Stewarding Insanely

THE IVORY BILLED WOODPECKER, a beautiful bird with a melodious song, is now extinct. No human will ever again see a living one, unless they are cloned. No human deserves to. Another beautiful exotic bird, native to Hawaii, has suffered the same fate. No members of either species have been seen in decades, but hope was held out, until just recently, when they, along with more than twenty other species of missing animals, were officially declared extinct. Pronounced extinct, off hand, matter of factly, and nobody paid much attention or even noticed their being gone. Mostly birds and fish, a mammal here and there, and how many people know or care? We may not miss the fresh water mussels for awhile; all they did was filter and clean the pollutants from water. I remember October first, 1996, exactly twenty five years ago. I was forty one. A couple of friends and I went for a long run on a hilly tree lined trail deep in the woods in the Ozark mountains, and the trees were already far along changing colors. They were an explosion of shades of red, orange, and yellow. In those days that was normal. Back then October was still a cool weather month in the Ozark mountains. Now, October is a summer month, and the leaves start to change color around Halloween in the Ozarks. Both extinctions and climate change are caused, of course, by us. Over the next coupld of decades as many as one million species of animals will likely become extinct, being already threatened with extinction, and the climate, crazy as it has already become, will become much crazier, crazy beyond recognition. any meteorologist wil tell you that the climate and weather from day to day in most areas is already crazy beyond recognition. This, no matter what, if anythyng, humans do to ameliorate the dire situation, no matter how drastice the steps we take, assuming we take any. Its merely a matter of time, extent, and degree. There is no such thing as harmless human infrastructure growth and development, unless we are wliing to drastically reduce the humanpopulation, revert to stone age technology, or crowd thogether in hig density towns in high rise buildings, and leave the rest to nature, which we obviously are not willing to do. We are not willing to abandon our addiction to suburbs and gated communities, McMansions and strip malls, to fossil fuels and general material prosperity and extreme wealth for the few. We are unwilling to live simply that nature may simply live. Humans are irratinal enough to destroy the ecosystem in exchange for short term material prosperity, luxury, and comfort, irrational enough to trade our descendants future for our own profligate lifestyle. Most human are sufficiently irrational not to even care or remain aware of this dire human made situation. Many pretend that climate change and envirnmental destruction do not exist, or tha tit does not matter even if it does because their imaginary skky god is going to come down from the sky any day now, and rapture the saved, by which they mean themselves, into heaven. That is the extent of their insanity. These insane people who call themselves "believers" tend to devout worship capitalism, the freedom the compete ferociously for the acquisition of personal wealth, other people and nature be damned. The intellectual father of modern capitalism, Adam Smith, in his seminal 1776 book "The Wealth of Nations", the bible of capitalistic theory, said that capitalism works for everyone, or should, if people all behave rationally in their own self interest. The problem is that nobody behaves rationally in his or her own self interest, unless you consider drinking, smoking, becoming obese, violence, and an endless list of other destructive human behaviors to be self interested and rational, and an economic system rsulting in the eminent destruction of the Earth's ecosystem to be rational, in society's best interests. If you do, you are not merely irrational, you are flat out straight up crazy. Adam smith knew that in pratice, capitalism cannot and will not work, such is the nature of human nature. People seldom mention that.

Socialists, Hiding In the Closet

WHEN SOCIAL SECURITY was implemented in 1935, my mother was a fifteen year old high school student, a member of a conservative, Repbulican dairy farming family. She and my grandparents all had the exact same attitude about the new FDR program: it was a very bad idea, it simply was not going to work. Roosevelt's socialistic agenda was a huge mistake, they firmly believed, too much government ivolvement in people's lives. The government would immediately begin taking money out of every paycheck of every hard working American, for the rest of the person's working life....for what? Upon retirement the government would begin to pay the money back, in the form of a monthly payment from the Treasury Department. Full retirement age was determined to be sixty five, with early retirement, with lower Social Security payments, possible. There were several obvious problems with this. One, few people actually lived to "retire" in those days. It was conisdered normal for workers to work as long as they were able, then to live out their lives in the care of ther immediate families. That didn't leave much time for actual "retirement". Life expectancy was considerably lower in the nineteen thirties; most folks lived only a few short years beyond the end of their working lives. My mother and her parents were convinced that they would all spend the rest of their working lives paying into a system from which they would never, could not possibly ever get their money back. How wrong they were, as my mother acknowledged late in her long life. My grandfather did indeed die before he was able to retire and enjoy the benefits of social security. But my grandmother lived for several decades beyond her husband, and in fact remarried and outlived her second husband. The social security system did just fine by her. My mother, a career registered nurse, retired at sixty six and lived to ninety three, and drew social security for the twenty seven years of her long and active retirement. She enjoyed her much deserved retired years, remaining active in gardening, community activities, complaining that she never won at the weekly community bingo tournament, and enjoying watching her two children achieve success in early adulthood, all the way into their middle age. It seems likely to me that my mother received far more in social security payments than she ever paid into the system, although she paid into it for more than forty years as a career nurse. That's the way the system works; some people die before they can reap the benefits of their hard work, others live long and reap the benefits afforded by those who die early. By the time my mother died, she was a born again believer in social security, as well as medicare, and all those horrible socialistic programs she and her parents so opposed when they were instituted. I once asked her whether she voted for Roosevelt in 1944, when she was first eleigble to vote in a presidential election. She gave me two answers; "no", and "hell no". My mother turned out to be very lucky that the Democratic socialist president she and her fmaily so loved to hate won those elections in which they voted against him; had Republicnas been in office all along, social security would never have become more than a glimmer in the eyes of America's left wing. The same scenario happens over and over and over in American life; Republican conservatives complain about the dreaded horror of socialism, but do not heistate to take full advantage of its benefits. They send their children to public schools, drive on publicly owned streets and highways, receive protection from socialistic (publicly, not privately owned) police and fire departments and the military, and late in life join pulbicly owned socialized senior centers and gladly accept their social security checks. They are closet socialists, and, in all fairness, hypocrites.

The Risk of Believing Conservatism

DO YOU BELIEVE that climate change is a hoax, a liberal scam, and that even if it is happening, which is doubtful, it is entirelly natural, and beyond human influence or control? Do you believe that humanity should continue to use fossil fuels as long as they remain plentiful, because using them has no disecernable impact on the environment, and creates material prosperity for everyone, and that the manufacture of as much material prosperity as possible should remin a primary objective of American, and indeed human enterprise? Are you convinced that all illegal immigration into the United States should be stopped immediately by constructing a massive wall along the entire southern border of the country, and that legal immigration should be strictly limited to people who possess skills needed in the United States? Do you beieve that Covid 19 is nothing other than another variety of the flu, that it has been much overblown out of proportion by liberals, the ainstream liberal media, and by the government, and that vaccine mandates, mask wearing, social distancing, quarantining, and vaccinating are being implemented for the sole purpose of implementing more government control over the population and limitinfg individual freedom? Do you believe that the United States was founded as a Christian nation, and that today's Christians are under attack by the political left and non Christian community in a "war against Christianity", and the today's Christians must do all in their power to ensure that the United States remains forever a Christian nation, one nation under God? Do you believe that socialism is evil, a form of government control, and that all good Americans must fight to keep socialism out of the American economic system? Are you convinced that all government intervention in theeconomy, including redistribution of wealth, is unfair and harms the nation by penalizing hard work and success, and rewarding those who have not done what is necessary to achieve success on their own? If you answer "yes" to all the above, you are most definitely a conservative, and probably an evangelical Christian conservative. Most importantly, if you answered "yes" to these questions, you are not only wrong, but dead wrong, are living in a false reality, and are harmful to the well being of the United States and the world. There is more proof that climate change is real, and caused by humans, than there is proof that the holocaust happened, that the Earth is round, or that evolution by natural selection explains the existence of the human species. Climate change, in other words, is too obvious to be denied any longer by any reasonably intelligent person. The same is true of evolution, but, a shockingly high percentage of evangelical christian conservatives refuse to accept this reality as well. Covid 29 has killed nearly three quqrters of a million Americans, even with a readily available vaccine. That is hardly "just another flu". Socialism in America? How aobut social security, medicare, public streets and highways, public police and fire departments, and public schools, to name but a few examples of successful socialsm in America today. Immigration? Without immigrants, the aging American native born population would soon run out of working age people, and become a nation of elderly non producers. Immigrants tend to be young, healthy, ready to work. They pay taxes, and they keep the American economy afloat. We are all the descendants of immigrants. The United States was founded as a secular democracy, with religious freedom and tolerance, and no official state religion. For proof, read the constitution. Or maybe letters written by James Madison and Thomas Jefferson. The best we can hope to do with our evangelical Christian conservative citizens is to make them good citizens, by educating them. It will be a daunting task, with uncooperative students.

