Intending Ill

 THE SIMONE BILES SAGA exemplifies and more than justifies my current contempt for contemporary conservatism, as do many other situations. I prefer praising her, praising Simone Biles, to verbally prosecuting her. Disappointed like everyone else by the loss of American medals, I prefer to take the high ground, finding it morally superior, as well as more logical based on known facts, to love and support Simone, rather than giving her anger, hatred, and accusations of faking an injury, a mental and emotional crisis, and being a "quitter".  Conservatives, as always, are taking the low ground with Simone Biles, assuming the worst about her, only to enjoy being bullies. The dishonesty and descent into delusion ludicrously presented by many if not most conservatives as their version of truth is evil beyond belief, and lame. That conservatives believe and tell lies only to expedite and justify their political aims is proven by their embrace of Donald Trump's big election lie, and their insistence that Trump won the election. This alone confirms their moral emptiness, as does their pretense of denying climate change, claiming its a hoax. Pretending that climate change is a hoax to avoid being responsible for it and to avoid acknowledging the need to change their political opinions is mental illness, part of the larger mental illness that is contemporary American conservatism, in service to unmitigated evil, much like supporting Trump and his election lie, even after his attempt to overthrow the government with a a violent insurrection. Trump tried to bully the government into overthrowing the election results, and when that failed, he tried to incite a violent mob to do the job, and when that failed, his supporters seemed to support him all the more. Many Republicans deny that the insurrection happened, describing it as a "friendly visit", while others still insist that it was a good idea, a noble attempt to save the country. The gut and heart wrenching testimony of the four police officers in Congress the other day, which so vividly revealed the nightmarish violence and evil of Trump supporters, all Trump supporters, Trump supporters are now mocking as purely theatrical, an act put on by people paid by Democrats to make a harmless event look melodramatic. This ploy is widespread among white conservative Christian Trump supporters, all of whom are now, by their attitude towards Simone Biles as well as towards the Capitol Hill police officer's testimony, putting their unabashed unmitigated evil on full display, in front of the nation and the world. As ashamed of themselves as they should be, they will instead be proud and angry, and, as always, dangerous and harmful to the country and the world.

Not Empathizing

 OVER THE YEARS contact with my high school classmates, which decades ago was somewhat consistent, has slowly and steadily decreased, as we grew apart. We graduated nearly fifty years ago. Some of my best high school buddies matured into full blown right wingers, Trump types, and that's a deal breaker for me. For them, I send out birthday greetings and Christmas cheer, and leave it at that. Sometimes, I regress, maybe nostalgia-"istically". The other day I shot my  best baseball bud an email, complaining that modern major league hitters either strike out, balk, or homer, with little in between. He responded by complaining that the pitchers are complaining that their sudden rule enforced inability to put foreign substances, like, sticky heavy jell stuff, on baseball is limiting their ability to make pitches, making them work harder, and causing injury. I haven't heard anything like that, but I'll take his word for it. Then, he launched into Simone Bile, almost as if he wanted to test my response, arouse my liberal wrath, and ignite on of our old right wing left wing disputes, the type which destroyed our friendship decades ago. he echoes the prevailing conservative line, the line being spewed out by hateful vicious right wing talk radio mouths, the line about Simone Biles being a quitter. The conservative seems to be embracing that viewpoint, whereas the liberals are praising her courage in acknowledging honestly that she has emotional problems, and intends to solve those before competing again, not wanting to do damage to her U.S. Olympic teammates in their quest for gold. Once again, an issue which at least ostensibly has no political overtones nor implications becomes a political issue, dividing the country along the usual political cultural lines, stoked as always by talk radio and social media. My original intention was to not take the proffered bait, agree to disagree. But upon further reflection I decided to hook, line, and sinker. My response was: "I don't know enough about what its like to be Simone Biles, about what she's going through, to render judgment as to whether  her withdrawal from Olympic competition was necessary for her health, or whether she is a quitter. I suspect only she knows the answer, and she says that her decision to withdraw was necessary. I have no grounds upon which to question her honesty, and, assuming she is being honest, her withdrawal is no more shameful nor different than Tom Brady missing the 2008 season by breaking his ankle in the first game of the season against the KC Chefs, or Lebron James and Anthony Davis bowing out of action for the Lakers during the NBS playoffs with injuries. I hope he doesn't respond, but if he does, I hope he has suddenly become a human being, rather than a right wing monster.

Faulting the Default

 THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION is the default mind set in America. When in doubt, get saved, from whatever. Not from climate change nor capitalistic poverty and inequality, but from something or other, something mental, somethin imaginary, like, say, the burning pits of hell.  If a Christian approaches a pantheist or atheist, bringing the good news of Christ, witnessing for the lord, he or she is widely considered to be doing a great service, a good thing, doing "God's work", leading someone to salvation. If, on the other hand, an atheist or pantheist approaches a Christian and advocates for atheism or pantheism, he is making trouble, even though he is doing exactly the same the Christian is; trying to convert another human being to  his religious beliefs. Good citizenship or good humanity is not predicated on any particular religion, or on religion in general.  The playing field should be level, especially in a nation of religious freedom, tolerance, and equality, and it is most certainly not.  The Christian religion began to seem strange to me not long after I was first introduced to it, in third grade. It seemed unreal. Genesis seemed too simplistic, in conflict with science, and science made more sense. The version in which the solar system was formed billions of years ago over a long period of time by the condensing of a cloud of small chunks of debris from a stellar explosion into a star and orbiting planets gave me a better idea of how it happened than the phrase "And God said: let there bel light" . To me, in third grade, science books made sense, the Bible made a fun fairy tale. And that's the way it seems to me now. What sealed the deal, as we sometimes say, in terms of my beliefs, was and is the part about torturing a man to death as a means to atone for my sins, conditionally. Those portraits on the wall, of a skinny man with long matted hair in agony, blood dripping from his ribs, a crown of thorns on his head, horrified me, and still does. It made me wonder what my grandmothers were thinking, and still does. I never got past the blood and torture, how cruel and arbitrary it seems and still seems, and I never had had nor have any desire to wash away my sins in the blood of Christ. I would rather own my sins, remember them, learn from them, and experience their consequences. "Only by errors that really irk us do we advance", as Goethe said. I understand Christian atonement and redemption theology. I understand John 3:16. Rejection of an ideal or philosophy does not always result from not understanding it. It can result from understanding it. the Christian religion, said Goethe, began as a political uprising which failed, and turned moral. It is actually an ancient fertility cult which took steroids, the main steroid being the apostle Paul. Appease an angry, vengeful, meat eating God with a blood sacrifice, to ensure a good harvest. All ancient cultures had their own version. Christianity is a whitewashed version. The Bible is a comprehensive display of ancient culture, its moral teachings suitable for a primitive, violent culture. Human civilization has outgrown the Christian religion, and is only now beginning to realize it.

Melodramatizing, En masse

 UPON FURTHER REFLECTION,  it seems unreal, like a bad dream or a bad joke. My good friend of more than thirty years, a political neophyte with somewhat naive views, bet me a case of imported beer that Donald Trump will be back in office (president, USA) before the end of 2021. These days I don't drink beer, but of course I took the bet. Who wouldn't? I'm a fast learner, confident I can rediscover the joy of being drunk. Precisely how my friend thinks Trump's return to the  presidency is going to happen, the details, escape me, and I didn't dare ask. Another capitol insurrection, perhaps? An unexpected Supreme Court ruling? Your guess is as good as mine, as we like to say. Meanwhile, I cannot even come close to fathoming what must be going on in my dear friend's tortured mind. Maybe a trained psychiatrist could, maybe not. Then, there's my sweet sister, a rock solid pillar of the community, long retired from a successful career at the Pentagon, in civil service. I sent her and her husband a pair of baseball tickets, and heard nothing from her after a week. When I finally called, she told me that the tickets had arrived "several days ago". When I suggested that it might have been a good idea for her to inform me of their arrival, since after all they have some value, she allowed as how she had been rude and thoughtless, and sent me an ornate hand written Hallmark thank you card. As if that wasn't more than enough compensation and penance, she sent me an email saying that she realizes that she has been "letting me down" for a long time, and suggesting that she suspend any further efforts to cultivate a relationship with me. Her husband hasn't spoke to me for five years, ever since I told him that he shouldn't have talked non stop for two hours at a large family gathering. I should perhaps feel comforted that he didn't sever his vocal chords, then rip off his shirt to show me the scar. Still confused, I'm thinking that they must both be on some medication of which I am unaware, with side effects. Either that, or hyper sensitive to criticism. I almost expect to hear from her again, reporting that she is wearing a hair shirt, and will soon report to a nunnery. Of even more concern is that my life is replete with similar true anecdotes, of people going right smack haywire over the edge with extreme emotion over the least provocation, like a minor disagreement of perceived slight. Is it me, or is it the water? Do I exude some unknown pheromone which over stimulates the hypothalamus? Is the tap water laced with meth? Do vaccinated people really have implanted in their left arms a computer microchip which reprograms the brain and turns people into emotional wrecks? Are people spending too much time in Pentecostal church, watching too much reality TV, listening to too much conservative talk radio, or binging on Jerry Springer? has the isolation wrought by the pandemic driven the masses insane? I'll leave that question for the experts to sort out, if there are any. As for me, I'm going back into self quarantine.

