Banning and Burning Books

ALL ACROSS AMERICA there is a dangerous, harmful movement to ban books in public schols and libraries. The movement is on America's far religious right, unsurprisingly, the basic conservative Republican evangelical Christian Trump MAGA mob. AKA, the "bad guys". the books they try to challenge, censure, and ban are invariably books which discuss promote progressive values, values such as equality for gays and transgdner people, the reality of human made climate change and reversing it, cultural, ethnic, and religious tolerance and iversity, and so forth. An intelligent observer will note not only that the conservative community is on the wrong side of every one of these issues, but is also trying to force America to embrace their reprehensible ideas and beliefs. In response which is perhpas defiant, America's libraries are sponsering a "forbidden book week", in whcih they will evidently create and provide displays of books which have either been challenged, censored, or outright banned in schools and libraries by the self proclaimed morally superior religious devout. The bibliophile, academic, educational community in America strongly opposes and abhores all book banning, of course, since intelligent people always hate censorship, and evidently wishes to make it well known precisely what books and sorts of books are under attack. As an example, a cutely written novel for children titled "Not All boys Are Blue" was authored by a balck gay man who shares his experiences growing up black and queer, as he describes himself, and the various challenges presented by his cultural environment to his self actuallization and fulfillment. Ostenisbly, this is exactly the sort of book which could enlighten, educate, and inspire young readers; but since it encourages acceptance of black and gay people, its a no go in conservadom(dumb). In American conservadumb, the evils of racism, the necessity of anti-racism, and acceptance of gay and transgender people must never be taught in school.

Persuading By Distortion

THE CONSERVATIVE FACEBOOK POST said, approximately, that when conservatives are down on their luck and need to get back on their feet, they look for work opportunities, while liberals look for handouts and help from others. A bit of a stereotype, maybe? Exaggeration? Distortion of reality? Actually, its a lie, sheer idiocy. Leave it to the right wing. Once I overheard a young minister speakign to his father, also a minister, saying, about Al Gore, that "Gore is a good name for an 'abortionist'". Notice how quickly and eagerlyl christian conservatives accuse the secular progressive commumity of waging war on christianity, when in fact progressives generally only want to prevent America's evangelical christian community from tearing down the sacred wall between church and state in America, and from turning our sacred secular democracy into a Christian theocracy. These far right wing religious fanatics who intentionally disseminate these lies, distortaions, and exxagerations are idiots, and when someone supports reporductive choice for women, women'stonomy over their own bodies, the far right religious lunatic deliberately distorts and misrepresents the pro choice position to mean one whcih favors blood and death to life. Obviously, nobody supports abortion as a first and only choice. Nobody. And with regard to liberals and their work ethic, our conservative colleagues always point out that America's education system, upper and lower, has been, as they say, "taken over and held hostage" by the far left. Actually, education is what smart people do, its where smart people are, and liberals are smart people, generally smarter, research indicates, than conservatives. People who are smart enough and hard working enough to get PhDs, when in need of a better life, generally get up, go out, and look for work and opportunity, not handouts and government assistance. But now for some facts, about conservatvie. Not distortions and biased opinions, but....facts. Seventy percent of Republicans and conservatives, all the surveys say, still believe that the election was stolen from Trump, and seventy percent still think that the January 6th insurrection was a good idea, a noble attempt to restore justice, according opinion polls. That is the level of morality of these people. That is the intellectual level of these self deluded mentally ill folks. The tragic fact is that modern Amrican conservatism has been reduced to promulgating lies and distortions in order to make its arguments.

Perpetuating Lies

DONALD TRUMP, at a recent MAGA rally, made it perfectly clear: if he had been president, Putin never in a mmillion years would have invaded Ukraine. He was screaming at the time, and really didn't say much more about exactly how he as persdient could have and would have deterred or stopped Putin. Trump is smart enough to never give proof, evidence, or details. His lies are big, vague, and wholly unsopported, after the fashion of Joseph Goebbels and the NAZI propaganda machine, very similar, in fact, to Putin and the Russinas in general with their big, obviously false lies. Some experts, indeed, believe that Russia's recent statement of intent to abandon its participation in the International Space Station are nothing but rubbish, more Russian lies, intended mostly for effect, not substance. Trump's asssertion that Putin would never have attacked Ukraine if Trump were president is laughable, ludicrous, and, as usual, the opposite of the truth. What we the American saw for four years under Trump was Trump incessantly kissing Putin's ass, acting like Putin's little puppy dog. Putin played Trup like a puppet, and it was embarrassing, humiliating for the United States, at least for the real Americans who see Trump for what he is. Hell, had Trump been president, Putin would have attacked Ukraine with no complaint from Trump whatsoever. Trump would probably been opposed to send any help, military, medical, economic, to Ukraine, and Congresww would had had to force him to do so, unless a Republican Congress agreed with Trump. IN point of fact, within a few days after Russia invaded Ukraine, Trump, the former president, praised Putin for being "very savvy, very smart". Wow, that's really standing up up against Putin. Trump, the fighter for justice. What a joke, for that morally and mentally depraved moron (Trump) to talk big at this point. Recent polls indicate that fifty nine percent of Republicans still believe the "big lie", and anybody who does so at this point is really locked in, not likely to change their false belief. The Trump disease, like the pandemic, is still very much with us. It hard to say which one we (human society) are more desperate to eliminate.