Being Basically Decent

WHEN AN ELECTION is over, the politicians shake hands and congratulate each other, if they were raised right and remain decent people. Its like shaking hands after a football game with both teams on the field, good gaming the other team. If instead you claim the election was stolen from you and refuse to concede, refuse to shake hands and congratulate the winner, you must identify who stole it, and show proof, or at least strong evidence. Accusations of criminal activity must always be accompanied by identifying the criminal, and providing evidence or proof of the crime. These basic principles of civilized behavior are still being ignored by Trump and his supporters. President Trump phoned the Attorney General of Georgia, and tried to bully him into stealing the election for Trump. Trump tried to commit the exact crime he and his supporters accused some mysterious unidentified party of committing. In Georgia, Republican paranoia, and their delusional desperation belief that the election had been stolen from Trump caused there to be three seperate vote recounts - Biden won every time. In the other crucial swing states, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Arizona, investigations and recounts have already been completed or are still underway, with no changes in the election outcome. The Arizona Republicans hand picked a firm to recount the votes, and the the firm of Trump supporters sadly reported the other day that a recount showed that Biden actually won by a few hundred more votes than in the original vote count. On election night in these states mobs of MAGA mad trump supporters, noticing that Biden was gaining on Trump in the count becaue of mail in votes, mostly Democratic, being counted last, tried to stop the voting, but intrepid election workers in every case refused to accede to the angry mobs, and like the Georgia Attorney General, helped save Democracy. Now the disappointed Trump supporters are claiming that recounts are not about reversing the election results, but only about ensuring future vote integrity, which, of course is a lie, and a pathetic, hilarious attempt to save face and dignity in the face of continued defeat and failure. Trump supporters know full well that elections in America are essentially free of fraud, that the presidential election of twenty twenty was fair and honest, and that Trump lost. But because they have taken on the personailtiy traits of Trump, Trump's supporters are behaving like him, embracing a malicious lie and refusing to do the honorable thing, and congratulate Biden. Trump supporters are deeply ashamed of themselves, ashamed of their own behavior, ashamed to have embraced Trump's election lie, ashamed of their childish response to their election loss. They should be ashamed, ashamed of what and who they have allowed themselves to become. Their shame is still hidden from themselves, but it comes out in their anger and violent behavior. In their attempt to destroy American democracy in the pursuit of illegal power for Trump they have forfeited whatever moral decency they may once have had. Trump, meanwhile, has completed his fall from power, but not his fall from grace. The plethora of ongoing investigations into his behavior and consequent lawsuits are only just beginning, and will eventually reveal his criminal activity, and brand him a criminal for life, and for posterity. When the smoke clears and the dust settles his remaining followers will have to decide whether to cling to him until the bitter end, or renounce him for the sake of their personal dignity and self respect, the same sort of choice Richard Nixon's supporters faced a half century ago. Trump supporters are in a moral trap, and only they can extricate themselves from it.

Nature, Collapsing

THE WORLD'S ECOSYSTEM is collapsing. Its too obvious to deny, and there is no other way to describe it. Millions of species of animals are threatened with extinction; many have already gone extincet. We are in the midst of the sixt mass extinction event in natural history, this one caused entirely by human activity. Just recently sixteen animal species were removed from the endangered species list; tehy have gone extinct. Fianlly, elatedlly, we are strting to scramble for solutions, one of which is heh so called "thirty by thirty" project. According to this plan, at least thirty percent of the Earth's land area would be reserved exclusively for natural habitat by teh year twenty thirty. how generous of homo sapien sapiens to magnanimously give up thirty percent of the world to all the other plants and animals combined, instead of paving it into parking lots and housing subdivisions with gated communites and privacy fences. Stingy though that may seem, by human standards it isn't bad, and, if nothing else, its a start. There is more good news. At the United Nations china suddenly announced that it would stop financing and building coal powered plants in other countries, immediately. Thus heh human carbon "footprint" becomes a bit lighter. In its quest to be teh world's most powerful country economically as well as militarily, china has in recent years embarked on massive projects of infrastructure investment in developing nations. By cancellign curretnlyplanned coal plants, China is taking a big step forward to sustainability. its next best step would be to stop building one coal plant per week, on average, in its own country, which it says it intends to do within a decade or so. Baby steps, as they say. Elsewhere, ther is in Switzerland a company called "Klime-works" which develops methods of fighting climate change. One, a promising machine which looks somewhat like a large shipping container, a large rectangular metal box. A fan inside sucks in air, cleans the carbon out of it, then releases teh clean air back into the atmosphere. A single dumpster sixed machine can clean about four thousand metric tons of air in a year, not mcuh, but, again, its a start. All that is needed is to scale up the system, and use it world wide. this can be done using geo-thermal energy, which is abailable in many places, including beneath most of the western United States. Iceland is already doing this. Planting one trillion trees worldwide, converting to clean energy, and using carbon atmospheric capture (C.A.R.), is a formula for success in reversing global warming. WE already have the tachnology and teh ability to do all three.So we still have a chance to ensure the future survival of teh ecosystem and the human species. After all, its not about us, its about our grandchildren, and their grand children.

Nearly Degenerating Into Tyranny

ON JANUARY SIXTH, 2021, the United States came perilously close, closer than most people can imagine, to degenerating from a democratic republic into a fascist dictatorship. Vice President Pence, before finally acceding to reality, tried everything in his power to reverse the election results to make Trump the winner. Recent research indicates that Pence consulted dozens of constitutional legal experts and former V.P. Dan Quayle, and that all of them assured him that there was no way to accomplish that objective. Until now, only a handful of people were aware of Pence's desperate last ditch effort to steal the election for Trump, who of course was himself trying to steal it, by telling his big lie that it had been stolen from him, and by filing frivoloous lawsuits in many different courts, among other more desperate means. On election night, in the swing states in which Trump took an early lead in the vote count, Biden was closing the gap as the mail in votes were counted last, most of which were from Democrats. The handwriting was on the wall: Biden was going to catch up, pass Trump, and win crucial states. In many places in these states mobs of angry Trump supporters gathered outside pollling places and tried to stop the count, but in every instance the vote counters held firm, and bravely refused to capitulate. Thus they saved democracy. Trump's famous phone call to the Georgia Attorney General in which the would-be-dictator tried to bully the A.G. into stealing the Georgia election for Trump, is well known; millions have heard the tape recording the A.G. made of the surreal conversation. Once again, electoral democracy was saved from Trump and his lawless, violent supporters. Had Trump succeeded in intimating the Attorney General in Georga into stealing the state election for Tmump, who knows what might have happened in other states where Republican controlled state legislatures, bouyed by the Georgia example, might have followed suit? What other successful acts of tyranny might Trump have successfully engineered? Them most alarming example was of course Janaury sixth, when a large energetic rally Trump had planned well in advance was held near the White House, a campaign style rally for a man with only two weeks left in office. This gathering had no other possible purpose for Trump than to try to violently keep him in office for a second term, and that was Trump's intent when he ordered the angry mob , after getting them emotionally fired up with words, to go to the capitol and "fight", which is exaxcly what they did. The violent insurrection was preplanned by Trump, but it failed, whereas Trump had intended it to succeed in forcing Congress to reverse the results of the electoral college. For the first time in American history, an American president tried to overthrow the American government. The failure of the coup was the final, most dramatic democracy saving event in the whole sordid sequence of events, in the aftermath of the 2020 election. Trump's election loss and the subsequent events surrounding his false claim of victory are the subject of a new assiduously researched book by Wall Street Journal White House reporter Michael Charles Bender, which recounts the nightmarish scenarios, and convinces any reader than indeed Trump and his supporters nearly ended American democracy, an attempt at which to this day they regret having failed . The surrealism continues to this day, as Trump supporters prefer to ignore the insurrection, or to pretend that it was a harmless event, or, as Trump recently said: "A loving group". That most of Trump's supportes still support him and still regret that their attempted coup failed is the most frightening aspect of all, and will be, as long as these traitors are active among us.

Abandoning France

FRANCE is America's most loyal and long standing ally, having provided the American colonies with the weapons and ammunition necessary to gain their independence from Great Britain. The facat that the assistance was provided more to harm France's ancient enemy Great Britian than to help the fledgling United States does not diminish the importance of the assistance, without which American independence would have been impossible. Had the revolution failed, the consequences would have been dire for the colonists, many of whom, as Benjamin Franklin warned, would have been hanged seperately. During the two world wars of the twentieth century, the United States repaid its debt, ("Lafayette, we are here") partially, if not entirely. As for the joint French-American Viet Nam disaster, in which the Americans replaced the French in trying to retain control of the revolting French colony, call it an even split, two imperial powers tag teaming defeat. However you calculate who owes whom, the United States under Biden was guilty of deceitful and grossly disrespectful treatment of the French. Because the nuclear powered submarine deal between the U.S. and Australia and the South pacific military agreement intending to oppose Chinese domination of the region involving Australia, the U.S., and Great Britain directly affected France, and was carrried out not only in the absence of partiipation but also of involvement by the French, this shabby treatment of a valued ally was inexcusable. The apology delivered by Biden, a presumed expert on foreign relations through long experience in the field may have been sufficient to heal the rift. Talk, as they say, is cheap. Were I the French, I might insist on more substantial compensation. Perhpas a healthy load of nuclear warheads would suffice, or bottomless mugs of Budweiser and Jack Daniels for all French imbibers. Maybe even a few nuclear powered subs delivered to France, or a few billion dolars in trade credit...lest Trump people be tempted to criticize Biden for shabby treatment of our closest ally, to send another violent mob of angry supporters to overthrow the Biden government, and to wistfully wonder what Trump would have done different and better, it would do to recall that Trump indicated his desire to remove the United States from N.A.T.O., claimed that during the Revolutionary War George Washington captured every airport in the thirteen colonies, and incessantly railed agasint our cloesest allies for all manner of imagined offenses, while cozying up to the world's most brutal dictators. So much for Mr. Trump's diplomatic astuteness.