Resisting Arrest

IT TAKES a heckuva liberal to be threatened with eviction, arrest, and incarceration twice within the span of one week, to live to tell about it, and to shrug shoulders and laugh at the pathetic people who issued the threats, but leave it to me, I'm the man for the job.  Alas, the trials and travails of a left winger firmly ensconced deeply within a right wing morass, a conservative cultural quagmire. I would be ashamed to receive such threats for engaging in harmful or illegal activity, but am proud, if horrified, to be so threatened for merely having the audacity to be an outspoken progressive writer, unafraid to introduce conservatives to respected progressive historians and theologians who factually contradict conservative political and religious dogma. Yes, horrified, if not surprised, in the era of Trump, in which conservatives, following the leader, resort to pervasive, comprehensive dishonesty and wanton violence in pursuit of a poisonous, malignant agenda, the agenda of Donald Trump. I have been censored and threatened with further censorship not only for daring to sharply disagree with the Trump agenda, his followers, and conservatism, but have also been threatened with arrest and possible criminal prosecution for daring to sit in my car in a parking lot next to a building with a wifi connection, using the wifi to express my disagreement. I have been banned for six months from a public building for having the audacity to discuss historical facts unpalatable to the people who work in the building, in this case, a library. The temerity of mentioning progressive historians in a library! My precise crime? I discussed the central theses in a seminal monograph by Mathew Stewart; "Nature's God: The heretical origins of the American Republic". To wit, the United States was not founded on Christian principles, nor ever intended to be a "Christian" country. If that won't get you thrown out of a small conservative town library, nothing will. An even greater crime is discussing the books of Bart Ehrman, Dean of the UNC Chapel Hill School of Divinity and author of many books on early Christian history, written not from a devotional point of view, but from a critical,  historical, factual viewpoint. Heretical, in a small conservative American town. I don't know who criticizes whom more, or more harshly, or more unfairly, liberals or conservatives. Maybe, as Voltaire said :"All comes out even when the day is done, and more even still when all the days are done". Either way, it seems to me that if a liberal, say, severely criticizes conservatives on his or her website, conservatives should find it easy to ignore it, to ignore it as a droplet in a vast internet ocean of hundreds of millions of websites, without resorting to threats. And if a liberal expresses an anti conservative or anti religion point of view in the presence of religious conservatives, it seems to me that the religious conservative should be able to ignore, avoid, or dismiss as water off the back of a duck the disagreeable verbiage. If nothing else, the Christian conservative can simply inform the liberal anti- religion person that it would be best to change the subject, without ostensibly tolerating the viewpoint, then, later on, threatening the liberal with eviction and arrest. But then, what would the Christian conservative ever do to replace the joyful feeling of feeling offended and victimized, the joyful feeling of accomplishment of wielding power and exacting punishment against a person whose viewpoints differ from their own that joyous feeling of victory and conquest?

Showing Their Empty Selves

 THE WHITE CHRISTIAN CONSERVATIVE traitorous republican political party provides demonstrations of its moral and intellectual bankruptcy on a daily basis, as illustrated by the two following examples, two among many. Anthony Fauci has spent hundreds of hours giving testimony in front of congressional committees over the decades, in his capacity as one of the world's most respected epidemiologists. For that, he has earned and deserves everyone's respect. Consequently Rand Paul's vicious, vitriolic, dishonest attack on Dr. Fauci was rendered all the more laughable, all the more pathetic, all the more heinous. True to his customarily insane self, Paul accused Fauci of being responsible for making payments to the Chinese which the Chinese, according to the ranting Rand Paul, then either deliberately or accidentally set loos upon the world Covid 19. Fauci easily discredited Paul, making the Senator look incredibly foolish in front of a national audience; but he shouldnt,ve had to do it. Paul's ranting lunatic attack was purely partisan, political, intended to do nothing but give insult. Tragically, most Republican members of Congress support the sort of nonsense Rand Paul routinely dishes out. Even more tragic is the fact that most American Republicans also support the same sort of conspiracy theory nonsense. There is no more evidence that Dr. Fauci channeled money to the misbehaving Chinese than there is to support Donald Trump's claim of election fraud, which most Republicans also support. speaking of election fraud allegations and the consequences thereof, republicans continue to desperately resist investigating the attempted overthrow of the United States government by president Trump. Trump's election lies, supported by most Republicans, resulted in a violent insurrection to overthrow the government and reverse the election result, which most Republicans continue to support, and most Republican congresspersons would rather ignore the insurrection, forget about it, and move on. Of course they would. When Democrats nonetheless forged ahead with their investigation against all possible republican resistance, Republicans, in desperation, tried to force onto the investigative committed members of their party who not only support Trump's election lie and attempted overthrow, but also downplay its severity, describing the mob violence of January 6th as "harmless". When this craven tactic failed, they simply refused to participate, taking their football and going home. When most members of a political party support at attempt by their leader to overthrow the government, then try to cover up the attempt, the party has crossed the line of decency into treasonous, traitorous behavior. It is no longer either slanderous nor dishonest to describe the Republican party, which is overwhelmingly composed of white conservative Christians, as a treasonous, traitorous organization for engaging in insurrectionist violence, and promulgating dangerous , traitorous ideals and beliefs. Its acceptance and support of Trump's false claim of election theft proves this. The Republican party in its current incarnation, is the most dangerous, harmful organization in the United States, the world, and indeed human history. For confirmation, ask Noam Chomsky

Escaping Nightmares

 SINCE NINE ELEVEN, more than thirty thousand American military service members, active and veteran, have committed suicide. Roughly twenty, active and veteran, kill themselves everyday, and tht total number of military suicides throughout American history is probably greater than the total number killed by enemy fire. That speaks volumes, about the stress endured during living nightmares, and its lingering effects. Defense Secretary Loyd Austin, in perhaps the understatement of the century, said he is concerned about it. He should be. During its violent imperialistic history the United States of Aggression has been at peace for something like a grand total of sixteen years, with, as we speak, no apparent end to foreign wars of aggression in sight. Futue American police actions in defense of liberty, freedom, and corporate capitalistic expansion promise to be no less deadly, and equally if not more bewildering and stressful. Like sports, wars are a portal into the soul of a society. Why shouldn't veterans of foreign aggression kill themselves with alarming frequency? We civilians certainly do, confronted as we are with a brutally competitive culture and economy of winning, losing, and alienating? The emotional stress inflicted upon our service personnel heroes is much greater still. Starting with Korea, continuing in Viet Nam, numerous engagements in Latin America and the Middle East, culminating with never ending wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, our uniquely American wars have in common vague, amorphous, ill  defined objectives, military and political, highly questionable, often ineffective tactics and strategy, dubious outcomes, all leaving participants and casual observers alike feeling confused and vaguely discontent, not unlike what Davy Crockett must have felt when asked whether he had ever been lost in the wilderness while hunting and exploring."Nah", said Davy, "But once I was a mite bewildered for three days". We as a culture remind ourselves considerably of Davy Crockett, America's first self made celebrity, the celebrity having been made by others, then bestowed upon David, who at first resented it then embraced and profited by it. The word is "pollyanna". We make a horrible situation palatable, remotely, through self delusion. We talk about loyalty, courage, and service, venerating our military heroes, but seldom mention the suicides, the mental breakdowns. The proud proclamations of a proud people in full denial. If ever we are going to reduce the number of both suicides and hostile fire deaths, we will have to come to terms with the horrible mental and emotional costs of war, and start to invest the necessary resources and effort to heal our folks in uniform and veterans of foreign wars. Then too, we the American people might consider the option of investing less time, effort, blood and toil in foreign wars intended only to make the world safe for American corporate capitalistic domination and exploitation.

Stressing

 MUCH IS BEING WRITTEN AND SPOKEN about the accumulation of emotional and anxiety affecting many in America. Quoting the Rolling Stones: "It aint the latest thing". It aint new, but its more. Donald Trump was "elected" with a bit of foreign assistance, on a rising wave of anger and frustration at economic conditions, the vanishing white middle class,the decline of religion, the influx of brown skinned immigrants, growing demands by brown, black, and gay minorities for social equality, the disappearing of traditional patriarchal white Christian cultural dominance, among other causes. The pandemic, and our failure to avoid the worst of it, put us over the top and out of the park, mental health wise. Trump's racist, pro wealthy divisive, chaotic administration only heightened the anger and the stress, making matters worse. The economic collapse and hardship, sickness and death, of the pandemic added to the political division and conflict, gasoline poured onto fire. We showing the wear and tear: enhanced irritability, quickness to anger, rushing to take offense and hold grudges, friendships strained and canceled. I try to avoid getting angry at people individually. I'd rather spread my anger thin, across the entire human race, and merely roll my eyes as human filly at the level of the single citizen. The unreasonable behavior of the people in my life I accept as mental illness, accumulated anxiety boiling over, part of our growing mental illness epidemic. Anger directed at me personally I ignore, and I easily can, for invariably it comes in the form of sudden loss of contact, complete cancellation of long friendships. They stop responding to my emails, letters, and calls, they stop reaching out, there is only silence, and its over. I treat it as liberation, a reprieve. Relieved of the burden of uselessly trying to repair a friendship not worth the effort, I am free to embrace and contend with my own anger, alone. It seems many of us are retreating into a delusional, fabricated worlds of our own choosing, in which conspiracies and mysterious, unseen forces control events, presumably relieving people of the responsibility. Hidden enemies, hidden conspiracies, invented global power paradigms supplant any need to take on the real world, head on. The mental health crises is an onslaught of narcissism and delusion. By retreating from the actual world, people render themselves useless to it, but at least mostly harmless, but sometimes, harmful. Those who do not participate co not contribute.Our narcissistic, delusional anxiety based mental health epidemic takes potentially productive people out of circulation.The weakening of the greater community damages us all, and therefore, we must find ways to heal ourselves.

