Eating For Racial Survival

 AS A CHILD I was fed meat, as much as I wanted, without complaint, like most Americans. once when I was about twelve I ate an entire pound of bacon for supper, to the amazement of my old sister and mother. When I was thirty six a had a good looking girlfriend who turned me into a vegetarian, but we broke up, and the indoctrination didn't stick, at least not entirely. Perhaps I relapsed for spite. For the next thirty years I was a fair weather vegetarian, and still am. I love PETA and vegetarian cuisine, but abhor rigid, inflexible rules. When I dine alone at home I vej out, but I never turn down a cheeseburger at the senior center. But I know this; the vegetarian way is better; cheaper, and healthier, for the individual, and for the planet. And PETA, of which right wing morons make so much fun, is correct, in particular, morally.Much of the ridicule come from right wing christian morons; either they never read the Commandment which says "thous shalt not kill", or read it to mean "thou shalt not kill unless I happen to get hungry". The long and short of it is this: it eh human race stopped eating meat today, with the possible exception of fish, within a few years climate change would have begun to reverse, and would the global rate of coronary heart disease and cancer. Global meat production contributes nearly as much carbon [pollution to the atmosphere as the fossil fuel industry. To quote Casey Stengal, "you could look it up". Or, you could argue with scientists at places like Harvard and M.I.T., which would only embarrass  you. As usual, science has the answer, as anyone who has ever eaten an "Impossible Burger" from Burger King well knows. Made entirely from soybeans, it tastes exactly like black angus. You simply must try one.the fellow who invented it hit the nail dead one, and he plans to continue replacing meat with vegetable substitutes which taste identical to meat. When he succeeds, and he will, he will save the world, and we will live in a different world. since much of the human population would rather did of a heart attack or cancer than give up meat, meat substitutes which taste and texture exactly like meat must be invented, and the Impossible Burger" proves that they can and will. It is not unreasonable to predict that because of education, market forces and sheer necessity, the practice of killing and consuming animals by humans will be extinct. if it isn't, we may be.

Voting Divisively

 THE FORTHCOMING GEORGIA SENATORIAL RUNOFF ELECTION is a perfect, appropriate illustration of the america's fundamental divide, of the Democrats, the Republicans, and their differences. An intellectual documentary flim maker and an African-American minister versus a pair of billionaires, one a former CEO, the other a hot babe with an inheritance. Amazingly, a large number of non wealthy people, mostly conservative white Christians, will vote for the billionaires, billionaires whose agendas will represent the interests of billionaires, not poor people. Although it is true that blues are outraising reds these days, buttressed by Wall Street hedging its bets and your occasional liberal multibillionaire like George Soros and Mike Bloomberg, it is still equally true, and long has been, that if  you closely examine the respective party's constituencies and agendas and platforms, although the Republicans currently do not have a party platform,you will find two distinct demonstrable realities. The Democrats are full of ethnic minorities, poor people, and educated whites, and the Republicans are full of rich people and uneducated white Christians. The interests of a large majority of Americans are better represented by the Democratic agenda, and the Democratic agenda including its mot progressive features, is supported by a majority of American voters.Trump's plan to visit Georgia to help the republican candidates could backfire, and could help motivate Democratic voters more than Republicans. For teh sake of getting substantial emergency economic assistance to the American people, installing a comprehensive, effective centralized plan for fighting the pandemic, for the sake of at long last establishing a powerful government program to fight climate change, to fight systemic racism, and to promote police reform, Atlanta's huge African-American community might be motivated to elect two Democratic Senators, like it helped win the Georgia presidential election for Biden. The future of America's health, economically, as well as in terms of a sustainable climate and public health, might well depend on it. An artist and a minister running for election against a pair ob billionaires.A slam dunk no brainer decision for working people, you might think.However, the billionaires will probably get elected, with substantial help from the  minimum wage demographic. As Davy Crockett said: "that don;t make no sense. hell, that don't even make good nonsense." Why on earth any minimum wage worker would believe for a second that any billionaire would have poor people's best interests at heart is among nature's greatest mysteries. As P.T. Barnum said: "Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people".

Changing Climate Changers

 PRESIDENT BIDEN'S climate change tsar, John Kerry, does not deny the reality of human made climate change by carbon, and can therefore be safely relied upon to not support Donald Trump's desire to reinvigorate the dying coal industry with government subsidized socialism, nor to pretend that eighty five degree days in Iowa in October mean nothing. For that the world should be grateful. Noam Chomsky, world renowned intellectual and therefore neither a conservative, an evangelical Christian, nor widely known in America, pointed out several years ago that the fate of the world might hinge on the twenty twenty election. It did, in the sense that either the U.S.A. starts helping reverse climate change in earnest, or dooms her great grandchildren to celebrate the holidays in a steamy, one hundred and twenty degree winter wonderland. The good news is that, by a margin of six million, the American people voted to at least make a token effort to keep the world on its hinges. the bad news is that those who would remove the hinges are still very much among us. Noam Chomsky, who at ninety two likely would not have survived a second Trump term in office, as neither might not anyone else, can now spend his final years with some measure of belief in the future of humanity. In this context it matters little how long the Trump movement's temper tantrum lasts, other than for comic relief. John Kerry's carbon tax will apply to everyone, including those among us sufficiently deluded to attend MAGA rallies during the Biden administration, screeching "lock her up!" and "stop the steal!" at nobody in particular, without having the foggiest notion that it is they and their delusional leader who are in fact trying to pull off the steal. That cow already having long left the barn - and bear in mind that the countless Trump lawsuits contesting the election which are being thrown out of nearly every court in America allege nothing about electoral fraud - but have so far been concerned only with highly technical, picky details of election procedure, such as matching signatures and methods of ballot counting and whether observers were allowed to stand five or six feet from counting tables. One would think, wouldn't one, that if massive fraud did actually occur on a colossal scale, that Trump's lawyers would at least know enough about it to present evidence of it in court. Trump's supporters will instead soon be reduced to resuming their status as deniers of climate change and science in general, and complaining about everything the Biden administration does simply because its being done by a Democrat.. They'll spend the rest of their lives pretending to believe that the election was stolen, as will Trump, and, like the rest of their delusion, their credibility will fade inexorably, and mercifully.

Stepping Up

 IN 1980, when I was twenty five, my beloved Yankees lost to Kansas City in the playoffs, and went on to the World Series. I was crushed. Somebody gave me a ticket to the World Series. Somehow, it didn't seem right. I contacted a friend of mine who is a strong Kansas City fan, shook his hand in congratulations, and handed him my ticket. He attended. I felt great.  The day after Trump defeated Hillary, I made a point of congratulating my Trump supporter frenimies and congratulating them, though heartbroken. During my long and illustrious amateur tennis career, I had to shake hands and accept the second place trophy more often that I wanted. Once, i walked to the net and held out my hand to a guy who beta me after spending the entire match falsely accusing me of cheating him. He refused my offer. At least he was consistent. An asshole to the very end. My purpose here is not to praise myself for my magnanimity, but to make a point. I am no more virtuous, and no less prone to bad behavior than most people. But I know how I was raised, i was raised to take the high road, and for that I am grateful to my parents. As I have aged, I have grown less tolerant. Intolerance, however, is often a virtue. I grew up surrounded by racists and homophobes. I wasn't concerned about it. We still had fun playing baseball, hanging out together. I could ignore their bigotry; nobody was making me agree with it.  Now, not only do I condemn and avoid bigots, I stay away from conservatives, Trump supporters, Republicans, and religious fanatics, because I don't like nor approve of their attitudes and beliefs. On the day when I meet my maker, I hope I remember those moments, those moments when I reached a higher level of nobility than I might have wanted to. it hasn't always been easy. I often have to force myself to become a better person than I want to. Ultimately, the memories of our experiences are our only remaining possessions. Donald Trump evidently wasn't raised the way I was. Maybe he was raised to throw temper tantrums in the back seat of a limo. had I ever tried that crap, i would have tried it only once. I was raised to respect people until the moment when they prove they no longer merit my respect, as often happens. I do not respect Donald Trump, and I do not respect anyone who supports him. Trump trying to steal the election instead of shaking hands with Biden is the last straw on the back of a camel laden with tons of straw. I was raised to treat people properly, respectfully, whether or not they deserve it, which, often, they do not. Donald Trump and his supporters were evidently raised to be poor losers and liar.I'm glad I was not.

Not Proving Negatives

 AT VARIOUS STAGES we learn life's eternal verities, irrefutable facts about spitting into the wind, keeping the latrine far from the mess tent, things of that nature.If we a little science, math, or logic, we learn the law which says that you can never prove a negative. You can prove that UFOs exist, assuming they do, but you can never prove that they do not exist. There might always be one out there, unseen. You can prove that somebody is a serial killer, but you can prove prove that anybody is not; Any given person, even the pope or Christ, all might have a close full of unseen skeletons. You can prove that an election was rigged, but you can never prove that it was not. There is always a remote, one in a trillion chance that there was some deep secret rigging. Donald Trump isn't smart enough to understand this, but apparently at least one and probably only one Trump supporter or associate is. After pledging to leave office when the electoral college declares Biden the winner, which in effect it already has, none too soon to be former president D.J. trump amended and hedges his offer by pledging to leave if Joe Biden, or presumably anybody else can prove that the election was not rigged. Perfect ploy; force Biden to do the impossible as a precondition for assuming the office the American people elected him to. Pretty clever for a conservative. we can assume that millions of Republicans, in and out of Congress, and million of evangelical christian devoted to Trump will heartily approve of this stipulation, so sufficiently insane it is. Biden should make a counter offer, but probably won't, due to his decency and desire to at least try to unite the country.To wit: If one minute after Biden completes taking the oath of office on January 20, 2012, Donald J. Trump has not removed his orange haired as from white House grounds and taken his motley family with him, a force of Secret Service and federal officers adequate in number to accomplish the task will summarily remove them, and have them arrested for trespassing. Oh, what a lovely mental image;  what a pathetically beautiful thought; Donald Trump, his feet kicking and toupee flying free, being carried into an awaiting patrol care by a pair of husky guys in suits and ties. As they load him into the back seat, nobody bothers to place a hand atop his bald head to protect him from a bump, because, if you'll remember, it was Trump himself who declared his belief that policemen in America should never offer criminals that courtesy.