Abandoning Africa

APPROXIMATELY FOUR PERECENT of Africans have been vaccinated against Covid 19. Fortunately for the rest of the world this is far below the global average of forty percent. This bleak statistic would seem to indicate that the conservative claim that systemic racism is noneexistant is a laughable lie. Systemic racism is not ony very real, it is international in scope. Racism was an invention of the fifteenth century, a modern rather an ancient phenomenon, used by European nations to justify the enslavement of Africans and other dark skinned people, and the plundering of their resources, the theft of their land. No continent on Earth has been as brutally or thoroughly conquered, enslaved, exploited, and plundered as Africa. The obvious reason is the skin pigment of most of its people, and the technologically primitve nature of its cultures, which, like native American culture, is a luxury afforded people who live harmoniously within the natural constraints and conditions of their environment. Technology's primary purpose is to alleviate harsh living conditions. Every major European country invaded, conquered, and plundered parts of Africa, stole its abundant natural resources, and imposed an exploitative imperial colonial rule that guaranteed that the continent would languish in poverty until as least well into the twenty first century, and, apparently, well beyond. Now, the developed world ignores Africa's vaccination needs. In the twenty first century, is is not surprising that during the worst pandemic in more than one hundred years, the world has, thus far, forgotten Africa. As always, the light skinned people mmistreat the dark skinned people of the Earth. Consider Haiti, the blackest and poorest nation in the western hemisphere. The poverty is not coincidental, but is by deliberate, malicious design. Twice in the past one hunded years the United States has invaded and occupied the half island, for having the audacity to install governments and political and economic systems unfavorable to U.S. interests. That too is a commnon theme; the United States intervenes and makes regime changes in weaker resource rich countries which fail to do the American's corporate bidding. On both occassions the American occupiers left Haiti with everything of value that wasn't nailed down. White people have historically hated black people for having the temerity of resisting mistreatment. Blak people alwasy resent and often resist mistreatment by whites, regardless of the skin color of their tormentors. Racism is a one way street, always has been, and still is.

Children, Stressing, Like They Should

YOUNG PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD are experiencing severe emotional trauma concerning climate change, which they justifiably believe is robbing them of a future full of life. Extensive research, consisting of intervieews with thousands of teenagers worldwide, reveals rampant depression, anxiety, and perpetual fear, as young people, always perceptive, can clearly see the impending doom rushing headlong straight at them, preparing to put an end to their hopes and dreams. Activist Greta Thunberg, now an adult, has in recent years awakened the sleeping giant of the world's youth about the clear and present danger of climate change, and the urgent necessity of dealing with it immediately. Children have been lied to about climate change and its implications for their prospects for long, prosperous life, just as children are normally lied to about everything else, from the source of Christmas presents to the source of babies. How should children be educated about climate change? Maybe like they are educated about sex; tell them innocent lies when they are quite young, then spring the truth on them when they are sufficiently mature to comprehend it. Birds, bees, and climate change. Adults lie to each other about anything and everythings as well, of course, and there is a never ending avalanche of lies and disinformation about climate change in real space and time, and especially on the internet. The truth, thanks to exhaustively researched and repeatedly verified science, has been known and available to everyone for more than thirty years. In popular culture, the charlatans and hoaxers are the first to be consulted, and the climate scientists, who should be the only source of information, are the last, and least respected. The dispensers of disinformation, religious fanatics, and self appointed gurus, receive top billing in an undereducated society lacking basic critical thinking skills. In the mainstream media, descriptions of extreme weather events, which are influenced in severity and frequency by climate change, are accompanied by references to climate change less than ten percent of the time. Media outlets, fearful of retribution by their corporate masters and loss of advertising revenue, prefer to dance around reality to avoid alienating a disbelieving portion of the public, which, tragically, is substantial. Fossil fuel companies have known about climate change, and about their large role in creating it, for decades, because they by necessity employ and consult credible scientists. Their initial strategy was to obfuscate and mislead by confusing the issue with claims of "conflicting evidence", but as the reality of human made climate change has become undeniable, they have changed tactics, and now present themselves as noble heroic crusaders in the fight to save the Earth's econsystem, laughably. For this purpose they spend billions of dollars in advertising, money well spent in creating effective propaganda and delaying their inevitable demise as they grab every dollar in profit possible before their ultimate liquidation.. Children are the victims of this disinformation just like the rest of us, but are less prepared to handle it, and have more to lose because of it. But today's children are more computer savvy than previous generations, and more percipient. They get to the truth, no matter how diligently we try to hide it from them. That being the case, little wonder that they tend, as a group, to be depressed and anxious about their prospects for a long and healthy life in a healthy world.

The Far Right, Fizzling

THE BIG RIGHT WING protest at the capitol on Saturday, September 18 was a fizzle. There were more police officers and journalists in attendance than actual protestors, more people to control and report on the protest than protestors to control and report on.The number of people protesting the indictment and prosecution of the criminals who staged the insurrrection January 6 numbered about two hundred. The event was well and widely advertised well in advance - every far right crazy person on social media knew about it. Why then, the lack pf participants? The explanation being lamely offered by the mainstream conservative establishment, which wholeheartedly approved of the event, is that it was a set up, that the feds planned to swoop in and arrest these heroic champions of liberty, virtue, and Donald Trump's election fraud prevarication. That, of course, is nonsense, as nonsensical as the original insurrection itself and the big lie by Trump which precipitated it. What the low turnout clearly demonstrates is that support for Trump's election lie and for right wing terrrorism is broad and wide, but paper thin, few people being willling to atually put their bodies where their mouths are. Intelligent people realize that Trump's big lie and the embrace it has gotten from millions of his supporters is as phony as a three dollar bill. Good citizens recognize the January 6 insurrectionsts for the criminals they are, and that prosecuting their crimes against the United States is justice being done. Last Saturday's protest thus becomes a hollow exercise in futility, misguided cult members complaining about due process and proper justice, in support of wanton criminals, of which Trump was the leader and inciter in chief. How enthusiastic would you be about fighting for a cause which you know in your heart of hearsts is bogus, unjust, nothing but a fight for the unaccountability and impunity of people trying to overthrow the government of their own country? The September 18 reprobates simply lacked conviction, as do Trump supporters; hence, whereas they still believe Trump's big lie on teh surface, and pay lip service to it,, they don't believe it deep down, and are losing the will to fight for it. They are asking themselves, whether or not they admit it; "Is this really worth fighting for?" They know that their cause is a phony hoax, unworthy of real effort. That a misguided, malignant event like the September 18th gathering was even contemplated, much less actualized, is telling; that it was a complete flop even more telling. The Trump movement is irrevocably fading away into the dustbin of history, not with a bang, but with a whimper.

Still Bucking Trends, Though Old

WHEN I TURNED SIXTY several years ago, I decided to go back to college for free. Years before I had spent a pleasant eternity in college, in Bachelors, Masters, and Doctoral programs, then had pursued a stange and equally interesting career in teaching, and retired. This time it would be all for fun, no pressure, if I fail I fail, and, best of all, tuition free. In journalism class I sat with about two hundred nineteen year olds, I was the only one in class who took notes the old fashioned way, with pen and paper. The professor, an old fossil about ten years my senior and nearing retirement, said to the class one day: "I notice that the girls on campus all wear shorts and T shirts with the name of their sorority on them. When I was in college the 'co-eds' actually dressed up to attend class." Red flag. The old fossil insults half the class. Hell, dude, when you were in college the cars all had cranks. Moron alert. In retalliation, I started wearing y Rolling Stones T shirt, lips and tongue, to class. The kids loved it. The fossil did not. Pressing the point, I went by his office, and asked him if he was familiar with Chris Hedges, knowing he would be, wanting his reaction. Our mutual dislike already in evidence, his reaction clearly showed that he did not like Chris Hedges, the world's best journalist. "Oh yes", said the fossil, "He's..um different." Different indeed. Chris hedges has inserted himself into every danger spot in the world, the Middle East, Central America, Serbia, reporting on the violence and its consequences, constantly risking his life to elucidate his readers. Fossil either hates Hedges because of jealousy, or because Hedges is a left wing progressive who tells the truth about the complete corruption of prevailing economic and political systems, rather than going along for the ride and for a nice, safe, comfortable academic career, like a certain fossil. But, I had accomplished my goal, to make sure that this sixty year old doctorate holder presented himself as an inveterate Rolling Stones and Chris hedges fan, to the uncouth fossil. I dropped the class. I am still appmalled and horrifed that I ever set foot in his class, like the memory of just having beaten the onrushing train across the tracks by ignoring the warning signal, and regretting it. Everywhere I venture into public, pre pandeic of during it (there is no "post" pandemic, nor any sign that there will ever be such a thing), I am somewhat appalled at the zombie robotic conformity of thought of the American people, including in academia, supposedly the bastian of free thinking and originality. No wonder my teachigng career was so tempestuous. A high school primciple once asked me why I was telling my classes that Thomas Jefferson was an atheist, and I answered his question by asked him: "Why do you think I would do that? Give me your best guess." I never taught anywhere, high school or college, for very long.