Losing Reasons Not To Vaccinate

 UNVACCINATED PEOPLE have only themselves to blame as they gasp their final breaths in intensive care, begging for a vaccine they know will never arrive in time, as the nurse softly says "sorry, its too late". The guilt, the fear, the pain on their faces is excruciating to behold, I am told. There are not anti-vaxxers in ICU. By then, they have all converted to an attitude they could have and should have had all along. Models have been built on computers showing what would have happened without the vaccines. the upshot? Hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of deaths and severe cases, comprehensive economic collapse, an enduring economic depression. Conversely, if everyone had been vaccinated by, say, July 4, the pandemic would now be over, the economy restored. This, notwithstanding the fact that had the United States been led by a competent rather than a corrupt administration throughout 2020, the initial epidemic would have been greatly mitigated. now we are confronted with yet another unnecessary plague, all because of a certain segment of the American population unwilling to take the necessary action to prevent it. Nearly half the American people remain unvaccinated, even though more than six hundred thousand Americans have already died, with many more soon to follow. So greatly do Americans value their "freedom", their freedom to ignore science, common sense, and expert advice, their freedom to believe nonsense, their freedom to be utterlly unconcerned about the welfare of their families, friends,  communities and country, that they have chosen mass death over health and life. An idiotic state Senator recently stated that getting a vaccination was a matter of personal choice,, personal responsibility. he could not have been more wrong. Vaccinating is not a matter of personal responsibility, but rather, a matter of public responsibility, responsibility to all other human beings. Aside from our ongoing American epidemics of cancer, diabetes, opioid addiction and death, and Covid 19 redux, among others, we the American people are afflicted with an epidemic of mental illness, perhaps precipitated by anxiety and stress, manifesting frequently in extreme narcissism and delusion. the healthcare profession and its various attendant organizations are beginning to call attention to this, and to devise strategies to combat it. When nearly half the American population a and may in fact be a government plot it insinuate people with brainwashing and mind control computer microchips, what other reasonable conclusion is there, but that we as a nation have a very serious mental health crisis. the issue isn't whether any of these ostensibly outlandish claims are true; it is the reasons and causes for their widespread acceptance, lacking any evidence to support them. Culturally, there are troubling signs. So self absorbed and insular are most Americans that they spend more on make up and stylish clothing than personal health care, more on escape entertainment than education, and, as a friend of mine from china pointed out long ago, correctly, as he observed American culture from an "outsider" perspective, we care more about our dogs and cats than we do each other. On that account, I plead "guilty", proudly, thus my use of the pronoun "we". Here in freedom's land, everything must be personal, private, and free of government interference, almost paronoically. Today's Americans have fewer friends and fewer social and community connections than their parents and grandparents, studies indicate, despite the advent of social media, much greater urban population density, and inexpensive means of communication. It is no longer normal or common for neighbors to be friends, or to even know each other. In our use of language and matters of style, we imitate each other like sheep, but retreat to our self styled self confined cultural bubbles. So perhaps our most damaging epidemic is an epidemic of alienation, of atomization, of loneliness. For every epidemic there are cures. Let's work on them one a time, starting with Covid 19. Let's get everyone vaccinated, including the unwilling.

An Intellectual Virus For Fighting Lies

 A MAJORITY of the American people is Democratic progressive, surveys reveal. And, America is changing, fast., becoming more colored (nearly half of all Americans turning eighteen this year are not "white") more secular, more scientific, progressive, shedding tradition and conservative white Christian culture. This trend is verified by sustained research, and embodied mainly in the forthcoming young generation. Resentful of this emerging trend, conservatism, acting through the Republican party, like a desperate, dying, trapped animal, is fighting it, delaying the inevitable, by pushing a far right agenda as the state level to try to counter the progressive trends nationally. That's what the Trump movement is all about, a reactionary movement to turn back time, an angry response to social change. States with majority Republican legislatures, "red states",  are frantically pushing ahead with far right extremist agendas, outlawing abortion in violation of the constitution, making gun rights unconditional, truncating voting rights, attacking transgender rights, outlawing the teaching of the history of racism in the United States. In the long run, none of these extremist measures will stand legal tests. They are desperate, last ditch, momentary reactionary expedients. All are contrary to basic American values, which are more progressive. Like their beloved cult leader Donald Trump, who despite his election defeat and impeachment humiliations remains the face of American conservatism, conservatives resort to lies and alternative false facts to justify and bolster its increasingly unpopular agenda. Donald Trump now says that the violent pro Trump mob which attacked and ransacked the nation's Capitol building on January sixth was a "loving" group, defending freedom, trying to reclaim an election stolen from him for him. A loving group, the mob which was looking to kill Vice President Pence, any and all Democrats, and overturn the electoral college, using some mysterious math. Most conservatives,, most Republicans, including those of the evangelical Christian kind, support this insane version of reality. I keep hoping for a sudden outbreak of honesty and critical intellectual thinking to emerge in and sweep across mid America, spreading like the most contagious Covid virus imaginable across America's fruited plain, all the way to both coasts, from sea to shining sea.  In vain though this hope almost certainly is,  I sense that it is widely shared, among educated progressive at least. whom conservatives call "the liberal elite." Its up to the progressive educated community to unleash the virus; natural law precludes any such mutation to be engendered within conservative Christian-dumb, for which "evolution' of any sort, human, biological, cultural or moral, isn't possible, because it isn't Biblical. In al three Abrahamic religions, one of which is Christianity, the first rule given by God is that knowledge shall be suppressed, not disseminated. Imitating as always the viciously dishonest style of their messiah, from whom sanity if not the election was stolen,  Trump loving reprobates have accused me of "mocking God" and "opposing the pledge of allegiance", although I strongly support and admire both God and pledge, and  have long and actively advocated for both. Trump followers lie, and are inherently morally bankrupt. Thus, immoral bottom feeders are just being immoral bottom feeders.

Killing Our Kids and Shaming Ourselves

 ALBERT EINSTEIN, eighty years ago expressed interest in purposely changing the Earth's climate, the purpose being to increase agricultural production through global warming in a hungry world. Good intention, bad idea. Two hundred years ago, a Swedish scientist, Gustavus Arinnhius, toured European cities, saw the smokestacks belching carbon soot in the air, and predicted that eventually all the soot in the atmosphere would trap heat, warm the atmosphere, and cause climate change. We can't say we weren't warned. We have always known, or should have. Now, its too late, too late to prevent drastic climate change caused by atmospheric warming. All that remains for us it the possibility to prevent the worst possible future consequences of global warming, as  "gift" to posterity, the dubious gift of possible survival and existence, under adverse climatic circumstances. Recent and current weather patterns across the United States are shocking, and otherworldly harbinger of near future conditions. To anyone who remarks that this summer seems like the hottest ever, as people remark, accurately, every year, the best reply is that this is actually the coldest summer you will ever experience for the rest of your life. Violent and extreme that weather patterns have become and have been for the last several years, future weather conditions will almost certainly ever more violent and extreme, regardless of what we do or don not do now. We can anticipate more frequent and severe droughts with consequent more frequent and severe wildfires in all parts of the country, not just the west. we can anticipate more frequent and violent storms during all seasons, including bitterly cold winter storms, and more frequent and severe floods. Climate change means both extreme dry and extreme wet, extreme hot and extreme cold. All of it is caused by our greater concern for our satisfaction of greed, our material prosperity, over concern for the health and well being of future generations. For more than forty years scientists have warned us about climate change, its drastic, tragic consequences, and what we must do to avoid it. We have not listened, preferring to ignore it in favor of continuing our lust for wealth. We could have prevented all this, but now it is too late, too late to avoid all but the most severe consequences, even if we can do even that much. All because of our inactivity, our shortsightedness, our unrelenting greed. We the currently living will go to our graves covered with shame and contempt,shame and contempt which our descendants will surely assign to us, even if we deny it ourselves, and they will do so fairly, and appropriately.

Recognizing Socialism When We See It

 STUDENTS OF ARCANE comments, including the very best in the field, are often left mystified by the intended meaning of many of the most arcane remarks made by Republicans in general, and by minority leader McConnell in particular. Frequently appearing on the list of mysterious remarks are those made by America's right wing about something they call "socialism", without ever specifically identifying what they are talking about, or trying to talk about. Simply defined, socialism is an economic system in which goods and services are produced and distributed by government, on a non profit basis. Capitalism is an economic system in which goods and services are produced and distributed by privately owned (non governmental) businesses in the free market, on a competitive, for profit basis. One way of putting it is that the two economic systems, capitalism and socialism, are the opposite of each other, and that they "compliment" each other, both having advantages and disadvantages under certain conditions. Indisputably, both are strongly in evidence in the United States, where the government, especially since the nineteen thirties, has been heavily involved in the economy. About minority leader McConnell, what he said, paraphrased, was tat he opposed Biden's big spending bill because it is "socialism". And, indeed, it is. But what makes McConnell's comment so confusing is that, quite frankly, ALL government spending is socialism. He seemed to be referring to the sheer size of President Biden's spending package, the fact that it rose well above the two trillion dollar mark. But, so what? Would it be any less "socialistic" if it were  a mere one trillion dollar legislative initiative? Certainly not, for it would still included money for goods and services provided by the government, at tax payer expense. For that matter, even if Biden's spending proposal called for a paltry ten dollars in government, it would still be government spending, as opposed to spending by a privately owned business, or corporation. "Socialism" is, and long has been a word which conservatives of the capitalist kind dredge up and throw out whenever they want to frighten the voters into believing that some horrible force or power external to the United States and the American values looms at the border, threatening to over run the country with evils destructive to liberty, freedom, and the American way. And that's probably the old trick that McConnell was employing, the "socialism as an un-American evil" game. The dirty little secret? Whether or not McConnell receives Social Security yet, and  someday  he will if he doesn't already, and yes, social security is socialism, he is paid in his job as United States Senator by the government,, and that method of payment, is, as you may have guessed  - socialism.

