Sharing Realities, Or Nonsense

ONE OF MY FRIENDS, and I have precious few friends these days, made a point to inform me that Michelle Obama is a man, that her husband was born in Kenya, that Jared Kushner is the Antichrist, and that she herself, during the unvaccinated pandemic year of twenty twenty, had no intention of wearing a mask, because she heard and firmly believes that masks force one to inhale one's own carbon "monoxide", and harm one. When I tried to help her with her chemistry and modern history, and to disabuse her of racist notions if not tendencies, she disowned me. She was intent in her alternative realities, could not be disabused, and any future friendship was problematic, as we like to say, becasue I am resolved to tolerate no nonsense, having tolerated it all my life, until recently. Her decision to end our friendship was wise, upon reflection. Another friend bet me a case of imported beer that before the end of twenty twenty one Trump would be back in office, the oval one. I didn't ask how this might happen, to my credit. Presumably he believed that election theft would be proven beyond doubt, and the Supreme Court would kick Biden out and put Trump back in, or something like that. I trust he wasn't relying on another angry capitol-storming mob; that tactic already failed. I'll have to force myself at gunpoint not to try to collect on the wager come January first twenty twenty two, and the best way is to avoid all future contact with this currently delusional former friend. This is the way my friendships end, not with a bang, but a whimper, to quote Eliot, which too few do these days. Another friend disowned me when I told one of our mutual friends that the scientific method is the only way to advance knowledge, that, in esssence, all claims of fact must be accompanied by proof. This was in response to an assertion made by our mutual friend, who also adandoned me when he said that "there are many species of intelligent life in the universe which are genetically related to human beings. My crime? I asked him how he knew this. I can only guess that my comments and questions were too blunt, too direct, insufficiently tactful. Spouting racist claims about Michelle Obama is just normal free speech, it seems; challenge it, and you're gone. Unproven claims about not only the existence but the chromosomes of extraterrestrial beings is fine, evidenly, but must not be questioned or challenged without extreme caution and courtesy. In our United States of Acrimony the conservatives hate masking up, don't trust vaccines or science or expertise of any kind, which they call "elitism", meaning that higher education and post graduate studies are pointless, and consider Covid 19 but another variety of flu. The liberals mask up religiously, vaccinate assiduously, and declare scientific expertise the source of all truth. We the American people are divided into two opposing camps of separate realities, one of which is well armed, angry, and unafriad to bear arms or to skin smokewagons, as they used to say in the wild west. The actual number of camps and conflicting realities is much greater, probably equal to the total number of people in the United States; placing them in two categories is purely arbitrary, an attempt to simplify and categorize, like Aristotle. All realities, whether unprovn or nonsensical, are created equal in the land of individual liberty, where one's fredom to embrace idiocy may not be infringed. Lost amid the tnd talk is a simple fact; that without at least some fundamental shared reality throughout society, civilizaton cannot endure.

Imperiling

PREDICTING THE EMINENT DEMISE ot the United States is, andnever has been, uncommon. The founders themselves worried that the new, weak and poor nation of decentralized, disparate loosely confederated States under an entirely experimental form of government might not last a single generation. Jefferson firmly believed that a revolution and a new constitution would be necessary every generation to keep the experiment alive. It worked out better than Jefferson, and most of the founders ever thought possible. The naysaying, however, never abated, and continues today. This year merks the fiftieth anniversary of my father's prediction that the United States wasn't long for the world. He noted how rapidly the world was changing, and proposed a moratorium on change. I was sixteen at the time, and thought his views a bit alarmist, and extreme. I still do. He had fought in World War Two, and was witnessing the black-holish quagmire of Viet Nam, accompanied with masive protests against it all across the fruited plain, protests against the war, againtt white supremacy, and against gender inequality. In the turbulent nineteen sixties, you couldn't swing a dead cat, as we sometimes say, without hitting somebody in the street, protesting something. Every protest was valid in those days. Those turbulent sixties were a bit too much for someone born in 1918. Today, Trump suporters claim that they are desperately trying to save the country from liberalism, and that without Trump the country is at desperate risk of discontinuing, and liberals claim that they are desperately tyring to save it from Trump and his supporters. Into the morass swims Bob Woodward, of Watergate fame (another apocalyptic harbinger event of emminent American doom), with his three volume series on the Trump administration. The third book, "Peril", with co-author Robert Coatas, deals with the final days of the Trump administration, focusing, of necessity, on Trump's ill fated but very real attempt to not only reverse the results of the twenty twenty presidential election, but with his also very real attempt to overthrow the government, by means of a violent mob andhis Vice President Mike Pence, Pence having been the administrative wing of the violent mob. That Trump refused to accept the results of the election and tried to reverse those results cannot be disputed; millions of Americans heard him and saw it everyday on national television, with his big lie, and his phone calls to state's attorney generals demanding that they find or fabricate more votes for Trump, long after the votes had all ben counted. What Woodward and Costa do is explain how very serious and threatening Trump and his treasoous coherts were in their efforts, how close they came to success, and how perilously close the United Stats remains to either tyranny or diestuction because of, if nothing else, the continuing persistance of Trump and his movement. The final words of the book, in fact, are "Peril Remains". Two blocks from the White House stands the Willard hotel, in which, in early Jauary, 2021, an operation command center of Trump insurrectionist planners held meetings, not in secret as they wanted, but known to journalists, including Costas, who spent time outside the builing, wishing he had booked a room. Trump, damanding that Pence refuse to certify the electoral college on January 6, and Pence wanting to do it, but unable to, merely because it would have been illegal. Trump's top aides, Bannon, Guiliani, the usual suspects, planning the insurrection the following day, which went off perfectly, except for the minor detail that the government was not overthrown. The Congressional committee currently investigating the insurrection is using "Peril" as source material for their work, with good reason.

`Untangling Enmities

A FASCINATING but often overlooked aspect of the historical study of the wealthy and the powerful and the famous is their personal relationships, particularly their attitudes other individuals and the attitudes of other individuals towards them. Particularly their rivalries and mutual hatreds. It turns out, and this characteristic stands out like a sore thumb, as we used to say, that nobody is above personal antagonisms, even those who try their best to rise above the fray, inevitably and unavoidably sink back into down into the morass, the "swamp", as we like to say today. Take, for instance, the inventors of the United States. Among these inconic intellectual masters of diplomacy and balanced government are more historically verified hatreds than one can shake a stick at, to borrow yet another cliche. In many cases, much more than a stick was shaken. Topping the list is the notorious gun duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. They fought it out in 1804 in New Jersey, across the Hudson River from New York, because dueling was illegal in New York, and legal in New Jersey. If your intent is to kill someone, by any and all means, do it legally. Hamilton at the time was out of work, looking for his next position, having been George Washington's Secretary of the Treasury. Burr was at the time the Vice President of the United States, under Thomas Jefferson. Burr won, Hamilton reportedy having deliberately wasted his shot like a true gentleman, as a matter of honor. Burr took full advantage, and aimed accurately. Hamilton died a week later after lingering with as he said "a mortal wound", and Burr was invited to dine at the White house as Jefferson's guest. Jefferson hated Hamiltaon as much as Aaron Burr, and the hatred was mutual. The cobweb of hatreds ran deep among America's founders, but the jefferson - Hamilton rivalry, over political ideology as most of them were, was foremost. One colonial era politician is said to have said of another: "He is a man of extraordinary capabilities, but utterly corrupt. He shines and stinks like dead mackeral by moonlight." Give credit where due; if you are going to talk trash about somebody, do it like a poet. All great and famous and powerful men had a legion of haters. As many people as despised Thomas jefferson, undoubtedly many more hated Abraham Lincoln. How could Lincoln have possibly avoided being the object of widespread hatred, he being the leader of a country torn in half by civil war? Conversely, there is no actual record of Abraham Lincoln holding a grudge against anybody, much to his lofty credit. As I enter and move through my senior years, in the final stage of my life, I sometimes reflect on the friends I have lsot in recent years, most of them because of strong disagreements over the most prolific source of personal conflicts and ruptured friendships in America since perhaps the Civil War; Donald J. Trump. Upon reflection, however, it must be conceded that JFK, MLK, Nixon, and FDR were no minor inspirers of personal enmity, towards themselves, and among millions of people who either loved 'em or hated 'em. And, let's face it, Trump never actually caused anyone to hate anyone else. The choice has always been ours. As I prepare to leave this hotbed of antagonism we call planet earth, I can, with complete honesty and pride, assert that it is alwasy the other person, the former friend, who becomes angry at me, and ends the friendship, and that I have no complaint with anyone, and never have ended a friendship. I may be a punching bag, but, if nothing else, I am not petty.

