation of the first amendment, the denial of science and sanity and inaction in dealing with the existential problems of the pandemic and climate change, all disastrous positions. The Republican has evolved into a twisted, bizarre white supremacist terror organization with false, evil values and moral bankruptcy. As the 2020 election approached and neared its conclusion polls indicated that a substantial majority of the American people rejected Trump and the republican agenda, just as it has consistently throughout Trump's term. The republican party is seriously misaligned with a huge majority of Americans and American values, and is in decline because of this. It began to seem improbable that Trump and the Republicans could pull off another electoral college miracle and win reelection. The Trump era appears to be coming to an end, four years to late and none too soon. Trump's supporters, inherently without honor and integrity, will waste time whining, complaining, finger pointing and excuse mongering, then they will get about the business of finding Trump's replacement. Trump will be surprisingly easy to replace. Requisite qualities include being a pathological liar, a self proclaimed sexual predator, a psychotic narcissist, an unethical criminal high roller business gambler with a sordid history of cheating and exploiting people and employees, a publicity addict, and a phony fake "Christian' who constantly viciously attacks and slanders anyone who disagrees with him or fails to idolize him. No problem there. Within the Republican party, and within the conservative evangelical Christian community, such people are as common red MAG ball caps tossed into the nearest dumpster.

Talking Freely Too Much Part II

 AMERICANS EXERCISE their freedom of speech more than any other constitutionally guaranteed fundamental right, we all might agree. We talk a lot.Most Americans, however, seem not to understand just how limited that right is.The constitution says that congress, which is interpreted to mean the government, cannot limit free speech. Because it says this, Americans tend to run around confused, asserting absolute free speech rights they in fact do not have. How often has some twelve year old hot shot constitutional authority proudly informed that he lives in a free country, and that therefore he can say whatever th heck he wants to, anytime, anywhere, to anyone? Often. Throughout American history children, students, employees and even senior center members have tun up against the limits of free speech in the face of tyrants who were, after all, only exercising legitimate authority.Simply put, parents, teachers, and employers are not congress, and are therefore not constrained by constitutional constraints place on congress. I found this out the hard way. while teaching social studies, I must embarrassingly admit, at a very good high school, and in the middle of a minor disagreement with an administrator, of which I have had more than my fair share, and in the middle of a particularly frustrating day, I reminded the principle of my free speech rights. he told me bluntly that he was aware of no such rights within the friendly confines of his building, emphasis on the word "his".My argument was that since public schools receive federal funding, congress in effect is part of the school system, and therefore my protection against its infringements extend to inside the building. I was wrong about that, and I admit I knew I was wrong even as I spoke, all those years ago. Limited though free speech in America, it might not be limited enough, and much discussion is taking place on whether further limits are desirable. We Americans saturate the internet with a veritable avalanche of lies, misinformation, disinformation, rudeness, and insults.Nearly everyone agrees that it has become a problem, that there is way to much of it. yes, it happens all over the world and all over the internet, but we Americans, as we say, take it to a whole 'nuther level. They don't out up with that kind of crap in Europe, or in most other countries. In Europe, they prohibit much speech, and they unapologetically censor much of the sort of garbage that we Americans permit, under the sacred principle of free, unlimited speech. And yet, your average European considers his or her free speech rights to be perfectly intact, infringed  upon in no meaningful way. Like so many other aspects of culture, we Americans might do well to consider the European style, and to consider becoming more like it. Its worth talking about, freely.

Going In the Wrong Direction Alone

 EVERY COUNTRY IN THE WORLD except the United States is pushing ahead aggressively to convert to a sustainable carbon free economy by mid century  by eliminating its carbon footprint, and converting to exclusively carbon free energy sources, mainly solar. Every country in the world is pursuing policies designed to fight and reverse climate change, except the United States under the Trump administration. Even China, which in recent years has been putting one new coal based energy plant online every week, is committed to sustainable energy in its future, and to eliminate coal as a primary source of energy, eventually. The Trump administration seems for all the world to be completely unaware of the fact that its policies are nothing other than an attempt to commit human and environmental suicide, and cause the extinction of all life on Earth. Anyone doubting the truth of this seemingly sensational assertion is cordially invited to consult every climate scientist, every political scientist, and every biologist or chemist at every university on the planet, and see how many of them think anything other than that the Trump administration's environmental policies are disastrous. for that matter, any high school biology or general science teacher is likely to agree; the human species is poised on the brink of disastrous environmental collapse due to climate change, and action must be taken now to prevent it. As a preemptive measure intended to negate the probably reaction of your typical American conservative, consider this: if you actually think that you know anywhere near as much as a climate scientist or high school biology teacher, you are laughably incorrect. They are the experts,  you are not. People who reject the science of climate change in favor of some ludicrous, fabricated personal belief, such as its caused by the sun, or we have nothing to do with it  ares willfully self deluded idiots. they are the same people who insist that they will not wear a masks int eh midst of a horrible global pandemic because, despite what the medical profession says, masks do no good and actually harm your health. These people are more than merely bad citizens, they are bad human beings, whose attitudes and behavior contributes directly to the destruction of the human race, and the environment. Eliminating Covid 19 and reversing climate change will both require the full cooperation and participation of the entire human race.Anyone who refuses to join the struggle due to egotistical personal beliefs designed only to enhance a misguided person's self esteem is a traitor to humanity, and, arguably, to God.

Talking Freely Too Much, Part I

ITS A TOSS UP which of our cherished freedom's American's cherish the most. in the running are the first and second amendments, which guarantee the freedom of speech, religion, and guns. Equally important is the freedom of assembly, to gather together peacefully, about which we don't seem to make nearly as much noise. In a sense, it is ironic that we cherish any of these freedoms at all, since they were not included in the original constitution, and James Madison firmly believed that it would be useless to add them later as amendments. Once the constitution had been ordained by congress and presented to the people in its original form, Madison considered it unnecessary and useless to start amending it, to included freedoms and rights not originally enumerated. he believed that the original version would become ingrained in people's hearts and minds, and that no matter what amendments were added through the years, they would probably be ignored and disrespected by government and the people alike. Little did he know. it turned out that all twenty seven amendments added since 1797 have been added only after tremendous controversy, wrangling, and haggling, and that every single one of them has in fact received a great deal of attention from everyone concerned. Madison was a bad prognosticator all the way around, it turned out. he thought his constitution would be replaced by a better one within his own lifetime, and, within five years after the document's ratification, he regretted it, and believed it had already failed. His plan was to prevent almost all citizens from having any real political power, a fact which is obvious when you read the constitution. He not only didn't trust ninety nine percent of us to vote, he didn't think we the people were even remotely capable of choosing our own president, again, as clearly indicated by the constitution. Read it and wee. Or rather, read it and weep. you suspect that very few Americans have ever done this, considering how free they seem to think the constitution makes us, rather than restricts us. It almost seems a miracle that speech, guns, religion, and assembly are so well protected, given our lack of any real power otherwise. assembly, we seem to take for granted, maybe because of the sheer umber of sporting and other events we frequently attend, or maybe because other than entertainment, most Americans don't give a fig about getting together with other Americans anyway. We, conservatives, make so much fuss about guns and religion, always paranoically yelling about how everyone in the neighborhood and the government is constantly trying to take them away from us, that it is rather obvious that these freedoms are utmost in the mind of the average American conservative. As if the tens of millions of guns and churches in America were somehow threatened. A far greater threat is what religious and gun fanatics use their guns and  Bibles for, but that's another story. Guns and religion are safe. So is speech. Maybe too safe.