Respecting, Or Rejecting Expertise

 SUPPOSE, JUST SUPPOSE you live, were raised, and have lived most if not all of your life in a very small town in the former confederacy named after, for instance, of all people, the sixteenth president of the United States. Suppose you belatedly got your G.E.D., after spending years marrying, producing children, and working at, say, the local lumber company. You have read small parts of the Bible, bits of scripture pointed out to you by your minister, but have read few if any other books. You are convinced that Donald Trump won the election, because he says he did, and because he does not want to take your guns away, thus providing the only motivation you need to support him, fervently. You believe that climate change is a hoax, because Trump says it is, as do many other Republicans. You believe that the vaccination for Covid 19 is more harmful that Covid 19, because you read that it is on the internet, and because your minister and Donald Trump seem to think so. Your minister recommends God, and Donald Trump recommended...what was it...? Hydroxycholoroquine, bleach, Lysol, or something like that? Meanwhile, halfway across the country, at Harvard University, the Dean of the Chan school of public health says that vaccinations are urgently necessary for everyone. Harvard people also say that climate change is real, here now, caused by human activity, and will soon make life on Earth difficult if not impossible unless drastic action is taken now, as has been stated and outlined by thousands of trained scientists and tens of thousands of high school biology teachers.  The Harvard political science department and sociology department both say that Trump lost the election, fair and square. Thousands of political science scholars all over the country say the dame thing. Thus, on the issue of Covid 19, on the question of climate change, on the question on the issue of  Trump's election defeat, you and Harvard, and in fact you and the entire academic establishment, disagree, are at odds, greatly. So it is with many other questions, actually, including evolution by natural selection, which to you is a hoax because there is nothing about it in the Bible, to name but one. The final question is: who is right on these various matters, you, or the academic establishment? Of, course, you think you are. What do unbiased people think? Studies reveal that the answer is simple. The more educated the unbiased person, and the more progressive the person, the more likely he or she is to agree with Harvard and the academic establishment. (Education and progressive ideology tend to go together, studies indicate). The less educated and the more conservative one is (people with less formal education tend to be more conservative, surveys indicate), the more likely the person will be to agree with you, to disagree with Harvard, and to consider the entire academic establishment nothing but a bunch of lying left wing liberals, out to get conservatives. Go figure. In our age of internet disinformation and poor critical thinking skills,  people often prefer their own cosmic paradigm to those expounded by well educated experts in various academic fields. It is not uncommon for poorly educated people to consider themselves superior intellectually to those so called "experts". Invariably, the G.E.D. folks are ludicrously wrong, and the so called experts are so called because they are very nearly always right, eventually and soon, if not at first. Well educated people tend to value expertise. Again, go figure.

Choosing Life, Meaninglessly

 I LIVE DEEP within the dark depths of a far right wing "red" state, in a county in which, the almighty be thanked there sits a major university in a reasonably progressive college town, a town which my father, who like I attended the university, described as "an oasis in the midst of a vast wasteland"... Away from the university and the college town, out in the cultural wastes of the county, the bizarre often occurs. Out there, deep in the woods, far right sorts often gather together, conduct military drills in camo fatigues, carrying AR15 assault weapons and Bibles, spouting quotes from George Wallace, Nathan Bedford Forrest and Donald Trump, just...doing their thing. The most recent instance  of the bizarre involved the quorum court, which voted, along party lines, to declare the county a "pro life" county. All Republicans voted yea, all Democrats voted nay. The Democrats did not attempt to leave the building, the county, or the state to forestall this latest instance of far right lunacy, perhaps fully aware or at least suspicious that beneath their trench coats the right wingers were most likely armed with fully automatic assault weapons, and were unafraid to use them. To the majority Republicans their proclamation doubtless seemed to be of the most profound significance, although to any intelligent person of discernment it says nothing, does nothing, and is nothing. If an actual poll were taken of the residents of the county, it would probably be close to half pro abortion rights, half against abortion rights, about like the rest of the country. The United States has actually a majority in favor of a woman controlling her own reproductive choices, but its close, with most red states favoring government control. (Conservatives are not so much "pro small government" after all.) But the point is that no matter how skeptical one is of human decency, one must admit that only a psychopath is not "Pro life". All sane beings stand in favor of their own right to exist, and in favor of the existence of life on Earth generally. What conservatives cannot seem to grasp is that people who advocate for the right of pregnant women to choose their own reproductive choices are not "pro abortion", are in fact "anti abortion", but "pro choice". Nobody has ever organized a protest encouraging women to have abortions, but only, to advocate for their right to so choose, free of government interference, in support of the law of the land, Roe v. Wade, which, despite the nonsense currently being propagated by the lunatic evangelical right, was correctly decided. The "pro lifers" will simply have to live with that inconvenient fact.

Burning Books

 IN HIS PROTEST POEM, "The Burning of the Books", Bertolt Brecht complains that since Hitler orders only good book be burned, that it is a great insult that none of the burned books are authored by Brecht. he never got his wish. Hitler never ordered any of Brecht's book burned. Deep within the apparent dark void of their of their inscrutable, emotionally troubled minds, Donald Trump and his angry gang of NAZI-esque supporters might wish that every book ever written about Donald Trump, and there are many, be burned, every copy. Of the many dozen published and distributed, most by people who were either close to Trump and know him well or by journalists and excellent historians of contemporary culture who thoroughly researched their subject, none of the portray a flattering picture of Trump. The only flattering ones are those written by people working jointly by Trump, paid by him. Most of books on Trump were written during his presidency; there was a veritable explosion of Trump material, and there is much more to come, as the historians of the near future take over the genre. Of those extant, two stand out. "Too Much But Never Enough" by Trump niece Mary Trump, and the most recent "Only I Can Fix It" by a pair of authors who feature General Mark Milley's observations in the book. Mark Milley is the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff.  Both authors are true Trump insiders. Mary Trump is a trained psychologist, and seems to know her stuff, and certainly knows Trump. Her description of him is damning, describing him as a psychopath with an extreme narcissistic personality disorder, something the general public, or much of it, had most likely already determined. Her attitude towards her uncle got her excluded from family gatherings, she says. Milley raises a huge red flag about the defeated former commander-in-chief, claiming that he and many other top ranking military commanders were quite concerned that Trump might try to use the military to stage a political coup, and remain in power, with his false claim that the election was stolen from him. If anyone should know, its Milley, the highest ranking uniformed military officer in the country,with close ties to and a great deal of knowledge of Trump's behavior as president. Mileys's characterization of Trump and his followers a a Hitler-like NAZI-esque cult seems shocking, especially when you consider the source. We the American people should know as most of us other than the most fervent Trump supporters do, that the illegitimate ascension of Trump to the American presidency was a disastrous mistake, as great a mistake as has ever been made by us, the American people.

The Unvaccinated, Spreading Disease

THE EPIDEMIC of the unvaccinated, as everyone except the unvaccinated seems to understand,  is caused entirely by those who are either too arrogant, too fearful, or too misinformed to get vaccinated, entirely their fault, their responsibility, their burden of blame. They should all be ashamed of themselves, but undoubtedly do not care enough about the welfare of others to be. The unvaccinated are traitors to not only their country, to the human species as well. It is no exaggeration to so assert. Everyone who enters a hospital with a severe case, or even a mild case of Covid 19 says the same thing: they wish they had gotten vaccinated. Well, of course. What words, other than "moral criminal" or "traitor" can accurately describe a person willing to spread a deadly disease when the means to avoid doing so is readily available to all? Surely there must be some way of convincing anti-vaxxing traitors that President Biden is not inserting microchips into syringes which compel a person to register as a Democrat! The unvaccinated should be invited to simply acknowledge that upwards of one hundred and seventy five million  Americans have been vaccinated, without the slightest ill effect, other than the prevention of illness. Those unvaccinated should be invited to visit pharmacies, universities, and research centers, to use computers and Ibuprofen, to demonstrate to their satisfaction that science exists, and that it works, marvelously. They should be invited to attend lectures in basic biology, chemistry, and physics for the purpose of awakening themselves to the reality that science is fact base, and that science solves problems and improves lives, without the need to resort to superstition, to fall to one's knees and pray passionately to some imaginary deity in the sky, or listening to the advice of some ranting, raving lunatic of a political leader, downplaying the severity of the pandemic and urging people to prevent the disease by ingesting bleach and other disinfectant. In late July, approximately half a million Americans were getting vaccinated daily, at which rate the entire country will be vaccinated by next summer,  hardly sufficient. Over ninety percent of registered Democrats have been vaccinated, and slightly under one half of all registered Republicans have been. hence, the Covid 19 epidemic is reigniting in red (conservative) states. We know where the problem is,  who we know who is causing it. The traitorous criminal Donald Trump and his equally criminal traitorous supporters caused the initial nightmare of Covid 19 to spread out of control across the United States, and once again they are causing it to do so again.