Harming America, One Last Time

 SOON TO BE former president Trump, thank goodness, seems determined to go out in character; stupid, and cruel. Its getting worse, so thank God he'll soon be gone. On Thanksgiving, Trump encouraged Americans to gather together with friends and family in large numbers, and to attend their usual religious services with the full congregation. Incitement to mass murder. Trump, simply put, is trying to increase the number of people he has already killed through disastrous leadership by as many as one hundred thousand. The difference between listening to Trump and behaving sanely is at least that great, and his followers listen to him. His followers are the ones doing just as he suggested.If you disagree, your argument is with the medical profession, the science profession, and place like Harvard and M.I.T. Good luck with that. To show that he cannot be controlled, Trump must show that he is in control. a mental illness. The neo-conservative supreme Court is on Trump's side, just as he and his Republican enablers intended.Reversing itself from Ginsburg to Amy, they five to foured a church's right to hold full house services, in spite of the orders of any emergency burdended political leader. Freedom of speech. Freedom of assembly, freedom of religion, freedom to sicken and die. Constitutionaly, the argument has merit. but the fact that four justices dissented proves that the opposite argument also has merit.You might think that intelligent well informed thoughtful people such as the sort who sit on the Supreme Court would realize that limiting the size of congregations in churches during a deadly pandemic does not constitute an infringement upon religious freedom, nor of freedom of speech, because church services are the mere trappings, ceremonies, and rituals of religious devotion, not the religious belief itself. Religious belief and devotion exist in the heart and mind of the believer; god can be and is worshiped anywhere, including the safety and sanctity of the home. but, conservatives will be conservatives, and will render conservative opinions, what they believe the constitution mandates.Few if any among us can truly transcend our biases. The real issue is President trump's words of encouragement to Americans to put themselves in harm's way,  for which he should justly be indicted, impeached, convicted, and removed from office, as he should have been long ago for other crimes.We'll soon see the impact of Trump's latest traitorous behavior.It won't be the first time this monster has harmed our country, but, if we are fortunate, it will be the last.

Giving Thanks For Refuting Nonsense

 AMONG TEH MANY blessings for which we ought to give thanks, none is more important not only than our freedom to seek truth, but our intellectual ability to distinguish between truth and nonsense, and to repudiate the latter with our intellectual faculties. In our age of disinformation, in which everyone is entitled, so everyone seems to think, to his or her own set of facts, this ability has never been of greater importance. The forces arrayed in the name of false realities are formidable, including the right wing media, social media, right wing politicians, right wing citizens, and the right wing. Right wing religion tells us that if we do not embrace their religion we will suffer eternal damnation, an obvious lie. Right wing politicians tell us that when donald Trump was elected, America, which had once been great, no longer was, but that he could make it so again, and that, during his four years in office, he did exactly that. another obvious lie. Our modern false narratives are potent, implacable, and will be difficult to dispel. We must however, find a way to do it. We know we can, because in recent years we have begun to correct historical lie, lie such as Christopher Columbus was a good person and a great contributor to western civilization, or that the first thanksgiving holiday was a glorious cooperative culinary celebration involving both Europeans and native Americans. after a long and arduous process of reeducation by intreped  historians intent on dismantling American hagiography, hagiography being history written in such a way as to make its subjects look dishonestly good, we now understand that Columbus was a psychotic butcher whose lust for fame and wealth caused the genocidal murder of millions of people, and that the thanksgiving myth of 1621 is exactly that, a myth. Actually, the folks who dropped anchor in Massachusetts in 1620 were ill prepared to feed themselves, and they resorted to stealing form the local natives, by digging up their stored food supplies  under cover of darkness, by moonlight. The natives were afraid of the Europeans, because the newcomers had a magical way of putting a hole in and dropping a deer at long range with no discernible causal connection other than a loud noise. But they were outraged enough to strike back with arrows, and when the pilgrims asked why the natives hated the Puritans so much, as if they didn't know, the natives sinply said "because you're a bunch of thieves." All you had to do is ask, they scolded. Sign language, like morality, has a certain universal aspect to it.We don't teach that in schools, or we didn't until perhaps recently, simply because it makes the first "Americans" look bad. Hence, hagiography. But, we are becoming more forthright. Columbus Day is now largely ignored, and Thanksgiving Day is slowly being replace by a more modern cultural celebration of diversity sort of thing, all probably for the best.next thin you know, we'll come to terms with the fact that dropping two nukes on Japan was nothing other than two war crimes, that  Ronald Reagan was straight up cold killer, that most American presidents were war criminals in one way or another, but, that is for another day. We still have much work to do. For now, suffice to say that Biden won the election without stealing it, and have a happy Thanksgiving.

Anti-Vaxxing

BY CHRISTMAS, more than three hundred thousand Americans will have died from the virus. By inauguration day, probably between four hundred thousand and half a million Americans will have died from Donald Trump's hoax. Trump's maskless, mindless MAGAts, spreading death and disease, and insanity. Lock them up. Mindless masses of never say truth Trumpers, swilling bleach and hydroxycholoroquine, denying scientific reality. Throughout twenty twenty one and beyond they will doubtless stand packed together, without masks, without vaccinations, wearing faded red ball caps with gibberish printed on the front, while the ever orange Trump screeches his usual vile bile above them, claiming to still be the true president, and blaming his viral slaughter on the Chinese and Joe Biden, the cold blooded killer Trump, killer of nearly half a million Americans, through negligence. Their chants will alternate between "stop the steal", and "lock her up", referring to either Hillary Clinton or Kamala Harris, without knowing nor caring which. Misogyny is an equal opportunity hate. Ironic, that it is they who tried, laughably, to steal an election. The carnival barking bastard will likely spend the next four years spewing his usual verbal garbage to the delight of millions of evangelical gangsters, and announce his candidacy for twenty twenty four on a platform of climate change denial and socialism for the dying coal industry. The Proud Boys will be standing by the petty demagogue, Bibles and assault weapons in hand, ready to kill somebody, some Democrat. They will be attired entirely in white for the occasion, hoods included, hiding grimaces of hatred. The good news is that Trump supporters tend to be older, and that the Republican party, the white christian party, is shrinking, albeit a bit too slowly for our national health. Then, there are the anti-vaxxers, the place where lunatics from the left meet lunatics from the right, on lunatic ground, on asylum ground. Anti-vaxxing is equal opportunity lunacy. According to evolutionary theory, these suicidal inbreds should die off. Many of them are traveling for thanksgiving, and should, in fulfillment of Darwinistic extrapolation, b e weeding themselves out by Christmas. Hundreds of thousands of dead Americans, with more to come, a collapsing economy,and all Trump and his supporters can do is screech about a stolen election, while they say and do nothing about saving the country, and, as everyone knows well, it is they who are trying to steal the election. Pathetic. Beyond pathetic.

Making America Great Again, This Time, For Real

 PRESIDENT BIDEN, oh, how lovely that sounds, whether the Senate goes red or blue, will have opportunity and motive to reverse much of the damage done to the United States by his traitorous, criminal predecessor.  The main modus operandi is the tried and true executive order. Biden could, for example strengthen oversight of the financial services industry merely by making appointments to regulatory bodies who believe in reasonable oversight, as he is already doing. He could turn Trump's useless trade war against china into productive negotiation. He could reinstitute and strengthen federal fair housing regulations which Trump dismantled in his ceaseless white supremacist quest to make American suburbs lily white. He could return crucial government agencies like the EPA and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to their rightful positions of strength, so that they could could again fulfill their purposes. Under Trump, they have become hollowed out shells of their former selves, deliberately sabotaged by traitorous Trump to make them work against their own missions, like much of the federal government. Under Trump the State Department is empty; a hollow shell with all good professional diplomats driven out. Trump had the delusion that he could conduct all foreign policy alone, merely by making deals. Biden's early cabinet level nominations are highly reflective of the Obama years; happy days are here again, competent, professionalism is returning to government. A cabinet level position is being created by Biden to deal exclusively with climate change, on about thirty years late, but, as they say, better than never. In his four years Donald Trump made a hollow mockery of his slogan "make America great again". hie did just the opposite. He took an already great country and severely damaged relations with allies. ignored horrible problems like climate change and the Covid 19 epidemic, turned his administration into complete chaos with constant firings and resignations, and lied to the American people on average twenty two and a half times every day, for a grand total of over twenty thousand lies. And yet, his supporters will continue to proclaim his the greatest president in history, will encourage him to run again in twenty twenty four, and will forever claim that his reelection was stolen from him by a massive conspiracy to steal over six million votes. Three weeks after his landslide defeat, Trump still claims he won the election. That in itself provides proof of what social scientists began to tell us shortly after he become president; that Trump is seriously mentally ill. Even more shocking is the recent revelation that there are more than seventy million Americans who are even more mentally ill than he.