China Beat Covid, Which Is Beating America

 IN THE UNITED STATES, the epidemic is out of control, worse, than ever,. It will get much worse, as winter approaches. The economy is in ruins, with millions of people out of work and a staggering ten percent of the American people experiencing food shortage. In china, where the Covid 10 epidemic originated, there is no epidemic, the virus has been eliminated, and the Chinese economy has completely recovered from the recession it experienced due to its being totally shut down early in the epidemic, which starved the virus to death, it having nowhere to spread. Actually, not only has the Chinese economy fully recovered from the recession from the complete month long shut down, it is stronger than ever, with a robust growth rate, just like it was before Covid 19 arrived in a Chinese fish market in December. Its like there never was a problem in China. Meanwhile, in the U.S,Trump and his right wing gang, dishonest as always, will undoubtedly continue to blame China for America's disastrous deadly epidemic. Trump and his supporters should blame themselves. Once Covid 19 started to spread in the United States, china no longer had anything to do with it, and the American government government and people had everything to do with it. Chin has the advantage of an authoritarian central government possessing the coercive power of the state. Its social and economic shutdown last spring was decisive and effective. nobody protested, complained about it, or refused to cooperate, as many did in America. When China reopened, it reopened with a bang, hit the ground running,fired up its factories, got back to work, and got back to immediate economic health and prosperity, virus free, no chance of a second wave. Say what you want about the wonderful american freedom and liberty, there is something to be said for coercive, authoritarian state power when it comes to getting something done right. A childhood friend of mine, who later spent time in prison and evidently learned a great deal, recently said that in America we have so much freedom that  we'r going  to freedom ourselves to death. I wish I had said it. Never have I heard a truer statement. leadership in the Unite states during the epidemic has been haphazard, disjointed chaotic, and weak, and the American people, in particular that part of the American people which adores the current leadership, has blatantly, wantonly, and criminally disregarded the virus, believing it to be  a hoax, echoing the president's attitude towards it. If only President Trump and his gangster mob of supporters had taken the epidemic seriously, would take it seriously now, would stop spreading it wildly across the country, would stop behaving like reckless idiots. Maybe we could still save a few hundred thousand lives.

Poll Watching

THERE SEEMS TO BE a considerable amount of confusion about the electoral process, precipitated by deliberate disinformation being passed out in liberal quantities, concerning requirements for becoming a polling place observer. Polling observers are of course people who hang out at voting places for the ostensible purpose of making sure that nothing untoward or illegal takes place. To become qualified to be a certified poll watcher, one must be a registered member of a white supremacist or neo-Nazi organization, or both. membership in the Republican party, or an evangelical church, or a patriot militia group are considered qualifying characteristics. An often asked question is whether one must be a Christian to register as a pole watcher. The answer is that one must. All pole watchers are required to be saved, saved from lives of intelligent, open minded intellectual inquiry. One must attest to having read nothing other than the Bible, and to have rad the bible in bits and pieces, rather than straight through, from cover to cover, as if it were a book. Cherry picked portions are preferable, passages which convey wisdom and truth, but do not give the impression that the biblical deity is a diabolical, genocidal, psychotic monster. Poll watching may consist either of watching human beings touching computer screen behind curtains as a public location for the purpose of selecting which unqualified candidate will serve in political office, or paying close attention to a tri-colored flag atop a slender tall metal pole, or viewing round slender wooden objects atop of which are strung wires, connecting the slender wooden objects. Any of these activities are considered appropriate to the intelligence of citizens who seek to undermine America's electoral system through voter suppression, voter intimidation, or the spread of disinformation, as, for example, far right wing Trump supporters often do.  This satirical, farcical, fatuous account of poll and pole sitting is intended to suggest that the American electoral system has been rendered less effective than it should be because of a widespread distrust of it, deliberately encouraged by cynics. People who engage in poll watching claim that their purpose is to ensure fair elections, while in actuality they are simply hoping to advance their political party's agenda. In a healthy electoral system, poll watchers should be unnecessary, and in fact are even in ours. Competent poll workers and honest citizen participation are quite sufficient, or should be.

Trump, Trying To Kill the Governor

 TRUMP MIGHT WIN, anything is possible, although it appears likely that with two weeks remaining in the election and Biden well ahead in the polls, he will lose. In a more perfect world, his seriously misguided, immoral supporters would, after his loss, renounce their support of him en  masse, and ask for forgiveness and for the privilege of reentering the realm of the sane and decent. Instead, they will probably spend the next four years belittling Joe Biden instead of giving him a fair chance, spewing their usual hateful racist prevaricating rhetoric, and running around wild in the woods, shooting off their assault rifles and their foul mouths, clinging to their Bibles and confederate flags. Conservative Christian Trump supporters seem to like to spread disease, physical and mental, in church and at MAGA rallies and they seem to enjoy organizing themselves into terrorist groups, which they misleadingly call "patriot militias". One such conservative christian group, supported and encouraged by Trump, was planning to kidnap, try, convict, and execute the governor of Michigan, but were thwarted by the FBI, to the probable chagrin of Trump, who despises the FBI but seems to love right wing terrorist groups. In response, Trump traveled to Michigan and essentially encourage the terrorists to keep trying. Stay tuned. Speaking of Trump rallies, can you imagine how horrible the epidemic will be this winter? Probably not. By Inauguration Day, the death toll in the U.S. could approach half a million and president Trump will likely be bragging about this wildly successful effort to "turn the corner" on the virus. One might hope that he will be doing this while boycotting Biden's inauguration, but that's another matter. If Trump loses the election, look out for the great prevaricator and his gang of supporters. Unconversant with honor and civility, unwilling to even consider better option,they will doubtless raise holy hell, and insist that the election results were rigged by their mythical deep state, the very real Democrats, the mythical liberal media, and the very real Chinese.For weeks Trump has been laying the groundwork for  vociferously contesting the election, even if he loses it lopsidedly, incessantly undermining the electoral process by spewing lies about it, claiming falsely that it it rife with fraud, which it most certainly is not. Honorably conceding defeat and congratulating the winner, the proper behavior, is beyond the capabilities of Trump and his reprobate supporters, precisely because it is proper behavior. In a more perfect world, these people would quietly fade away, noever to be seen nor heard again. But don't count on it.