Fixing It

 WITHIN TWO WEEKS of Donald Trump's first presidential candidacy, I was done with him, having at first been enthusiastic about it. New blood, and all that. His vicious dishonesty had soon become evident. Access Hollywood was the clincher. When he was shockingly elected, a friend of mine called him "that orange haired Hitler". All hair color aside, Trump and his supporters, and his rise to power, and his administration, and his and the behavior of his supporters since their eventual election defeat, do indeed and have always reminded me of Hitler and the NAZI party, based on my advanced degrees in modern European history. A thuggish gangster demagogue leader, spewing big lies, inflaming his minions, and his vile gang of thuggish gangster supporters. That's what I saw, and still see. Because the word "Socialist" is deeply embedded within the acronym "NAZI", uneducated right wing folks often try to categorize Hitler as "left wing", which, of course, is nonsense. Hitler was far, far right, and said so, daily. So were his policies, if you'll examine them closely. Trumpian policies, indeed. Now, along comes General Mark Milley, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, the nation's highest ranking man in military uniform, with a new book just out: "Only I Can Fix It", about the final months of the Trump administration. General Milley in his book (actually the general is not the book's author, but his observations constitute the main part of it) says that Trump reminds him of Hitler, and that Trump's followers and political movement remind him of the NAZI movement. Sound familiar? Is there an echo in here? Milley says more. He ways that after Trump's election defeat, he (Milley) was convinced that Trump would do anything to stay in power, and we afraid that the apparently unstable man might try to use the military to achieve that end. Milley says that he had private conversations with many of the highest ranking people in the military, and that they agreed that they would refuse to obey any illegal orders that might be handed out by the lame duck president. Obviously, a book worth looking into, considering its source. Any Trump supporter is naturally going to derisively dismiss the Hitler analogy. Hell, Hitler dismissed the truth about himself, as did is followers. Consider the fact that Trump and h is supporters still insist that the election was stolen, that the capitol insurrection was a good idea, and many of them including some of my good friends, believe that Trump shall still, one fine day, be returned to power, and Biden thrown out as election fraud is exposed. In short, mental illness, like physical illness is widespread in American society, and deeply embedded within the Trump movement. In short, people who support Donald Trump are stark, raving crazy, demonstrably. Now, they'll doubtless try to discredit and slander the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, as Trump already is.  For my money, General Mark Milley is a pretty credible source.

Seeking To Deceive, Transparently

 THE CURRENT CREATIVE Republican psychology based strategy to present their voter suppression movement, ongoing nationwide, as the most reasonable, rational remedy to a serious problem, and all opposition to it as alarmist, is transparently, fatuously phony. Good try, but, not quite good enough. Most Americans see through it, including major corporations and major league baseball, which are boycotting voter suppressed states. Consider the source; American Republican conservatism. A large majority of Republican party members still embrace Trump's big election lie, and a large majority of them still insist that the January sixth insurrection was well intentioned, a good try, a noble endeavor, if failed, to secure justice. Point proven. Transparently deceitful.  American Republican party conservatism is far out to lunch. I asked a friend, a Trumper, whether, six months after the election, he has obtained any evidence of stolen election fraud.  In response he informed me that investigations into the matter are ongoing in Arizona and Pennsylvania, and perhaps other states, he evidently being unaware of the difference between "investigations" and "evidence". This  outbreak of legislative voting "reforms" is motivated by Trump's loss and phony claim of victory, and the intent is to see that it never happens again,  (A Trump loss), by doing whatever can be done, which in reality isn't much, to discourage the folks who elected Biden, largely urban African-Americans, from voting next time. The crime is in the motive and intent, the bark, not the bite. Salvation comes to American democracy by the simple fact that no one needs to be prevented from voting, one needs only to navigate the enhanced obstacles to so doing. Meanwhile, there remains hope that Republicans will yet enter into the kingdom of democratic heaven, the nirvana of liberty and freedom: Senator Ted Cruz, of all political figures, has stated  his unequivocal support for the "Free Britney" movement,  eloquently calling her continued de facto enslavement "frigging ridiculous". You go Ted. I have had the distinct honor of bringing the "pledge of allegiance" into public places where nobody , not a single conservative, ever had before. Then too, never in my life have I claimed election theft when my candidate lost an election. I shake hands with the winner and move on, which I think we should all do, leastways, the way I was raised. Thus I claim the patriotic and moral high ground, superior to the conservative Republican party of  America. When a leading U.S. Senator and leader of Republican conservatism, positioning himself as a gallant advocate for the liberty of Britney Spears, hops on a plane to Cancun, coincidentally he says, during the worst deep freeze blizzard in his state's history, leaving his constituents behind, you know one thing for damned sure: there is moral rot within the crumbling edifice of American Republican conservatism.

Interacting Pleasantly, Behaving Heroically

 SO MUCH ACRIMONY  ENSUES  in the lives of so many people that I'm sure most of us welcome and indeed treasure a short conversation with anyone, including strangers, which goes well.  The other day I was standing in the corner at Arby's, waiting for my order, the two beef and cheddar sandwiches for six dollars, which I consider a pretty good deal. I was starving, the noon rush was on, and my stomach was making an impatient man of me.  A group of giggling teenaged girls was clustered at the drink machine, filling their cups to overflowing. One of them filled hers, pulled the cup away, but the red liquid kept coming out of the nozzle. The handle was stuck. "It won't stop!", she screamed, as if the building were collapsing, and I admired her penchant for stating to obvious, if not for problem solving. I took two steps jiggled the handle, and the flow stopped. "Thank you" she half mumbled, half giggled, turned, and was out the door, giggling with her friends. Standing next to me had been a young police officer in uniform. I turned to him, and asked: "Did you see my act of heroism?"  "I certainly did", he said. "Good move". He could have done the same thing, but thought perhaps that while on duty, in uniform, he might cause alarm, so didn't. Or, maybe, just maybe, he wanted to give the grey haired old civilian a chance to show his stuff. I appreciated his approving remark, and continued: "I love behaving well in front of a police officer". Also, if I'm not dreaming, I believe the young lady actually said "thank you'"... "She did indeed", said the young officer. "That renews my faith in humanity".  I agreed with him on that score as well, thought for a moment how difficult it must be for him and others of his profession to retain any faith in the rest of us at all, and was about to say so, when his order arrived, and he was quickly out the door, heading for his patrol car. A minute later they called my name, and I knew I was done talking, with anybody, for awhile. As I happily and fully finished my beef n cheddar melts, I noticed another officer, a pair of them, seated in a booth, munching. I decided to take advantage of the opportunity and strolled over to where they sat. They both looked up, smile, and  I said: "I wanted to say this to the other young officer, but he left too soon. the fact is, I admire you and what  you do, but I do not envy you". They showed ready comprehension, and thanked me, and told me to have a good day.  I'm glad I didn't say something like "I'll have whatever kind of day I damned well choose", but instead, walked out the door, belly full of food, heart full of happiness.

Going Along To Get Along

 I HAVE BECOME, over the past few years, increasingly afraid to visit my friend of more than thirty five years, for, alas, over the last few yeas, he has emerged as a political animal, never having been so inclined before, and, alas again, he supports Trump, strongly. I always to to talk about basketball, or something, since he is a former NCAA player, and yesterday I broached the NBA finals, and he asked: "who's playing"? That alarmed me. I visit him at his house about two or three times a year now, and I always avoid politics with him, having explained to him that friendship is more important than politics. But he always brings it up, as if he somehow must, almost as if he wants to argue, and thinks he can win, or wants to end our friendship but isn't quite sure how. We were getting along fine, basketball wise, until once again he made the leap. "You're a Democrat!", he said accusingly, as if I didn't know." Biden is trying to turn our country into a banana republic, and that red headed press secretary lo his stands there and lies, constantly." He could have been talking about Trump, and Sarah Huckabee Sanders, and probably was, without knowing it. I just listened. Then came the piece de resistance. "Before the end of this year, Trump will be back in office, mark me. I'll bet you a case of imported beer".  I nodded, and took the bet. How could I not? I didn't bother to tell him that I no longer drink; hell, this just might motivate to start drinking again. So, I left, after five minutes. I told him I love him, and he said he loves me too. I'll see him again in, or a local church. Trump fans amaze me, more than ever. To believe that Trump will be back in office by year's end, that the election of Biden will somehow be reversed, is delusional, isn't it? that's mentally ill, right? And that is precisely the kind of nonsense they hand out, that, plus the usual deep state Q-Anon conspiracy crap. All of them do it. Under Stalin, the definition of mental illness became anyone who does not believe in socialism. I am truly beginning to believe that in these United States the test of mental illness should become anyone who supports Trump. The man, and h is minions are certifiable, including my friend, who, like the rest of them, I consider a traitor, ever since January sixth. But of course I would never say that to him.

The President's Son, Painting

 I HAVE NO IDEA whether Hunter Biden is a good artist; I haven't seen his work. I am a poor art critic, being of the minions who invariably say: "I may not know good art, but I know what I like." (I think that's a good response for anybody.) So Hunter the son of Joseph, is now painting, and getting ridiculous prices for his art, merely by being the son of the president. As they say, its too windy to stack BBs, and, well, it keeps him off the street, and out of the Ukraine, maybe. The best part of this story is: here come the Republicans. Here comes the sanctimonious conservative mob, the gang o' Trump, screaming corruption. Now, bear in mind that no amount of corruption in the Trump administration or the life of Trump qualifies as corruption, but only as liberal Democratic media hoaxes. Or Chinese. Or whatever. Trump could welcome Russian help getting elected, blackmail the Ukraine for dirt on Joe Biden, falsely claim election loss fraud, and send a violent mob to the Capitol to overthrow the government, or, short of that, simply tear the place up a tad, and, well, hell, no harm, no foul. Did I mention Trump trying to turn  his presidency into a money making machine for his business interests, in direct violation of the emoluments clause? The Teflon Don, who can imitate Al Capone years on end, with not an iota of criticism from his adoring conservative evangelical Christian disciples, who are good to go with ascribing all blatant Trump criminality to "media hoaxes", because, after all, he's conservative, loves Jesus, loves unborn babies, and lowers taxes on the wealthy, who, after all, gained their wealth by virtue of the "gospel of prosperity", wherein  conservatives are rewarded with abundant wealth by the capitalistic gun toting Jesus Christ, for accepting as their savior a man who was tortured to death that they might not suffer for their sins. "Go they way, and sell whatsoever thou hast, and give unto the poor? Oh, um..that comes later.... First we must make ends meet for our six car Lamborghini filled garage by preaching the message of not the Jesus who admonished that only the poor enter into the kingdom of heaven, but the Jesus who in conservative fantasy preaches that only the rich do, the slick television evangelists, the Trump folks, the folks who fight like hell for the unborn then lock children in cages once they are born, for being brown, undocumented, and Mexican..  How very Christian of the Trump-adoring Jesus lovers! But Hunter Biden is a corrupt criminal, for making and selling art, in the free market. These right wing Trump Christians, they sho' do put on a good show. 