Going Solar

I HAVE A DREAM, and together we can make it come true. A circular piece of aluminum foil, one mile in diameter, plaed in orbit near the Earth, following the sun. Constantly reflecting sunlight, this should be enouh to generate an incredible amount of energy, beaming the light down to Earth to a facility which gathers and purifies sea water, turning it into fresh water, desalination. Why we ( humanity) aren't already doing this is a great mystery. The solar energy collector could be assembled in space, could be made almost any size, easily placed in a favorable location for sunlight gathering and transmission, and would probably last a long time, and more than pay for itself. A system of pipes could carry water from the facility in, say Los Angeles harbor, and nourish L.A., southern California, heck, the whole American west. We turn millions o f acres of desert into rich, fertile land, growing crops and trees and wilderness for habitat. Meanwhile, we quickly get at leaaast a trillion new trees inthe ground, and within a few years, we (humanity) have a trillion more large trees, like we should already have. The very thought of any more summers, next summer, or summers into the future, being like this one, I find horrifying. The summer of two thousand and twenty two has simply got the be the worst summer, weather wise, climate wise, in my entire life, which began in 1955. I feel a renewed desperate surge of necessity to do something, anything, to mitigate climate change, until our descendants, and may they come along soon, actually find a way to resolve the problem, which curently seems to threaten our very existence. It is easy to think about decades of climate change denial by American conservatives, and become furious. Even now a conservative Democrat, Joe Manchin, who keeps geting richer on fossil fuel investments refuses to allow President Biden's massive climate change fighting package to go forward in the Senate. I Hope Senator Manchin enjoys his billion dollar bank account while the atmosphere turns into a perpetually steaming, boiling cauldron of poisonous gases and heat.

Obfuscating

THE PRICE OF GAS, well, for that matter, the price of everything will be the topic Republicans most want to discuss during the upcoming midterm campaign season. And, it goes without saying, this will be presented as the nation's greatest problem, of overwhelming importance, and completely the fault of Joe Biden and the Democrats. The president, we all know, does not determine the price of gas. The Republicans will conveniently ignore this reality. Inflation is the product of the pandemic. For more than two years global economic production has been far below normal, with many buisnesses and industries shut down due to lock downs, etc. Besides interrupted production, the supply chains have been damaged, as parts and products are not moving to where they need to be. Meanwhile, likewise stuck at home in lockdown and social seperation, millions of potential spenders and consumers have not been spending and consuming, but instead, allowing their bank accounts grow with government stimulus checks and unspent pay. Now, with the pandemic having receded somewhat - for how long remains unknown - people are starting to come back out and shop. Aggregate demand, the total number of people wanting to buy gods and services, is increasing and swelling, driving up prices. Its that simple. It not Biden, its not the Democrats, its the pandemic. If anything, its the Republican philosophy of downplaying the pandemic and not taking serious measures against it which exacerbated its severity and subsequent econommic disruptions. You wonder about all those MAGA Trump political rallies all through 2020 and 2021, thousands of unvaccinated people not wearing masks, spreading death and disease...For their part, Democrats might wish to remind America what a conservative Republican government might look like. All abortion proceedures criminalized, punishable by imprisonment. An education system which ignore and marginalizes minorities, gays, and transgenders by refusing to teach the truth about race in American history and culture, and refuses to teach the truth about gay people, the truth being that once you get past all the moral and religious mumbo jumbo, they are surprising like the rest of us? Are you ready to abandon all effort tto fight and reverse climate change, as every summer gets hotter and unbearably hotter? Fine. Vote Republican. The summer of 2022 is the first truly obvious climate change summer in history. Every ensuing summer is simply going to be worse. We are heading towards one hundred degree summers, one hundred degrees every day, for months on end. Do we really want climate change deniers in power?