Simulating Ourselves

 ARE WE, or are we not? Do we actually exist, or do we just think we do? it appears that we are unsure, and that the old "I think, therefore I am" expression of pure logic, and the Buddhist "mind foreruns all conditions"introduction to sentience no longer cut the mustard, so to speak, so to think. The reason is, believe it or not,is that not only do theoretical mathematicians believe because they have proven mathematically, therefore they know, that there is exactly a one in two chance, a fifty fifty chance that what we call "the universe" and "ourselves" is nothing other than a sophisticated computer simulation created by a super advanced intelligence for its own purposes, presumably research. Don't panic. that means that is still at least a half chance that you are what you think you are, namely, a real person. All things considered, it could be worse, maybe. Better than there being no chance of your actual existence, right? The numbers are in, big blue the super computer has done its work, and the scientists are not only absolutely sure that the two choices exist, but that they truly exist fifty fifty, one in two. One way of looking at it is to say that there is no difference between the two, no difference between simulation and reality. The super intelligent intelligence we can call "God". God's computer is god's mind, and teh universe god created and recreates constantly through natural law as cosmic evolution, and we ourselves within it, comprise the simulation, perhaps for research purposes. both paradigms amount to the same thing; however, to accept them, it becomes necessary to amend our popular conception of god as omnipotent; instead, God becomes a super intelligent being who nonetheless needs to do a bit of research to obtain great understanding and knowledge. if the universe and we within it are in face simulations, precisely what is being simulated? A universe with living beings in it? Again it becomes a matter of definition. Or maybe we the living are God, and the universe and God are our creations, our simulations. The ultimate question remains the same: why does anything, including god, exist at all? Well, maybe nothing exists. Maybe god, the universe, and we are neither real nor simulations. Maybe we are nothing in an empty void, with the temerity to believe that we exist. What if, say, the question were resolved to the overwhelming unanimous satisfaction of science, that we and the universe are super computer simulations, beyond doubt, and nothing more? It goes without saying that conservative Christians would deny it all, but that's beside the point. What about the rest of us?  Would we all lose hope and give up? Would our lives suddenly seem to be without meaning? We would probably proceed as if nothing had happened,. We all like to believe, for instance, that we make our own choices, that everything we think , say, and do is our decision, our choice. Problem is, that isn't the way it is. Science has proven that what we call "free will" is a human made hoax, that it does not exist. Every particle of matter and energy in the universe, including our brains and bodies, behaves according to immutable natural laws. We like to think that we are in control, and we believe and pretend that we are, but we are not. God is. And yet somehow we seem to muddle along, doing what we can because we must, and most of us seem to be reasonably happy, because we must be, because God has evidently decided that we must be.

Having Fun, the Virus Be Damned

 WINSTON CHURCHILL, despite being a war monger and a racist, was an astute student of human nature In terms of American culture,. he said it best. Paraphrased, he said: you can always count on the American people doing the right thing, after they have exhausted all other possibilities. Unless he said it before breakfast, he was drunk when he said it, but it still rings true. I live in a small town dominated by conservative evangelical Christian Trump supporters. At the local Pentecostal church everyone in the congregation has Covid 19. Whether anyone has died or will die from it I don't know. One can only hope. Apparently, the devout group of sheep within Christ's flock decided that worshiping at home in privacy was simply unacceptable. Apparently our friends were speaking in tongues and fainting a bit too close together without wearing masks. Since they're all infected anyway, they mas as well gather together the entire congregation and  speak gibberish yell and gyrate and faint to high heaven to their heart's content. And speaking of yelling,  America's football stadiums began the truncated delayed season dead silent and empty, but are becoming noisier and more populated as the season progresses and becomes more exciting and meaningful. Each weekend, more and more fans are trickling sneaking into the stadiums and it seems management is turning its collective head the other way, purposefully oblivious. Ten percent full has steadily escalated to fifteen percent, folks are sitting six inches apart rather than six feet, and at the current rate of population growth, by the time the playoffs begins, all stadii will be jammed pack, as per usual. In the stands, masks go carelessly up and down like venetian blinds at a frat party. Arguably, there should be no twenty twenty football at any level, anywhere in these United States. but heaven forbid that we Americans should make do without entertainment of the violent kind, and, most regrettably of all, we simply can't seem to muster up the money or the will to test everyone entering the stadium. Now, as winter approaches, a reopened America gathers together inside in large numbers, Thanksgiving plans proceed undiminished, as we weary of loneliness. The virus is already spreading more rapidly than ever, but we don't seem to notice or care. it will only get worse, worse than ever before, worse than it was in August, worse than we can possibly imagine, as we enjoy our entertainment and each other, like nothing happened.All because we failed from the beginning to take the necessary steps,  and to make the necessary sacrifices to save ourselves.

Dying Indirectly

 OFFICIALLY, more than two  hundred and twenty thousand Americans have died from Covid 19, more than any other country in the world, largely because of failed leadership and the unwillingness of the American people to make the necessary sacrifices to stay healthy. The actual number is doubtless much higher, perhaps twice higher, according to scientific experts. Scientific experts are defined as people who know a great deal about a particular scientific area of knowledge by virtue of having spent a lifetime researching and studying the area, and are therefore automatically ridiculed, reviled, and ignored by American conservatives, who almost always disagree with experts, preferring to cling to their idiotic notions of reality in order to deceive and flatter themselves by believing that they are intelligent. It has now been determined that many Americans who have died during the pandemic whose cause of death was ostensibly and officially listed as having been caused by some other medical condition or pre existing condition would in fact not have died except for Covid 19. Examples of this are who suffered terminal cardio vascular episodes, or diabetic events, or cancerous deaths triggered by the virus, or people who, due to the pandemic, postponed or delayed treatment fof other health conditions. The exact total will never be known, but it is possible that by the end of twenty twenty, more than half a million people will have died, directly or indirectly, from Covid 19. At every turn, with every new discovery, it becomes evident that this virus is causing more harm, much more harm, than had previously been known. and yet there are those, most notably teh president of the United States, who, even after contracting the virus himself and in his words becoming very, very ill, refuse to acknowledge the actual severity of the situation. Just the other day Trump once again made light of the virus, telling his mislead followers that "we have turned the corner".Indeed we have, turned the corner, toward a winter of devastating disaster, as already the sick and death count have risen higher in October than at any time since August. One of my former friends is a sixty three year old woman with lupus, diabetes, and heart condition who refuses to wear a mask in public because,s he says, wearing a mask is harmful to your health, it to forces you to inhale your own carbon "monoxide" I'm afraid to be in the same room with a person like that, not only because of her ignorance of basic chemistry and of the fact that humans exhale carbon dioxide, but because being around her might very well kill me. Being around President Trump has sickened and killed no one knows how many people, and being around his benighted followers has sickened or killed who knows how many tens of thousands of innocent people. We should thank the dear lord that soon we may have to be around Trump and his followers no longer.