Hating the Messenger of History

ONE OF MY PROFESSORS in graduate school was a Catholic lady with knowledge of Christian history who offered a seminar on the Renaissance, or, as she put it, the "so called Renaissance". There are historians who assert that there never was any such thing as a "Renaissance" in Europe between 1300 and 1500, and that the term was only invented with hindsight, along with the event, by nineteenth century historians and writers. Its a valid point of view. My like for her was limited by the fact that she spent in my opinion too much time talking about herself and her experiences studying the Renaissance and traveling in Europe than actually teaching it, but, that, as we say, is neither nor. Then too, she gave me "B" for the seminar, a definite non starter...Her remark I most remember is: "It is noteworthy the sheer amount of violence on a large systematic scale that has been perpetrated in the name of the prince of peace." By this she meant religious wars, persecutions, and so forth; the crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, the centuries long Catholic-Protestant conflicts - you name it, they fought over it. The history of the Christian religion is a long litany of perpetual violence and blood, of which the crucifiction of Christ was but the beginning. The violence still has not stopped, and is very much with us today. Homophobic violence of the Christian kind and the KKK come readily to mind, and yes, one must be a card carrying Christian to be a member of the Klan. The religious violence of the Christian kind is factual, historical, verifiable, indisputable, and teaching all about it in history classes is unavoidable. Like all history, all of which is violent, it should be taught, and should be learned and known by everyone, including American Christians. You'll recall what Lord Acton said about learning the lessons of history or repeating its mistakes. If not, you should. I barely survived the Renaissance seminar and the rest of graduate school, then went on to complete a tumultuous career teaching history in both colleges and high schools. Much of the tumult derived from teaching Christian history - actually, from merely mentioning its violence. In European and American history classes I included lectures and discussions about the history of the Christian religion, and religious wars and persecutions and violence. How could I not? Its unavoidable, because its real. When I did this, I tended to give students the impression that I personally do not approve of all the religious violence, and in fact consider it horrible and tragic, even though I never said so explicitly. Its hard not to give that impression. Its almost unadvoidable, and, arguably, quite reasonable. I can say from vast personal experience that devout Christians simply do not like being confronted with the violent history of their Christian faith. Some of them seem to think that when so confronted, the teacher is attacking or criticizing them and their personal religious beliefs by casting their religion in a negative light. To me that seems a very strange way to react, but, oh well. Over the years, I became increasingly careful not to express any personal disapproval of any aspect of Christian history, including the violence, almost as if the students might be offfended not only by negative comments about the history of their religion, but also about its violence, almost as if they approved of the violence as well as the reeligion. Alas, nothing worked. There were always disgruntled, angry students and lurking parents, devout defenders of the faith ready with nasty phone calls and notes to the Dean, the prinicipal, or whomever. During any given semester, somebody was either mad at me, or hated my guts, religiously. The lesson I learned was that any mention of any negative influence or impact of Christianity upon society will earn enmity, and might get you fired in certain cconservative deeply religious parts of these United States. When I retired, I was tired, of much. Had the fact that I am not religious and do not like religion because of the violence and other nonsense it engenders and promotes ever come to the direct attention of any of my classes, I would have been fired, but, amazingly, never was. On one occasion a high school principle called me into his office (again) asnd asked me why on Earth I was telling my classes that Thomas Jefferson was essentially an atheist. Ok, fine, whatever. I replied by asking him to take a wild guess. A stupid question merits a stupid answer, or, at the very least a smart alec one, methinks. He didn't like my response, but although he didn't fire me on the spot, he gave me an unfriendly look, and I was not offered a contract for the next school year. In the land of freedom, teaching the truth about American history can get you fired, or cursed at, or worse. Looking back, I amost wish I had taught history without any mention of the Christinan religion, or the violence associated with it. Dishonest and incompetant as that would be, it would have been safer, and far less stressful. Imagine...no religion. Ironically, this dishonest, incompetant approach would please me, if only as an expression of my deepest heartfelt fantasies and desires concerning alternative universes and alternative historical realities.

Assaulting Democracy

DEMOCRACY does not function automatically, like gravity or the speed of light. Democracy, a complicated machine of human invention, can and does, like all complicated human made machinery, gets broken, and can cease to function entirely if not repaired. Every democracy ever invented - and there have not been many - has suffered that fate. A democracy only works when we the people make it work, like a car. Democracies require elaborate planning involving many people, including elections, political candidates and office holders, a vast array of government officers and bureaucracies, a perpetually upgraded body of law and judicial system, and innumerable other components and parts which must be regulated and repaired for them to continue functioning. Democracies only function if a high percentage of we the people expend the necessary effort to make the necessary repairs to make them function. It has been sugested with good supporting arguments that the best, most efficient, most effective form of government is a benevolent dictatorship, emphasis on "benevolent". Above all else, a democracy will only work if we the people believe it is worth the effort required, worth the effort to participate, and to have faith in the value of this fragile form of government. If Donald Trump were younger, I would almost favor the death penalty for him, for the attempted murder of American democracy. As it is, I favor his indictment, conviction, and long term incarceration for that crime. In our present democratic emergency, every American should perhaps be required to sign a document promising to accept the results of the twenty twenty election. All who refuse should be deprived of the right to vote - perhaps. Refusing to accept the results of a verifiably fair and free election is a serious attack on democracy. If, after every election, a substantial plurality or majority of voters refuse to accept the election outcome, and then storm the capitol building, then proceed to advocate for new voting restrictions in order to reduce the number of people who vote, how long before democracy is replaced by chaos, anarchy, and finally, autocracy? Arguably, indeed demonstrably the United States is not and never has been an actual "democracy", but instead a plutocratic oligarchy, government of, by, and for the corporate wealthy. But, if nothing else, American democracy is aspirational, a lofty ideal not yet come to fruition. It is worth noting that the millions of people who still insist that the 2020 election was stolen do not really believe it, but want to believe it, in an almost religious sense, just as millions of fervantely religious folks deceive themselves into believing that very soon God, in the form of Jesus, is going to descend from the skky and rapture them into heaven. Humans have vivid imaginations, and are adept at self delusion. As Goethe said: "We are never deceived; we only deceive ourselves." People who refuse to accept verifiably honest elections are not good citizens, if ever they were. If you accuse someone of a crime, you must accompany the accusation with the identity of the accused, and strong evidence for the crime. People claiming that the 2020 election was stolen have failed to identify the party or parties who allegedly stole the election, and have presented no evidence to support their extraordinary accusation. All of their complaints and concerns have been addressed, with explanations given in detail as to why their complaints are unfounded. The votes have been counted repeatedly, and all accusations of voter fraud discredited. It is time, long past time for the "stop the steal" movement, to drop its accusations, stop damaging democracy and harming the country, and if its members can muster the basic decency, a doubtful prospect, to apologize. The future of the fragile, complex, sublime machinery of American democracy hangs in the balance.

Reconciling No More

THROUGHOUT AMERICAN HISTORY a common, comforting theme has been that in the final analysis, despite our internal conflicts, we are all Americans, and must, at all costs, remain loyal to our beloved country. We are taught this in school, or were in my generation, and the partents of my generation, the World War Two generation which raised my generation, impressed this concept deeply into our awareness; patriotism at all costs. They had been young adults during the war, had fought bravely and sacrificed much to keep freedom's land free, and my baby booming generation inherited their values, for which I am extremely grateful. The truth, of course, is that the United States has rarely if ever been a "united" country. Two hundred and forty six years of slavery, and another hundred years of Jim Crow racism, followed by fifty years of our present racism the existence of which most of us now prefer to deny, have guaranteed against unification.There are many other factors contributing to our perpetual national disunity, of course, too many to enumerate here. Sectional rivalry and conflict was paramount from the beginning, the New England states and the southern states at odds with each other over matters such as slavery and represention in the national government, to the extent that before the Civil war all Americans were loyal to their home states forst, and to the fragile federal union second. A prominent historian riminds us that the Civil War changed "the United States are", into "the United Stats is", an important distinction, transitioning from plurality to singularity. During the Civil War we went from being many small countries, to being two larger ones, and, ultimately, to one nation, and, as of 1954, one nation "under God". Precisely which "god' has never been specified, although most Christians claim that it is theirs. In all that morass of interlocking conflicts national unity can be difficult to discern. and, of course, the current level of American polarization is alarming, more alarming than at any time since the Civil War. One stark fact we must accept, if we are to embrace relity: There is no hope of compromise, cooperation, and reconciliation in our current cultural socio-economic political civil war. The late Rush Limbaugh pointed this out, and he was quite correct. War ends nearly always with the utter destruction of one adversary, and the complete victory of the other. So it will be in our current civil war, which thus far is free of organized violence on a large scale, but which could easily descend into such violence, as the Civil War of 1861-1865 clearly demonstrated. The conservative Christian coalition will prevail or the secular progressive one will, and the other will vanish. I, a staunch member of the secular progressives, lost hope for and interest in cooperation and compromise with the Christian conservatives on election night, when Trump started claiming that the election had been stolen from him, and seventy percent of Republicans, and seventy percent of Christian conservatives believed him, and still do. When the same seventy percent approved of, and still approve of the insurrection at the Capitol on January sixth, the gloves came off, and, as we like to say, "its on". The millions of people who refused, and stil refuse to accept the results of a perfectly legitimate presidential electiion are my enemies, and I will work tirelessly to defeat them. To borrow a quote from the great British general Lord Cornwallis: "We'll see who takes the glory from this field of battle". And exactly how do I intend to bring about this great defeat of Trump conservatism? Why, at the ballot box, naturally.