Denying

I DON'T KNOW who he was, but he was prominent enough to have his voice on National Public Radio, and he seemed to be indicating the prevailing conservative-Republican viewpoint concerning the ongoing congressional hearings and investigation into Donald Trump's behavior while president.The upshot was that this whole congressional committee thing is nothing other than a plan to get Trump by the Democrats, a distraction from the real issues and problems they themselves caused, bot even bothering to present the other side of the Trump story, to be honest and objective. This of course raises the question exactly what is the other side, the Trump side of the story? That the election was stolen from him, and that everything he has done since and continues to do, everything he and his folowers have done and are doing to rectify a great wrong and establish justice is justified, because it is a noble attempt to restore honor, justice, and the American way? Really? Hasn't that side of the story already been put forth, repeatedly? Trump is putting it forth even now, in Arizona, where both he and Mike Pence are campaigning for different Repbulcain candidates. The Republican party, spilt assunder. The Trump loyalists, willing to go down with the ship, and those who have had enough Trump, and want to move on. If you want to be a member of MAGA, you absolutely must embrace the big election lie. So, according to Republican orthodoxy, Trump's denial of election defeat and attempt to overthrow the government is not worthy of investigation, not important enough to be thoroughly examined? Quite the contrary.This matter must remain in the public eye, and must be a major campaign issue for twenty twenty two and most likely twenty twenty four. As long as there are millions of Republicans who still follow Trump and still embrace his big lie, they and what they do and have done needs to be carefully monitored and examined. Fortunately, there is no way that Trump can run for president in 2024 and sweep his isurrectionist activities under the rug. At any rate, by then, he may well have been indicted by the Department of Justice. The Conservative Partnership Institute (CPI) is a relatively new organization with headquarters in D.C. which brings together various right wing organizations under one banner, and is primarily purposed with expanding, strengthening, growing, or simply perpetuating....Trumpism, and the whole Trump thing. The more white supremicists it includes the better. The more evangelical Christians, the better. Let's put the evangelicals, the corporate capitalists, the pro gun anti-government people, and the white supremacists all together, all in the name of Trump, and shine the light of exposure upon the whole. Watch 'em strain and struggle as they attempt to sweep Trump's insurrrection under the rug, altogether.

Imagining

IMAGINE IF YOU CAN without puking that the Republicans red wave a takeover of congress on 2022. That sets up Biden for two years of veto mongering. But then what? Neither party seems to have a good candidate for presiednt for 2024. Biden'll be be over eighty one and Trump will be close to eighty and quite possibly in prison. Democrats are dumping Biden in large numbers mainly, it appears, becuase of Biden's seeming lack of fervant, progressive zeal in defending women's reproductive rights and the environment. As if these disenchanted Dems are perfectly willing to let the Republicans have the White House again. Consider what that could and possibly would look like, a total Reppbulican take over in twenty twenty four. First, of course, say good bye to women'sreproductive freedom. The Far right evangelical Christian Republican Trumpist government would legislate and sign into law a complete ban on all abortion in the United States, with mothers and doctors punishable by incarceration or death for violations. A New law making the Bible the official national book, the cross a national symbol of America, and the Christian religion the official religion of these United States. A ban on the teaching of slavery and racism in America, unless the myth is included that slaves were generally treated well, given an education, and led to Christ, and that racism ended in america when the MLK holiday was voted in. The white Republican Christian president and congress of 2024 might well legislate a ban on all mention of gay or transgender lifestyles in public schools, all of which will require school prayer snd Bible study under Republican control. If teh federal government, all three branches, were firmly in teh hands fo America's far right, which it almost is now and seems destined on so being all too soon, then......one might even expect voter suppression to become the policy of Washington D.C., horrifyingly. Who knows how many forms of I.D. and how few polling places there would be.....If current Florida governor ron DeSantis is elected president in 2024, hemight soon be signing a new federeal law prohibiting the use of the terms "climate change" and "global warming" on all federal government websites. Nor will we have to worry about climate change any more, no matter how obvous and disastrous its beoming. We will be told by our far right Christian capitalistic Trump Republican pro gun pro birth masters that since the Lord is coming back soon, the environment is irrelevent, and that, as they way, will be that.