Voting, Regardless

 TRUTH BE TOLD, and even in the age of disinformation it occasionally is, all these assaults on easy access voting, what is being termed "voter suppression" being legislated by the grand old Republican party in a temper tantrum of a response to Trump's famous defeat, needn't prevent anyone, minorities or otherwise, from voting.  Like blind squirrels finding acorns, right wing repubs, once in a blue moon, get something right, and this they have right; everyone can still vote. its gonna be a bit more troublesome to do so, what with mail in voting and drive through voting being curtailed by a vicious vindictive pack of curs. Merely have your I.D. in order, show up when they let you show up, stand there for hours in the heat without food or drink, because, heaven forbid, accepting food or drink from a compassionate passerby might be corruption in disguise which might just steal another election from Donald Trump. It would be nice it it were easy for all eligible voters to vote, like, say, from home, on the phone, online, through teh snail mail, you name it, let's vote it. contrary to what one typical Republican reprobate claims, voting should indeed be easy, because eligible voters should not have to break down barrier after barrier to prove their worth - they've already proven it. but, we're just not there yet. So, kudos to Texas state legislative Democrats for caring enough to once again run like hell from Republican perfidy, in pure desperation, for caring enough to charter a private jet and fly to Washington D.C., to try to get the national Congress to do something about the G.O.P. tantrum. The republican voter suppression is a situation in which, as they say, the bark is bigger than the bit. Just get out, vote, grin, a beat it. The corruption is embodied in two ways: the motive, and the intent. the motive is Trump's loss in the election, and his ridiculous lie that the election was stolen, a ridiculous lie echoed by seventy five million of his supporters, making them traitors to the democratic process which underpins American freedom. No evidence of crime, no crime, no election fraud ever found. If Trump had won, in real time, there would now be no voter suppression effort, an effort intended to keep those lazy Democrat minorities, the folks without I.D's, means, or automobiles, away from the polling place. the intent, in short, is to reduce voter turnout, turnout like those mobs of African-american who flocked to the polls in Detroit, Milwaukee, Philly, and Atlanta, and won the election for Biden. Make 'em drive. If there really were any sign, any sign at all, of voter fraud, anywhere in these great united states, if the problem really existed, and if by chance the Republicans were trying to correct a rel problem rather than insidiously fix voting rules to assist in their own election success, the effort would indeed be noble. as it is, its criminal, pathetically, transparently so.

Vaccinating For Reality

NINETY THREE PERCENT of Democrats are vaccinated, and for nine percent of Republicans are, according to ABC News, which, despite claims to the contrary made by conservatives concerning the allegedly corrupt liberal mainstream media, is a reliable source. The statistic speaks volumes. It proves what we already knew: that Republicans, aka conservatives, are almost exclusively responsible for the current Covid 19 renewed epidemic in the United States, full stop. Compare the vaccination rate in "red" states to that in "blue" states; the numbers are damning, and they do not lie, cannot be misinterpreted. Acknowledging this, the governor of Arkansas suggested that the reason is a great mistrust of government on the part of conservatives. True enough, but certainly not sufficient justification for behavior which endangers the entire country. The governor failed to mention that government isn't the only established institution distrusted by the conservative community. He failed to include truth, reality, and science in the list, all of which are the same thing. The first two are pursued and elicited by the latter. A healthy skepticism of government, and of all authority, is of course healthy in a free society. Likewise science, and its initial, unproven results. But skepticism about the efficacy of the scientific method is beneficial to no one.  Given time, sciences always provides the truth about nature, of which we are of course an integral part. Science never stop correcting and improving itself until it gets it right. Unlike  human intelligence, science is not limited, or rather, is limited only by the limitations of human intelligence. Show me a person who does not believe in vaccinations, climate change, or human evolution by natural selection, and I will show you a fool,  and, quite likely, a conservative evangelical and Trump supporter. Such people have more assault weapons and Bibles than brains, or so it often seems. Such people deny these three demonstrable, proven realities for only one reason; to acknowledge their factual reality would do damage to their self esteem by challenging their preconceived beliefs, and perhaps even force them to change these false beliefs, which they cling to as a matter of pride. As is often the case, Goethe said it best: "We resist reality only because we fear that we would perish if we accepted it." Sensitive sorts might object to deniers of vaccination efficacy, climate change, and evolution being characterized as "fools". they might assert that doing so is rude and unfair. They might be concealing less noble personal traits behind a thin veneer or pious concern for the treatment of others, and themselves. Actually, it is neither rude nor inappropriate to call a  fool a fool, and any one who refuses to accept obvious reality in preference for self esteem and emotional security is indeed just that, a fool. It is perhaps regrettable that we live in a world in which fools seldom self identify.

Looking Back With Pride, Or Shame

 THE OLD REDNECK with an eighth grade education and several yellow teeth grinned condescendingly at me and rasped: "Hoe come you aint wearin' no Hillary Clinton campaign button today?" Exhausted from a sleepless night of voting counting and despair, devastated at the most  horrible political loss of my life,  I was in no mood for childish, classless taunting, so I replied by saying something unpleasant. You're a bad loser, he said. No, I'm not, I said. Yes you are, he said, No, I am not, I said. "Yes you are, he said again.!" No, I am not. Congratulations to Mr. Trump, and I wish him nothing but the very best" Disarmed, he of course lacked the class to acknowledge that he was wrong about me. And he was. I take the high road, always have, a lesson learned from a good upbringing from good parenting and long experience winning and losing quality tennis tournaments. I learned early and often that you're going to lose, and you're going to remember how you dealt with it, and you're either going to be proud of the memory, or not. That's why Trump supporters still amaze me, months after the election.  Their lack of class and basic decency amazes me, and always will. I have no interest in ever associating with anyone who claimed that the election was stolen from Trump; they are, frankly, beneath me. My behavior in response to Trump's electoral college victory in 2016 was a perfect role model. Or else, show me a better one. A democracy functions only if and when its members make it work, by participating in it honorably, and by accepting the results of fair and free elections. Trump is mentally ill. His supporters, previously presumed to be good people, have no such excuse. Its disappointing and shocking to realize that so many of my fellow Americans have so little class. they should be ashamed of themselves,  and probably are, but only subconsciously. they will go to their grades either never admitting their bad behavior, pretending that they never said anything about election fraud, or still claiming that their lie is the truth. the one thing they will never do is what is honorable. either they weren't raised right, or have forgotten what they were taught. The FBI, the CIA ,and every other American intelligence gathering agency assured us that Trump won in 2016 only with Russian assistance. he and his supporters conveniently ignored that stark, tragic, national disaster of a reality. And yet, I shook hands with them, and gave them a chance. For years later, they refused to lose with honor and decency.  They conveniently ignore the fact that basic principles of law require that all accusation of crime be accompanied with firm evidence. of which they have non,e never have, and never will. Seventy five million Trump supporters have no integrity, honor, nor decency. They are worthy of neither my respect and friendship, nor of their citizenship.

Getting Hot

 JUNE 2021 was the hottest June on record, and that goes back more than one hundred years of record keeping. It broke the old record, set in 2016, by more than a degree, a considerable amount. the hottest ten years on record occurred in the nineteen eighties, then again in the nineteen nineties, and so on. The pattern is obvious, and teh cause even more so. During the last one hundred years the human species has injected more than eight hundred and fifty billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere, raising the carbon content in parts per million from around two hundred to approaching four hundred and fifty. Although most scientists are unwilling to say so publicly, it is probably much too late for humanity to save itself or the ecosystem; considering the belated and lame response to climate change, humanity's unwilling to make the necessary changes soon enough, within fifty years the climate will be hellish, heading towards a greenhouse hell not unlike the planet Venus. Ironically, efforts to convert from fossl fuels to sustainable energy sources are only now getting underway in earnest; twenty one percent of teh energy the United States uses now is derived from wind turbine and solar energy; a great start towards survival, but, alas, probably too little too late.  and still a majority of America's conservatives deny that climate change is made by humans; many deny that it exists at all; of those that do, that claim that, well, climate change is always taking place, naturally, and we humans simply have nothing to do with it, because we are too puny to have any real influence on nature. These people are too moronic to reason with, they are best ignored. Their refusal to join the cause of environmental salvation is causing American climate policy to lag behind year after year, as Republicans refuse to take action. Trump, insanely, got elected promising to "bring back coal", even though the free market capitalistic market has long been pricing colal out of business, replacing it with natural gas and solar energy. Notice that the bring back coal idiocy has been quietly forgotten; somebody perhaps finally convinced Trump that its too late to bring back coal, and that we really do not want to do that. Rush Limbaugh uses to lie to his adorning radio audience that human made climate change is a hoax, and the fools believed every word of it. Now that Rush is dead, it can be hoped that his lies die with him, but so far they have not, and are being perpetuated by his bereaved followers. That's tragic. One day they too will be dead, but, unfortunately, so will the rest of us.