America's Moronic Minority, Gathering Together

THE EVENT IS SCHEDULED to take place this weekend, in Nashville, Tennessee, a perfect venue, all things considered. Country and Western music is more popular in Nashville than classical music, and that in itself sings volumes. Also, the great much too late state of Tennessee is among the nation's most derelict in getting folks vaccinated against Covid 19, which also speaks volumes, because the gathering is of America's unvaccinated anti-vaxxer community, assembling for the apparanty sole purpose of reassuring itself that its members are doing the right thing, that they are correct in believing that the vaccine is far more dangerous and harmful to human health than that little old flu bug which has killed a paltry seven hundred and thirty five thousand Americans and counting, and that it is their sacred mission and duty, while they are still living, to promote freedom and liberty and indivudual responsibility and by so doing to make America great again, like it once was when there were no vaccines and any old flu bug could kill hundreds of thousands of Americans, as happened in the last great pandemic, the 1918 flu kill off. They are fighting for the freedom to die from Covid 19, but not before they spread it to thousands of others, for good measure. An added feature is that the gathering of the unvaccinated personal liberty lovers is taking place in a large room in which they will be meeting for hours, plenty of time to spread the word and the virus. Masks are optional, but strongly discouraged, of course; the virus must br given a fair chance. Social distancing is impossible, since it will be far more important to this moronic minority to exercise personal freedom and cram as many nut cases into the same room as possible, which of course will create another super spreader event, as effective as any Donald Trump campaign rally or motorcycle week end monstrosity rally of right wing extremists. The speaker's list has not been fully finalilzed, but will almost certainly include America's number one anti-vaccination maniac, the notorious Robert F. Kennedy Junior, whose father might well be turning over in his Arlington national Cemetary grave, or at least shaking his head and rolling his eyes, thinking, in his Boston accent: "wheah in thah hell did I go wrong?" Maybe hydroxychloroquine and bleach and Lysol salespesonnel will be moving up and down the jam packed isles, hawking cures. Anti-vaxxers will not be the only alternative paradigm nut cases in attendance. All manner of conspiracy theory purveyors wil also attend, hoping to expand the congregation of believers by adding folks most likely to be amenable to nonsense. Surely Q Anon will have representtives there, and maybe a booth, as well as the world illuminati world financial control crowd, extraterrestrial infiltrators of the Federal Reserve enthusiasts, and all the rest of the usual suspected mentally ill. A veritable cross pollination of the various types of mentally disengaged wackos. That's all we need now; more people converting to fantasy, and exiting reality. The terrifying thought is that these intellectually dangerous types may soon not be relegated to minority status.

Securing Voting Rights

NOTHING COULD BE MORE REASONABLE and beneficial for the American political system than for the federal government to enact a legislative package of fundamental voting rights for the American people. It makes so much sense that one can scarcely imagine anyone other then oligarchical Republicans to support it - and that is exactly the situation. It seems evident that the Grand Old Party wants only conservative white Christians to cast ballots. In state after Republican controlled state, Republicans, angry that African-Americans enabled the election of Joe Biden, are imposing voting restrictions intended to reduce the voter turnout of colored people, a return to Jim Crow, as Biden accurately put it. More egregiously still, their racist intent they digsuise as a crusde to eliminate voter fraud, which, as we and they well know, is virtually nonexistant in the United States. The federal gvoernment already mandtets by law that everyone over the age of eighteen is entitled to vote, that woman be allowed to vote, and that poll taxes are illegal; federal voting standards have been in place for generations and expanding them would constitutie no aggresive, sudden take over by the federal government of "state's rights", as conservatives falsely claim. Is it not a primary function of the federal government to protect and expand democracy? And yet Republicans, steadfastly engaged in their racist war against minority political power, seem intent on making America great again for white Christian conservatives, as Congressional Republicans every attempt by Democrats to enact reasonable federal voting rights standards. What should have bipartisan consensus is instead part of the polizarized political landscape, as Senator Mitch McConnell, in his typical twisted and dishonest manner, accuses the Democrats of trying to subvert state power. This bogus "state's rights" argument is remindful of confederate arguments for secession; that they were defeing state's rights, as indeed they were, the right of their states to enslave human beings. This false malignant argument proves the true racist intent of voter suppression by Republican sponsored legislation, just as the confederacy revealed its true intent in its "state's rights" nonsense. Black voters in Detroit, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, and Atlanta, many of whom voted by mail and whose votes were counted last, handed the presidency to Joe Biden, fair and square. It was the manner of Biden's victory which enraged Trump Republicans, and the "stolen election voter fraud" claims a mere cover story to give the false impression of concern for fairness. The big lie told by Trump was the genesis of the false voter fraud stolen election claims, and a shameful sham substitute for the real problem; pervasive racism among conservative voters. Hence, the Republican born again embace of Jim Crow. The most intelligent intellectual academician in America, Noam Chomksy, calls the Republican party the most dangerous and harmful organization in human history. He refers mainly to the Republican majority's denial of human made climate change for political expediency, and their constant refusal to fully asknowlege the severity of the Covid 10 epidemic and to take urgently needed action to ameliorate it. The conservative assault on American Democracy currently underway surely ranks high on the long list of evil malign designs being promulagated by the Republican party.

Outclassed Voting

IN A SMALL SOUTHERN TOWN full of right wing blue collar Christian extremists hangs a sign which says: "Impeach Biden", and another nearby which says "Trump 2020: Keep America Great". Commentary on this could manifest from mulitudinous points of origin, and proceed in many directions. The "Impeah Biden" movement, and doubtless there is one, can only be based on blind ideologial hatred, a belief that since Biden is a Democrat, and believes in government giving help to people in need, that he must be sodialist, or communist, or devil worshipper, rather than the moderate capitalistic champion of the working class, and practicing Catholic that he actually is. The far right, as evidenced by its deliberately twisted view of Biden, is not known for its factual accuracy, to say the least, and is populated by pathological liars, to say the most. The very notion that Trump made America "great" and should be returnd to office to keep it that way is ludicrous beyond comprehension. Whatever America was before Trump's tragic election, it remains after his defeat for reelection, with the rich richer, the poor poorer, and is a darker, more cynical place, having exposed itself as the home of tens of millions immoral reprobates wiling to support a criminal, traitorous president merely for the sake of their corrupt personal political ideology. That, plus the obvious fact tht it is somewhat too late to return Trump to the presidency in the year 2020, evinces nothing but ignorance and stupidity on the part of the sign hangers. The "Impceah Biden" sign hangs on a one room cinder block building in which is housed a tire repair shop, in front of which daily sits a group of good ole boys dressed in overalls and dirty ball caps. The "Keep Ameria Great' sign adorns the front of a bungalow house no more than twenty feet wide and forty feet deep, with a sagging roof in need of replacement, and a small yard overgrown with weeds. The people who come and go through the front door look like they would fit in well in rural Appalachia, or on the set of the movie "Deliverance". The socio-economic question of the day thus becomes: Why on Earth, in the name of all that is sane and reasonable, would poor working class people in the deep south support a multi - billionaire from New York City who grew up riding in the back of a stretch limo, was handed millions of dollars the day he was born, and has spent his entire corruption laden life in penthouses and executive suites? There is not, and never has been, the slightest trace of evidence that Donald Trump gives so much as a rat's ass about poor working class people, nor, for that matter, anyone else, anyone but himself. To confirm this, all one needs do is carefully examine his every word and deed, day by day, for his enire life. Trump's utterances to associates in private settings are an unending litany of racist slurs, deprecating comments about uderprivileged people, about the jobless, the homeless, and the helpless. Everyone who knows him, everyone who has spent time in his presence confirms this, in the dozens of books written and publishecd during his presidency by people who know him well, and are not admirers. No one who knows Trump well amdires or respects him, and that is repeatedly confirmed by written and oral testimony from hundreds of people. Donald Trump is a patological liar who uses other people, expolits those who work for him, and uses every unethical method known to advance his own interests, without any concern for the well being of others. It is astonishing that so many people continue to support him; these peopple have abandoned whatever moral principles they ever had and have reduced themselves to the level of criminal enablers and unscrupulous traitors. If these good ole boys were capable of giving the situation a moment's thought, they would take down and burn their misguided signs.