Understanding Trees

 THE AMAZING DISCOVERY that trees growing closely together cooperate with each other in sharing resources instead of competing against each other for minerals and water, as had long been assumed to be the case by science, is worthy of a joyful human response for two basic reasons. Philosophically, nature turns out to be less brutal, less of a dog eat dog affair that it often seems, and often is. Somehow, that seems comforting, in our human world of competition and winners and  losers. The muddle sinks into the ground between two tall tress and they do not fight over it, as we had all long thought and assumed,they divide it half and half, just like we teach our children to do, without much success. Some smart scientist finally got around to putting a little dye in a puddle of water and found out the truth; the nearby trees divied up the water just as if they were sharing a pizza. A tree hugger myself, I planted about twenty saplings when I built my house on a barren vacant lot more than fifteen years ago. Now I Live in the middle of a mini forest of forty foot oaks and maples, and I love it. It comforts me to think that during our increasingly frequent droughts, my trees, several of which stand close together, shoulder to shoulder, share and share alike.This phenomenon appears not to be the only example of unexpected communication in nature. For several decades physicists have known that subatomic particles on opposite sides of the universe actually communicate, mysteriously, in what Einstein called "spooky action at a distance" Obviously, Einstein was as baffled by it as the next man.. Our new knowledge tells us as much about science as it does about trees. Science never claims to be perfect, like religion does, it merely claims that it tries, that it constantly works to change and improve itself, which religion does not. A long time ago I lost a good friend over this matter. Someone in the group told us that there are extraterrestrials living among us, and I had the audacity to ask for proof. I justified my demand on the basis that the scientific method requires proof for all claims of fact, especially extraordinary claims. He responded, cleverly he thought, that science makes mistakes, and that scientists sometimes disagree. Ye, of course science makes mistakes, and not only do scientists sometimes disagree, they disagree trillions of times, constantly. that's what makes science work. it corrects itself. Everybody puts their cards on the table, and the best hand wins. the best hand is the one which fits the fact, which can be proven and proven over and over again. You'll never see any religion doing that. Religion must be perfect, and because of that, it must never change, even though it does, quite by accident due to human folly and vanity. Now that I understand them better, I love my beautiful trees, and all trees, more than ever, and the same goes for science.

Defeating Fascism

FASCISM is an autocratic form of government in which, in theory, all the various functions, institutions, and organs of democratic government exist, but are bundled together in the hands of a single leader. In Latin, the word "fasci" means, literally,  bundle, and is symbolized by a group of sticks with a string tied around them, holding them together. The leader retains power by retaining the devout loyalty of a populist base of support, by presenting himself as the champion of the common people, for whom the leader is the savior of the country, a country which, according to the leader is beset by intractable enemies, within the country and outside it. The leader presents and constantly reinforces a false narrative in which these enemies of the people, all imaginary,  are a constant threat, and motivates his cult following by so castigating the enemies and presenting himself as the only one who can defeat them and save the country. Donald Trump does this. His enemies include the media, the intelligence gathering community, among others.The leader holds rallies at which he give impassioned speeches,  telling outrageous lies which induce a frenzied supportive response from the cult. The leader brutally, systematically suppresses all opposition and attempts to introduce democratic challenges to his power, of often with the help of they loyal police or military. Fascism arguably was invented by Julius Caesar, who used h is military glory to concentrate the power of the Roman Senate, the consuls, and the tribunes into his own hands, with the active support of Roman political leaders and the general population of Rome, just as modern fascist leaders, like Hitler and Mussolini rose to power by subverting existing democratic institutions with popular support.Donald Trump has hollowed out the state department, and ignores his advisors, effectively taking over their roles. Donald Trump and his millions of supporters are the closest the United States has ever come to having a fascist movement, being nearly indistinguishable from one. Trump and his supporters are pathetically dishonest; Trump tells the big lies, his supporters accept them without question. Because of their sheer number, and because of Trump's willingness to do anything to gain support, the Trump movement is deadly dangerous. Alarmingly, it appears that they are not going to simply go away. Trump's refusal to admit defeat in the election, his false claim that the election was stolen, and the incredible conspiracy claims of electoral fraud being circulated by his angry followers amount to an attempt to steal the election, to an attempted coup. The American people have evidently delivered themselves from Trump and fascism through an election,but the threat is not entirely gone. Trump will remain in the public eye, and will likely attempt to return to power,  It is frightening to imagine what he and his followers and enablers might have done to the country had he been elected to a second term. fortunately, we will never have to find out.

Dying Gasp

 WHEN THE NEWS reported that Trump had summoned republican leaders from the Michigan state legislature to bask in his presence, the intent obvious, one final fearful tremor shot through me. Like Obama said: for Trump to get what he wants, anything goes. Attention and fame, wealth, and power, in that order. I sighed in relief when I heard that the state legislators were not persuaded to send Trump electors to the college. Don't states have laws requiring that the winning candidate from the winning party gets to send its electors? Insiders say that Trump never expected to win election four years ago, was unprepared adn a bit overwhelmed, but grew to love the attention and power, predictably. After four years, he had become addicted to it, and simply could not let go. But, the legislators survived a private little chat with Al Capone, emerged with nary a scratch, defiantly undeterred in their determination to follow standard procedure, to do the right thing. Bless them. Trump's bizarre breach of responsibility and duty, Trump's unprecedented behavior will make the history books. Every other defeated for reelection president in American history has accepted defeat and left at the appropriate time, without all the kicking and screaming. I've always been much more interested in Trump's supporters than in Trump, psychologically, for I consider them morally bankrupt reprobates, merely for sticking with him, and I always will. Either they really hate illegal immigrants, are racists, don't mind pathological liars as long as they have the right agenda, or all three. Donald Trump is far and away the most morally, ethically, and legally reprehensible excuse for a human being who ever gained high office in the United States, his biography and presidency clearly show that, and ye, those who supported him throughout his presidency will remain forever undeterred by reality, even if he is convicted of felonies after he leaves office, as is quite possible. In a nation of reprobates, Trump could probably run against Biden in twenty twenty four from a prison cell, and get seventy million votes. we must resign ourselves to the reality that some people just have what it takes to become a cult leader. That Jim Jones, Charlie Mansion charisma. sometimes a cult leader starts our as a cult leader, then the cult becomes a world wide religion after his dramatic demise. Future historians may one day be writing histories of the emergence and rampant spread of the cult of the True Orange One, or some such bizarreness. It wouldn't be any more bizarre than what we've already seen.

Sorting Good Eggs From Bad Apples

 I'VE NEVER BEEN a big fan of country music. "Ring of Fire", Johnny Cash, 1963, when I was in third grade was the apex of my interest. Nor am I much of a fan of American celebrity culture. We Americans elevate entertainment celebrities almost to the status of gods. We build monuments and statues to them, we enshrine their houses as sacred temples, we get on buses and tour the neighborhoods where they live, and take pictures of their iron gates. Until the Covid epidemic, we much over rated those who entertain us, and under rated those who care for our health and well being. Dolly Parton, for example. Although I never cared for her singing voice or songs, and long ago tired of hearing crude comments about her chest size, I was vaguely aware of her philanthropic tendencies, and of the fact that she seemed over rated, artistically. Then she donated a million dollars to Vanderbilt University, which has been working in concert with the Moderna Company on a Covid 19 vaccine. Her money was earmarked exclusively for research,and seems to have paid off handsomely. Now I see her in a whole new light. Nor have I ever been much interested in nor respectful towards people whose fame derives exclusively from their personal wealth, with the exception of philanthropists Bill Gates and Warren Buffet. Donald Trump, who never gave anything to anybody, I despise. You might recall that hes Trump foundation was shut down early in his presidency for committing all manner of illegal acts, including channeling money from charity to his personal political campaign. I had always despised Jeff Bezos for his alleged parsimony, until just the other day. Just the other day I found out that he has allotted ten billion dollars to go towards fighting climate change. suddenly, at the drop of a hat, on the turn of a dime, Jeff Bezos becomes a hero of mine, and probably should become a hero to everyone on the planet. This is precisely the sort of philanthropic endeavor we need desperately, and in a hurry. Bezos evidently will use the money to invest in various projects to fight climate change, investments of his own choosing, hopefully with the sound advice of climate change scientists. For that kind of money he could probably purchase and plant at least a trillion trees, which in itself would go a long way towards solving the problem.On the other end of the spectrum, Apple Inc. was caught and finally fessed up to installing software and batteries in their smart phones which deliberately slowed the phones down, the nefarious purpose being to entice people to buy new upgraded phones. For this the y will pay handsomely, to thirty states. Don't be discouraged by bad corporate behavior in the face of blossoming generosity. Like Michael Jackson sand "One bad apple don't spoil the whole bunch, girl".

Dissecting

 LIKE FOOTBALL GAMES AND WARS, we learn about elections by studying them in retrospect. The most salient fact about the twenty twenty election seems to be that Biden won it by closely winning four key states, Wisc., Mich., Penna., and Ga., and that he won those states with a huge surge of support from African-Americans in four key cities: Milwaukee, Detroit, Philly, and Atlanta. Biden's connection to Obama and Kamala Harris seem to have elected Biden, all other factors remaining the same. Not coincidentally, these are the four states, cities, and precincts in which the never say died Trump organization is concentrating its legal and perhaps illegal efforts to overturn the election results. For Hillary four years ago, the blacks stayed home, perhaps disappointed at the lack of Obama on the ticket; and these four swing states went for Trump. Biden and Harris brought them back out. Biden and Harris, much like Obama, also bring out the racists. Trump was indicted by the federal justice department for racist business practices more than forty five years ago. he was raised that way, and he never changed. During his presidency, he expressed a preference for immigrants from Norway to those from what he called "shit hole" countries, by which he meant African countries. Within weeks after Barack Obama declared his candidacy for president in 2015, secret service protection was assigned to him, which is very unusual, because of the sheer number of threats made against hi, all racist in nature. Black man runs for president, out come the old school white boys. Republicans do not want black people voting in large numbers, because about ninety percent of African-Americans vote for Democrats. That fact is indisputable, and the attempts by republican state organizations in many states to suppress the black vote are obvious, if thinly veiled by justifications of verifying legitimacy. And, in a tragically appropriate way, Trump's final, last desperate attempt to steal the election and remain president is nothing other than an extension of his, the Republican party's, and conservative movement, including the evangelical Christian trump base, and the racism long embedded within it.Trump's final, desperate attempt to steal the election will be to try to convince Republican state legislatures in swing states to appoint Trump supporter electors, and that attempt will either fail miserably, or there will be a civil war in America, one which is perhaps long overdue.