Pledging Allegiance

I LOVE THE PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE It so simple, succinct, to the point. Deliberately crafted for ease of memory. And really, its so harmless and soothing, connecting us with something larger than ourselves, like prayer. As T.S. Eliot said about something else: "So elegant, so intelligent". Professions of loyalty have a certain nobility. Sometimes it seems as if the most fervantly outwardly patriotic people recite the pledge with the most perfunctory manner, as if they own the pledge, and need merely go through the motions, like extremely religiously devout people at prayer. I know the history of the pledge; who wrote it and why, and when. Its author was a minister and a socialist, like Martin Luther King. The most truly patriotic people advocate for change and progress, not content to settle for an unacceptable status quo. In 1954, when the words "under God" were added to the pledge, I would have opposed the addition, because it was already perfect in its original form, and because adding a religious element to it was irrelevant and, arguably, a violation of the first amendment seperation of church and state. But, alas, I wasn't born until the following year. In any event, I have long since learned not to tangle with patriotically devout Christians over minor matters; I have bigger fish to fry, as they say. There are many people who misguidedly associate patriotism with political conservatism, who regared liberals as unpatriotic because liberals advvocate for change. That is nonsense, of course. There are peopl who mistakenly claim that I am "opposed" to the pledge, even though I have promoted it and participated in it, in a leadership role, all my life. These people have been deliberatly deceived with lies and misinformation, and mistakenly consider themselves superior because of their conservative religious views. I can assure them that in no way are they superior to anyone. These misinformed folks are of course Christian conservatives, adn therefor their contempt for me comes quite naturally. Being christian conservatives, they ar epeople inclined to consigna anyone who does not shart their religious or political beliefs to hell, and they are Trump cult members who consider it virtuous to attempt to overthrow the government in order to keep their cult leader in power illegally. My love of the pledge harmonizes perfectly with my belief in secular democracy, my lack of belief in religious dogma, and my fervant embrace of progressive values such as democratic socialism. The Trump supporters, having now become traitors through their support of violent insurrection, reveal their hypocrasy each time they mindlessly mouth the words to the pledge, for appearances only. You simply cannot continue to supprot a president who refuses to accept ligitimate election defeat, then inspires a violent insurection on his behalf, and call yourself a decent patriotic American, or anything but a wanton traitor. I am comforted by the fact that those who falsely accuse me of "opposing" the pledge of allegiance are themselves traitors generally, morally and intellectually bankrupt. I shall continue to support the pledge and the nation for which it promises loyalty, even as they continue to abandon it. I would pray for them, were they worth the effort.

Children Going Hungry In America

I LIVE IN the wealthiest part of a relatively poor state, although arguably every state in these United States is, by global standards, quite wealthy. In my area, there has been an economic and population boom the entire forty years I have lived here. The population of the town I moved to forty years ago has more than doubled since my arrival, from about forty thousand to close to one hundred thousand. The surrounding area, both the very small and larger towns have experienced the same sort of growth. Hundreds of new businesses have sprung up, major corporations have expanded immensely, small roads have become super highways, as about forty people per day move into this very pleasant part of the country, bringing energy and money with them, making this one of the fastest growing areas in the United States. The land of opportunity. And yet, fifteen to twenty percent of the children in the area experience food insecurity on a regular basis, a deplorable, damning fact. A similar situation exists everywhere in the United States, with much worse statistics in many areas. This, in a nation which by many measure is the world's wealthiest, a nation which annually produces twice as much food as it needs, and throws half of it away. A nation in which fully one third of the adult population is obese. A nation in which eighty percent of the wealth is concentrated in the hands of twenty percent of the population, and nealy half in the hands of the top one percent. A nation in which twenty percent of the children experience food insecurity, meaning that nobody knows, from day to day, where their next meal is coming from. This, despite massive nationwide food assistance efforts, such as the S.N.A.P. and food bank programs which, though well intentioned, remain less than fully effective. Conservatives, of course, tend to blame it all on poorly performing parents, and to leave it at that. When traditinal, existing systems, primarily economic and political, fail, conservatives tend to turn away from the failure and to accuse those in need of laziness, or worse. Who should they blame for throwing away half the nation's food? Should they include themselves in the blame game? The pandemic has laid bare the many forms of needless, imposed, extreme inequality in American society, including systemic racism, which, though obvious, the existence of which conservatives are prone to deny. The massive tears and rents, tha gaping wounds in the social fabric of the nation are largely driven by race, always driven by class; the fact that the United States is a society with class distinctions being often overlooked amid the conservative mythology that we live in a "classless" society. Humanity produces enough food annually to feed everone on the planet, and yet hunger and starvatoin, although having been somewhat reduced in recent years, remain endemic. That we the people of planet Earth fail to adequatley feed and hosue everyone is our shame. It is the failure of our political and economic systems, which beg for needed reform but do not get it; rampant unregulated corporate profit seeking capitalism, and government inneficiency, misguided policies favoring the wealthy who own and control the systems, and corruption. Late in Albert Einstein's life he was asked to contribute a message to a time capsule that would be opened one hundred years hence. Roughly paraphrased, he wrote: "If you have not become kinder and more compassionate than we were, may the devil take you". The date is rapidly approaching.

Celebrating, Commemorating, Continuing

TODAY, SEPTEMBER 17, is the two hundred and thirty fourth anniversary of the ratification of the American constitution, the tenth anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street movement, and the tenth anniversary of The Truthless Reconciler website. It is atogether fitting and proper, to paraphrase Lincoln, that these three entities share the same birth date. The consituttion is by far the most important of the three, and represents a giant step forward in human history, of self governance, a radical document for its time which changed the world, and continues to do so. Occupy Wall Street was, on the other hand, short lived, but had the same basic intention as the constitution; to radically change the world, and to make the world as safer place for decent human civilization. Ostensibly it failed; the economic, financial, and political structure of the United States is much the same as it was before the Occupy movement had its brief moment in the sun. Yet, it lives in memory as a noble attempt to bring fundamental structural change to a system which too much favors the wealthy powerful elite, at the expsnse of everyone else, especially the poor. Its spirit lives on, and will, until the changes it advocated for have become reality, as they most assuredly will, if human civilization is to survive. The Truthless Reconciler was inspired in part by both the consttitution and the occupy movement with the same basic intent; to inspire people to closely examine and to fundamentally change the nation and the world. While this huge and lofty goal will never be reached with something so small as a single website, the effort continues, and will endure, in spirit and "in print". Every essay published in "The Truthless Reconciler" is a rough draft. Hence the typos and sometimes awkward espression. Luxuries such as editing and proof reading cannot be afforded without adequate assistance; such assistance has never been forthcoming. It is more important to pusblish at least one basically well written essay a day, with a good, thought provoking central message, and more than one essay if possible, than to expend the time and effort necessary to closely edit and proof all material. Besides, a litle roughness around the edges lends itself to authenticity. The Truthless Reconciler is genuinely honored to share a birthhdy with two such noble endeavors as the Unitesd States constitution and the Occupy Wall Street movement. May all three live long and prosper.

The Bleeding Man On The Wall

WHEN I WAS A PRESCHOOLER, I was very afraid to enter my grandmother's house, even though she always treated me with loving kindness and tasty treats. Prominently displayed on her living room wall was a large painting of a young long haired man in agony, his hands and feet nailed to a wooden cross, from which his tortured body hung. A crown of thorns adorned his head, from which blood was dripping. It was the most horrible thing I had ever seen, and I had already had enough experience watching television to have seen some horrible things, people getting shot to death, and so forth. I tried, but it was impossible not to notice the gruesome painting. I tried not to stare in horrified fascination, but horrified fascination is what I felt. I intuitivey sensed that my dear sweet grandmmother must have had some good reason for having it on her wall, but I could not imagine what, and I was afraid to ask anyone to explain it to me, why it was there and what it meant, perhpap afraid of what the answer might be. Nobody ever mentioned it, nor made any attempt to xplain it to me. I assumed that I was either supposed to ignore it, take it for granted, or figure it out for myself, which, looking back, were exactly what I was supposed to do. Why would any adult, parent or grandparent want to take on the difficult task of explaining a painting of the crucification of Christ to a four year old? Let the child live, and learn. I was too young to undertand it, but not too young to see it. Nobody ever explained it to me, although a few folks tried. I guess I never became old enough to understand, and more than sixty years later I confess I still don't fully understand it. Over the years, as I grew through childhood I gradually pieced the crucifiction story together, and the basics of the religion in which it plays a central role. I was given the choice whether to attend church; I choose not to. I believe that all children deserve the same choice. Throughout my adult life, beginning in high school and college and continuing to this day, I became a hsitorian, and became educated in the history of the Christian religion, and something of a scholar in religious history through independent reading, as part of my broader professional interest in European history. My favorite Christian historian is Bart Ehrman, chairamn of the religious studies department at UNC Chapel Hill, who is widely considerd the most authoratative historian of the early history of the Christian religion. I avidly recommend Ehrman's work to everyone. He is an agnostic, like I am on most days. He entered the doctoral program in divinity studies at Princeton as a born again Christian, and graduated an agnostic. A high percentage of people who graduate from doctoral divinity programs at universities like Harvard and Princeton, where they teach religious studies in a historical, factual, scientific, critical manner, go through the same personal evolution. Comprehensive scholarship in religious studies invariably reveals that religion, all religion, is very much a human process. One never encounters God directly when examining scripture objectively, even when, especially when one reads every word of the Bible in ancient Hebrew, Latin, Greek, and modern English, which one is required to do at Harvard. Interestingly enough, as one reads the Old Testament page by page in order, without skipping around, God vanishes from it. In the book of Esther, God is not even mentioned. It comforts me that there is no evidence, other than people's personal faith, that the Christian religion is true, that Christ died for our sins but only if we agree to worship him, or that after death God judges us and consigns us to either eternal sameness in heaven or eternal horror in hell. Hell as we conceive it does not appear in the Bible either. Only the human mind could even imagine something so horrible as hell, or a good man being tortured to death, at God's instruction, as the only way to salvage the eternal human spirit from eternal damnation. Humanity invented religion, then it invented science, which increasingly, mostly makes the world we live in today, for better or worse. An intelligent species, like an intelligent perosn, must grow up, eventually.