Drowning In Plastic

 SINCE WORLD WAR TWO, billions of tons of plastic have been manufactured, distributed, and discarded throughout the world, and less than ten percent of it has been recycled, primarily due to the expense. over the past several decades, corporations have deceitfully misled people into believing that plastic is recycled, deceitfully enhancing popular support for the industry. When plastic started being mass produced after World War Two, it was widely promoted as a great boon to civilization, cheapening the cost of manufacturing consumer products and making them more durable. Three generations later, plastic has become an albatross around humanity's neck. The world's oceans are choc full of it; at some point in teh near future the total amount of plastic in the Earth's oceans by weight will exceed the total amount of fish by weight. Everyone on the planet ingests plastic particles every day, enough to make a credit card. Our bodies are rapidly accumulating it. I live two blocks from a Dollar General store, and a couple times a week I swing by and pick up a few items. Each time I walk out with a plastic bag containing them. I use the bags as trash bags at home, which forces me to empty them often, getting the trash out of the house, because they are so small. Twice a week the city garbage truck picks up my garbage, and twice a week into the local landfill it goes, there to remain for thousands of years.I don't know what to do about it. Its all so easy and convenient for me.To be honest, I should probably carry my own cloth sack into the store, and for that matter, so should everybody else. Reducing my crimes against the environment would only allow the store to hand them off to somebody else. And wouldn't force the huge corporation to reform. that would take a concerted organized effort by millions of people, and it somehow does not seem likely that Dollar General customers are going to organize to force change. By the time I die, I will probably have sent thousands more plastic Dollar General sacks into the landfill, there to lurk until long after the human race is extinct some alien archaeologist will dig the site, and wonder at the shopping habits and the self destructive habits of those strange creatures from long ago.Maybe they can recycle and clean my mess, and for that matter, maybe recycle life on Earth, and start something just a little bit better prepared to survive, and to contribute to the galactic culture.

Ushering Trump Out

 CONTRARY TO WHAT  many people think and say, public opinion polls, particularly those having to so with presidential elections, are almost always very accurate. In 1948, when all the polls predicted Dewey would defeat Truman, polling was primitive and erratic, but over the years has become extremely scientific, computerized, and accurate. In 2016 they said Hillary Clinton would defeat Trump in the popular vote fifty one percent to forty nine percent and that is exactly what happened. Assuming that Biden's lead over Trump is fifty four forty three, which is almost certainly is, Trump is on his way out, and sanity is on its way back in, insofar as sanity can exist among humans. Every day about three million people are early voting, in a contest in which Biden is up by double digits. Even if Trump somehow miraculously close the gap to zero between now and November third, Biden will sin, because most people will have voted before the final election day. If everyone had to wait until November third to vote, and Trump closed the gap between now and then, he would have an equal chance to win, but the election is happening now, twenty million people have already voted, and by election day, more than fifty million will have done so, with Biden will ahead. The time seems to be drawing nigh for Trump and his supporters to cry foul, to whine, to lament, and then, at long last, to go far, far away. They will not go easy, because they are not the sort of people to show dignity and class, and to accept defeat graciously. They will hatch their usual idiotic conspiracy theories, they will claim that the swamp and the deep state and the liberal media and the Chinese orchestrated a diabolical conspiracy against Trump, and they will likely continue doing this nonsensical behavior their remaining days, as will Trump, as he and they age and die, and in another seventy years the last of them will finally vanish from the scene, like the last confederate soldier, on his death bed, claiming victory for the lost cause, claiming pitifully that he and his great crusade for righteousness were derailed only because of a diabolical conspiracy. Trump is apparently going to go out still shrilling that wearing  face mask in the midst of a deadly nightmarish epidemic may or may not be useful. God, what a pathetic excuse for a human being

Liberals, Telling Me To Fuck Myself

 WHEREAS this website is almost always left wing in its content, for the sake of open mindedness and also because I happen to embrace a conservative notion or two, every once in a blue moon an essay appears here which reflects a conservative point of view, or seems to. When that happens, its Katie bar the door, or whatever. Just a day or two ago we published an essay suggesting that if Coney Barrett is confirmed for the Supreme Court, it won't be the end of the world, liberal wise. And in point of fact it won't be. The essay, published just a couple of days ago, pointed out that in the history of the Supreme Court, it has often been the case that a person was appointed and m precisely for the same reason they are today; for being a staunch political conservative, as if that were somehow a qualification. then, after serving on the court for several years, the conservative started to move in the direction of liberalism, toward the center, sometimes actually to the left. Examples include Justice Sutter , Justice Kennedy, and Justice Roberts, the current Chief Justice. There are other examples. Often, conservative justices render dispassionate, reasonable rulings, which happen to reflect a liberal point of view. Recent examples include conservative courts legalizing gay marriage and upholding Obama Care. We suggested that Coney Barrett might be such a justice, might actually end up ruling in favor of liberal positions, by virtue of being intelligent, reasonable, and dispassionate, as she has already promised she will be. Then, the proverbial shit hit the fan. Hell hath no fury like an enraged liberal. I arter know, I are one. The comments came in bundles, indicating that a lot of liberals read this website, which is flattering. The comments themselves were far from flattering By a three to one margin, the most common one was a simple, direct, straight forward "fuck you".Now, never let it be said that I have anything against a good old fashioned F bomb now and then, although there is something to be said for decency and civility. But there are limits. Scrolling down beneath your own Facebook post and seeing F bombs lined up like vertical yellow ducks in a carnival shooting gallery can become a bit tiresome. Would somebody, anybody, who virulently disagrees with me , in the name of sentience, simply say something intelligent, reasonable, cogent? I can  no longer count the times I have admonished my fellow anti-Trumpers to not just call Trump and "idiot" or a "moron", and leave it at that, without offering supporting evidence. I admonish that whenever criticizing Trump, or anyone else,one should state supporting facts, intelligently, and heaven knows that with Trump there are plenty to choose from. One word profane insult make poor arguments. I clearly stated my reasons for my willingness to approve the placement of Amy Coney Barrett on the Supreme Court. At east show enough courtesy and intelligence to give arguments in disagreement with me, something more than eff you. It'll make you look more intelligent, less profane.And besides, anybody who says "screw you" to me is obviously indulging in purely wishful thinking.

Debunking Sacred Political Myths

IT BECOMES NECESSARY, in the words of Jefferson, to come clean, for the sake of political cleanliness. Although we are brainwashingly supposed to believe that the U.S. Constitution is a perfect, sacred inviolable document, incapable of improvement, it is, alas, not. Far from it. It is often vague, imprecise, and it established institutions of questionable effectiveness, as well as adding amendments which contradict directly previous amendments.It als considers African-Americans to be three fifths of a human being apiece, which is a highly questionable idea, to say the very least. The constitution is a hodge podge, piecemeal patchwork of guesses and errors which has serve us fairly well,, to a point, but not well enough, as witnessed by our continuous haggling over its meaning. It was never by its author, Madison, nor Madison's mentor Jefferson to be anything more than a short lived, temporary, stop gap measure, and they both assumed that their descendants would replace it with something much better under less immediacy and stress, and further, more deliberate consideration. Now is the for us to replace it with a document far better suited to modernity, far more appropriate to the twenty first century, to fulfill the expectations of Jefferson and Madison, both of whom assumed that their original document would last about one generation, and no more.They would both in fact be appalled by the fact that we are still using their creation over two hundred years beyond their time, and we should also be. Jefferson explicitly said that every generation should write and use its own constitution, in order to avoid being governed by its ancestors. WE are the descendants of Madison and Jefferson, and they are still governing us,and they would laugh and roll their eyes at us for our passive willingness to submit to their dead tyranny. Conservative lawyers, lawmakers, and magistrates piously proclaim their allegiance to Madison's original intent , as if after all these years they can read his mind, or as  if words exist anywhere which require no interpretation by the reader to understand them. These self proclaimed "originalists"  or "textualists" as they call themselves area as phony and imperfect as Madison's document, a document which was designed primarily to prevent the people of the United States from having any real political power. If originalists were true to their word, they would read the second amendment the way it was written, with the intent of the framer's, to mean that anyone who is a member of a state controlled militia can bear a muzzle loading musket. Nobody can demonstrate that anywhere in the second amendment do the authors say that people in the future may bear whatever arms technology makes available, including automatic assault weapons. It is easy to call yourself an originalist, as if you are true blue to the constitution, but it is impossible to actually be one.If we were courageous and respected the framers, we would do as they wished, and write our own constitution, and stop mooching off theirs.