Fictionalizing

 I WROTE A SCIENCE FICTION  novel in which October in Iowa had temperatures in October of eighty five degrees for two weeks, temperatures in November consistently above seventy five, no snow in the winter, and the weather alternated between extreme drought and drenching tornadic downpours. Spring began in late February, and summer extended through October. A deadly epidemic sweeps across the land and engulfs the world, killing hundreds of thousands then millions of people, man y of whom refuse to accept the reality of the plague and take protective action  Cures become available, and are ignored.Desperate for a great leader, the American people elect a raving demagogue as president, and when he takes office immediately begins to assume tyrannical control of the country.He constantly lies to the people, and attacks his enemies.When he is finally voted out of office he refuses to leave, claiming that the election was stolen from by by massive election fraud, when in fact it is he who is trying to over turn the results of a free and fair election. I liked my dystopian science fiction novel. I  thought it highly creative and imaginative.I would publish it, it would sell like a virus, I would have my fame and fortune, and would appear on Oprah.I had begun to reinvent my wardrobe and improve the legibility of my signature, when disaster struck. It struck gently, if a bit sarcastically, but nonetheless, it struck.  She sat me down, took my hand, looked at me warmly, kissed me gently, and said: "My darling, what you have written is not a dystopian science fiction novel,but rather, an accurate, concise description of reality, of the real world in which we live and struggle, a description whose accuracy would do justice to the very best historian or professional journalist." I recoiled in horror, horrified. I hadn't realized that. Her startling revelation did in fact explain much. I had vaguely wondered where exactly my idea had come from.It had all seemed, somehow, vaguely, disconcertingly familiar. I thought about it, and realized that, yes, indeed, I was merely fictionalizing my perception of the current state of the world, without realizing it. Like Einstein said, years ago: "The world is a madhouse", by which he maybe meant that the world in reality resembles a de facto dystopian science fiction novel. My plans have now changed. I am now resolved to either pursue a career in history writing, or in journalism, or perhaps pursue my dream of writing a novel, this one pure fiction, a novel in which the president is sane and honest, the major health concern is the common cold, and it is hot in the summer and cold in the winter, without crazy, violent weather swings. I wonder if it would sell....

Backstabbing the NationThrice

 ON THREE DISTINCT OCCASIONS Donald Trump clearly revealed himself to be a traitor, and each time his supporters and associates either denied teh facts, quietly acquiesced to the traitorous behavior, or actively celebrated and supported it, thus becoming accessories to treason. Because of this, they are no better than he. During the 2016 election campaign, Trump was fully aware of Russian assistance to him, and instead of trying to stop it, he welcomed it. Trump tried without success to blackmail to foreign government for damaging information about a political opponent,  and now, this. This is trump's refusal to acknowledge defeat in an election hr lost by a large and obvious margin, completely fairly.his defeat of Hillary in the twenty sixteen election by the same electoral margin he called a 'landslide". That election truly was corrupted, tainted, rigged, by Russian interference, according to the FBI and the CIA, and of course Trump and his supporters denied it completely. The twenty twenty election he says was stolen from him, when in fact he, his associates and his supporters are trying to steal it from Joe Biden. Trump and his supporters are nototious for smearing and slandering their political opponents with false accusations. Trump's opponents, and objective observers respond with truth and facts about Trump, and those truths make Trump look bad, and Trump and his supporters respond by denying the truthful messages and shooting the messenger with verbal slander. This is the most egregious behavior possible. This election is a prime example. trump and his supporters are at best very poor losers, failing to acknowledge defeat and congratulate the winner, and at worst they are traitors, seeking to steal the election by casting doubt on its results, betraying the country by disrupting and damaging the democratic process.The pity is that there are so many of these immoral people, and that they are in such deadly earnest in their pathetic, unpatriotic, delusional folly. When Trump was elected I pledged to give him a fair chance, while clearly indicating that I had no respect for him nor for those who voted for him. I had been aware of Trump's behavior for forty years, and had heard the Access Hollywood tape. that, plus his obvious racism and xenophobia were sufficient to turn me against him.  We owe everyone a fair chance. My attitude has not changed during his presidency, based on his behavior and his supporter's acceptance of it. My hatred of him has grown. I condemn him as a traitor and a criminal, and for his supporters I have only resentment and contempt, for their immorality, and their persistently despicable behavior. Their refusal to accept the election results is fitting, for it constitutes a final barrage of reprehensible behavior for a demagogue and his cult following, as they fade into the past, mercifully, for decent people everywhere.

Identifying

 THERE ARE THIRTY TWO MILLION eligible Latino voters in the Unitas Estates. not only is it now impossible for a person to win the presidency without getting a good share of support from Latino voters, it is becoming increasingly difficult for politicians to win as the state and local level without respecting and courting the Latino vote. We are now being reminded so often that the Latino American community in the United States is not a monolithic voting block or culture, that it is as diverse as the rest of the country, that we might soon expect that everyone will realize it, and we will no longer need to be told. Most Americans are, one can hope, well aware that people of Hispanic descent and ethnicity come from Mexico, The Dominican Republic, Cuba, and many other countries south of the Rio Grande.,likewise, most Americans are presumable well enough aware of reality to realize that both major political parties enjoy some degree of support from the thirty two million, While we are told that America's LatinX community is diverse, which it indeed is, we are also told to refrain from identity politics, that we should think in terms of the nation as a whole. Republicans try to attract Latino voters by raising the dreadful specter of socialism, as if our american made democratic socialist programs, programs like Social Security, Medicare, public schools, public streets and highways, public police and fire departments, among many others, were manifestations of the brutal dictatorial banana republics from which many latino-Americans escaped. The task for Democrats is to explain to everyone, not just Latinos, that American socialism is of the democratic kind, and that without it, the country simply would not run right. it also bears mentioning that whether one is Latino-American, African-American, or European -American, the country is far better off if workers are paid a fair, living wage, if climate change is reversed, if the nation's wealth is distributed widely among all people, rather than concentrated in the hands of a few wealthy elite, and if science and human rights are respected. It is of paramount importance that our nation's diversity be accepted and respected, of course, but the things that truly matter we all have in common, and it is therefore our sacred duty, under all circumstances, to work for the common good.

Rewriting History

 Donald Trump accidentally admitted defeat and Joe Biden won the election when, in the middle of the night, he twitter tweeted, beginning with the words "he won". Horrified by this spontaneous,  unintended outburst of honesty, millions of Trump twitter tweet followers rescued their albatross leader by convincing themselves that the whole social media platform had been "rigged". Trump later clarified, just like he later clarified the Access Hollywood pussy grabbing tape by later calling it "locker room talk". This is noteworthy, because he never offered clarification concerning his assertion that windmills cause cancer, nor that George Washington's army captured airports, nor that American friendship with Italy dates from the reign of Julius Caesar.President elect Biden and his chief of staff are beseeching the Trump administration to give them briefings on Covid 19, immigration policy, and other matters, as preparation for the incoming administration.Maybe Biden shouldn't bother. What can anyone within the Trump administration offer,other than lies, lunacy, and idiocy? Biden's people would show up expecting to be properly informed, only to be informed that Covid 19 is a hoax, all immigration problems can be fixed by merely building a wall and kidnapping children, and the North Korean dictator, formerly known as "little rocket man", isn't such a bad guy after all, with or without nuclear weapons. The ancient Egyptians and the Stalinist Russians tended to erase from their records all history which proved inconvenient to them or did not serve their purposes. Maybe that's not such a bad idea. it becomes tempting to merely refer to the period 2017-2021 as "The Dark Ages", and say nothing further. Why not? Inventing alternative, false realities was the favorite past time of the Trump administration, part and parcel for his supporters, who are even now engaged in the lunatic folly of deceiving themselves that the election of Biden was rigged, stolen. Trump, years in advance of the election, said that it would be, a prophecy rooted in lunacy. I have still not heard a single trump supporter acknowledge that Donald Trump is a chronic, pathological liar, nor that he has ever told a single lie. That in itself is telling. That in itself is tragic. Shortly after Pfizer and Moderna announced the successful development of vaccines for Covid 19, lame duck president Donald Trump got in front of a camera,  praised the development, and reminded us al that this wonderful event had taken place on his watch. As if we needed to be told. As if he personally had anything to do with it. Give Trump credit. he is consistent. He never tries to hid his idiotic, delusional, pervasive narcissism. But at least now that a quarter million Americans have died from the virus, the president has the good sense to no longer call it a  hoax.