Being Damned Sure

BE DAMNED SURE that Republican efforts to tighten voting restrictions, to make it harder to vote, has nothing to do with any phony effort to eliminate voter fraud. This fraudulent crusade to keep people from voting would never have happened had Trump not lost the election, then claimed that he won it. The Trump Republican party cares nothing about voting fraud and security, with which there is no discernible domestic problem - but only about winning, at any cost, by making it harder for poor people and minorities, who tend to vote democratic, to vote. In 2016 Trump willingly and happily received help from Russians operatives, and the Republican party remained silent, and even denied it, despite the fact that the FBI and every intelligence gathering agency in the U.S. confirmed Russian interference to help Trump. Trump lost the election by more than three million votes, but won the election. The solution to voter suppression is obvious, other than ending the filibuster and restoring to its original strength the voting rights act of 1965. The solution is education and organized effort, for voters to redouble their commitment to casting their vote, suppression notwithstanding. Concerning the stealing of the 2020 lection from Trump, I am deeply insulted that I have not been personally implicated as an accomplice to the crime. I wish to be given credit for participating in the execution of the perfect crime, and with having left no evidence behind. For the civics edification of Trump supporters, who seem ignorant not only of basic standards of decency and integrity but of fundamental due process as well; one must never accuse anyone of a crime without first presenting evidence that a crime took place. That aside, from the fact that the proper way to handle an election defeat is to congratulate the winner and offer full support, instead of refusing to accept election defeat and falsely claiming election fraud. Trump supporters have revealed that they have no more decency and integrity than he. The Republican party, as Noam Chomsky points out, is the world's most dangerous and harmful organization, leaving the Taliban in the dust. First, it stood idly by as Trump sole an election with foreign assistance, then gladly abetted Trump's "big lie". And be damned sure of this: it is the conservative ""Christian Republicans who, by refusing to accept the obvious reality of human made climate change endanger life on Earth by refusing to contribute to reversing it, and it is the same gangsters who refuse to get vaccinated against Covid 19, thus putting all Americans in great peril. Surveys prove this. Let us assume for the record that Jesus would not approve of ignoring the climate disaster, supporting Trump's dishonest claims of election fraud, or  the willful spread of disease through inaction, or the perpetuation of systemic racism, all through inaction.

Trump. Losing As Usual

 DONALD TRUMP, who during his presidency was involved in more than four thousand lawsuits, and is still involved in many of them, is becoming involved in even more. Of those which have been resolved, Trump has lost most, for most of his claims are baseless, like most of his comments generally. Of his sixty one federal suit claiming election fraud, for example, all but one was tossed out of court, one federal judge asking: "Is that all you've got"? His most recent attempt involves suits filed against Facebook, Twitter, and Google, all for banishing  him from their social media platforms. These allegations of unconstitutional censorship are no better than the rest; he'll lose, then find some ludicrous pretest upon which to base a false claim of victory, as per  his style. The first amendment clearly gives social media platforms the right to banish anyone they choose, with or without cause.   When the president of the United States uses social media to assemble an angry mob, the incites said mob to insurrection in an attempt to overthrow the United States government and overturn the results of a presidential election, when the United States president uses social media to libel and defame people, to constantly tell blatant lies and spread deliberate disinformation, there is ample cause. All legal experts agree, and there is abundant precedent; Trump's new lawsuit will be dismissed. Only Congress is prohibited from infringement on free speech; Facebook is not Congress. Trump, a long time loser  legally and in nearly every other conceivable manner, is doomed to lose yet again. Equally humorous and pathetic are Trump's amazingly remaining millions of sycophantic followers, the mad MAGA mob, filled to overflowing with pious but morally deficient evangelical "Christians".  Since social media platforms are not exclusively free flowing conduits for conservative disinformation and ideological garbage, since Trump's MAGA mob comprises  a mere minority of the American people,  and since politically conservative evangelical Christian culture enjoys much less than a monopolistic domination of American culture, the dwindling conservative demographic, its death rattles audible as it sinks into oblivion with the Trump albatross anchored to its straining neck, provides a clownish spectacle,  uselessly wailing is being censored by big tech. Actually, the modern American conservative movement is self censoring, by hitching its wagon to a failed, criminal demagogue, by abandoning sanity and rejecting reality, and by abandoning any pretext of moral decency, as it continues its suicidal descent to the deepest, darkest level of depravity.

Defining "Systemic"

 SYSTEMIC RACISM doesn't exist, according to an arguably brain dead conservative politician in of course, a red state, because the word "systemic" is a medical term and according to his laughably inane reasoning, can only be used in a medical contest, not a political or social context. Yes, he really said that, which is not surprising, but should be. Such are the intellectual depths of depravity to which contemporary conservatism has shun, in the era of Donald Trump. It would be pointless to calmly explain to him that the word "systemic" is a mere derivative of the word "system", an adjective qualifier, and can be used to refer to any system, medical, social, political, animal, plant, or mineral. For proof of the existence of systemic racism, of which there is an abundant amount, consider this: Once upon a time, not so long ago, for example,  about a hundred years ago there were hundreds of thousands of African-american farmers, who owned millions of acres of land under cultivation, all across America's fruited plain, north, south, east, and west. Today, less than ten percent of he black farmers remain in business, and less than ten percent of the land mass remains under cultivation by them. What happened? For one, the emergence of huge scale corporate agriculture. then too, for decades, especially after the end of Reconstruction and during the great depression. the overriding cause of the demise of black agriculture, however, has been officially federal government policy, systemic racism, a deliberate, organized policy within the Department of agriculture and other federal agencies to deny loans to black farmer and to deny them access to federal agricultural assistance programs of all sorts. The Department of Agriculture and federal government generally recognize this, recognizes that its policies were deliberately racist, if overtly so. in an attempt to make amends and to reverse some of the damage, the government has embarked on an agrarian affirmative action program, in which low interest loans are offered to black farmers, and black farmers are put first in line for sundry farming assistance programs. There is also a debt forgiveness program for African-American farmers to apply for. However, a federal judge recently pt a temporary stay on all this, an action taken pending many lawsuits filed by white farmers, alleging reverse discrimination racism. Behold the vigor with which white business people appeal to the judicial systemic for relief against discrimination to themselves, having been conspicuously silent when it was used against black folk!  Wonders never cease.

Bloodlessly, Lovingly Admiring God

 MY GRANDMOTHER  was born in 1892, and died in 1971, when I was sixteen. "How Great Thou Art"  was on page twenty two of her hymnal. I once sang with a gospel group on whose hymnal the song was on page sixty two. Wherever it is, its beautiful. When you really love a song, its easier to remember what page its on. On the very few occasions when I have participated in gospel singing, I have encouraged my fellow singers to sing it. For me, "How Great Thou Art" is the perfect hymn, the perfect song. It sings the praises of the wondrous glory of the creator of the universe, what Einstein called "the infinitely superior spirit", as manifested and revealed in the wonders of nature itself. Most other gospel songs I can do without. Some, I despise. Some nearly make me sick. For example, I have no desire for my sins to be washed away in the shed blood of Christ, nor of anyone else. For that mater, I do not care to rejoice at even the thought of someone, anyone, especially a superior person, far superior to myself, someone of sublime character and surpassing wisdom, being tortured to death to absolve me of my guile and responsibility for my sins. Even if I were enough of a coward to want and to allow a better person than I to suffer and pay for my sins, I hope I would not be of such low moral character to brazenly rejoice and express my unhesitating approval of it i song. The very idea of elevating an instrument of torture and death to the status of sacred religious symbol I fine utterly appalling. The image of a person being tortured to death on a wooden cross i find equally appalling, and I reserve special disdain and horror for a portrayal of a human face depicted in agony as blood drips from a crown of thorns. Must one reduce one's self to a murderous, bloody savage to admire and give thanks to nature's creator and for the gift of life? I prefer not to be a vampire, drawing sustenance from somebody else's blood.Anyone who lives i a country in which there is, as the author of the American constitution James Madison said, an "impenetrable wall" separating the government and all religion,  in which government neither officially supports nor prohibits any religion's practice, and in which no religion is allowed to interfere with, insinuate itself into, nor influence government, is fortunate.  We rer required to approve of or accept other people's religious beliefs, but we are required to tolerate them, adn to refrain from doing them harm, or harm to those who practice religions other than our own. I have always tended to dislike people who express dislike or disapproval of my religiosity, or who encourage me to change my religious beliefs. I most assuredly do not respect the religious beliefs of many who try to influence or change mine, but I respect their right to practice their own religion, and I am respectful enough to never try to change anyone's beliefs to suit me. , no matter how bloody, bizarre, barbaric, or primitive they may seem to me.The best feature of the supremely beautiful hymn "How Great Thou Art"  is perhaps that it can be sung alone, far from any blood thirsty worshipers of instruments of torture and death.