Voting For Barrett

 ALTHOUGH I AM  not only a staunch Democrat, but a democratic socialist to boot, I have decided that were I in the Senate I would vote to confirm the lady, despite the fact that I fully agree with the Democratic viewpoint that this nomination should have been made after the election, to give the American people an opportunity to update their expressed preferences.Its always better for national leaders in a democracy, or alleged democracy, to give the voters a chance to give a fresh new updated opinion on matters, and thus we should have elected the next president before nominating a supreme Court replacement. All the Republican's reasons for going ahead with the process before the election are quite cleverly contrived, but not quite clever enough. They cite a boat load of Supreme Court nominating history, ancient history. In 2016, the same history applied to Merrick Garland, but they don't mention that. We are all socialists, because we all drive without complaint on socialized public streets and highways, and we are all constitution originalists, to the extent that we can be, because we all want to read the constitution "literally", the way it was intended to be read. But nobody can be, because nobody can read the intent in the minds of the founders, and all their intentions were not expressed on paper. bear i mind that to be a true constitutional originalist one must believe that the second amendment applies only to muzzle loading muskets, and not nineteenth or twentieth century firearms. All words on all paper require that the reader interpret the words, regardless of what the author meant, the reader must interpret the author's words as best as he or she can.The author's actual meaning involves the reader's interpretation. Even if all nine court members were ultra conservative, we can have faith that they still  might render rulings amenable to liberal ideology. If the Republicans truly had faith in the integrity of the supreme court, they would not be so hell bent on placing ultra conservatives on the high court. Nobody is qualified to sit on the Supreme Court, but Amy Coney Barrett, who is not a hot dog, is as qualified as most people. And, once again, we must stop this nonsense of nominating people to the court because of  their political ideologies if we want and expect the court to be non political. Only moderates or politically unaffiliated people need apply.

Living In Dystopia

 FIFTY YEARS AGO, when I was fifteen and foolishly fond of science fiction rather than schoolwork, I would have predicted that by the year twenty twenty hunger, disease, war, poverty, all would have been eradicated, and that humanity would be universally prosperous and health and happy, and that I would have a choice between living on the moon, mars, in Earth orbit, or beneath the ocean on its floor, in what would come to be called "a bubble". I never imagined nor thought about climate change, and in the nineteen sixties neither did anybody else, save for a few percipient scientists, even though climate change had been predicted two hundred years ago by a very percipient scientist. My teenaged optimism was unbounded. That, notwithstanding my unpopular awareness in 1970 that the Viet Nam War was a hopeless exercise in American corporate sponsored foreign imperialism adventurism, the useless projection of American military power in foreign soil. Now I note how well my optimism played out, in our twenty twenty world of dystopian misery. Chemical or biological warfare, viral pandemic, nuclear holocaust, asteroid collision are but several of possible life ending scenarios. I grew up resting optimistically assured that these great calamities would never befall humanity, that they were only the stuff of speculative, entertaining science fiction. An now, here we are, with a global pandemic, and still confronted with the fact that nuclear was is a distinct possibility for the near future, due to international competition for scarce resources, land, water, minerals among them. Large asteroids whiz by Earth fairly closely quite often, and still we have no comprehensive network for detecting them early. Biological warfare becomes an increasing possibility as more powerful chemical agents are synthesized; all of the above risks are enhanced in our world, which can only be described as partly dystopic. Our only recourse is optimism, belief in ourselves, in our capacity to solve problems and survive, and international cooperation.This is why policies as removing the Unites States from international agreements such as the Iranian nuclear arms limitations treaty and the Paris climate change accords, and fomenting trade wars with  potential economic partners such as China is a tragic mistake. America first need not mean America alone. Now is the time to change course, to reverse our policies, to seek new, more enlightened leadership, and to create an era of "America together" with humanity, and with itself.

Packing the Court With Conservatives

 Sanctimoniously, hypocritically, simplistically, but presumably well intentioned but naive and uninformed people impress themselves by reciting by memory that the court must not ever become a political body, and that it simply must not ever legislate from the Supreme C bench. Blah blah blah. As if we hadn't heard this trip a thousand times. The supreme court has always been a "political" body, since all law is the direct product of politics, and since the court rules on whether laws are constitutional,ti decides whether laws will continue to exist, which achieves exactly the same effect as legislating  legislating in reverse, if nothing else. Conservatives complain about legislating from the bench when courts render ruling amenable to liberal ideology. When courts render ruling amenable to conservative ideology, conservatives suddenly become deafeningly silent. The young attractive woman sat motionless in her Jackie Kennedy pink dress and bandit black mask, eyes expressionless, conveying only focused, deliberate intelligence. She seems confident, but not arrogant, indeed, humble. Amy Coney Barrett is certainly no hot dog. The Republicans praised her a bit too lavishly for good taste, and defended being there, accused Democrats of politicizing the process, as if they themselves hadn't done the same thing from the beginning. The Democrats had nothing left but to remind us of the Republican's broken promise, to never confirm a new justice close to an election, and to remind us that we have far better things to do for the moment, like save the country. In that, they had a point. Nobody mentioned,nor ever mentions, that being a liberal or conservative is not a qualification for membership on the high court. Everybody agrees that justices should uphold the law and apply the law ,and not render rulings base on personal biases, and everybody keeps repeating that, as if they believe it. We are so very adroit at stating the obvious. Nobody mentions nor ever mentions that it is impossible to be an "originalist", since nobody is a mind reader, nobody can determine the founder's framing intent, and that the framers themselves were often somewhat unsure of their own intent. All the Senators made the same mistake; they all removed their masks when talking. Mrs. Barrett tells us that courts are not designed to solve every problem, thus deflating our fondest hopes, and telling us something that we probably already knew. She uses platitudes well, if nothing else. But at least we all now have decided to pretend that today is not Columbus Day, and to instead begin the adjustment of believing that it is something called "indigenous peoples day" and that is progress in and of itself, even if the Supreme Court is packed choc full of right wing ideologues.

Getting Back Into..What?