Healing the Mentally Ill

I RECENTLY MET a young blue collar man of Hispanic descent whose lack of accent indicated that he had been raised in Unitas Estates.  His pick up truck was still festooned with Trumper bumper stickers, and might remain so festooned for much longer, one of which read "Trump 2020: No more bullshit". Maybe by that enigmatic phrasing he meant that he was willing to give Trump one more chance by voting for him again, only on the condition that Trump and his administration stop all the lying, the bad policy, the bullshit. Doubtful, but maybe. Who knows what it meant?  Trump people rarely if ever make sense. I was afraid to ask him whether he thought the election had been rigged. Since most Trumpers do, I figured the odds were good that he was one of the hurt and deluded. I tried to comfort him by assuring him that according to the election result Trump and Trumpism are both very much alive, and that we can expect to see a considerable amount of each in the future. If Trump supporters would only sit down, breathe deeply, and think about it sensibly for a few minutes, which in theory they are capable of doing, they would realize that for a conspiracy to rig th election for Biden to work, it would required so many cooperative, silent people, so much shenanigans, and so much manipulation as to be a miracle of cooperative planning if it worked without being proven or even detected, as John Bolton keeps pointing out. The Department of Homeland security call sit the most secure election in American history; so, if it was rigged, it was rigged to a miraculous degree of success.Not one single trace of any fraud. The people who still refuse to accept the objective reality of the great prevaricator's election defeat bring to min an elderly victim of dementia who has recently suffered the death of a beloved spouse, child, or pet, and has retreated into an imaginary world in which the beloved is still very much alive. In order to keep his cult following motivated, Trump, like any good cult leader, must keep his false narrative alive, that of a righteous cause, beset by enemies, similar to the one Hitler started using late in the war.That they are dividing and harming the country, and impeding necessary progress, to these traitors, for whom personal power and prestige and satisfaction outweigh patriotic duty. Anywhere from forty to seventy percent of Republicans claim to believe that the election was stolen from Trump. The republican party is delusional, mentally iss, just as it has demonstrated by the fact that many of them deny climate change, and it must either be made healthy and whole, or die.

Freaking Out

 A FREAK SHOW, something called the "Million MAGA march" sprung up suddenly in Washington D.C., like a festering mass of maggots atop a heap of jack ass dung. Years ago, a march called the "Million Man March" was held for the purpose of encouraging African-American men to live responsible lives and care for their families, which distinguishes it from today's freak show, in that it was a worthy undertaking, not a freak show. Donald Trump, who once again played golf today, which he has cone nearly every day since his election loss and which is arguably the most productive activity in which he has engages as president, last night twitter tweeted his approval for the freak show in his honor., unsurprisingly. The "march", which was a swarming mob of fools in denial of reality, like all other events associated with Donald Trump, had no good purpose, its only purpose being to vent anger and hatred at Trump's election loss, and to  revel in fantasy. It consisted of a coalition of losers, the usual Trump supporting racists, white supremacists, confederate flaggers, Neo-NAZIs, and conservative evangelical Christians. Donald Trump's refusal to accept reality is being mirrored by tens of millions of his supporters, all of whom are proving conclusively what we had long known: that Donald Trump and the people who support him devotedly are, beyond any doubt, quite mentally ill. Many of my old friends, people with whom I went to high school and have throughout my life considered people of the highest quality are proving to be victims of this mental illness, called "Trumpery". Nobody enjoys perfect health, physically, or mentally. In our culture we tend to ignore the fact that at any given time a majority of citizens are ill, mentally, emotionally, or physically. To blatantly deny reality, to enter into a world of delusion, as Trump and millions of his supporters are now doing, clearly exposes their mental illness, and serves a worthy purpose":it gives us a chance to identify them.Now we wonder what we can do to help. When Joe Biden has been sworn in as president, has moved into the White House, and has begun his new job of serving as president of the United States, will Trump and his minions continue to deny reality, and pretend tat Donald Trump is still president, even as he resides at his Florida mansion and plays golf every day, calling himself "president"? Twenty, thirty years from now, when Trump is either ninety five years old or dead, will some of his followers still cling to the belief that he is president? Will he? Tragically, these questions are not irrelevant. The best we might hope for is that Trump and his supporters will spend the rest of their lives claiming that the election was stolen, without the slightest evidence, but will acknowledge the reality that as of January 20, 2021, he was in fact no longer president. Under current circumstances, that in itself might be a lot to hope for, but, at least it a hope the sane among us, what there is left of us, can cling to.

Giving Up

 AMERICAN GOVERNMENTS, local, state, and federal, are issuing guidelines for how people should conduct Thanksgiving gatherings. A few recommendations include keeping the gatherings to ten or fewer people, having the gathering outside, presumably weather permitting, seating people at least six feet apart, enhancing ventilation, avoiding hugging, kissing, or unplanned sexual intercourse,  washing hands early and often, wearing masks when not stuffing turkey and dressing down one's pie hole, taking after dinner naps on different beds, belching only into one's face masks, and assorted standard oft repeated advice, some idiotic, most merely common sensical. Nobody but nobody seems to be simply recommending that all Thanksgiving gatherings of more than one person be avoided altogether. Governments, like we the American people, seems to have given up entirely. Government, lie we the American people, seems to have decided that making the necessary sacrifices to control and contain our Covid 19 epidemic are not reasonable, feasible, desirable, possible, or what the hell ever. We simply aren't willing to do what it takes to stop the epidemic, the spread of death and disease, so why keep pretending that we are? The Trump policy of denial of reality, it would seem, has finally prevailed across America's fruited plain, his final legacy of a corrupt and chaotic presidency, and his benighted followers have prevailed in their lunacy of prosperity at all costs, including hundreds of thousands of dead Americans. We as a society seemingly have decided that we are unwilling to change our personal lives one iota to save other lives, so why try, and damn the consequences! In New York City restaurants and bars must close by ten P.M.. Like, big frigging deal. What good, exactly, will that do? What purpose is served, other than to assuage guilt by pretending to take action? People have plenty of time to eat, drink, and spread disease before ten o'clock at night, right? The show must go on, the football games must be played, even as the daily infection rate nationally approaches two hundred thousand, and the total national death toll surpasses a quarter million, on its merry way to half a million. Freaky Trump loving  far right types concoct half baked conspiracy scenarios about Covid 19 being a hoax, no problem at all, just like their insane master, the defeated Donald Trump. Trump, his malignant supporters, the epidemic, and economic collapse go hand in hand. For the sake of societal sanity and survival, may they all go hand in hand into the landfill of history, and bury themselves deep beneath their self manufactured heaping mound of garbage, like festering maggots squirming atop a huge pile of dung.

Lame Ducks Going Rogue

 AMERICAN PRESIDENTS typically, traditionally reserve their most controversial, craziest actions and words for their lame duckency at the end of their administrations, when they are going to inevitably leave soon, after their final campaign for office and term in office. This is a testament to human cowardice, deceit, and ethical shortcomings, normal human behavior, we must admit, par for the course.We save our worst behavior for times when we know or believe there will be no negative consequences for it, which, in a sense, makes sense. There will probably never be a president who does not act this way; all the previous ones have.Most outgoing presidents issue a flurry of controversial, unpopular executive orders and pardons for their criminal friends just before high noon on inauguration day. To tremble in fear at what insane behavior President trump might engage in as January 20 approaches is relevant and pertinent, for two reasons. less than two weeks after losing his election bid for reelection, his behavior had already been uniformly harmful and irrational. Also, since Trump's words and actions during his entire tenure in office was unpredictable, chaotic, irrational, and counter productive, we cannot say that we did not have fair warning. Ten days after losing th e election, when everyone in the world knew that the election results, Trump refused to accept defeat, claiming ever since election night that he was the true winner, and that the election had been stolen from him by massive fraud. This behavior is delusional, pathologically paranoid and narcissistic,  clear proof of the reality of Trump's mental illness, about which so much speculation has been given for years. Its an embarrassment to the United States, a stain on the legacy of the office of the presidency, as well as an even greater stain, one more of many, to add to Trump's presidential legacy. Congressional republicans, and millions of his supporters, by agreeing with Trump's irrational allegations, are doing harm to their own credibility as well. Already, within days of the election, Trump had begun firing high ranking officials in the Defense Department; making people wonder how many more will follow, how far Trump's angry and vindictive house cleaning will go. It could go far. Trump likes to wield power by firing people. Will he issue a barrage of insane executive orders, or fire everyone in the executive branch, or even start a conventional or nuclear war? As biden's inauguration day approached, we can only hope and pray that we will survive Donald Trump's final, insane days as president.

Transitioning Away From Hate

 WE CAN AND SHOULD EXPECT Donald Trump and his traitorous, unpatriotic cult followers to claim for years that the twenty twenty election was stolen from them, such incorrigible reprobates these people are. Why would people like Trump and those who voted for him twice suddenly transform themselves into decent human beings? Trump's core supporters, white conservative evangelical Christians, spent the entire Trump administration enthusiastically supporting Trump, accepting Trump's constant avalanche of outrageous lies, slanders, vicious insults against anyone who disagrees with him, and harsh, chaotic, unreasonable policies without the slightest complaint. In so ding they have revealed their shocking moral bankruptcy, lack of good character, hypocrisy, and unmitigated, evil corruption. They must have been raised to accept defeat with dignity, honor, and good graces, as we all were, but evolved into hateful, dishonest citizens under the influence of corrosively corrupt political and religious beliefs. Tragically for the health and welfare of the nation these people are going nowhere and changing nothing about themselves. the election revealed their great strength in numbers, and we can expect to have to deal with them for the foreseeable future. Now we hear them righteously, sanctimoniously tell us the obvious; that President Trump has every right to challenge the election results through the legal system until all hope is exhausted. None of these people so much as mentions the moral responsibility to accept defeat gracefully and honorably, and to uphold democratic processes, to congratulate the winner, and to do everything possible to assist in a smooth transition of power, for the good of the nation. None of these deplorable, immoral Trump supporters has shown the slightest awareness of or concern for moral or patriotic duty. Instead, they dishonestly fabricate massive election fraud scenarios which do not exist, without any evidence. Not one word. Instead, they, including Republican members of congress, continue to throw a temper tantrum days after the elections results are plain to see. Their disgraceful behavior will be their lasing legacy. Now we prepare to endure years at least four years of white supremacist conservative evangelical Christian obstructionism, opposing every beneficial policy and good legislation  in vital areas such as health care and environmental protection, all for the malevolent purpose of pursuing their malign agenda of racism, social Darwinism, and neo-liberal dog eat dog economics. if only they would instead they would turn their hatred and anger inward, and consume and destroy themselves. At least that way they won't be locking children in cages, pretending that climate change is a hoax and doing nothing about it, or pretending that Covid 19 is a hoax, doing nothing about it, or supporting politicians who do nothing about it.