Recalling Desperation

NOW THAT THE REPUBLICAN election stealing machine has been, shall we say, "bitch slapped", in its pathetically partisan 'California dreamin' putsch, look for the party of toupee coup dupe Trump to claim election fraud, despite a thirty point shellacking, and to form a violent, angry, rainbow haired MAAGA mob, and attack and ransack the state capitol in Sacramento. Its who they are. Its what they do. Its their modus operandi. Just as he did in the 2020 presidential election, Trump himself, ever the clairvoyant, notified us that there would be election fraud in the California recall election; but only if the Republicans lost. Sound familair? It should. Like all things Republican, the recall election was a fraud, a hit, a gang rape. Precisely what were the governor's crimes, requiring him to be removed by the ballot? Primarily, fighting a deadly epidemic with needed stringent action which involved keeping people away from each other and, as an undesirable but unavoidable consequence, burdening the economy. Faiure to let the deadly plague run rampant in the name of personal liberty and economic prosperity, like Republicans would have had it. Not only Trump,but Californina Republicans, leading up to the election, indicated that the election might be fraudulent, but only if they lost, and that they might not accept the results, 2020 presidential election redux, the pathetic, traitorous fools. Every Republican word and deed from the party of white conservative Christians, since the great Trump flame out and election lie, has been moored in abject desperation and pitiful, unrelenting anger and resentment. When nearly all seventy five million members of your political party claim to have won an election they clearly lost, and lost big, and continue making the same ludicrous, dishonest claim for a year, despite the complete lack of any evidence to support the claim, the party is desperate, depraved, and in serious trouble. To be reduced to utter moral depravity by harboring delusions is serious trouble, worthy of psychiatirc assistance. No wonder George and Barbara Bush left the party when Trump got the nomination for president. Falsely claiming that election fraud ifsrampant in America, when in fact it is virtually nonexistant, Republicans use their false assertion to make it more difficult to vote for millions of minorities, who, as they well know, tend to vote for Democrats. Republicans have reduced themselves to standing against American Democracy, as well as trying to overthrow a duly elected government and president, and governor. The California recall election cost taxpayers over three hundred million dollars, money which could have been spent feeding the hungry, or healing the sick. For what purpose? To express anger and frustration in a desperate, doomed power grab. The Republicans has long since forfeited any reasonable justification for having popular support, having become an instrument of subversion of demporacy and of treasonous rebellion.

Explaining America's Fury

IF THERE IS ANYTHING ABOUT WHICH MOST AMERICANS can agree, and it is highly questionable that there is, it is that the nation is deeply divided along ideological, economic, and political lines, that the deep divisions extend to every aspect of Ameridan culture, and are therefore often referred to as "the culture war", and finally, but perhaps most dramatically, that there is a great deal of anxiety and anger pervading contemporary American society. This is not the latest news. All this has been with us for a long time, maybe even since the nation's founding. A new book by New Yorker journalist Evan Osnos titled "Wildland: the Making of American Fury" tries to untangle and explicate this fairly obvious phenomen, with an impressive degree of success, considering its complexity and subjective nature. Osnos gets specific, and uses material from his own life, including episodes from his days in Chicago and two other American cities, to cite what he considers to be good examples offering possible explanations. He talks about a doctor in Connecticutt who decides to give up his medical practice and pursue a career in financial services. The doctor's skills are in demand in the hedge fund industry, because medical professionals and their knowledge are considered valuable in choosing which from among many medically related stocks to include in hedge funds. The health care industiry is so huge in the United States that all hedge funds include medical stocks. His new career soon begins to make him wealthy, but he becomes addicted to his success, and becomes willing to first bend and then break the law to enhance his earnings. He ends up indicted, tried, convicted, and incarcerated for a five year term. His story is far from unique within the financial services world of big time money. In prion, he meets and befriends for the first time in his life black and brown people from disadvantaged backgrouonds. As he learns about them, his education begins. He learns about their backgrounds, and how they came to where they are, and he learns a valuable lesson; that in America opportunity is not equally distributed, and that many people are far more likely, even destined to a life of crime and prison than others. His political viewpoint changes considerably. Upon his release he becomes involved with the Black Lives Matter movement, and many other activities intended to bridge the divide between the haves and have nots in America, which he now sees as created by the social and power structures of American society as much if not more than by individual life choices. The ever increasing gap between the very wealthy and the every poor in America are largely the result of deliberately enacted public policy, not any incrasing gap between smart and stupid people, or hard working and lazy people. The growing wealth gap destroys any sense of shared common interests in America, and the destruction of shared interests exacerbates the wealth gap. Osnos concludes that national reconciliation around common interestss and objectives is possible, but will require first an acknowledgement of the problem by the majority of Americans, and a concerted common desire to heal the wounds by dealing with their causes at the root level. Like all worthwhile goals, this one will be quite difficult, but do-able.

Blame Gaming

IF THE AMERICAN WITHDRAWAL from Afghanistan was a chaotic debacle, and arguably it was, then so was the entire twenty year war. If Biden is to be blamed for the withdrawal chaos, then there are three other presidents, Bush, Obama, and Trump, who deserve blame for allowing the situation to develop so as to create the circumstances in which the American military force found itself in Afghanistan in 2021. Blame ultimately goes to we the American people, who elect our own leaders, and are ultimately responsible for their successes and failures. Bush got us in. Obama kept us in, even after killing Bin Laden. Trump promised to get us out, even going so far as to cut a withdrawal deal with the Taliban while excluding the Afghan government from the negotiations, the devil dealing with the devil. Two liars at a bargaining table, telling lies. Trump broke every promise made by previous American presidents, but Biden refused to break promises, and was therefore constrained by Trump's withdrawal agreement. There's more than enough blame to go around. It can be spread to every adult in the United States, for that matter. Beware, Trump supporters. If you come to me blaming Biden exclusively, I will remind you of the facts presented above. It is a fact that throughout history every arrogant military power which has invaded Afghanistan for its own purpsoes hsa been sent packing, in defeat. This goes back to ancient times, and includes the nineteenth century British, the twentieth century Russians, and the twenty first century Americans. The best American policy in 2003 might have been to inform the Taliban that the United States intended to hunt down and capture Bin Laden, no matter where, and that other countries may either help the hunt, or get out of the way. Special forces might have been all that was ever needed in Afghanistan. There might have never been any need to attack, conquer, occupy the country, and remove the governing Taliban. The best approach now for the United States might be to accept the return of the Ttaliban, especially since there is now no alternative, and to try to reach an acceptable arrangement with it. This is what the U.S. did in Viet Nam, after our previous enemy the communists took over Saigon, and renamed it "Ho Chi Minh City". The U.S. made the best of a bad situation, reached an accomodation with the new government, and eventually established a positive economic partnership with it. As badly as Afghanistan needs economic assistance, and as badly as the United States wants the new Afghani government to treat its citizens like twenty first century citizens, including equality for women, or so it says, surely, surely some accomodation can be arranged. That, of course, remains to be seen. We the American people must make sure that we choose leaders capable and willing to do this. Its our responsibility.

Progressing

EAVESDROPPING on a conversation among presumed intellectuals attempting to discern why the word "progressive' has become popular in modern political discourse, what amazed me most was the group's abject failure, not only that it missed the mark, but how badly. It was as if an old blind squirrel, or a group of them, feeling for an acorn, had no luck, and went hungty. They mentioned the progressive era, to their credit, an impressive display of historical knowledge.But tey offered nothing further of substance; a few vacuous remarks about the need for new terminology to suit new circumstances. Joe Biden used to be a moderate, now he's a progressive, blah blah blah. Well, whatever. Now, for the truth. The word "progressive" means the same thing as the word "liberal", and is in fact a substitute, a replacement for it. Conservatives have a tendency to effectively demonize words and people they don't like, and that is the case with the word 'liberal". The word 'liberal", in a nutshelll, has been demonized out of existence, liberals themselves having become too self conscious, too hummiliated, too intimdated by conservative bullies to even whisper it in private. Other examples of words demonized to extinction include "homosexual", which was harried out of existence about a half century ago by right wing hompphobes, and replace by the currently stylish "gay". When the term "mentally retarded" became the object of widespread ridicule it was replaced with "cognitively disabled". Bear in mind that the words "idiot", "moron", and imbecile" were at one time perfectly acceptable scientific terms, until the demonizers and ridiculers struck. And actually, "progressive" was itself banned by word police in the nineteen thirties,, and replaced by "liberal".So, we have flip flopped, as we like to say. "Liberal" is the latest word to be tossed into the dustbin of history, at least for the time being.Another factor in word replacement is the tendency in a mass media imitative society to turn words into fads. In the nineteen fifties, as television spread uniculture far and wide in America, the word "cool" took the place of the long standing word "swell". In the sixties "groovy" replaced "cool" for a time, but cool came back, as it did once again around the turn of th emillennium after the word "tight" took hold for a time, meaning "cool". "Cool" turns out to be the most resilient slang term in American history, many words have far less staying power. Today, we have an entire generation of cool retirees, who have been cool for decades. Once upon a time people had problems and difficulties. Now, they have "issues". problems ahd difficulties have not been hounded out of existence, they havd merely been supplanted by a more cool term. Where would we be without our word fads? In a more articulate culture, perhaps. the word 'ultimately" has morphed into "at the end of the day". One might hope that this increasingly silly dounding silly phrase is beginning to see its sunset. It is what it is, we like to say, nonsensically. Truer, more obvious words were never be spoken, and, with luck, the day will come when they are not spoken. Word fads, like all forms of fads, like himan imitative behavior, willalways be with us. Meanshile, I am content to call myself either a liberal or a progressive, your choice. Either one is, as they used to say, the cat's meow.