Complaining

OVER THE PAST SEVERAL WEEKS I've been steadily complaining about the temperature being a hundred degrees every day, a reasonable compalint, if I do say so myself. Now maybe its time to start complaining about the temp being a hundred and five every day. maybe, jsut maybe, its peaking out, and will soon retreat a bit, this miserabe, horrible, climate change heat wave. Its even more frustrating when the sky gets all dark and overcast, thunder starts to roll constantly....hour....after...hour...but not a drop of rain falls on the dead brown grass and slumping trees. But I keep hearing reports of spot showers in surrounding areas, hit and miss, and that encourages me to think that the water table is being at least sporadically nourished throughout the area. The widespread, certain, global nature of climate change has never been as apparent as it is now, with wildfires sweeping across Europe and the western United States, having recently done the same in the Amazon and Australia. Scientists are shocked at how fast climate change is happening. Its as kfi the world is threatening to burn down. Eventually, and sooner rather than later, the entire lower forty eight U.S.A. could be at risk for wildfires. Infuriatening, President Biden has a multi billion dollar climate change package ready to go to the Senate, having already passed the House, but is dead on arrival, as they say, because of, you guessed it, Republicans. Becasue of Republicans climate change is progressing essentially unopposed. The suicide of the human species, thanks to the Grand Ole Republican party. Biden's plan would put billions into solar and wind energy, which together already make up twelve percent of American energy supplies, and would implement a whole host of good, effective, job producing, economy boosting climate change fighting mesaures and projects. But the Republicans in the Senate would rather do nothing, save the money, let nature take care of itself, and wait for the Lord to return, or whatever insane projects they have in mind. Proof that Noam Chomsky is quite correct when he asserts that the Republican party is the most dangerous, harmful organization in human history.

Cheering Treason On

FOR THREE HOURS, roughly, as an angry, destructive mob of violent insurrectionists ransacked the nation's Capitol, looking for people to kill, including Vice President Pence, President Trump sat in the White House, watched it all on live television, and, in an obviously wonderful mood, rooted openly for the insurrectionsits, actually saying: "Pence really deserves it". All that will be laid out in mintue, intricate, documented, verified detail Thursday night, on national televion, for all to see. Only thing is, most Americanas won't see it. As many as twenty or thirty million wil, which is all well and good, but, for the most part, we the American people will ignore it, preferring to stick to our game shows and soap operas. The conservative Christian far right evangelical Trump Republican crowd seems to be boycotting the entire spectacle, pretedning it doesn't exist, livign in their own litle fantasy world in which Christ shall soon return, Trump is the agent of God, and has done no wrong, or that the congressional hearings into January 6 are a plot by the Democrats to "get Trump", or, simply that it is unimportant, a mere disturbance best forgotten, as we move on to deal with much biger problems. Republicans, wanting to deal with problems. Imagine that. In fact the recent tevevised hearings factually indict Trump, clearly exposing his shocking criminality. Trump has committed high crimes for which he should almost certainly be indicted, tried, convicted, and stood up in front of a firing squad. Dude makes Benedict Arnold look like a rookie, in terms of being a traitor. The only thing Arnold reaally did was hand over West Poitn to the British, hlping to obtain more lenient treaty arrangements with the British in what to him was obviously going to be a bad American defeat in the War of Independence. In return for his kind ofer, the British gave him a general's commission in their army, right before its defeat at Yorktown. Trump withheld crucial weapons from the Ukraine to blackmail them. You can see now how important that was. Trump accepted help from the Russians in the 2016 campaign. He tried to violently overthrow the government and steal an election. The three hours he spent in the Whtie aHOuse watching the violence on television and rooting for the mob to overthrow the government are bone chilling, shocking. The committee has all the details down pat, minute by mintue, all through testimony of the people who were there with Trump, his closest, most loyal associates, desperately pleading with him to do something, to stop the attack, his attack.