 NOW THAT THE PRESIDENT is back on his apparent feet, and ready to hit the campaign trail once again, what should our expectations be? That the polls are correct, as they almost always are, and that his fifty four to forty two point behind-ness daily manifest into a slow burning election loss, as several million people vote every day, and make the polls a reality? Or maybe the president will once again, as he did in 2016, won narrow popular vote margins is a few crucial swing states, and be reelected in spite of losing the actual popular vote by a wide margin. ironic, since Donald Trump, with his consistent history of misbehavior, including constant lying and constant slandering of people who oppose him and the evident corruption within his administration, is precisely the sort of person the electoral college was established to prevent from coming to power. This was made evident in all the writings of the founders, in their designing of the constitutional system. Hamilton and Madison both, though political rivals, believed it was necessary to put a layer of protection between the masses of ignorant people and the selection of the president, so that in the event that the voting masses chose a reprobate or criminal to become president, the electoral college, with calm deliberation, could override their choice, and make a better selection. and yet, the electoral college, and only because of the electoral college, did Donald Trump become president, as it bypassed the will of the people to elect a better, highly qualified person, Hillary Clinton, arguable the most qualified candidate for president in American history, despite the slanderous attacks conservatives made against her for decades. And Donald Trump has overwhelmingly proven that the people were right, and the electoral college was wrong. If Trump wins, which at shit point seem unlikely, we can expect for more years of contentious chaos, bad behavior, and bad policy. What can we expect if he loses? That he will will spend his final, lame duck days in office having one huge MAGA rally after another, screaming hatred and lies, spreading disease with unmasked closely packed crowds of  of angry, bitter, poor loser  sycophants, vowing to somehow return him to office? Will former president Trump spend the next four years of the Biden administration holding his Hitler-esuqe rallies, trying to wrest attention from Biden?  Will he pledge to seek the Republican nomination in 2024, and to return to the White House after a four year absences, after the fashion of Grover Cleveland? We'll have to wait and see about all that, but we can be assured of one thing; Donald Trump is going nowhere. he has long been addicted to the spotlight, to the public's attention, and he will do whatever it takes to retain it. WE can rest assured that Donald J. Trump will not go quietly into that good night, and live a quiet anonymous life of solitude, contemplation, or philanthropy. Its hard if not impossible to see him out building houses like Jimmy Carter.One way or another, he'll find a way to raise  hell and make trouble and gain attention, probably spewing idiocy in front of a camera on some insipid vacuous reality TV show, with his adoring fans dreaming of his return to power.Our best choice is to get the popcorn popper warmed up, sit back, and wait for the show to begin, once again.

Voting, For Something

 TWENTY FIVE PERCENT of all the people who vote in this election will be sixty five or older, which may reflect the fact that a rather high percentage of older people vote, and a rather low percentage of young people vote. More than fifty percent of eligible Americans, uncharacteristically, will vote in this angry election, but fewer than seventy five percent. Angry, but not furious. It is essential that we remain convinced that voting is of the utmost importance,, after all, it is among the few means of popular expression available to us. Regardless of election results, the hard truth the United States shall remain forever utterly under the control of our corporate masters, as Gore Vidal called them. Vidal also made the cynical remark that the that half of eligible American voters who who don't bother to vote are the people who understand that their vote means nothing, that corporate control will adhere no matter what. The obvious truth of Vidal's cynical comment, methinks, must never quench our cigar's glow, as Bertolt Brecht said, nor move us to stray from our naive but comforting illusion that we live in a democracy, not a plutocratic corporate oligarchy, as is actually the case. In my early years of senior citizenship I have learned that advanced age does not translate to advanced wisdom. The elderly demographic comprises Donald Trump's strongest base of support, and the young his weakest. Clearly, in America, old people are idiots and young people have brains.I know people approximately my age (65) who firmly believe, or who firmly pretend to believe that there exists a secret conspiracy, consisting of something called the "deep state", among others, to remove Donald Trump from office. I'm talking about allegedly intelligent people, not "Q-Anon" nutcases. the people who believe or pretend to believe this are demonstrably idiots, because they can't seem to see that the conspiracy to remove Trump a loose, informal, and huge, loud, boisterous, and self promotional, entirely visible, obvious, right out in the open,  doing everything in its power to attract attention, and includes between one hundred and two hundred million Americans, including children. To not notice this one must either be blind, oblivious to reality, or plain old idiotic. There is nothing secret about opposition to Trump in America. I know a sixty three year old woman, ostensibly reasonably intelligent, who believes or pretends to believe that Michelle Obama is a man. there are many more like her out there, walking the streets, who shouldn't be.In america, the thin line between idiocy and sheer insanity often blurs.

Avoiding the Blathering Mob

 A FRIEND OF MINE, a fellow college instructor, has, like I, been forced to take his classes online. He spends his time alone at home, using his personal computer to post lectures, give assignments, administer tests, monitor student's progress, and assign grades. he says he misses being in class with his students, misses the more personal interaction, and considers online instruction something of a loss, a compromise. I know how he feels.he says, on the other hand, that not only has he made peace with Covid 19 self quarantining, he has actually learned to embrace and enjoy it. Again, i know how he feels.Our empathy extends even further. he and I are both approaching the end of our careers, in fact I formally retired several years ago, and my friend says that when he does finally retire, fairly soon, that he is strongly considering eschewing any sort of active social life, in favor of a life of quiet, pleasant solitude. A quite life of contemplation and art, of cherishing natural beauty, the simple those long quite hours alone with the self, reflecting, learning from within. Time spent alone outdoors, maybe with a few animal friends. Again, I know how he feels. talk has always been cheap, but never cheaper than now, in out age of social media. Twenty years ago, when AOL ruled the internet and social media consisted of chat rooms, I noticed how easy it was to hide behind a computer screen and spew nonsense and angry insults into  cyber space. Facebook replaced chat rooms, wit much the same result. I tried an experiment. Anytime anybody on Facebook started a conversation with me, I tell the person that I do not have conversation on a computer screen, that I much prefer face to face interaction, or, failing that, that I am willing to talk on the telephone, so that we can at least hear each other's voices, and say more than a few typewritten words. I have send out my home address and phone number to old friends, and to people I scarcely know, and have only recently met on Facebook itself. Nobody has ever called me or come by to visit. They are all perfectly willing to sit in front of their screens, and type words into messenger, but voice to voice or face to face conversation simply isn't worth the effort it takes. Neither am I willing to engage in conversations using email. Too slow. Too impersonal. None of that, however, addresses the essential, central problem of the blather. Does anybody who was born in the United States ever talk about anything other than himself, herself, or some insane conspiracy theory?