Dismorphing

AS EVERYONE KNOWS, everyone is working from home during our self manufactured made in America never ending national epidemic. Offices are empty. Most folks seem to prefer the homebound arrangement; working in pajamas with cat on lap and snack in hand is somehow more cozier than suit and tie, and anal courtesy. However, those who spend their long days at home video conferencing have a different take. Although the precise extent and degree of the mental illness epidemic hasn't yet been determined, there is among the zoom and skype crowd an emotional illness in which the "victim" sees herself on camera hour after hour, day after day, month after month, and slowly but steadily becomes thououghly disgusted with and depressed about the way her face looks. The medical term for this peculiar malady is "dismorphia". It could eventually be commonly called "reverse narcissim", but isn't yet. One might wonder if we all would be a lot better off if in fact the reverse were happening; if mmillions of latently vain Americans, beholding their strinkingly lovely visage constantly daily, were falling all over themselves falling in love with themselves and, sitting tansfixed and motionlessly frozen in front of their monitors, getting nothing done. It seems there is something very disconcerting about looking at the self all day every day, becoming intimately familair with every nook, cranny, blemish and sag in high def, and then trying to emotionaly come to terms with the reality that no, I am not, after all, a beauty queen. The thus engraved image, burning into the cerebrum, making us crazier than hell. What, exactly, is the solution, or is there one? To simply stop the self absored staring, and, as the old song goes, "Look Away, Dixieland"? That would seem to defy the laws of physics, if not human nature. To vaccinate, and get back into the office? Or should extreme measures be attempted? Should we immediately begin inculcating into American children the decidedly un-American sentiment that true beauty is not of the flesh, that skin deep personal appearances are not paramount, that all these pretty blonde people with straight white teeth and nary a blemish on television and in adverstising everywhere are not real, but only CGIs? But then, what to do with the adult population, for whom, as we say, the cat is already out of the bag, deeply conditioned as we are to regard sexual appeal as the pinnacle of attainment? Beyond any hope of reform, we adults are doomed to endure the self imposed fruits of our own vanity, until age or premature death intervenes inevitably. Upon reflection, I begin to see both why I look at myself in the mirror so often, and why I dislike doing so. I am impelled to judge what I see. If I like what I see, which is about half the time, I only want more adrenalin of vanity. If I don't, it becomes like gambling; addiction to the urgent necessity of playing the game until we get even, or, further and further ahead. In gambling and narcissism, there is no true victory, but only endless striving. I should have smashed every mirror in the house years ago, or asked my parensts to do so. I'm lucky though. I have never zoomed, and now that I know what I know, never will.

Invading Saudi Arabia

SOMEBODY SAID, BRILLIANTLY "Most of the nine-eleven criminals were Saudi. Why don't we invade them?" She may have intended the question to be rhetorical, and sarcastic. These days, one never knows. Sometimes I leap before I look, so I responded: "We did, in 1991". Like Pilate did to Jesus after he asked "what is truth", I did not wait for her response to me, if any. In early 1991, the United States landed a half million member military force in Saudi Arabia under General Schwarzkopf, and it stayed there for a long time. The "invade Saudi Arabia" advocate probably did not know that, might have been a youngster or unborn in 1991. I'll never know. Had she known, she might have argued that Operation "Desert Storm" was no invasion of Saudi Arabia, they the Americans were "invited" and "welcomed", that it fired nary a shot at the host country in anger, and that it left in peace. All that is true, but not exactly, not the whole story. American forces were neither invited nor welcomed by the Saudis. The United States cajoled, coerced, and bought its way in, as usual, wanting to use the kingdom as a military base for staging its forthcomeing war against Iraq. I had several friends who were in the infantry, and were stationed in Saudi Araba douing Desert Storm, and who sat in the desert for month after interminable month, bored terribly, waiting for orders...or for anything. They became angry, with much impatience, boredom, and confusion. They wrote me letters saying things like: "If George and Barbara Bush want this war so badly, why don't they get their asses over here and fight it themselves?" A valid point, perhaps, but you can almost hear the anger, despair, boredom, and impatience. I still wish I had seved the letters, instead of burning them out of respect for my friends, not wanting to make them look bad in retrospect. My infantry friends were unamimous in their assessment. The Saudi people hated them, hated the American invaders, hated the American's sinful, debauched lifestyle, with their drinking, smoking, lust, cursing, and so forth. The Saudi people very much regarded the half million member American army camped out on Saudi soil as an invading force, whether or not Americans thirty years later do. In a very real sense, considering the extreme reluctance of the Saudi government to allow it, (for America's second war against Iraq, a decade later, they flatly refused the same offer) and considering the attitude of the Saudi people about it, it was an invasion, no doubt about it. Those unafraid of the truth about this period in American and world history might consider googling the name "April Glaspie". Scroll down to where it says "conversation with Saddam". She was the American ambassador to Saddam Hussein in 1991. Sitting in Saddam's palace, she looked him in the eye and flatly told him that the United States did not care whether he invaded and conquered Kuwait or not, so, he smiled at her, and later, one week later, he invaded and conquered Kuwait. The rest, as we like to say, is history. Carrot and stick. The depths of depraved diplomatic deception. George Bush forty one, luring Saddam into a bloody war with a false promise, as a pretext to get the American military heavily involved in the Middle East, for...oil? Yes, for oil. And, for eternal shame.

Spreading Disease With Liberty

OF THE ROUGHLY EIGHTY MILLION unvaccinated Americans, we can and have learned much about them, who they are, their age, gender, politics, where they live,, their reasons for not geting vaccinated; all kinds of interesting and revealing demographic information. This type of informtaion gathering research is done at places like Harvard university, which apparently has nothing better to do, as well as many other universities, research institutions, government and private (NGOs). So we know a great deal about exactly who the unvaccinated are. As they say: "survey says!" The unvaccinated are heavily concentrated in the "red" states, and a vast majority of them are Christian conservatives. They are heavily registered Republican, which follows. Again, go ask the Harvard Department of Socioloy, or about a thousand other similar organizations. That's what they will tell you, whether or not you want to hear it. What they will not tell you is that the vaccines are a government plot to control your mind, or that they cause autism, or alter your DNA, or make you stupid and sterile. They will brush aside with derisive laughter all the cockeyed, hair brained false notions invented and employed by vaccination refusers, for lack of evidence, with, as Rush Limbaugh (RIP) used to say "one half of their brains tied behind their back". The vaccination refusers will of course simply dismiss the truth, the sound factual scientific research results as "hoax", just as they dismiss all facts as hoax whin it contradicts their ideology, which fact usually does. Institutions of higher learning are anathema to far right wingers, simply because they are intellectually credible. Of all the deplorable aspects of contemporary American conservatism; denial of climate change, refusal to accept election results, a preference fo unbridled corporate capitalism over compassionate, common sense economics and greater economic equality, and religious fanaticism and intolerance to name but a few of many, vaccination refusal might well be the most deplorable of the proverbial basket of deplorables, to borrow an infmaous election losing phrase from Hillary Clinton. Why? Because vaccination refusal has contributed mightily to the fact that before long three quarters of a million Americans will have died from Covid 19. Covid 19 and conservatism kill. Since such a substantial portion ot the conservative community is too ignorant, arrogante, of self delusional to voluntarily vaccinate, adn since reasion, persuasion and nagging have all failed, Biden is trying desperately to use government power Biden adn since reasion, persuasion and nagging have all failed, Biden is trying desperately to use government power to save tens of thousands of lives, too little, too late. This quite predictably intensifies the anger and resistance of the self absorbed liberty loving anti-govenment alternative reality mongering religious right, and here they come yet again, screeching their blather about state's rights, personal rights, and all the other spewing garbage with which we have become so nauseatingly familiar. They love liberty so much that they love the liberty to spread disease and death, to the eternal shame of the pathetic idiots.

Reshaping America, Conservatively

A NEW BOOK by Supreme court researcher Ian Milhiser titled "The Agenda: How A Republican Supreme Court is Reshaping America", is one in which the title itself provides a description of the book's central thesis. With congress long and deeply polarized, reduced to ineffectiveness, the U.S. Supreme court has become the default law maker in America, a court packed deliberately by republican congressioinal majorities with far right wing justices legislating a conservative agenda from the bench. republicans have for decades decried "legislating from the bench" as intolerable, a liberal vice, against which they will fight endlessly, but here they are, enabling the very same practice, which seeems to be acceptalbe as long as the resulting rendered court decisions provide de fato legislation which favors conservative agendas. In many areas, including labor union law, religious freedom, among others, the court, which is more conservative leaning than it has been in decades, is remaking America into a country governed by conservative law. Astute Republicans, to the extent that there are any, have realized for years that the Republican agenda is not populaar with a majority of Americans, because it favors the wealthy, and caters to the white Christian powerful but shrinking demographic. Unable to pass sweepiong legislation enacting their agenda, they have turned to a strategy of packing the judicial system with as many right wing judges as possible, to gain conservative rulings at all levels, especially in the high court. The main components of this far right aganda are making the United States economy into a purely free market, neo-liberal pro business ownership system, and to insinuate the Christian religion ever more deeplly into American institutions, particularly and including the government. This grand scheme to reshape American society by reshaping American law through the court system will ultimately fail. Women will regain and retain their reproductive freedom, cooperative economics, that dreaded socialism, will continued to play a large role in the American economic system, as it has for many decades, and the United States will continue to be a secular democracy,, with religious freedoom, tolerance, and diversity, just as the founders intended. And ultimately the judicial system, whether manned by liberal, conservative, or moderate justices, will have little or nothing to fo with it. America is fundamentally a progressive country, surveys indicate, and progressive change is desirable to most Americans. In America, we the American people determine teh ultimate nature of American society, always have, and will once again.