Finding Love In A Time Of Darkness

 AMONG THE MANY surprising silver linings of teh Covid 19 pandemic is the fact that since march dogs and cats in animal shelters have been and are being adopted by wonderful loving and no longer lonely people at record rates. This phenomenon seems to be holding true in every city and town in America, according to the national Humane Society. Good news indeed, that millions of previously ignored and homeless beings of beauty are now finding love, humans, dogs, and cats alike. Oh, that this surpassingly sensational trend would assert itself, and insinuate securely into the soul and fabric of America and global culture. Perhaps it will. In a culture as complex and multifaceted as American, what begins as fads of expediency in the face of undesirable circumstances can become embedded. Stray cats are less of a problem than stray dogs.Cats can be trapped, spayed, neutered, and vaccinated, and returned to a feral state, ans survive rather well. Dogs, not so much. As in most affairs of public concern and responsibility, America's attitude towards homeless dogs and cats is divided, contradictory, bordering on schizophrenic. Most folks in most neighborhoods have no concern for them. they are a mere inconvenience. This places an undo burden upon those who do care, those for whom the burden of concern and responsibility manifests as an overriding compulsion to do something, anything, to help. Fifteen years ago I built  a pretty new house and moved in, with no intention of caring for pets.  I had already had my share. I soon learned that fate had other plans for me, the decision was not entirely mine. Stray kittens started appearing in my yard, staring at me, beckoning to me for what I interpreted, perhaps correctly, as a plea for food, home, help, and a home. Fifteen years ago I built a pretty house and moved in. I had no intention of having pets, having already had my share I thought, and being somewhat newly in love with pristine environments. Three stray kittens appeared in my new yard, beckoning to me with stares which I thought, perhaps correctly, were pleas for food, care, and a home. Fate, it seemed, had its own plans for me, the decision was not entirely mine, and, like Goethe said: "Confronted with great merit, the only resistance is love". Today I have nine sweet babies, two indoors, and seven in my garage. Six females and two males, all spayed, neutered, vaccinated, complete with electric blankets, heating pads, cat beds, and cat trees. I'm thinking of installing a flat screen, but I don't want to spoil them. They fill me with joy, and make my life worthwhile. And now, in the midst of a nightmare, God's love has seen fit to provide millions of other Americans with the same joy and purpose. My cup runneth over with love and gratitude for God, for humanity, and for all the precious beings, dogs, cats, and people, whose love now enlightens human and American society. In this time of darkness, we have found love.

Choosing Bad Leaders

THOUGHTFUL PEOPLE have always understood that in a representative form of government, bad people could and likely would rise to positions of leadership and authority.  It happened in ancient Greece and Rome, whose histories remain available for study. James Madison studied these histories intently, then, taking their counsel, designed a system of government for the U.S. in which the people, whom he considered stupid and incapable of self governing, generally had very little actual political power, and whose interests were supposedly represented, in theory, by an elite class of superior rulers Madison called "the better sort." The constitution therefore does not provide for the election of the president by popular vote. It deliberately leaves this paramount decision in the hands of the better sort. State by state, the lesser sort gained the right to elect the presidential electors, who then elect the president.The whole system, today as always, depends on an educated, informed electorate of good character, and our lack of that today appears to be our primary problem. We seem to be proving James Madison right. The country survived James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Warren Harding, and Richard Nixon, and it seems well positioned to survive Donald Trump, assuming he eventually relinquishes power, although one week after the election there remains some doubt. The list of bad, corrupt, or incompetent presidents could easily include Millard Fillmore, William Harrison, John Tyler, Calvin Coolidge, and Jimmy Carter. Certainly, the United States has had its fair share of what in today's jargon might be called "losers". I will always find it chocking and inexplicable that I never heard a Trump supporter make any references to Trump's obvious character deficiencies, policy deficiencies, or outright criminality.  I have heard them say things like "he stretches the truth sometimes", and "he is sometimes a bit rough around the edges", but comments like this are so dishonestly understated that they are in fact denials of reality. Hittory will probably come to regard Donald Trump as the worst president in American history.. And yet, somehow, we seem to have survived. Madison and the other framers knew that , despite their protections against it, poor leaders would emerge. they therefore designed a system of government in which power was sufficiently diffuse to encourage government to grind to a halt instead of accruing in the hands of tyrants  or criminals. Our current gridlocked and ineffective government would probably seem preferable to tyranny to the founders, and it should seem so to us. Thoughtful people have always known that bad people would gain power in a democracy. We are fortunate, considering the number of bad people who have gained power in our, that we have a system built to survive them.

Looking For Light

LEST WE FORGET, Donald Trump was an illegitimate president, having been elected with a substantial infusion of  Russian assistance, money used to widely spread on social media a massive disinformation campaign against Hillary Clinton, which, say experts, had a definite impact on the election. The Mueller report thoroughly documents this, and Trump supporters, unsurprisingly, dismiss it , not withstanding its accuracy. Imagine the enthusiasm with which Republicans would have embraced Mueller's work had it been directed toward a Democratic president. Imagine the reaction of Trump supporters if Hillary Clinton supporters had claimed massive voter fraud after the 2016 election, as Trump voters are doing now. Allegations that Biden's election was stolen are meritless, ludicrous, and themselves fraudulent, those making the allegations know this, and yet their deplorable behavior continues, just as it has during the entire trump administration.During the entire Trump administration, Trump, his assistants, his associates, and his supporters all behaved deplorably. He told the lies, the rest of them pretended that they weren't lies. We can expect nothing better from them now. Fifty seven percent of white Americans voted for Trump. Even though a perfect storm of circumstances conspired against Trump, notably the pandemic and resulting economic collapse, Trump made it a fairly close election. Without the virus, Trump would have won. When Donald Trump won the presidency, neither he nor his supporters seemed the least bit concerned about any form of voter fraud, including Russian participation. The problem with white Christian American voters is white supremacy, racism, and low morality. America's white christian demographic, just at it fled America's cities when blacks moved in, have fled the mainstream American political system as various minorities move into it, and the white Christian demographic slowly but steadily becomes a minority. They will not go quietly into the night. They elected a racist demagogue as president, and are now venting their anger at his election defeat. Racism and xenophobia emerge directly from within white christian America, embodied in the conservative movement and the Republican party. It is the driving force behind the Trump movement, which predates Trump by centuries. In spirit, the KKK and the John Birch society are alive and well, deeply embedded and hidden within the grand old party, american conservatism, and white Christiandom. As white American conservative Christianity declines, and america becomes more diverse and pluralistic ethnically, a dim but brightening hopeful light becomes visible, flickering in the gathering darkness.

Picking Up the Pieces

NONE TOO SOON to be President Joe Biden's primary task will be to reverse every Trump policy, especially in the areas of racial relations, climate change, the economy, and the pandemic. Trump fueled racial strife with his personal racism, Biden must heal Trump's wounds. Trump ignored, mocked, and facilitated climate change, Biden will aggressively fight it. Trump ignored, mocked, and facilitated the pandemic, Biden must and will establish a potent federal policy of combating and controlling it. The economy will  rebound as a result of the retreating virus. The rumor is that Biden will invite Trump to continue living in the basement of the White House, where he can play with an inactive twitter account, and hurl accusations that the world is unfair, life is unfair, the election was stolen, and he is still president. Where I live the first eight days of November the daytime temperatures were all above seventy five degrees. Half of the days of October were eighty five degrees and more. This is becoming normal, this is our new climate. In my nineteen sixties childhood such temperatures this time of year were unheard of. A huge iceberg eight times the size of Manhattan has broken off from Antarctica and is now floating in the south Atlantic.Just like the economy cannot recover until the pandemic is brought under control, the human species cannot prosper in a better future world until climate change is brought under control, and reversed. The Trump administration, and all who supported him, pursued the most harmful possible policies with regard to all the major issues and problems confronting the Untied States and the world. Just as every trump presidential policy and every Republican policy is diametrically opposed to national and global heath and well being, Just as every Trump and republican policy is harmful to the nation and the world, Trump's behavior, and the behavior of his supporters during the first week after the election is exactly the opposite of what the nation needs to unify and heal. Trump's defenders always find ways to justify Trump's traitorous, unpatriotic behavior. Granted, the president has every right to delay the inevitable and to hinder the  administration transition by filing endless frivolous and hopeless lawsuits. But this is beside the point. the point is, in order to contribute to the national good, Trump and his supporters should accept defeat graciously, concede, and do everything in their power to make Joe Biden's ascent to the presidency as seamless and efficient as possible. That would be the proper, patriotic thing to do. But of course, proper patriotic behavior is and always has been beyond the comprehension of Trump and his supporters.

Turning Defeat Into Fantasy

 TRUMP AND HIS SUPPORTERS, rather than accept defeat with dignity and equanimity, are apparently going to retreat into a self made world of fantasy, an imaginary world in which liberals and media and others conspired to steal the election from Trump, and then stole it, a world where they can express their unfounded anger and hatred with fabricated justification. It is a fantasy world in which they are familiar and comfortable, having invented and consecrated it with Trump's presidential candidacy, a world of bizarre conspiracy theories and alternative realities, which exists only in their twisted, tortured minds. Their determination to do this, to avoid reality and decency, consistent with past behavior, spells trouble for teh next few weeks while Trump is still in office, and bodes badly for the future, short and long term. I heard a Trump supporter say that they don't mind losing, its just that they mind losing fraudulently.. Like Trump, like many if not most Trump supporters, she is a liar, a fraud, and a very poor loser. Many Trump supporters claim that Covid 19 is a hoax, designed only to undo Trump. Those people are evil and sick, and deserve only scorn. Ask the families and friends of the nearly quarter million Americans who have died from the virus whether Covid 19 is a hoax. Ask every doctor, nurse, and scientist in the world. Trump and his supporters predicted that beginning November 4, we would stop hearing about the pandemic. that idiotic claim has already been exposed for the vicious lie that it is. It would not be surprising to see Donald Trump continue to have his infamous MAGA rallies, well attended by mentally ill delusional idiots without masks, continuing their disease and death spreading, chanting that Trump is still legally the president. Our choice is to laugh at them, ignore, them pity them, or offer them the psychiatric assistance they so desperately need. Cooperating with devout Trump supporters in a post Trump political world seem considerably less likely than Joe Biden may imagine. As each day passes post election, it becomes increasingly clear that cooperation is the last thing Trump and his gangster followers want; they only want to disrupt the process, and foment conflict, and, tragically, probably violence an maybe even civil war. These were dangerous, harmful people while in power, and now, in their anger at defeat and rejection, will prove to be even more dangerous in their determination to make America angry, again.