Secularizing America

OF ALL THE MANY highly questionable and outright false characteristics and beliefs prevalent among American Christians, perhaps the most strikingly erroneous is the nearly universally held false belief that the United States was founded on "Christian principles", was intended to be a "Christian" nation, and that it has always been and remains a Christian nation. A quick glance at the constitution, in which the word "God" does not appear, reveals otherwise. What does appear is the first amendment, according to which church and state are separate. Letters written between Madison, the constitution's main auther, and Thomas Jefferson, who taught Madison how to write constitutions, also demonstrate the founder's intention of establishing a secular republic. They agreed that an "inpregnable wall" must be erected and maintained between church and state. Most of the other founders, including Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Thomas Paine, enthusiastically agreed. The American system of government was designed on the principles of political theorist-philosopher John Locke and the principles of the enlightenment, which revered science. All this is thoroughly elucidated in Harvard historian Mathew Stewart's seminal work "Nature's God: The heretical Origins of the American Republic". As the title explicitly implies, the principles upon which the country were founded were non religious, deliberately scientific, to the point of being heretical. The point is not arguable; there is no way to reasonably argue that the United States was ever intended to be nor ever was an officialy "Christian" nation. In fact, as Mathew Stewart points out, not only were the first six presidents of the United States non Christians,instead embracing a religiosity of the day popular among scientific minded intelletuals called "deism", Thomas Jefferson ws openly scornful in his writings toward what he called "our modern superstition", meaning the Christian faith, with its reliance upon miracles. His "Jefferson Bible", available in any university library or online, is Jefferson's version of how the Bible should have been written; based on fact, rather than myths and miracles. The qustion is why devout American Christians almost invariably insist on distorting, misinterpreting history to suit their preferred narrative. The answer is obvioius; "preferred narrative." How comforting it must be to believe that one's personal religion and one's country are inextricably intertwined philosophically, to be proudly patriotic and self righteously religious all in one! Patriotism, a kind of religious fervor in its own right, easily meshes with religious fervor. Another factor is that throughout American history, such a high percentage of Americans have embraced Christianity that it has been irrestibly tempting for them to believe that they own the country, that their majority religion enjoys a special, favored, official status, and that they enjoy a speical place in it, since, after all, almost all Americans were, historically, Christian. And indeed, a couple of generations ago fully eighty five percent of American citizens self identified as Christian. But that number is falling, and has been steadily falling for the past several decades. America is secularizing, not only in its formal non religious status, but in actual numbers. As recently as ten years ago sixty five percent of the American people were Christian; now, the number hovers at around fifty percent because the millennial and post millennial generations are much less religious than their ancestors, and the religious generations, including the baby boomers, are dying off. Even Christians, long accustomed to denying this reality, must at length come to terms with it.

Hoarding and Hiding Money

EVERYONE LOVES MONEY, which, the Bible teaches us, is why everyone is partly evil. Yes, everyone. As a purely diversionary tactic intended to enhance our sense of nobility and to impress others with our apparent ability to trenscend greed, and because of everyone's desire to appear generous, everyone claims to not care about money. Rarely if ever do we encounter anyone willing to admit what is true of us all; that the love of money is central to the human personalilty. But we all know this, deep down. Poor people are more generous than the wealthy, studies consistantly indicate. The poor wrongly perceive that they have little or nothing to lose by being generous; the wealthy hoard money like squirrels hoard acorns, and for the same reason; fear of having it taken from them by loved ones and governments, and ending up with too little to survive. The International Consortium of Journalists (ICIJ), the world's most literate union of snooping busy bodies, was gifted with a veritable twelve million page treasure trove of documentaion, the "Pandora Papers", which irrefutably substantiates the point just made about the wealthy and their wealth. The point is that the world's wealthiest people, the one percent of the top one percent, go to great lengths to hide their money in safe, obscure places, not to avoid having it stolen, but for a far less noble reason, to avoid legitimate, fair taxation. In some cases they are hiding it from spouses and former spouses and in some cases from creditors, but not usually. Usually the tax collectors from which they are hiding are perfectly fair and reasonable, not at all "confiscatory", as conservatives like to say about all taxes. They hide their enormous extragagant wealth not from unfair taxation, but from taxation which by any reasonable measure is quite fair and unobstusive. The list of money hiders is long, with most of the names unsurprising, but some surprising. Vladimir Putin is on the list. So are Bob Dyan and Elton John. The super wealthy Arab oil tycoons are almost all on there. Most American billionaires are, and the latest statistics indicate that the number of Amerian billionaires is now more than one thousand, and growing daily, as wealth in the United Atates, and all over the world, continues to concentrate in the hands of fewer and fewer people, a revolution waiting to explode.The global community, govenments all over the world, are beginning to take notice, and to do something about it. An agreement has recently been reached internationally according to which there will soon be a minimum global corporate tax rate of fifteen percent, to prevent corporations from roaming and hiding all over the world to hide their profits from taxation, in places such as Ireland, which they presently do. The number of tax havens has been growing steadily. The dubious practice used to be confined to a few small island nations in the Caribbean; now, several of the states in the U.S., notably South Dakota, sensing an opportunity to lure wealth to within their borders, are establishing themselves through legisltion as tax havens for the very wealthy. The most disgusting aspect of all this is that we the poor continue to pay more than our fair share of taxes, that all taxes are good in that they serve the common public interest, and, of course, that the excessively wealthy people of the world can easily afford to pay the taxes they so ardently seek to avoid, and finally,, the wealthy never fail to take full advantage of the public infrastructure and programs funded by tax revenue.

Killing A Perfectly Healthy Tree; Dealing With Neighbors

MOST AMERICANS don't know their neighbors, nor care to. Part of that is our society constantly on the move, part of it is our national penchant for self absorption. We the American people tend to tolerate our neighbors, and to live with a sort of precarious truce, being smart enough to fully appreciate the immense value and expediency of being on good terms with those geographically close by, if not on speaking terms. I became friends with all the kids in my neighborhood when I was a kid in the sixties; we played baseball together for hours each day during summer vacation, remindful of a lost post world war America of the nineteen fifties and sixties. Hell, when I was five years old, my older sister and I would leave the house in the morning, be gone all day, and my mom had no specific idea where we were nor what we were doing, but wasn't concerned, until we came home for supper at dusk. We were in and out of neibhbor's houses, all over the block, with no adult concern, even though in those days the crime rate was far higher than now, but you didn't constantly see crime on twenty four hour news programs. Nowadays that lifestyle would mean jail time for the parents and foster care for the kids. Nowadays kids have cell phones attached to their clothing and microchips impanted in their skulls, so it is rumored, and mom hovers like a helicopter, hence the term "helicopter parent". I bought my first and only house at fifty, paid it off in fifteen years, and intend to die there, not for awhile I hope. Although I have lived there sixteen years, I barely know my neighbors. Their chidren have grown up and left home without my paying any attention. My next door neighbor has a barky, snappy litttle pomeranian or something, who used to have the unpleasant habit of running headlong into my yard, barking and snapping, and chasing my seven outdor cats out of their own yard. I finally made an oblique refeenrce to the problem this posed. She started keeping the little shit in her fenced in back yard, put up a privacy fence between our houses, and stopped speaking to me. How dare me protect my seven formerly stray cats (its the only kind I have, the only kind to have) from being terrifired in and chased out of their own yard! My neighbors across the street the are Jehovah's Witnessses, and too weird to befriend, although I have, and do, speaking kindly to them when I see them every few months. My best friend among my neighbors is a hard working guy from Guatemala and his wife. He has his own business renovating houses, and works all the time. He and I were once close, but no longer are, mainly becuase I got tired of alwasys interreupting him when he was either getting ready to go to work, or coming home after working all day. My neighbor catty-corner from me lives in a newish house, rather like mine, but has, or rather had, a weather beaten privacy fence and a huge beautiful tree in her back yard. I have only spoken to her once; she likes sports. Suddenly, recently, she tore down her privacy fence, cut down the huge beautiful tree, and then built another privacy fence where the old one was. I wish she had left the tree and not replaced the privacy fence, but, after all, she is an American. I love trees and hate privacy fences, but, have learned to endure them, for want of any alternative. I do not plan to discuss sports, nor anything else with her, ever again.