Remembering, Lest We Forget

ALL THE ATTENTION being paid the twentieth anniversary of nine eleven doubtless evokes poignant, painful memories for those old enough to remember, and a vague sense of longing and sadness, of having missed something profuondly important for those too young to remember, for anyone younger then twenty five. Those old enough to remember that horrible day, and old enough to remember JFK might agree that nine eleven ranks with the Kennedy assasination for shocking impact. The elderly might include Pearl Harbor. I can count myself among those with a direct direction to nine eleven and the twin towers, with a story to tell. I am not talking about the time when I bought a six pack in Times Square in 1975 and drank it while walking to Battery Park, my goal being to see the then new World Trade Center, drunk. I arrived just after sunest, and watched the red sky hover briefly over the Hudson. Nobody tried to stop or arrest me, it was as if I were a normal New Yorker or tourist, and I drained my last can, found a place to go, and plead innocent on account of having been nineteen years old, seeing New York for the first time. In the nineteen seventies, American drinking culture was freer, wilder, less serious. That same vacation I rode to the top of both the World trade Center and the Empire State Building, (both were still inexpensive to ascend, not like now), and I decided that I preferred the view from the Empire State building, with its location in the bosom of the big apple, with the magnificent skyline all around, just below.... My nine eleven story is more personal, and poignant. My sister was a high ranking civil servant who worked in the Pentagon. I enjoyed visiting her there in the days when you could just walk into the building, and walk casually around, unmolested. When our family heard the news on Sept 11, 2001, we were of course horrified and panic stricken. We spent half a day wondering, hoping and praying that she was alive and unhurt, with the telephone lines down. We were relieved to find out that she had left her Pentagon office and the bulding just moments before the crash. When I inquired as to her well being, she simply replied: "I'm fine, but I wish people would stop trying to kill me". Reasonable, altogether. Lost amind the horrible memories and the emotional commemoration of that horrible day is the difficult to accept but undeniable fact that the men, (Saudi Arabians mostly) who committed that horrible atrocity, the murderous evil bastards who carried out that heinnous crime, did in fact have a very valid and understandable complaint against the United States of America. In 1991 the United States occupied Saudi Arabian soil with a half million member army, for the purpose of removing Saddam Husseins's Iraqi army from Kuwait. The American army did the remmoval. The rest, as they say, is history. But here's the undeniable, irrefutable fact: When a superpower sends a half million member army into an Islamic country for the purpose of waging war against another Islamic country, no matter with whose permission or why, there are going to be some folks, most probably Islamic people, in this case Saudi citizens, who are going to be very, very angry about it. I for one would not want a huge foreign army on American sol, for any reason at all, even with the pemission of the American government. That does not justify a violent response: a sternly worded well written letter of disapproval, rather than the senseless murder of innocent people, would have sufficed quite nicely. But if the human species is ever going to evolve to a higher level, to a level beyond the use of violence, it is going to have to evolve mentally and emotionally, and a good place to start is by becoming willing to use reason to determine and accpet the truth, even when the truth is inconvenient or unpalatable to accept. We are far, as a species, from reaching that level. At our currrent level, we hate truth, and we bend over backwards to avoid it when accepting it is emotionally painful. Or, as Goethe said: "We dislike truth only because we fear that we would perish if we accepted it." No truer words were ever spoken.

Elucidating Monstrosities

THE NUMBER OF WAYS in which the republican party, and the broader conservative movement a high percentage of whose members are evangelical Christians, has become the most harmful and dangerous organization in contemporary American society and world history, as Noam Chomsky says, are so many that for full understanding it becomes necessary to discuss then individually, issue by issue. That is the intention here. Considder women's reproductive rights. Roe v. Wade, and hence teh constitution, explicitly guarantee every woman the right to an abortion during the time before the fetus reaches viability, the ability to live outside the womb unassisted. Roe v. Wade is long settled law. As the U.S. Attorney General said recently, the new cleverly crafted law in Texas effectively prohibiting abortions in that stateis blatantly unconstitutional. It was enacted by Republicans, with virtually no Democratic support. Id left in place, it will cause incalculable human suffering and hardship. desperate women will be forced to take extreme measures and to endure great hardship, includoiing getting abortions in barbaric, primitve circumstances, risking their live sin so doing. The traditional conservative claim of supporting a strict, literal interpretation of the constitution is exposed as fraud, a lie. Texas Republican lawmakers deliberately viiolate the U.S. constitution in pursuit of theirtwisted, agenda, based on religious dogma rather than compassion and common sense. The traditional conservative claim to encourage and fight for "small government". "limited government" is also exposed as fraudulent. Republicans make a great show of defending the "rights of the unborn", harassing legal abortion clinics, visiting violence upon them and the people who work in them. Thus fortified with a false sense of moral superiority they so desperately covet to sustain their self esteem, once teh baby is born their job is over.The vacate the premisies, abandon the pro life crusade, and proudly express their intention of doing nothing to contribue to the child, or to assist in any way with its upbringing, often the sole responsibility of a single, abandoned mother. To give help through government channels would be, horror of horrors, socialism, and this must not be. Nobody is sure why. In the moral swampy morass that is contemporary conservatism, its every man, woman, and child for herself. Almost uniformly conservatives claim they believe in God. What they believe in is the psychopathic, mass murdering, genocidal emotionally deranged demon which the Bible describes as "God", but isn't, because it cannot be. The true God, the God of love, beauty, and natural law, we are better off believing is the true force within each pregnant woman which guides her and comforts her. The true God, the creator of this amazing universe, we must assume for the sake of sanity, sense, and reason is not concerned with human morality, did not invent human moraltiy, and is not concerned with government legislation. God either approves of war and abortion, or is powerless to prevent it. There is not the slightest trace of evidence for the existence of "free will", but overwheliming evidence, indeed proof, that the universe, and everything in it, behaves according to knowable natural law, God's law. We are destined to make do the best we can on our own, to invent our own laws and morality, but can be comforted knowing that we will not violate God's laws of nature, because it is not possible to do so, within the laws of nature.

Bashing Conservatism, With Cause

THE MOST OBVIOUS FEATURE of the essays on this website is their constant criticism of political conservatism, and for that matter economic conservatism, among other types. Not surprisingly, this characteristic, an unrestrained expressed contempt for conservative thought, invariably evokes the unrestrained anger of many conservatives, who, for some reason, nonetheless persist, flatteringly, in reading these essays. Because of this, some remarks concerning the reasons for holding conservatism in such contempt seem appropriate. On September 18, on the grounds of the nation's capitol building, an eerily, disturbingly familair sight will appear; a large group of far right wing activists, Trump supporters, the same ilk of people who broke into and ransacked the capitil building at Trump's instructions on January 6, attempting to overthrow the governemnt by reversing the results of the election of 2020, will gather together and hold a rally in support of the people, more than six hundred and counting, who have been indicted for crimes committed on the day of the January insurrection. Before they arrive, capitol police and national guardsmen will once again install, just as they did soon after the violent insurrection, a barbed wire chain link fence around the capitol building, to protect it from renewed violence. Obviously, considering the kind of people who will be gathering, violence against the American government is a distinct possibility. One may assume that the MAGA mob, upon assembling, will scream chants of praise for Trump, scream and chant support for the ctiminals who attacked the capitol in january, and express indignation and rage that the criminal justice system is rounding up, indicting, and prosecuting the traitorous criminals, who have become heroes of the conservative movement. And, they may become violent, again. And all across the fruited plains of the United States, from sea to shining sea, normal, average, mainstream conservative Republican American Trump supporters will proudly, strongly agree with the gathering at the capitol, all that it stands for, and all that is expressed there. It is hardly possible to imagine anything more deplorable, more reprehensible, more evil than this reailty about American conservatives, two thirds of whom still insist that the election was stolen from Trump, a majority of whom still isnist that the insurrection of january sixth was justified. Trump's big election lie, his attempt to steal the presidential election and overthrow the American government is perhpas the most egregious behavior of which any American has ever been guilty, and the widespread support for it among American conservatives is perhaps the most deplorable, evil behavior by any large group of Americans in history. By their actions the Republican conservative community and indeed the evangelical Christian community have both exposed their moral and intellectual bankruptcy. The fact that this traitorous behavior is supported and participated in by a very high percentage of America's evangelical Christians exposes this religious dempgraphic as no less evil than the rest of Trump's supporters, and the conservative movement in general. Donald Trump became a traitor from the moment he discovered that Russian operatives were assisting his campaign in 2016, and welcomed the assistance. Arguably, so did those who support him. But make no mistake; anyone wo supports Donald Trump after January 6 is a traitor, and that is why I despsie them.