Dying Like Flies, Under Trump

 IT IS ESTIMATED that three hundred and sixty thousand Americans will have died of Covid 19 by New Year's Day. Donald Trump will be the president. if he is the president reelect, he will tell us how fortunate we are that he was reelected, and that without him, the death toll would have been millions. If he is the defeated lame duck, on his way out, he will claim that all the carnage, the horrible death toll is exclusively due to his defeat in his reelection bid. By the time the new president, whether its Trump or Biden, is sworn in on January 20, 2021, the death toll will be close to four hundred thousand. An interesting person to listen to is Rick Bright, who just a few days ago resigned from his position as a research scientist with the federal government.he had held a high ranking administrative position within the government, and during January and February of this year he and his associates were scrambling madly, making detailed plans for the country to fight the oncoming virus.they were researching and planning for mass vaccinations, and trying to provide the Trump administration with a substantial amount of factual information about effective policies and actions for the government to take. their warnings were dire, their suggestions and recommendations were stringent and massive. Bright was fired from his high ranking position,and transferred to  a position of less responsibility elsewhere in the government, without explanation. meanwhile,the Trump administration rejected all his and his colleagues work, ignored their warnings, dismissed their planning. Bright remained with the government through august, because he still thought that he could contribute to an effective government program to fight Covid 19 an prevent it from decimating the American population. Every step of the way, Bright was interfered with, intimidated, told not to pursue specific research or plans to fight the virus without specific permission from the White House. Finally frustrated and stressed beyond what he could bear, he became a whistle blower on his way out, his new mission being to warn as many people as possible about the Trump administration's resistance to every effort being made to provide an effective plan to fight the virus. he has done and is doing interviews, and he is speaking out on the internet, and anywhere else people might listen to him. he says that it is as if the Trump administration wanted from the beginning to actually increase the deadly impact of Covid 19, rather than mitigate it. Rick Bright is a person worthy of looking up, and worth listening to.

Legislating For the Poor

 DAVY CROCKETT, among his many clever colloquialisms, said:"It is my firm belief that Congress ought to at least occasionally legislate for the poor." Crockett ran for Congress seven times, won three and lost four, and served three terms, finally giving up Tennessee politics after his final defeat. His plan was to migrate to Texas and begin a new political career, seeking fame, fortune, and power in the rough, rugged, contested Texan part of mexico, where revolution was in the air. Crockett has risen in politics as a supporter of Andrew Jackson, a fellow former military Tennessean with humble origins and populist sympathies, but the too had severely fallen out over issues such as Indian removal, and had become bitter enemies. Jackson called Crockett "profligate", accurately, and Crockett derisively referred to Jackson as "the government", meaning that the president had become a dictator. Crockett's congressional crusade, besides forcing the government to live up to its treaty obligations and allow Indians to remain in their ancestral homelands, was to grant ownership of their land to pioneer homesteaders, instead of leaving the land in the hands of wealthy eastern banks.he never accomplished this, but his son, John Wesley Crockett, elected to Congress in his father's seat shortly after Crockett senior died at the Alamo, did. David Crockett, as he liked to be called, would doubtless have been proud of his eldest son, for doing what he himself had failed to accomplish, successfully legislating for the poor. The legendary martyr of the Alamo, however, did in fact achieve his dream because after his death he became a national hero, making his son's job a mite easier, as he might have said.There are instances in american history in which government legislated for the poor, but, arguably, too few. And, in such instances, the wealthy who do the legislating cannot seem to resist the temptation to throw themselves a few goodies as well, or to so skew the legislation as to appear to be favoring the poor, while actually benefiting mostly the wealthy.The wealthy, as well as the poor, receive social security benefits, and better benefits. Above a certain income, close to one hundred and fifty thousand a year, income is not taxed for social security. The Homestead Act of 1862 and the Mining Act of 1872 were on the surface beneficial to the poor, but in reality gave large banks and corporations an opportunity for huge profits.Roosevelt's New Deal was indeed of great help to the economy generally, and carefully crafted so as not to arouse the envy of the wealthy.usually, government legislates for the wealthy. Obama's bank and corporate bailout ws justified on the grounds that if the huge corporations went down, so would the rest of us. the poor in America are held hostage by the profits of the rich. Early in the Covid 19 pandemic, millions of Americans, myself included, were thrilled to receive a very helpful twelve hundred check from the government. We were grateful. but these same Americans would probably be appalled if they fully realized just how much of those trillions of dollars went into the hands of the wealthy, in the form of assistance to big business. Since three hundred an eighty two of the five hundred forty five members of congress are millionaires, we should expect nothing else.No government will ever truly represent the interests of the poor, until some government comes into existence comprised of poor people.

Updating Conservative Christian Dereliction

 HERE IS AN UPDATE on the national conservative evangelical Christian republican terrorist organization activities.Never a dull moment, as they say. In Michigan, a right wing militia, or perhaps a pair of them (all militias are right wing, violent, and Christian) was plotting to kidnap the governor, put her on kangaroo court trial for treason for shutting down the economy, especially bars, and requiring people to wear masks during an epidemic, truly horrific crimes against the people. Their next step was to storm the capitol and overthrow the state government. their plans were evidently serious, well advanced, and detailed. by the leader's mug shots, they appear to be real thugs. Their planned treason belies conservative claims of fidelity to the constitution and the rule of law, as conservative behavior almost almost belies their professed values and beliefs. We await word on whether Donald Trump and the Republican party approve of the coup attempt. Trump, most likely, will tell them to "stand down, and stand by".  The Trump administration, sinking deeper into disease and delusion, is likely to believe or say anything, as we well know by now. After the Kamala Harris mike Pence debate, during which Vice President Pence praised president Trump's performance for allowing fewer than two million to die of Covid 19, he flew off into full fledged fantasy land, announcing that Trump had won the debate, even though the president wasn't even there. Maybe Mr. Pence was wearing an ear microphone, and receiving instructions from the White House. Why not? Vice President pence certainly didn't win the debate. Finally we arrive at what must serve as the apex of of conservative Christian moral depravity. Or maybe its the bottom , the bottom of the Christian conservative swamp.President Trump, it seems, felt neglected at having to stay home in his sick bed and watch Pence hog all the attention, debating away on national television.Unnecessary, since on point Pence is nothing other than Trump's number one boot licker. Trump, grabbing the spotlight right back, called into FOX News, his boot licking media outlet of choice,  and promptly called Kamala Harris a "monster", and, for good measure, called her a "monster" yet again. Nobody at the network objected, and five'll get you ten that not one single solitary Trump supporter in freedom's land did either.

Saying "Anon" To Q-Anon

 FACEBOOK, like all big businesses, is unfeeling, uncaring, concerned only with profit. But sometimes a blind old squirrel finds an acorn, and upon rare occasion corporations do the right thing.Facebook finally saw some light and removed hundreds of posts by the shadowy, freakish, pro Trump online organizations "Q-Anon". Q-Anon is one of those combinations of human interaction which ought not to exist, and which would never have existed without the internet, much like the "Antifa" group, which is opposed to all things Trump, and exists only online, with rare appearances in the real world by people claiming to be members.For the fact that Q-Anon exists almost entirely online, that it has no coherent organization or agenda, and that its members scarcely know each other and do not congregate in large numbers, we who are among the sane should be greatly grateful.Why anyone with a life, a roof over the head, hobbies, and friends sit down at a computer screen and profess allegiance to an organization which claims to be engaged in opposing and destroying a fictional organization which allegedly consists of blood sucking vampires,  A list celebrities, and members of some mythological "deep state" operating pedophile activities all for the purpose of removing the president of the United States from power is beyond the realm of reason. Who would participate in this childish nonsense? Mentally ill freaks, that's who. The pandemic affords many people the opportunity to do the things they enjoy doing at home, often with undesirable consequences.Q-Anon supports president Trump, and he supports them.he says he doesn't know much about them, but he appreciates the support. The more he finds out about them, the more likely he is to enthusiastically endorse the group, so weird are they and he.Q-Anon is decidedly Republican, conservative, and probably Christian, although rumor has it that it has drawn in some progressives as well, a dubious claim. Estimates are that between two percent and seven percent of the American population are either members or supporters, a figure hard to believe, frightening if true.The actual creator of Q-Aon is likely as misfit high school drop out teenager holed up in his parent's basement, laughing his brains out. there motto "where one goes, all go" is ominous. It implies unity of purpose no matter how insidious and insane the purpose. It implies complete and utter chaos.But it contains a certain sense of hope for those determined to defend human sanity when confronted with senseless lunacy. The hope is that one of them will go far, far away, maybe even to oblivion, and that the rest, like lemmings, the rest of these delusional derelicts will soon live up to their promise, and  go to their own frivolous , vacuous self destruction.