Schiff, Sounding the Alarm We Can All Hear Anyway

CONGRESSPERSON Adam Schiff suddenly became nationally famous for a time when he served as lead prosecutor in Donald Trump impeachment trial number one, as opposed to impeachment trial number two. (After a point, it becomes confusing trying to identify them individually. With Trump, one must distinguish between impeachment trials.) The first, you may recall, concerned the president's attempt to blackmail the Ukrainian govenment into providing damaging information, real or fabricated, against Joe Biden, by withholding essential military assistance to the Ukraine to use in their war against Russia, until such time as said information was provided. The second impeachment trial involved Trump attempting to overthrow the American government as a means of overturning the election after losing his reelection bid. Both, serious stuff. Schiff's prosecution presentation was so effective that when he concluded it, every Republican member of the Senate agreed that Trump had indeed tried to blackmail the Ukrainian president, but they still voted not guilty, for the incredible but fact based reason that he didn't get away with it, that his attempted blackmail failed. Attempted murderers, extortionists, bank robbers, and drug dealers should be so fortuate in being well understood.... Schiff, after what he went through, simply had to write a book. It simply had to be titled: "Midnight In Washington: How We Almost Lost Our Democracy, and Still Could". Schiff does not reveal anything strikingly or shockingly new in his book, because all the striking, shocking material is already out there, available for the average American to either know, or ignore. That most Americans seem to be ignoring it Schiff uses as strong evidence for the "still could lose our democracy" part. Not only have we the people, most of us, not learned from the mistakes of our past, most of us are utterly unaware of their having happened, or do not care whether they happened, and, even if they are aware of them, have chosen to live in denial of them, or to downplay their importance. Trump's blackmail scheme, recorded on telephone, thus becomes a minor matter, as Trump said: "a perfect conversation" or a liberal hoax intended to hurt his reputation, and his attempt to overthrow the government by use of a violent insurrectionist mob after denying his election loss by lying about its true winner, over and over again, thus becomes simply a normal demonstration, or a tour of the Capitol, based on his election lie, which becomes a mere matter of opinion to which he and anyone else is entitled as part of their freedom and rights in the land of liberty. All this is alarming. All this is more than alarming. Trump's behavior, the behavior of his supporters, and the current state of American "democracy", such as it is, are all shockingly alarming. All Schiff does is recount the actual events, beginning with Trump's landslide election loss, to the present day. The big lie, the big insurrection, and the conservative Republican community's positive, supportive attitude towards it, constitute the entirety of the book. The old adage that reality is stranger than fiction has never been more true. Considering that Trump and most of his supporters are still alive and active, still in election loss denial, and still fully supportive of the big lie and the big insurrection, and that the rest of us still tolerate their (Trump's and his follower's) existence, forms the basis of how we almost lost American democracy, and how we still could, for real.

Trump, Hogging the Limelight

DONALD TRUMP continues to hold MAGA campaign rallies, at which he repeats his election fraud lie like a vinyl record stuck in a groove. He holds campaign rallies whether or not its campaign season, whether or not he's running for office, merely because he enjoys the attention. He demands that any Republican seeking office in twenty twenty two or twenty twenty four parrot his big lie, or lose his endorsement. This is a problem for the Republicans, as many candidates and analysts are well aware. Trump simply cannot relinquish the spotlight. Here it is worth mentioning that fully one year since the allegedly "stolen" election, nary a shred of evidence to support this delusional lie has been produced for public scrutiny by anyone. And yet, Trump's support base, heavily laden with evangelical Christians, continues to repeat the lie, openly showing their separation from reality, their immorality, intellectual vacuity, and traitorous submission to their cult leader. Their politics and their religion are both bizarre, a cultish movement on the fringe of society, malignant evil which studies indicate is rapidly losing adherants. Trump's enduring mastery of the party is a problem for a political party which has become nothing other than an extremist far right gangster organization, hopelessly out of touch with mainstream America, populated by white nationalists and religious fanatics without any connecton to reality. Most members of the Grand Old Gangster Organization (G.O.G.O.) are oblivious to their inevitable future futility, but political analysts can plainly see its demise approaching. Trump will run for president in twenty twenty four expecting full party fidelity, but many other candidates will also run, attractive candidates who will tear each other and Trump to shreds, just as if they were Democrats. Tom Cotton, Ted Cruz, Mike Pence, and the current governors of both Texas and Florida, are but a few of the right wing extremists who will become appealing alternatives to Trump among those who have finally had their fill of Trump's lying and lunacy. The party of hydroxychloroquine and bleach will inevitably splinter into fragments as people make their choices between the many alternatives to Trump. All of the candidates will attack Trump, and each other, without mercy, consuming each other like vultures. As for the Democrats, they need only "stand back and stand by", as Trump famously told his Proud Boys terrorists friends to do, and watch the show, popcorn in hand. They will find it easy to make the case that staying the course with a government controlled by the Democratic party under Biden, a party committed to fighting climate change and striving actively for economic and social equality, is by far the preferrable alternative to the Republican freak show. To oppose Trump, one need only repeat his own words verbatum, and talk about his behavior, focusing on his dlection lie and attempt to overthrow the government, with emphasis on the fact that a majorty of America's Republicans and conservatives generally avidly supported the treasonous attempt, and still do, many of them still holding political power. Always, quote Trump. Always, remind the voters of his actions. No name calling is necessary. And, by all means, America's sane, progressive moral majority, wanting to be rid of the Trump movement and this freakish version of the Republican party once and for all, must constantly remind us all of the fervor with which a vast majortiy of its members stood beside Trump through all the criminality, lunacy, and traitorous behavior,, and still do.

Voting With Your Feet

A FAIRLY, SURPRISINGLY LARGE NUMBER of econommists, perhaps a bit hard hearted, have signed on to the idea that pumping investment capital and/or govenment funds into depressed, abandoned, forlorn communities such as Flint, Michigan is a no win black hole, and that a better, more econommically efficient alternative is to provide funding and incentives, including job training and addordable housing, for people to relocate to more thriving communities. All well and good, maybe, but..what about the abandoned communities, and the people left behind, which, unsurprisingly are almost always people of color? Are we planning to leave in our turbulent economic wake a littered trail or gutted shells, lying like municipal corpses all across the formerly fruited plain? An ever widening and lengthening rust belt of hope abandoned to resignation and defeat? If so, does this cycle of economic decline, depression, and community abandonment ever come to and end, or does it ravage the country until half the nation, an American dream turned nightmare, if not more, is a rusted out, pitted out, garbage dump of blowing tumbleweeds and dust? If it ends, how so, and when, and by what plan? The problem with this approach is that it not only has distinct undertones of surrender, it smacks of the compassionless ideology of Ronald Reagan, whose "vote with your feet you're on your own" theory of employment and socio-economic survival, in its social Darwinistic tough guy approach, lacked any hint of compassion or empathy. A glimmer of hope is that within the consservative community there still exist a few voices of reason and compassion amid the morass of gangland ideology, folks like the Bushes and disgraced television journalist Bill O'reilly, who once said that he doesn't care about Ronald Reagan precisely because of Reagan's lack of compassion. Have we lost, or are we losing the ability, initiative, and self assuredness to rebuild communities where they already are, or did we ever have it in the first place? Since its inception, abandoned communities have been a prominent feature of the throw away and move on mentality of American life. Always and forever, the essential, fundamental problem with American economic health is our extreme concentration of wealth, and our evident propensity to not only accept this sickness as if it were normal and healthy, but to actually deceive ourselves into regarding it as natural and unavoidable, and, ultimately, desirable. A seminal new monograph by David Wessel: "Only the Rich Can Play: How Washington Works in the New Guilded Age" addresses this situation. His use of the term "nwe guilded age" refers of course to the late nineteenth century, the last time the nation's wealth was so heavily concentrated in the hands of the very few. It is far more concentrated today. The numbers speak volumes: the top one percent own at least twenty percent of the wealth, the top twenty percent own at least eighty percent; a more grotesque dstribution of wealth than in the first guilded age. The root cause of this coruption is, as always. the political system, in which the wealthy purchase political power and office for people who, when elected, proceed to enact legislation, including and particularly tax policy, skewed to favor the already wealthy, at the expense of everyone else. The "Citizen's United" decision of 2010, in whcih a conservative Supreme Court essentially legalized the purchase of political offices with ulimited unaccounted, "dark" corporate money, at the behest of their and our corporate masters, is to this day supported by the Republican party, the party of wealthy, white Christian capitalists. Corporations move their production facilites all over the country and ultimately out of the country in their eternal search for the cheapest labor, and we the American people watch it happen, obligingly. Our tax system, owned, controlled, and of use to only the wealthiest Americans, we the people allow to remain, without a whimper of protest. In a nation owned by, operated by, and for the benefit of only the wealthiest few, and in which the rest of us are effectively dulled into passive impotent existence by virtue of a corporate oligarchy which feeds us a steady supply of escape entertainment opiates, the current corrupt, morally bankrupt system can hardly be expected to improve.