Lurking Hatefully In The shadows

THE CONSERVATIVE EVANGELICAL CHRISTIAN gangster mob of Trump supporters is going nowhere, and will continue to cause trouble and lower the level of discourse and American culture. At this point it is hurting badly, stung into numbed silence by what they see as the unbelievable defeat of their savior and icon, Donald J. Trump. right now they are quiet, as they seemingly stare in disbelief at the vote count, convinced that the forces of the devil have been active, and praying fervently that the lord and Jesus Christ will move the hearts of lawyers and judges and root out what must have been criminal theft of the election. These people still have their fully loaded automatic weapons, and their prayer books, and their Bibles, all of which to them are tools of the righteous.Alarmingly, yet laughably,  they think their support of Trump is true to the christian religion. My football game wasn't going well, so I played with the radio. I heard the words "election" and "Trump", and curiosity compelled me to stay tuned. It was a Christian station, and a man was praying fervently, passionately,  his voice drenched in emotion. It became apparent that there were a lot of things he wanted God to do. He alternately begged, instructed, and ordered God to perform various tasks. He seemingly was of his power and ability to influence or even to exert complete control over God. At various intervals he spoke as if he were God's servant, God's slave, God's boss, and God's absolute lord and master. he implored the lord to move his mighty hand in every state, every county, and every precinct in God's great nation, and to life up God's people. By this he seemed to mean Christian Trump supporters in the United States. he seemed to be simultaneously trying to come to terms with God's apparent decision to allow Trump t lose the election,  while pleading with, and commanding the lord to reverse the outcome, presumably by intervening in litigation and a vote recount of some sort. it was obvious he considered a Trump defeat to be a horrible thing, a repudiation of God's work, and was shocked and horrified that it had happened. He was trying to understand why God has allowed it, trying to tell God that if God really wanted Trump tp lose then so be it, and trying to convince God that letting Trump lose was a horrible mistake, and must be reversed. Obviously, the praying man was distraught, confused, deflated, and trying to avoid feeling anger and disappointment in God. Once again, as it often has for several y ears, the hateful, misguided, deluded, pathetic, pathologically mentally and emotionally ill mental state of evangelical Christian Trump supporters hit me in the face. Their hatred of liberal Democrats and non Christians is so great that they have deluded themselves that their murderous, vengeful, wrathful biblical God hates them too, and will some day destroy them. These mentally ill people have combined their political extremism with their religious extremism, and have ensnared themselves in a poisonous web of self deception and hatred. And they are not going away. they will remain lurking in their shadowy regions, ready to pounce on and destroy every action taken by President elect Joe Biden, just as they did Obama. In their political defeat they will turn to turn hateful religion more vengefully than ever, and they will use their assault weapons and their Bibles to fight their greatest enemies; non Christians, gays, liberal Democrats. And these are the people with whom Joe Biden hopes to fashion a united nation. These are the people who chose the most evil corrupt man in America as their president and savior. Their evil is unlimited, and Biden's hope is hollow and hopeless, if noble and naive. 

Repairing Trump's Damage

BIDEN WILL ENTER OFFICE facing four major areas of concern: the pandemic, the crashed economy, the two of which are related, climate change, and racism in America. On all four fronts the Trump and Republican attitude and approach has been and remains delusional and ineffective, while Biden's approach and the liberal Democratic position on all four issues is realistic, serious, and hopeful. Conservative Republicans almost uniformly deny the reality of human made climate change, downplay the pandemic, pretend that racism does not exist unless liberals mention it, and insist that the economy under Trump as great, and would still be great were it not for the virus. they overlook the fact that Trump's failure to lead in controlling the virus was his undoing. Vigorous action will be required on all four fronts, particularly climate change, because it may already be too late to save the environment from future greenhouse destruction like we see on the planet Venus; a project the intensity of the Manhattan project in world War Two will be only the beginning of our attempt to save ourselves. Biden and many other people are now talking about uniting the country, and so forth. meanwhile, trump and many of his supporters are still crying foul, claiming that the election was stolen, even though it was a completely fair and transparent result. it is difficult to unit and find common ground with such delusional people. It is they who must change, and allow national unification by becoming reasonable, which they have not done throughout the Trump administration.. First, Trump supporters, conservatives, Republicans, Christian evangelical Trump supporters, will have to force themselves to behave with magnanimity for once, and to congratulate and accept Joe Biden as the next president. For people of demonstrated low moral character, this in itself will be extremely difficult, if not impossible. Next, the Trump gang will have to accept the reality and truth of the Democratic position on all four of these dire concerns, again, a task which will prove difficult if not impossible for such delusional people. Problems cannot be solved by refusing to admit that they exist. The best guess is that the country will not unite, because it is not yet ready to unite. It will not unite because conservative America continues to dwell in an imaginary world without climate change, racism, a pandemic, or a collapsed economy caused by Trump's negligence.Just as they did to Obama, conservative America will probably do nothing except try to destroy Biden, and thus the tragedy of their continuing existence in America politics will continue to be impactful.

Reflecting Indifference and Fatigue

 BELATEDLY it occurred to me that three days after election day, there are probably about seventy million Americans madder than hell, convinced that their presidential candidate is having the presidency stolen from him, and ready to do something about it, violently if they deem it necessary. Trump supporters gathering outside vote counting venues in several American cities chanting unpleasant  slogans tend to motivate my attitude of disconcerting dread for the next ten weeks. Wanting to stop thinking about the election for a few hours, I dragged my fit but sixty five year old body up and down rocky mountain trails for a few hours with a fellow senior progressive, the trees flaming. When we finished, I suggested that we visit a good friend of ours, a devout Trump supporter. Hell no, said my fellow progressive; right now he wants to kill somebody. I agreed, but avoided thinking about the benefit of having such a friend. The United States is possibly closer to civil war than at any time since the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860. Closer than the summer of 1932, when the Bonus Army descended upon and occupied Washington D.C.. Certainly closer than during the turbulent late nineteen sixties of my childhood, with the nation torn assunder by racism and Viet Nam. I began to wonder whether it was all worth it,my frantic personal project to unelect Trump, my hatred of the man. I've lost too many friends. I has hoped to reach senior citizenship without such hatred being part of my life. I remember what John Adams said to his wife Abigail on their way out of Capitol City in 1800 after losing the dubious election to Thomas Jefferson. Darling, he said, if he wants it that badly, let him have it. Hell, I survived Trump for four years, I could have kept going. I'm tired. Tired of arguing, trying of trying to convince strangers on the phone to vote. Tired of hating Trump. I'm ready to just stay home, hide from the gathering virus, and let the seventy million angry Trump supporters vent their wrath, hurl their baseless, useless accusations of election stealing. Eventually, they'll use up their hateful energy, and get about the business of trying to find ways of destroying Biden, as they tried so hard to destroy Obama, without success. I am so damned tired. the autumn leaves have reached and passed their peak of color, and are rapidly littering the ground with an explosion of hot, fallen colors.Soon, autumn will turn dull brown. I'm tired of hating Trump, and his immoral supporters. Tired of counting votes, tired of hearing lies, tired of of my own anger and that of others. I'm even tired of walking up and down rocky tree lined mountain trails, seeking as escape I somehow sense I will never find.

Losing While Sinking Low

 THERE IS SOMETHING TO BE SAID FOR CONSISTENCY. Trump and his strangely sycophantic supporters appear to be losing, on the verge of losing the presidential election, and their behavior, true to form, is becoming increasing disgusting and immoral. Many if not most Americans saw and heard the soon to be former president say on Thursday night that he actually won the election, and that it is being stolen from him by Democrats. he neglected to accuse the Chinese of complicity, mercifully, but did include the media, which, he crazily declared, purposefully inflated the pre election polls to favor Biden in order to discourage Trump supporters from voting, a form of voter suppression. Imagine that, Trump supporters, so terribly demoralized by polls which they constantly ridicule and dismiss, unable to leave the house to vote because they favor Biden.  Terribly sensitive, those "lock her up" Trump supporters. Trump and his supporters are evidently determined to sink into the swamp they created, having promised to clean up a swamp of their imagination. Hundreds of thousands of MAGATS are now poised to behave violently, as indicated by groups of angry Trumpers suddenly springing up on social media, and the messages they are posting more rapidly than the corporations can take them down. Now we will listen for weeks and months as the MAGA gang cries foul, inventing tales of the election having been stolen, when in fact it was the 2016 election of Trump that was stolen with Russian assistance, and when in fact this 2020 election was entirely legal, above board, and transparent. Trump and his supporters have been disgusting, dishonest, and immoral in their words and deeds since Trump entered the presidential game in 2015, and they have only gotten worse in their lies and hatred, and the worst, it appears, is yet to come. It is they, Trump, his supporters, and the republican party who have constantly engaged in voter suppression, it is they who have constantly conspired to steal elections even as they are conspiring to steal this one through senseless litigation and insane orders from Trump to stop counting votes in states where Biden is catching up; everything they accuse their political opponents of doing, they are doing. Time to get in line for your ticket to the carnival. Get the popcorn popper warmed up. The show is only just beginning. Now, Trump and his supporters are going to sink ever deeper into their self made swamp, and the wailing, gnashing of teeth, the lies, the accusations of stolen elections will persist for months, as they prepare to brutally attack Joe Biden as president, just as they brutally attacked Barack Obama in their eight racist barrage, base on only hatred. Our best bet is to be as a blade of grass, and bend while their stench filled wind blows past, and, while observing the insanity and hatred, maybe have a good laugh at them.