Getting Bigger, But Not Healthier

SELDOM IF EVER have I seen a very large person in a nursing home, and I have spent a fair amount of time roaming the halls of nursing homes, looking for old friends. Its as if the very large are either too healthy and independent to require assisted living institutional care, or have died before reaching the age and infirmity level requiring it. I suspect the latter. Similarly, out in the public domain, the elderly people I see, those in their seventies, eighties, and nineties, tend to be on the smaller side; rarely do I see an elderly man with the body of a former football lineman. I know such people exist, for at my local senior center there was a gentleman of offensive lineman size, who died only after reaching his mid eighties, and seems to have had fair if not good health until his sudden death. But this, as we like to say, seems to have been an "outlier". Football players are getting much bigger; in the nineteen sixties, when I started watching football as a kid, your average college offensive line would weigh about two thirty a man, at most. Now, of course even high school offensive and defensive linemen at large high schools run about three hundred pounds per player. It is as if we are witnessing rapid evolution in the human body with each generation. Much that I still love football, I have become seriously concerned about the future health of the people who play the game, particularly about the people who play it for decades, especially college and professional players, huge men who do great damage to their bodies for fun, glory, and profit. Also, I wonder what the actual life expectancy is of a three hundred pound six foor four man who plays football into his thirties, compared to the general population. Results are already coming in, and have been for decades. Everyone wo plays football for even a few years gets injured, at one time or another, usuallly several times. Almost all retired football players suffer from some sort of permanent physical damage, arms, legs, back, among many others. then, there's the rempant dementioa, well documented, and well litigated, resulting in a long overdue special fund for afflicted former NFL players. The increasing instance of mental impairment due to frequent concussions even in our era of improved safety equipment, including better helmets, is well known. A shockinly high percentage of former pro players are seriously permanently impaired, physically and or mentally. That, plus the evident shorter lifespan for very large humans, and one wonders about the prospects for longevity for today's young players, even in our era of miracle medical care. It becomes evident that the enthusiastic college athlete who fails to play professional football because he simply isn't quit good enough is actually blessed, not deprived. Everyone who avidly follows a college fotball team has heard the talk on sports talk radio about a player ana a team being "physical", meaning, hard hitting. Foptball has always been a dangerous game, but has increasingly become a violent game of serious body to body collisions, as the virtues of "being physical" are increasingly espoused. Being physical is always touted as a supreme virtue. The size of teh players becomes a topic of discussion, and my red flag raises every time I hear a fan or a coach talk about how such and such a player "needs" to put on weight, needs to get bigger (as if they aren't already big), how a two hundred and sixty pouder needs to become a two hundred eighty or even a three hundred pounder, by spending more time in the weight room. Players who have therby become bigger are celebrated for their improvement, as paragons of football and athletic virtue. The opponent will be big; we must be equally big, if not bigger. It bceomes a never ending arms race of meat and muscle. Lost in all the excitement is any consideration of what effect this will have on the person as he enters middle age and beyond, and all that muscle starts trying to turn into fat, and the health problems; cardio health, atrhritus, and bone and muscle ailments, begin to make their way into the picture, as they do for us all. But why bother to worry about an unknown future? The game is today, and winning is not only everything, it is the only thing.

No Crazier Than Its Ever Been

FOR THOSE who think that American culture and society are crazy today, which many do, because they are, shallow, sour comfort can be deerived from the irrefutable fact that the same craziness has always lurked just beneath the American surface, often breaking through into unmitigated prominence. For instance, in October of 1843 thousands of Americans all across the fruited plain gathered together at dusk atop numerous hills, having sold all their earthly possessions and willed them, and awaited being reptured into heaven, the term "rapture" regarding heavenly ascent having only recently been invented. When nobody got raptured, they tried again a year later, with a few fewer believer participant hilltoppers, and once again, almost predictably, stayed put. Then they went home, or in most case somewhere else, since most had sold their homes, and tried to find something to eat. Standing on a hill top straining neck and eyes heavenward all night is a good way to work up a good appetite. That (1844) was the final attempt of the followers of the reverend William Miller, the "Millerites", to rapture up as the world should have ended according to the reverend, but didn't, to their credit. A third try would have been no more "fruitful", and even they knew it... Let's see now...In 1907 the great reprobate state of Indiana passed a law requiring all inferior human beings be sterilized, "inferior" meaning mentally or physically disabled. Many other states did the same, amid the "eugenics" craze, which Hitler later said made him greatly admire the United States, and inspired him to his genocidal policies. (Hitler also admired America for the way white Americans treated native Americans and African-Americans, but, as they say, that's another story. The Supreme Court agreed with forced sterilization of inferior people, eight to one. The lone dissenter knew he was whipped, shrugged his shoulders, and kept his mouth shut, for a time... Moving right along..As the year 2000 approached, thousands upon thousands of previously, reportedly, presumably reasonably intelligent Americans over stocked their basements with bottled water, toilet paper, and other assorted necessities, believing that at the stroke of midnight January 31, 1999-2000, all computers, hence society and its economy, would suddenly spontaneously combust, in a confusion of what time is it. By midday Januaru 1, 2000, they the overstockers began to realize that they had a modest problem; however in the world to use a basement full of botled and toilet paper. By now, twenty years later, we hope they are beginning to run out, and have "wiped the slate clean", so to speak. Even more strangely, all this happened a year too soon. It happened as the next to last year of the second millennium became the last year of the millennium, one year ahead of the actual changing of the millennium and the beginning of the new century. ameerica and the world celebrated one...year...too...soon. To comfirm this weirdness, do the math. Our own very special kinds of contemporary craziness in the summer of twenty one are well known and well documented. People have always been inventors and purveyors of misinformation, disinformation, and nonsense; hence, religion. Hence, Q-Anon. Hence, Trump and his seventy five million member gang of delusional traitors. Whatever reality we do not understand or like, we replace with our clever little fabrications. Here in the twenty first century, our unique human penchant for the fabrication of alternative realities is magnified and distributed through the internet. Standing interpidly but perhaps uselessly in opposition to the false paradigm purveyors are universities, libraries, and serious scholars, like an intellectual great wall of Trump, or a dyke or levee, bulging and straining, but for the moment, holding. If its any consolation, and really it shouldn't be, the United States of Amnesia Artistry de la Scam is no crazier than it ever was. Whether sanity ultimately prevails, or even holds a place in future human civilizatin, depends upon how may people join the ranks of the fact based sane, and how well they fight and endure. Right now it doesn't look good, but, hey, its still early.

Tired Of Being Resilient

TIRED OF BEING RESILIENT, he siad, with the fatigue paapable in his voice, teh emotional refrain-revelation of a man who lives in southern Louisiana. He was referring of course to the seemingly endless parade of killter hurricans, wondering how man more times he will have to replace and rebuild everything he owns. The answer is many and often, unless he finally decides to move, and let somebody else take on the nightmare. Problem is, obviously, that people are reluctant by nature to abandon ship, and also that no matter where he goes, he will be confronted by implacable forces of nature, one one sort or another. We should all be so revealing of ourselves, so contemplative about our plight, and possible solutions, of which ultimately there are few or none. We are going to have to become accustomed to being more resilient, to rebuilding from more extreme forms of weather, able, as Biden says, to build back better. The pandemic, if nothing else, is good practice for resiliency. As wave after wave of disease and death sweep across the nation, teh resiiience of teh population is tested, strained to teh limit. we are holding up remarkably well, and can be rightfully proud. The results, however, are mixed, as results usually are. Overall Americans are standing up to covid 19 bravely, defiantly, perhaps unreasonably, not only unwilling to surrender to it, but often unwilling to even acknowledge its existence. Anoother way of looking at it is that Americans are tired of bieng cautious, tored of being resilient by necessity, tired of acting intelligently and willing after seeming years of being shut up in their houses, and out of their offices, to roll the dice, to risk sickness and death if only to regain some semblance of cherished normalcy. we will never catch Covid 19 and die; the others will, so we can do as we please. In Hinduism, teh most remarkable thing about humans is that although they spend their entire lives seeing other people all around them dying, they believe that they will never die. The football stadiums, bars, and restaurants are open again, and full. Sometimes we wear makss, sometimes we do not. Sometimes we cover our noses with them, sometimes we don't, as if they are purely cosmetic. Almost lost in the cheering crowds are the fifteen hundred people dying every day of Covid 19. Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.

Vaccinating, That Others Might Simply Live

THE INTERVIEW was on CNN, which is far and balanced, and featured an American mother talking about her dead son. He had been in the military, and had received a purple heart. A sudden gall bladder emergency made it mandatory that he find a hospital and medical care immediately. But he couldn't find one; anywhere, which would or could admit him. Covid 19 had taken over all hospitals, filling up every ICU and occupying the attention of every doctor within reach. After a frantic seven hour search, the purple heart recipient with the exploding gall bladder died. His mother doesn't think he should have died, and nobody else should think so either. What I think is that by now everybody in the United States should be vaccinated, and almost everybody in the world should be, and we should have reached "herd immunity", and the pandemic should be over. A combination of corporate proprietary greed and inefficiency and government incompetence and inefficiency have combined to create a perfect vaccinationless storm of death and disease. The most overwhelming, inexplicable, and nefarious factor by far, however, is simply the refusal to get vaccinated by millions of people who have easy access to the vaccine, who have been reassured by experts ad nauseum that there is no danger, what we courteously call "vaccination hesitancy", what could be called "idiocy", particularly in the United States, where the idiocy has cost hundreds of thousands of lives, and will cost many more. I attended a college football game in ninety degree weather with sixty thousand other people, a game which by any reasonable measure should not have been played. The masking rules for the game were haphazard, complicated, confusing, unenforced, and unobserved. But, the most important thing, evidently, is that millions of dollars were made by the people who want to make millions of dollars. I wore my mask in my seat. Most did not, but in the restrooms everyone wore masks, by law, although many had them pulled down below their noses, which of course is idiotic and ineffective. Why bother wearing one at all? There should br a one hundred percent vaccination rate. But since it is half that, there should be no football games with crowds, not yet. But we Americans are a sub species long grown accustomed to having our cake and eating it too, as we say. We have grown tired of Covid 19, of the attandent precautions, restrictions and limitations, and we have arrived at our predictable solution; eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die. And soon we will die, many more thousands of us, as winter approaches and we once again gather together in places where we shouldn't, inadequately masked beneath our inconvenienced noses. We all seem to think that we will be among the lucky winnners of the covid-free lottery, and, of course, most of us will be, but not nearly enough of us.