Singing Alone

LONG AGO, so long ago that it has receded into antiquity, lost amid the mists of time, I was steadfastly engaged in the process of self exploration, in search of my "true" religiosity, and of God. This was before I settled comfortably into Spinozan Jeffersonian Einsteinian pantheistic deism. To that end I joined a Christian gospel singing group, correctly thinking myself quite open minded. I had actually discarded devout Christianity by the third grade, realizing that I preferred the teachings of Jesus unfiltered to what I consider and still cosnider the bizarre dogmatic doctrine of the formal organized Christian religion. I agree with Kant, who said: "The death of dogma is the birth of morality." Both Buddhism and Taosim, philosophies rather than dogma, I find far superior, intellectually and morally, to any religion whose God issues harsh orders from heaven. Plus, the demographics are clear and present: The more intelligent and better educated the individual, the less tendency to be traditionally, dogmatically religious, the greater the tendency to be more progressive. I have always enjoyed singing, usually alone, unaccompanied by people or karaoke machines. Intrepidly, openmmindedly, I betoook myself to singing in a small gospel group, a group which, with all due artistic respect, seemed to need some help of the baritone sort. This, despite the often in my view barbaric disgusting content of gospel songs, songs about washing away sin with blood, and about the glory of having one's sins forgiven because a good person was tortured to death, and such. Openmindedness matters. I made it through the bloody sin songs by humming along and, in extreme circumstances, lip synching. Early Christians, including the unknown authors of the four selected gospels were confused and conflicted about whether Jesus was human, God, both, or neither. Everyone had their opinion. Jesus himself was quite clear about it, but, as is often the case, his wishes were ignored. Goethe said it best: "Pure was jesus in his passion, in his heart but one God serving. Who of him a god would fashion, from his sacred will is swerving." Ignoring the wishes of Jesus, on we sang, I blending in better with increasing lyrical familiarity and practice. We took turns choosing; I always chose "How Great Thou Art" because of its non-dogmatic lyrics, and wide applicability. This joyful song expresses what I think is the only religious sentiment worthy of expression: admiration and appreciation. The fact that I am a non-christian gradually made its way, irrevelantly I think, into the minds of my singing companions, whose increasingly unfriendly demeanor towards me motivated me to limit my term as a member of a gospel singing group, which I would have done anyway, my not being a fan of either most gospel music nor of singing with groups. For all they know I was using the experience to move closer to Christian convictions, which in fact I was, but obviously they didn't know much, nor care to. Einstein, who knew a great deal, said it best: "My religiosity consists of humble admiration of the infinitely superior spirit which reveals itself in what little we...can comprehend of reality". Need one ever say or sing more?

Riding The Supreme Court Roller Coaster

FIRST, THE U.S. SUPREME COURT legalized abortion. Then, decades later, feverishly obsessed with extremist right wing passion and newly invogorated, seemingly unconcered with the literal text of the American constitution to which they so ardently allege allegiance, states dominated by Republican politicians began passing laws, blatantly unconstitutional, re-criminalizing personal reproductive choice. Federal courts, recognizing their constitutional duty, properly prohibited those illegal laws from taking effect. Federal appellate courts, packed deliberatly with ultra conservative ideologues whose fidelity to the constitution is selective, reversed the obviously correct circuit court rulings. Now, even as we ride this judicial roller coaster, the whole "hot mess", as some like to say, is destined to be decided finally, once again, by the highest court in the land. One can only guess how many more times this issue will be decided, and re-decided over the next few millennia. This crazy patchwork American judicial tapestry is parr for the course in polarized America, where every issue is polticized, and every court renering, great and small, is the product of personal political ideology, rather than judicial wisdom, when in the hands and minds of ultra right wing jurists. We can expect nothing better in a system in which people are placed on the bench not on account of their qualifications, but when and only when they are sufficiently, demonstrably conservative personally. The intent of right wing America is of course to remake America in their reactionary, outdated image, politically, legally, economically, and socially, now, and forever. Ultimately this slow motion coup will fail; its not what we the American people want. Conservative politicians, shockingly, unashamedly acknowledge that a conservative personal political ideology is to them a paramount qualification in appointing judges to the bench. This is twisted. They don't even bother to make a token effort to conceal their twisted and biased value system. The judges themselves still do try to conceal the conservative bias in their renderings from the bench, which may be all that gives us any hope. We have reached a level of judicial corruption which calls for term limits for federal judges, and if we are going to have a highly politicized Supreme Court why not require that three justices be proven conservatives, three proven progressives, and three proven moderates? A handful of biased people appointed to the Supreme Court for purely political purposes for life terms is inherently unqualified to make decisions fundementally effecting the lives and welfare of millions of people. And, in fact, the American judicial system is obvously unable to use the existing constitution to render final, definifitve decisions on the most pressing issues of the day, issues such as reproductive rights, gun rights, and voting rights, among many others. With more people, more ubiased, qualified people participating in the decision making proces, perhaps at long last we the American people could arrive at acceptable, lasting decisions on the most urgentlly pressing issues in American law, issues and decisions which have hitherto completely perplexed and eluded our highest courts, and have turned the American judical system into a mockery of justice, a roller coaster rising, falling, flailing and gyrating according to the whims of extremist politicians. Obsiously, we deserve better.

Avoiding Rushmore, Hating On Columbus

WE WERE HEADED FOR Yellowstone, three other dudes and I, in a big gas guzzlin' SUV, in the summer of eithty seven. Since I was the only member under six six, its size came in handy. On the highway a sign said "Mt. Rushmore: 10 miles, this exit". That's when the big argument began. The driver, the SUV owner's son, refused to take the exit. His reasoning was that we had not planned to stop at Mt. rushmore, it wasn't in the plans, and also, that the place in an abomination, a momument to white supremacy, a horrid desecration of sacred land, an imposition of human conquerers upon God's perfect nature. The other two dudes, big, strong, and dominant personalities, wanted badly to take the exit and see Rushmore, because it is famous, and impressive, and this might be their only chance. I wanted to see it too, although I fully agreed, and still agree with the stubborn SUV driver, because, although I think it an abomination, it is, after all, there, and my righteous indignation aint gonna make it go away. The arguent lasted for hours, long after we had passed the exit, long after we had left South Dakota and entered Wyoming. It became increasingly fruitless and infuriating, listening to it. I didn't participate in the argument, because I was smart enough to know that the driver wasn't about to change his mind, and I knew I could live without ever seeing the four headed monster. (History has proven me right.) That was nearly thirty five years ago, and the indicent has become legend in our group, the stuff of bitterweet laughable memory. Nobody's point of view had changed, as far as I know. I think we should have gone to Rushmore, because I believe in democracy, and, like I said, we weren't about to facilitate the removal of the monstrosity by avoiding seeing it, and, after all, it is there, and probably will be, for the next few million years. Over the past thirty five years I am guessing that much of the American population has come to agree with the SUV driver, that Rushmore is an abomination, albeit good sculpture, a tribute to white supremacy and European conquest, a defilement of God's work. Much the same has happened to Christopher Columbus, and because of that, today is "Indigenous People's Day", in at least fourteen states, and not, as it was for many decades, "Columbus Day". And that, as they say, is a good thing. I made it all the way through high school in the early seventies still accepting the hagiographic fiction that Columbus was a good guy, a hero, and so forth. It was only during and after college, with the increasing momentum of political and historical correctness and better history instructors, that the truth made its way into my consciousness. Howard Zinn helped me the most. "A People's History of the United States", I believe the title is. Whatever it is preciesly, read the book, it contains much verified truth, dispelling traditional hagiogarphy. He quotes Collumbus, from his exploration journal. Its something like: " We dropped anchor, and went ashore. We were immediately greeted by naked natives, adorned only with body paint and golden trinkets. They were instantly friendly, and would have given us anything we asked. They were peaceful, sweet, and welcoming. They are going to make wonderful servants". He actually wrote that. As Casey Stengal said: "You could look it up". The priest Cloumbus brought on the voyage was utterly astounded at the savage brutality of Christopher Columbus, who ended up killing and maiming millions of natives for failing to bring their gold to him on time. On the way across, Columbus promised a tidy sum of money to whoever spotted land first. When somebody spotted it, Columubs said: "Oh, I saw that last night. I guess the reward belongs to me"... There may have never been a greater asshole in human history than Columbus, and thank the powers that be that we have finally begun to accept the truth about a lot of things including Christopher Columbus, and are steadily removing his holiday and replacing it with an appropriate one. Happy "Indigenous People's Day!