Cleaning Up After Trump

 YOU CAN DEFEND ANYTHING. Any point of view, any person, place, or thing, whatever. Just ask a good lawyer, or a debating champion.You can argue that the earth is flat, that Charles Manson meant well, that Hitler was good for Germany, anything.That fact of human nature might help explain Trump supporters, for whom the great prevaricator, whose words and deeds seem to most sane people riddled with corruption, can do no wrong. They can even argue that he has broken no laws, and that he sometimes stretches the truth a bit, and might be a tad rough around the edges, but, by damn, he says what he means, and he gets stuff done. What he has, beyond dispute, done constantly, is to behave nothing like a normal president, he has violated all accepted norms for presidential behavior. This is the subject of a new book by Harvard law professor jack Goldsmith called "After Trump: Reconstructing the Presidency". Goldsmith used to be a Republican, but when Trump got the G.O.P. nomination in 2016, he left the party, and became an independent. he quickly saw, like many Republicans,that the party under Trump would be remade into something unrecognizable, and would abandon many of its traditional values and attitudes. his assessment turned out, of course, to be quite correct. He points out that its not so much a matter of Trump blatantly breaking the law constantly, although he has on several occasions clearly violated the law, but rather, Trump has behaved and spoken in a manner radically different from all previous presidents, mostly in unacceptable ways which, the author argues, must be prevented from ever happening again for the sake of the office and the country. It is not, for instance, illegal for the president to keep his tax returns secret, nor is it illegal for the president to slam people on twitter, or to constantly tell lies. But these are things the American people clearly do not want the president to do. Every time Trump slams somebody publicly, the slamee gets death threats, and needs personal security protection. Every president since Nixon has revealed income tax returns, and Goldsmith thinks a law should bed passed requiring it. Basic free speech rights make it impossible to prevent a president, or anybody else, from telling lies constantly, but the author points out that future presidents will now have to reestablish confidence in presidential honestly and credibility. Trump's continued involvement in his businesses, despite the constitutional emoluments clause, Goldsmith would remedy by making it a strong federal offense, punishable  criminal prosecution for any future president to continue doing business in a way which brings personal profit while president. Goldsmith enumerates all the many ways in which Trump has violated [residential "norms", which he defines as accepted and expected presidential behavior and practices which are not required by law, and he offers remedies to ensure that future presidents do not violate them in the brazen, shameless manner that Trump has. The president of the United States has such enormous power, and such great responsibility to the American people and to the world, that to expect an and all presidents to behave within certain reasonable constraints is not only valid, but absolutely necessary. We call these "norms", and Mr. Goldsmith warns us that the president after Trump will face the daunting challenge of restoring norms to the oval office. and the executive branch.

Giving Trump A Chance

AH DISTINCTLY I REMEMBER walking into the senior center the day after Donald Trump was elected, and one of my friends, a real smart ass, saying "how come you aint wearin' your Hillary Clinton campaign button?" In response I said something unpleasant. he said "you're a bad loser". I said "No, I'm not". he repeated "yes you are". And I persisted "No I'm not. Congratulations Mr. Trump, and I wish him the very best". I like to tell that story, and I've told it before on this website. On Trump's inauguration day, I told everyone who would listen that I fully intended to give Mr. trump a fair chance, because he deserves it, just like everyone else. And of course I was right. My point is, I take the high road. iI ma a person of noble intent, not petty, never unfair. In a few years when I lay dying, I will be glad to remember that I lived my life that way. In return for giving him a fair chance, Donald Trump spent his entire presidency lying to me, twenty to twenty five times a day, as did many other people. His supporters though, evidently did not. Either they didn't care about honesty, or they considered it inconsequential, or they believed this lies. Whatever, the fact that they continued to support him throughout his lying presidency, and that they continue to support him to this day, nearly electing him to a second term, speaks volumes about their standard of morality, about their own personal integrity. I got tired of his constantly slandering and viciously attacking anyone who dared disagree with him, from Senator McCain, and all the rest. I git tired of his obvious racism and xenophobia, which he, like all racists and xenophobes, tried to hide, but couldn't. I got tired of his constantly throwing fuel on America's racially charged fire. I got tired of his constantly attacking the media as enemies of America, attacking the intelligence gathering community for telling truth he didn't want to hear, attacking the judicial system, alienating America's closest allies and coddling and cozying up to dictators, profiting financially from being president in violation of the constitution, and of course for accepting Russian assistance getting elected in the first place, lest we forget, and for trying to blackmail the Ukraine into inventing dirt on Joe Biden. it all added up, none of it was made up, it all happened, and the longer he was president, the more disgusted I became with him, and with the millions of people who refused to stop supporting him, refused to even criticize him, but chose to defend him by lying about his misbehavior, by denying it.And I haven't even mentioned his worst crime of all, his and his supporters denial of climate change, which may yet kill us all, by ignoring the problem for four  more  years than we should have.I will forever despise Donald Trump for blowing the fair chance I gave him, and I will forever despise those who supported him, for allowing him to commit his crimes and speak and act his evil.

Counting Votes

 ON ELECTION NIGHT, after millions of votes had been counted and millions more had not been, President Trump remained true to form and told two outrageous lies, adding to his grand total of more than twenty thousand since becoming president. he said that the election had been rigged, the vote counting was fraudulent, especially is Biden won, and he said that he had actually already won the election, but that the Democrats were stealing it from him. ho hum material in the year of our weird world, twenty twenty. Aside from the apparent contradiction of these two statements, neither has a shred of evidence behind it.One day after the election, Biden appeared to be on the verge of winning,needing only Michigan and Nevada, and being ahead in the counting in both, late in the game. he, Trump, made on statement we should all agree with. In our age of super computers and cell phones, there is no reason under heaven why we shouldn't have all the votes counted the day of the election, and the complete results presented to the public. The solution of course is to simply count all votes as they come in, whether in person or in the mail, and get rid of these stupid laws requiring that mail in votes be counted only on the day of the election. As the counting continued two days after the voting, in one state Trump supporters gathered outside the building and chanted "stop the counting!". In another, they gathered outside the building and chanted "count those votes!". One finds one's self tempted to wish and party that that damned idiots would make up their minds. Imagine the beauty of sitting at home in front of the flat screen, looking at the ballot online, and casting your vote in your pajamas. One minute later on your screen the vote totals are posted, including yours, local and national totals, as all the votes are counted immediately. All one would require is a password to vote, membership in Facebook would not be necessary.Our voting methods are lagging behind our technological capabilities. Voter education is also lagging. it continues to amaze how many millions of Americans vote for candidates who are underwritten by billionaires, or candidates who themselves are billionaires. Billionaires never have, and never will have the interests of America's poor people and working poor people in mind.  The Republican party, the white conservative Christian party, is narrowly focused on the welfare of the wealthy, and yet, tens of millions of not so wealthy duped people vote for them, because of abortion and gun control. We had four years of Trump because we deserve nothing better. And we deserve nothing better than being puppets to our corporate masters, which we are, and, so it seems, shall long remain.

Learning To Be Uncertain

 ABOUT TWENTY FIVE PERCENT of the American people, whose intelligence nobody ever went broke underestimating, prefer inventing and embracing their own nonsensical fantastic version of reality to expending teh effort necessary to comprehend objective reality. This high percentage is alarming; we live in a culture in which much of the population rejects demonstrable reality, and substitutes a self invented fantasy world, then defends the fantasy world as is science and the facts supported their fantasy, if only the massive mainstream science profession would stop conspiring to stifle the fantasy makers and stop blacklisting their truth. In point of fact, mainstream science, the scientific establishment, never stifles any truth or refuses to investigate anything. All of these crazy conspiracy theories and alleged phenomena so zealously advertised by the alternative reality community in fact have bee exhaustively researched by mainstream science, without any substantiating evidence to support them, and this fact is sufficient to arouse the ire of thee alternative reality folks. The main complaint registered by the alternative reality people is that mainstream science is narrow minded, unwilling to consider concepts outside the box. this is patently false. It is the pseudo scientists and researchers who are closed minded, refusing to accept even the remote possibility that any of their paradigms are wrong. meanwhile, mainstream science goes steadily about its business, investigating worth investigating, and honestly reporting the results. Suppose, for instance, that a paranormal researcher offers the following assertion: There are many species of intelligent life in the galaxy which are genetically related to us. and that's it. Nothing further. No photos, no evidence of any sort, just this extraordinary statement, this incredible claim, without the slightest supporting evidence. they always seem to have some reason why the evidence cannot be provided just yet, but will be, at some point in the near future. Thus, the claim is a fraud, ridiculous, without support.That's just basic science, basic fairness. but it would be so simple, so easy to make this claim credible. Simply add the word "perhaps" to the sentence, anywhere, and suddenly you have a reasonable statement, and honest one. but they cannot bring themselves to do this. there's something about the ego of the pseudo researcher which prevents the use of the word "perhaps". Their self esteem requires that they present all claims of fact with complete certainty.We could all learn a lesson from this. Humans by nature think hey know more, and pretend to know more, than they actually do. We could all use a good healthy does of perhaps.