Fact Checking the Fourth

 IN LATE JUNE, 1776, John Adams predicted that the first day of July would become forever enshrined in the new independent nation as a cherished holiday. He wasn't far off. More than half the colonists, perfectly content to be British subjects under British rule, were not in favor of declaring independence from the crown and forcing a military confrontation with the most powerful military in the world. Between 1776 and 1780, at least one hundred thousand Americans, "loyalists", got aboard ships and left the country, to live in places like England, Canada, and the Caribbean, preferring safety to revolution. George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson all became revolutionaries only after extreme soul searching, all three being very patriotic British subjects. Washington and Franklin were especially loyal to the crown until well after 1770; Jefferson was a loyalist in 1773, but became a revolutionary in 1774, for precise reasons no historian has ever been able to identify. Although Washington never displayed particular talent as a filed tactician, he was an inspiring leader, and Franklin's diplomatic charm lured the french into assisting the revolution, the French were already disposed to make trouble for their traditional English enemies. Without French assistance the revolution would have been doomed; before 1780 ninety percent of arms and ammunition used by the Americans came from France. Jefferson, an introvert, stubbornly resisted writing the declaration of independence, believing that he was too young, that he lacked social status, and that others could do a better job. hew was coerced into doing it by peer pressure. Adams and Franklin did the coercing; Adams pointing out that the young Jefferson was ten times smarter than himself, and ten times more popular. Franklin merely loomed over the young Jefferson with his six foot four inch two hundred and eighty pound bulk. Dreamy Tom also feared being the object of British retaliation. In fact, at one point a contingent of British soldiers came to Monticello looking for him; he had fled into the nearby woods. When the war was miraculously won with the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, the new nation faced nearly impossible problems of how to govern such a huge land mass, and how to pay for it. They got advice on federalism from the Iroquois nation, which governed itself over a huge area of territory, effectively.

Doing Your Duty By Vaccinating

 THE MORE PEOPLE who refuse to get the easily obtainable Covid 19 vaccine, the more the virus spreads, and the greater the chance that mutations will emerge as the virus replicates, and the greater the possibility of a mutation of Covid 19 spreading far and wide which is extremely contagious, deadly, and impervious to all currently available vaccines, putting not only the  un-vaccinated in even greater, but end danger, but  endangering the already vaccinated as well. People who refuse to take the now readily available vaccine are a danger to themselves, their community, the country, and indeed the human race. The abstruse but inventive phrase "vaccination traitor" has become apt. Even the most superficial demographic analysis reveals that vaccination rates are lowest in "red" states, and highest in "blue" states. It is America's conservative community which, generally, declines to get vaccinated,  unsurprising, since it is the conservative community which denies the truths of basic science,  preferring to substitute its own, false version of reality, simply to satisfy perceived. political and emotional needs. Often these needs are predicated on religious fanaticism. Generally, the people who support and love Donald Trump, who still believe that his election defeat was fraudulent, who insist that the insurrection of January sixth was a good idea and necessary, that climate change is a liberal  hoax, are the people who refuse to get vaccinated. Many of them claim that the vaccines are poison, despite the fact that hundreds of millions of people have been vaccinated, with no ill effect. There are some who claim that Covid 19 vaccinations are complete with computer chips, a means for the government to spy on them. then too, there is the vaccines cause autism crowd, a false notion which has been thoroughly discredited, but not to the satisfaction of those who deny scientific truth generally. Vaccination denial is as harmful as climate change denial, and it tends to manifest among the same people; the conservative religious community, among the people who support Donald Trump, even after his false claim that he actually won the 2020 election conspicuously has no merit, no basis in fact or reality. When one indulges in one fantasy, it becomes far easier to indulge in many more. As H.L. Mencken said: the fools would be humorous were thy not in such deadly earnest. Neither prisons nor mental health facilities are over crowded in America, but perhaps they merely house the wrong people.

Stressing Out

THOUSANDS OF AMERICAN MILITARY personnel have been killed in combat since nine one one, mostly of course in Iraq and Afghanistan, where the Taliban, emulating the North Vietnamese, have simply been awaiting the inevitable American withdrawal to retake what they consider to be their country. Four times the number of combat deaths have been self inflicted violence, suicides. Th epidemic of suicide among service personnel and veterans has been ongoing for decades, in fact since the nation's inception, unspoken, shameful, hidden. Like General Sherman said: "war is hell", even when its over. At least one million American soldiers have died in combat in American history more than that have died by suicide, victims of accumulated anxiety from exposure to never ending nightmares. The term "PT which continuously ravage the American west create the same problem; heroes torn apart emotionally by unendurable conditions. The resulting high rate of self destruction , the last resort of people subjected to endless misery, creates depression, an endless black hole for a future, and.....death. Folks brainwashed into  an impossible to maintain strength by a hyper masculine culture of self denial, a tough guy culture of make believe imperviousness, produce the depression, the silence, the withdrawal, the unwillingness and incapability to seek urgently necessary pyschiatric assistance...eventually... inevitably break, alone. I spent three weeks ten years ago digging through the rubble of the remains of a mid sized city destroyed by a super, killer tornado, yet another gift of human made climate change. A hundred thousand of us volunteered to endure the nightmare. One day I became dehydrated and depressed, and lost; with no street signs and nothing but unrelenting ruins all around me, I had no idea where I was, in the ninety five degree heat and humidity. My cell phone rang, in my pocket, with an inane, lilting tune.  It was the principal of the high school where I was teaching, asking me about my "vacation", which I had abandoned, unbeknownst to him. "How in the hell am I doing?! I'm standing in the middle of a pile of rubble, lost, hungry, thirsty, alone, lost, and I can't see another person , anywhere! How in the hell do you think I'm doing?!".......I'll check back with you later, he said. have a nice day. Later, back home, I began to notice that I was behaving strangely, hiding under my bed at the approach of a cumulus cloud, my short term memory gone, wandering around the grocery store for an hour without putting anything in my shopping cart, then getting home and discovering that I had shop lifted, a can of tuna in my pocket. I knew I needed help. The psychiatrist gave me extensive testing. Then he told me that, no, contrary to my suspicions,  I am not bipolar but the bad news was that I had the worst case of "PTSD" of anyone he had ever treated who did not serve in Afghanistan. My two choices were extensive psycho therapy, or, as he put it, to "man up". It was much less expensive to man up.

Sci Fi, Morphing

ONCE UP A TIME there was a literary genre called "science fiction". the best science fiction, written by very talented writers, ranks among the great literature of the world. Clarke Asimov, Silverberg, Heinlein, among many others, contributed much to culture. The same is true of more contemporary authors. Common science fiction motifs included: space travel, exploration of nature, including the oceans, alien planets and life, and technology, among many others, science based. Then too there was another genre called "fantasy", which dealt with motifs such as demons and dragons, witchcraft, sorcery, magic and so forth. Like science fiction writers, fantasy writers contributed many excellent works of fiction. These two genres tended to attract different, separate types of readers. Then, gradually, something changed. the two genres gradually merged into one, and a new category emerged: "fantasy and science fiction". Writers began combining scientific motifs with those of fantasy. Demons and dragons got mixed up with time travelers. Whereas most sci fi writers had usually stuck with topics which were at least possible within the known laws of nature, with what could conceivably exist, perhaps in the future such as interstellar space and time travel, they abandoned scientific possibility for the altogether impossible, or implausible, if you will, such as magic and sorcery. Instead of going to the trouble of building a starship to travel the galaxy, why not merely cast a magic spell? Its much easier that way. It is almost as if American culture had forgotten the difference between science and pure imagination, almost as if it still hasn't regained its memory. This literary phenomenon has been relegated to exclusivity, a mysterious realm penetrated by only an elite class of nerdy intellectuals, beyond the scope or interest of intellectual laity. Science education among America's masses has decline so precipitously that a high percentage of Americans can no longer even distinguish between science and fantasy, nor seem to care. This we have a sizeable segment of society which denies climate change, obvious though it is, refuses to understand that vaccines actually work, and is perfectly convinced that advanced creatures from far away star systems or "other dimensions" interact with or even control human affairs, despite the complete lack of even a shred of actual evidence to support such fantasy. When science education declines, do do critical thinking and intellectual credulity. When a huge percentage of the general population can no longer distinguish between reality and fantasy, between fact an fiction, we all retreat into our own private universes, universes of our own invention, which no one else can ever hope to share or understand.

Experiencing the Joy of Reality

 WE KNOW, that there are at least four thousand planets orbiting stars other than the sun. The first such was discovered in 1995. We can safely extrapolate that there are trillions yet to be discovered. When one examines a bath tub filled with sea water taken randomly from the ocean,  whatever is in the sample can be presumed to exist throughout the entire ocean. Whenever some distant star slightly dims and brightens with precision, an orbiting planet is passing in front of it. The ultimate question is: how many stars are there close enough to the sun with a good enough view of the sun for intelligent life to similarly detect the presence of Earth? The answer, it turns out, is about seventeen hundred and fifteen. This is solid science at its exciting, empirical best. Scientifically, intellectually, the future of humanity beckons like a beautiful panoramic mystery unfolding, revealing the true nature of nature to those seeking access to reality. Sadly, sciences' noble, eternal quest for the truth seems to be insufficient mental stimulation for many people, people w ho choose to reject science in favor of their own, fabricated false realities. American culture, which has always been an incubator of false, fraudulent beliefs, is currently experiencing an epidemic of misinformation, intellectual nonsense. The internet, talk radio, and bookstores are full to overflowing of this vacuous, but profitable idiocy. Terms like "paranormal research" and "alternative cosmic paradigms" thinly conceal the senselessness with an intellectual sounding veneer which means nothing. Is it necessary to mention, for instance, that anybody who claims to not only know definitely of the existence of extraterrestrial intelligent beings, but also wo know precisely where they come from and what activities they are engaged in, on Earth end elsewhere, is a charlatan? It shouldn't b necessary. To elucidate the deluded; the United States Federal Reserve bank is not operated advanced creatures from the Andromeda galaxy, the Democratic party does not operate a thriving pedophile business, and the interior of the planet earth is neither hollow, nor inhabited.