Limiting Lunacy

IT HAS BEEN NEARLY A YEAR since the now infamous election of twenty twenty, made infamous by Trump and his angry, delusional supporters, and their insane claims of election theft. The year has passed fast. Young people think life is long; as we grow older, we learn the truth. Second grade passed much more rapidly than first grade, you'll recall. With less than a month before the November third election anniversary arrives, it is presumably safe to say that on November third, twenty twenty one, no one will have presented for public scrutiny even a single shred of evidence that the election was in fact stolen from Trump. And of course, no one ever will. There can be no evidence for an event which did not occur. The amazing thing is that a huge majority of conservatives, Republicans, and Trump supporters still insist on clinging to their grand illusion, their big lie, this far removed from the night of the election, when Trump formally articulated his great prevarication, if Trump can ever be credited for "articulating" anything, other than nonsense. One might have expected it to have died out by now, but it now begins to seem as if it never will, that the Trump crowd will bear their burden to their graves, like confederate soldiers. Due process and basic human decency and morality mean nothing to Trump and those who support him. But its wroth repeating that when someone accuses someone else of a crime, the accused person or persons must be identified, and the evidence for the crime must be presented when the accusation is made, not later. That's basic justice, but is ignored by Trump people. There is a limit to the amount of time the accusor has to present proof the crime; one year is more than enough time. Now is the time, now is long past the time for Trump and his fellow liars and traitors to admit that their claim of election theft was false, and for them to apologize for all the trouble they caused. The most shocking aspect of the entire Trump phenomenon, from the time he announced for the presidency, to the Access hollywood tape, through his entire insane, chaotic presidency, to the January 6 insurrection, to Trump's insane present attepmt to claim "executive privilege" to prevent relevant documents proving his criminality from being exposed, is the utter and complete abandonment of civility, decency, sanity, and fundamental morality by Trump and his seventy five million or so followers. Never could such a phenomenon have been seen as even remotely possible in the United States, so similar is it to the Hitler NAZI movement in Germany in the nineteen thirties. We must now accept the shocking reality that in any society, in any country, no matter how supposedly educated and civilized, it is possible for millions of people as a group to abandon senity and moral decency in the service of a twisted, misguided ideology, if a sufficient number of gullible people can be lured into emrbracing it. No more malignant movement has ever maniffested anywhere in the world, at anytime in history, than the Trump movement in modern America. For this, we Americans should still be very ashamed, and very frightened, for the malignancy has not yet been destroyed. God willing, it will be.

Prioritizing Bragging

SO, my buddy finishes graduate school in the early eighties, goes about his business, pursues his career, marries, starts a family. I do the same thing, minus the wife and kids. Call me smart. Decades pass. Serrendipitously, I resume limited contact with my old buddy, and we begin to catch up. He begins talking about his kids, two teenaged sons. The marriage apparently goes south, but out of it he got two fine, strapping sons. Without so much as a word of what's up with you, he launches into a comprehensive description of his boy's athletic prowess, and involvement. How far they hit a golf ball, how hard they swing a bat, how far the ball goes, how hard they throw the ball. The usual scouting report material, the whole nine yards. And that's just fine with me, to a point. Lord knows I love sports. High school golf, college tennis, tennis thorughout life, long distance running throughout early and middle aged adulthood, weight lifting; I live and breathe sports and exercise. Now in my mid to late sixties I retreat to the comfort of my own home, which contains my exercycle (Swhwinn Airdyyne, arms and legs), Gold's Gym treadmill, and some free weights. All that came in handy during the pandemic quarantining. Also, hiking on wooded mountain trails. For sixty six, I am quite fit, thanks to a lifetime of hard work and fun. I know and care enough about sports to understand how utterly trivial they are in the grand scheme of things. So, I kept waiting, waiting for my old buddy to tell me something important about himself his children. Their athletic talent I stipulate, ready to move on to more important matters. What, for example, about the boy's personalities, their intellectual lives? They have both, I must assume. Have they discused possible career choices? Do they understand, or rather, have you, as their custodial parent, inculcated within them the importance of taking good care of their minds and bodies at an early age, as that determines much about their mental and physical health and well being throughout life? Tell me about your children, but don't brag about them. Tell me about what's important, and leave the frivolous for later. Are they kind, compassionate, and empathetic? Do they respect others, especially old people? Do they love nature, and animals? Do they understand their personal responsibility inherent in their future stewardship of the earth's ecosystem, and the challenges ahead involved in healing the Earth their immediate ancestors abused so badly? Our behavior, all of us, is partly a reflection of our entrapment within a broader social context, whatever that context may be. It reflects our society's values as well as our own. My old buddy drones on about his son's athletic achievements, and excludes even the mere mention of demonstrably far more important aspects of their personal growth and development, within this societal context. And why wouldn't he? He lives in a society which spends more on eye makeup than eye research, more on entertainment than education, which makes gods of entertainers, and largely ignores teachers. So, let's talk sports.

The Facebook Feeding Frenzy: Blowing the Whistle On Facebook

THE WHISTLEBLOWER reveals that Facebook, Inc., places corporate profit above public safety, health, and wellbeing. Unable to believe its ears, its idealistice bubble burst, disillusion with its former corporate icon sweeps across the intellectually flat Earth, sending it into paroxyms of despair. That Facbook values almighty dollars more than life itself places it solidly within the mainstream corporate culture, aside tobacco companies, alcoholic beverage distributors, fossil fule companies, and, ultimately, every private enterprise, big and small, worthy of the description "capitalist". The whistleblowing lady, konwn here as "St. Francis", who burst the Facebook bubble is a former employee of social media concerns Pinterest and Google, an expert on how algorythms are used to structure content on social media platforms to best manipulate the consuming pulbic into greater levels of consumption. Her latest stint at Facebook, now concluded, probably ends her career in social media (Who would hire her now?). She knows her way around the internet and the corporate establishemnt, including the boardroom, and the human mind, including its darker proclivities, its least altruistic motives. To a point, we all know about the human mind's less admirable characteristics, us all being possessed of them. She says she had a crisis of conscience, just could not take it anymore, and spilled the beans. The beans being a treasure trove of internal company documents, consisting of research studies conducted by the company, which produced self incriminating documents indicating that their product does harm to people massively, that their executives have long known this to be the case, studies which to date the giant platform has shown no indication of acting upon nor even caring much about, other than to accept as necessary expedients to ..yes...more and more profit.. Facebook, it turns out, actually and actively encourages hatred, conflict, divisiveness, disinformation, all for the purpose of satisfying humanity's natural preference for entertaining itself with evil rather than good. The journalists to whom she gave out this damaging information were circling like vultures awaiting such a feast, always eager to promote their own careers by exposing corporate scandal; now they have it. We the consuming public share their lust for fresh meat, and now that we have it, are feasting gluttonously, as usual. Capitalism, an economic system we in these United States venerate to the point of elevating to a religion, is not an economic system which cares about people, other than to use them as tools to greater corporate prosperity. It cares only about money, to which people are mere expedient resources. That, seemingly, is the way we want it, otherwise we would do as Europe does and ameliorate corporate savagery with the salve of democratic socialism. Or maybe its just that we Americans foster and harbor massive delusions about capitalism, and have brainwashed ourselves into believing that free market cut throat ecoomics is implicit in the central message of Jesus Christ, Inc...We sanction exploiting unto others because in reality we want exploitation done unto us, or something like that. Any and all corporate compassion for human beings is either purely accidental, or a pubic relations ploy intended to convey precisely the impression of compassion, and, apparently, it has worked like a veritable charm. Socialism does not hinder capitalism, rather, it prevents it from devouring itself in its brutality unto others. Bear in mind that until the industrial revolution came to America late in the nineteenth century, and with it the corporate mastery of our lives and economy, the word "capitalism" was a dirty word, caonnoting greed and money lust, which, of course, is precisely what it is, and always has been. And, Rolling Stones-istically, have some sympathy for the current devil of the day, Facebook, some courtesy, some respect. For it was created by, and is nurtured by, none other than you and me.

Surviving the Supreme Court

TAKE COVER and HUNKER DOWN, the United States Supreme Court, ultra right wing by insidious design, is in full session, ready to do heavy damage to to the hopes and dreams of progressives all across the fruited plain. Look for the court to invite deadly firearms to be borne anywhere any everywhere by any and all hitherto law abiding self defending citizens, for the Jeffersonian-Madisonian impermeable wall separating church and state to spring a few leaks and possibly to come totally a tumblin' down, and for reproductive choice autonomy to be handed over to the federal government, lock, stock, and womb. Ditto for the power of the several states to make it as hard as humanly possible for an engaged citizen to actually cast a vote. In other words, we may anticipate that the deliberately conservatively picked and packed high court will do its job precisely as its benefactors, the court packing conservative movement, intended, which is to remake America in the image of the conservative far right agenda. Within the past month four of the six conservative justices have given speeches in which they swore up and down that they had no intention of being influenced in their decision making by their own personal political ideologies, but rather, were determined to be guided only by their personal judicial philosophies, which after all all members of the bench must ultimately be, and by the constitution itself. In other words, watch out. These right wingers know full well why they were appointed in the first place, and it isn't because they as individuals stand head and shoulders above the rest of the judicial legal community in achievement, integrity, or judicial perspicacity, which they most assuredly do not. It is because they are young, fit, and very, very conservative in their personal politial beliefs, period. The youth and fitness will keep them on the court for decades, precisely as intended. Knowng full well for what purpose they were elevated to the nation's highest court, and knowing the highly questionable reasoning involved therein, they seem all to be determined to deny this reality, to dispell once and for all the mere suggestion that they will accede in any way to their benefactor's wish that they comply with the wishes of those who appointed them and do the bidding of the conservative movement, namely, to remake America in the image of the far right. And therefore, that is exactly what they intend to do, to remake America in the image of the far right, in their own personal image, while retaining plausible deniability during the process. These are hard right ideologues in black robes, and now they have their long awaited and long coveted opportunity to do exactly what they want, which is to undo decades of social progress in America, to turn back the clock, to enshrine the rights of citizens to bear arms, buy elections, and insinuate the Christian religion anywhere and everywhere, but not to vote with ease or to choose reproductive options. Its senough to make any sane concerned citizen want to hit the streets in protest, hunker down and hide, or abolish the current Suupreme Court and rewrite the consitution to provide for a popularly elected Supreme Court, with each member serving a limited term. Or maybe all three, come to think of it.