Supporting A Self Proclaimed Sexual Predator

 "SHE WAS MARRIED, but I still wanted to fuck her. I moved on her like a bitch, but I just couldn't get there. She had these big phony tits. Shen you're a star, when you're rich and famous, you can have your way with women. I just start kissing. You can grab them by the pussy........" The Access Hollywood tape, as it came to be known, with Donald Trump speaking, was released on October 8, 2016, and went viral. Eventually, as many as one hundred and fifty million Americans heard it.The republican national Committee insisted that Trump resign as the GOP nominee for president, but he refused. One month later Trump was elected president, with the overwhelming support of evangelical Christians and a little help from his friends, the Russians. The morning the tap was released, trump at first promised to become a better man, then, upon further reflection and advice, laughed it off as nothing but meaningless, harmless guy talk, locker room banter. For his Christian supporters, that was enough to settle the matter. haven't we all sinned? Ever since, throughout the Trump presidency, the evangelical community has been remarkable forgiving of Trump, his constant lying, his constant criminal activity. Essentially, they ignore it all. They ignore Trump's sinful, criminal nature because they share isi racism, his hatred of immigrants, and his determination to give as little help to the needy as possible. True Christians, Trump's christian supporters. Decent people, gentlemen, young men in lockers rooms never talk like the foul mouthed trump, a self proclaimed sexual predator. No decent person would even think like that, much less talk like that. You forgive people who confess, repent, and atone. Trump denies all his crime, all h is viciousness, and confesses nothing. Instead, he brags. Even more appalling than electing him is the fact that as we near the end of his term in office, his evangelical supporters remain more loyal then ever, even after four years of Trump's constantly appalling behavior as president.His "christian" supporters are neither christian nor decent, or, if they are Christians, then Christianity is neither moral moral decent. The biblical god is often described as "harsh". In fact, the biblical god is more like a demon, as Thomas Paine pointed out.And the evangelical Christians who worship this demonic God and continue to support the criminal sexual predator Donald Trump, are morally bankrupt, and are no better than their God, and no better than Donald Trump.

Scientifically Seeing, Biblically Blinding

 AMONG THE MANY AMAZING MARVELS revealed by modern science are black holes, whose existence was predicted by Einstein and confirmed not long after his death. They're hard to see, because they're invisible.  A black hole is a former large star which has collapsed in upon itself in old age, in the process of dying, and has become so extremely condensed and dense, and its gravity so great, that nothing can escape it, not even light. Hence its invisibility. Since the speed of light is one hundred and eighty thousand miles per second, an escape velocity greater than that is truly a huge gravitational field. Amazing.  Amazing as black holes are, there are innumerable equally wondrous and incredible objects throughout the universe, stars, planets, galaxies in numbers too large to contemplate, all revealed since teh nineteen sixties by modern astronomy. Your run of the mill astronomy picture of the day, which you can see by typing in "astronomy picture of the day", taken from orbiting telescopes, is a breath taking panoramic vista of explosive color, and explosion of stars, we now know that just about every star we can see has planets orbiting it, and with them, maybe life. We know all this because of our modern science. All this wonder, beauty, and knowledge because of modern science of astronomy, which arguably was founded by Galileo in 1609 when he "betook himself" to looking through his primitive "optik tube" heavenward, at the moon, the Planet Jupiter, and its four largest moons, which through a small telescope sit close to the giant planet like four babies close to their adoring mother, as my mother once said. She thought they were cute, and they are. Galileo was arrested, tried, convicted, and sentenced to house arrest for daring to tell us that there are objects in the universe which do not orbit the Earth, the birth place of Christ, but, rather are dutifully orbiting mother Jupiter. Galileo's mistreatment by the Catholic church is the perfect symbol of the contrast between science and religion, of humanity's never ending war between the pursuit of truth and the preservation of superstition, a war ongoing today, as heated as ever. according to the bible, the Earth is flat, has four corners, rests upon four pillars. The stars are either tiny hols in the dome of heaven through which the light of heaven shines, or shiny trinkets hanging from the dome, depending on which poetic but primitive passage you believe. Carl Sagan once said that his primary objection to the Bible is that the universe it describes is so very small and uninteresting compared to the real deal. If the bible is the word of God, God could use a class in basic astronomy.

Embracing the Gospel of Christian Racism

 WHY ON EARTH such a decidedly immoral person as Donald J. Trump, lacking anything remotely resembling what one generally considers Christian values or character, continues to be the recipient of the lion's share of evangelical Christian support, is among the most , of not the most puzzling and posed questions in contemporary American politics. The prevailing theory seems to be that abortion rights are the central concern of single issue religious voters, that republicans tend to be anti-choice while Democrats are generally pro choice, that Trump is a republican, although he was at one time  pro choice Democrat, and that therefore lazy single issue voters hold their noses, look teh other way, away from Trump's filthy character, blind themselves to trump's constant lies and misbehavior, install ear plugs, and vote Trump. Scholarship is beginning to produce monographs concerning this question. "White Too Long: the Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity" by Robert P.Jones, awakens the reader to the reality that the whit American Christian community has from the nation's beginning been the epicenter of American racism, and that Donald Trump, demonstrably racist, embodies vicariously the aspirations of white supremacist Christianity. to covertly racist attitudes while overtly denying doing so. "Red State Christianity: Understanding the voters Who Elected Donald Trump" by Angela Daeker , like Jones, emphasizes the tunnel vision and intellectual laziness of single issue voters, and, like Jones, describes in detail what white American Christianity tries to downplay: its intimate role in supporting slavery, segregation, and racial discrimination, as evidenced by today's continuing christian segregation of parishes, and the fact that denominations such as the Baptist church split into north and southern organizations in the eighteen forties, dividing over the slavery issue, and that the southern Baptist church formally apologized for its racist past only as recently as 1990. Both authors conclude from convincing evidence that the supporters of Donald Trump do not trust God to directly give guidance and inspiration to pregnant women without the need for government intervention, and that they are quite content to leave racism to the free market private sector, letting it languish wherever it pleases, without allowing the government to lift a finger against it. A most interesting concept of God and government do these Trump supporters have, and seek to impose upon us all.