Preparing For the Next Pandemic

FUTURE PANDEMICS are certain. They most likely will be caused by what caused the Covid 19 pandemic; human intrusion into wilderness and devastation of natural habitat, inspiring microbes to transfer from wild animal to human animal hosts. Based on how humanity has generally responded in fighting Covid 19, we are not and will not be ready for the next virus, but should seriously consider becoming ready just in case the next virus is of such potency and transmissibility as to have the potential to wipe out our entire species, a notion which is far from far fetched. There is a well known list of disasters which could wipe out humanity. They include collision between the Earth and a large asteroid, a global nuclear war, a supernova, biological warfare, alien invasion, and a viral pandemic. When you consider the extent of the devastation and death wrought by Covid 19, even in the presence of effective vacines, it is not at all difficult to to imagine a much more deadly, mutatable, and contagious virus exterminating the entire human race before a vaccine can be developedand distributed. According to scientists, such a pandemic is not only possible, not only likely, but inevitable. A suddenly emegergent virus, in the absences of vaccines, comprehensive, mandated social distancing, quarantining, and face mask wearing, combined with widespread political movments ardently opposed to the imposition of these measures, such as we have seen with the Covid 19 pandemic in many countries but particularly in the United States, yields a possible outcome almost too horrible to contemplate, including billions of deaths, economies and civilizations destroyed. And yet, considering current cultural characteristics, especially in the U.S., such a nghtmarish scenario seems quite likely. Nobody could possibly have predicted that a virus would kill nearly three quarters of a million people in the Untied States, even while more than sevently million people eligible for a safe, effecitve, and easily obtainable vaccination, would refuse to receive the vaccine, for a wide varitey of utterly fatuous and spurious reasons. And yet, that's exactly what happened, exactly what is still happening. Then too, the Obama administration, having been repeatedly warned about the probability of a viral pandemic, prepared an elaborately detailed plan book containing everything necessary to impement in the event the pandemic occurred. the Obama administration was ready and well prepared. The Trump administration, hell bent on undoing everything that Obama did merely because Obama did it, discarded the pandemic plan book. The lack of preparedness with regard to personal protective equipment, medical supplies, and pandemic health care planning was evident from the beginning of Covid 19, which, combined with an utterly corrupt, incompetent presidential administration under Trump, who refused not only to fight the virus but to even acknowledge its severity, and who insanely discouged social distancing and mask wearing, in defiance of science and common sense, doomed the United States to a staggering sickness and death toll as well as economic collapse. If for no other reason, we have reason to be optimistic about our chances of surviving the next pandemic, merely because Donald Trump will not be the president when it occurs.

Marching For Reproductive Autonomy

THE DAY AFTER Trump was sworn in, millions of women hit the streets, protesting Trump's illgeal, foreign assisted election and his well known misogyny, or both.. It became a healthy habit, and Saturday, October the second, twenty twenty one, a bit older and wizer, they were back at it. This time the issue was reproductive freedom and control, who should have it and who should not. After all these years, we still can't seem to decide. Or rather, we have decided, but its a split decision, split right down the middle of America's political spectrum: those favoring personal reproductive autonomy who want to keep government out of it, versus those favoring government control over it. In a strange reversal of normal roles, it is America's normally anti-government conservatives who advocate for government control over, prohibition of abortion, and the normally big government liberals who want to keep the government out of it. Those big government conservatives, wanting the feds to insinuate themselves directly into the womb of woman. The overarching question of course is and always has been whether abortion is murder, and hsould be criminalized on that basis, and if it is, whether people do and should have the right to kill whatever they might find living inside their own bodies, including fetuses. Maybe abortion is murder, maybe it isn't. Maybe it only becomes murder when the fetus is sufficientlly deveolped to live on its own outside the human body. But as Davy Crockett might have said: "If it aint murder, its a mite too close for comfort." The zeal with which so called "pro life" people defend the supposed rights of the unborn easily evinces self righteous sanctimony, especially considering that most pro lifers seem to have no interest in giving help to the mother in supporting the child once its born. Proponents of personal reproductive choice can and often do come across as callous, callous concerning the cavalier attitude they seem to display towards the actual act of aborting a living fetus. There is in short ample cause to find the most ardent members of both camps contemptible. Then too, this issue seems somehow too profoundly important to be decided by nine post menopausal people, most of whom have never been pregnant, and are only deemed qualified to render a decision by virtue of wearing black robes and having been appointed by self interested politicians rather than elected by the people who will have to live with their judicial renderings. This issue calls for nothing less than a national, if not global referendum of women of child bearing age. They are, after all, the concerned parties. There is of cousre a solution to the problem of unwanted pregnancies staring us right in the face, and it is neither abstinence nor chastity belts. It is, quite obviously, effective, affordable, accessible contraception. Neither science nor technology nor economics prevents contraception from solving the abortion dilemma for good and forever, everywhere. What prevents it is politics and religion, which should be shocking to no one and disgustng to everyone. Only the machinations of the human mind, and the consequent bizarre, counter productive attitudes within it and contagiously spread and multiplied among the many, for political and religious reasons, stand between humanity and the answer to humane reproduction choices. As usual, conservative thinking, political ideology ad religious beliefs block progress towards a final, acceptable solution. But, as we sometimes say: what else is new?

Packing, Cracking, Lacking, Attacking

THE LATE GREAT STATE OF TEXAS, the nation's second most populous, having surpassed Neew York in number of residents, is a perfect microcosm, albeit a rather large "microcosm", of demographic circumstances and political reaction to them throughout the United States of Animosity. The 2020 census reveals that Texas has experienced huge population growth, has gained more than a million new people, and that ninety five percent of the newcomers are "people of color" as we strangely say, the color being dark skin pigmentation. All over America brown people from latin America are moving in and settling in, to the great consternation of the white conservative community. Donald Trump's preferrred influx of Norwegians is not happening. Instead, folks are arriving from what he famously called "shit hole" countries of Africa, latin America, and the Middle East, poor desperate folks of dark skin coloring. These folks mistakenly have the impression, so it seems, that the United States is a land of opportunity, rather than of racism and suppression based on skin color, in the land of voter suppression, crooked voting districts, segregated communities, and white supremacy. For the typical white, Christian conservative Republican the situation is desperate, traditional American whiteness inundated with an avalanche of ddarkness. In Texas, the white conservative Christian establishment is bending over backwards to prevent the newcomer colored folk from gaining anything remotely resembling a fair share of influence or political power. There are two ways of doing this; pack them all into one big colored congressional district to limit their representation in legislative bodies, or "crack" their communities open, and scatter them thinly across many different districts to dilute their power everywhere. Packing, and cracking, aka "gerrymandering"; redrawing congressional districts in the shape of salamanders, rather than logical squares and rectangles. Pack e'm in, spread 'em out thin, make it harder and harder for them to vote, whatever works, as we flippantly say. Next thing you know Texas is pure lily white, christian, conservative, heterosexual, and Repbulcican. At least, in theory. Reality, of course, is far different than theory. You can see the desperation of a dying culture fighting with its last breath to live a little longer, a culture in which social acceptabiity required white skin and adherance to the Christian faith and free market economics. Minorities will remain quietly in the corner, grateful for what they have, if they have antyhing. Desperate, dying people become angry. First, the MAGA mobs tried to storm polling places on election night as it became increasingly obvious that Biden was going to catch and pass Trump as the mail in votes were counted last. Then they went into denial, wherein they remain, firmly ensconced. Sensing a progressive future, the violent angry right wing gang now has school boards in its sights, because all across America's fruitd plain it is finally, after decades of denial, becoming popular to teach children the hard, cold reality about America's systemic racist past, present, and probable future. School board members are ducking beneath wooden desks like third graders in 1963 dodging Soviet nukes. They (the MAGA mobbbers) correctly discern that if the damned libs are allowed to teach American racist history historically accurately and factually, their sacred conservative lily white washed version of the glories of American exceptionalism, finally exposed to disinfecting light, will wither and die, which indeed it will. Conservatives try to sabotage the growing move towards honest American history teaching by calling it "critical race theory", a completely meaningless term which tries to imply that American racism is a theory, a mere matter of opinion, subject to disavowal. It aint. Its real, its here, and it always has been, sytemic racism, that is. It is, in fact, the single msot important contribution to American culture by the conservative movement.