Imagining...No Religion

MY FACEBOOK FRIENDS number in the thousands, and aren't really my friends. Some are sormer students of mine, most just folks who sent me a friend invitation, and I accepted. It turned out well, because the never ending scroll of posts is endlessly fasicanting to me, almost as if they are taylor made to please me, all of them put there by people whose attitudes, ideologies and political beliefs seem similar wo mine, or at least, for the most part, compatible. I learn more on Facebook than I had expected. I scrolled up on one which was only words, no pics or visuals, like many posts are, and it said, roughly: "Why don't you atheists stop bashing Christianity and start focusing on your own religious beliefs"? That's what a like about my Facebook "friends"; they for the most part are a bunch of highly intelligent highly progressive intellectual free spirits. The quick, obvious answer to the atheist post is that when a religion grows and spreads, and ends up including more than two two billion adherants, and exerts great influence upon human society throughout the world, people are going to comment on it, and not all of the comments are going to be positive and favorable to the religion. I for one bash the Christian religion early and often, often concering its position regarding gay people, transgenderism, and so on and and so forth. Also I consider it idiotic to believe that God speaks to us in books and stories. Then too, atheist do not have any need to explain, defend, or focus on their own religious beliefs, because they don't have any religious beliefs. Atheists, by nature, are not religious people. Christians often try to assert that atheism, and indeed science are in fact religiouns, which seems strange, almost as if Christians are trying to bring more intelligent, better educated bpeople down to their level of superstitious nonsense. I, for example, believe, in a sense, in God, and "self idtntify", as we say, as a pantheist, like Spinoza, Einstein, and others. But I insist, (and I should know best), that I am not "religious". I embrace science, not religion, and science is not a religion, it is a system of learning about nature by using observation and intelligence, of learning about the universe. A system, it seems to me, which works very well.

Coming Clean

HOW MANY TIME, in how many ways must it be proven that Donald Trump is guilty of treasonous insurrection , obstruction of justice, a a veritble host of other federal crimes before his fervant supporters, mots notably almost all of America's conservative evangelical Christian crtowd, wise up, acknowledge reality, and give it up? I saw Trump's speech at his rally on live TV, heard him tell an angry well armed mob to "go to the Capitol and fight"- and I saw the angry mob do excatly that, killing five people and seriously harming American democracy, and America itself. Of all the huge amount of damning proof provided by the congressional committee of Trump's guilt, perhpas the msot shocking and decisive is the revealed conversation President Trump had with Steve Bannon and others three days before the election in which it was agreed that if the election did not go well, Trump would claim that it had been stolen through massive fraud. Trumps bie election lie was planned well in advance of the election, and never intended to be true, intended only to steal teh election for Trump. The entire steal has been layed out in documented detail, as Trump and a few associates carefully planned and executed it. Totally premeditated. But President Trump sim0ly could not wait long enough, could not wait until the election was over and the massive fraud had a chance to be exposed. No, on election night, while the votes were still being counted and Trump was actually ahead, Trump said loudly, clearly to a room full of people at the White House: "Actually, we won the election." He still says it. It was an obvious, bold faced, shameless lie the moment the words left his mouth, and any intelligent person could see that. His supporters wanted to believe the lie so, so badly - that they decided to believe it, even though they knew, and know, better. That's the most shocking, the saddest part of this sad saga. Two thirds of American conservative Republicans still believe the big lie and still support Trump, as if determined to get the most mileage out of their evil, diabolical scheme. As if evelating their idol to the presidency and keeping him their, or perhaps even giving him more power, is a sacred crusade of such importance that any behavior, including violence and theft, is justified to reach the goal; Trump, ruling supreme. These people are sick almost beyond belief. Actually, I would rather think of them as mentally ill than as utterly corrupt and morally bankrupt.

Witnessing Climate Change, First hand

WHERE I LIVE the temperature has been about one hundred degrees every day for a month, and it hasn't rained during that time. If this continues for much longer, the tree leaves will begin to turn brown. The grass has already died for the most part. The worst of it is farther south, in Texas, which never really had a spring, but went straight from winter into daily schorching temperatures and drought. and, of course, the entire western half of the country is still immersed in a thousand year drought, or five thousand year, or whatever - a drought which has already lasted twenty two years, with much more, probably, to follow. The wildifres can only ve expectted to get worse as the long summer ensues. I keep wondering how much longer until the wildifres reach the Ozark bio-region, which, so far, has been spared, but is becoming increasingly susceptible. Portugal, France, Spain,Italy...Europe is also experiencing drought and wildfires; it is a global phenomenon. And yet, we are still trying to persuade American conservatives that not only is climate change real, but that we humans are causing it. So far, they remain unconvinced, and the policies of the United States reflect a dismissive attitude about our impending disaster. Twelve percent of America's energy comes from renewables, solar and wind. Twelve percent. We should have been at this level decades ago.The stock resposne by climate change deniers is: "Yes, it hot. Yes, its dry. So what? Its hot and dry every summer." Which, of course, is true. To notice changes in general patterns one must be at least a little observant. If you're now on Medicare and receiving Social Security, and have paid attention to the weather and climate for decades, you've noticed: the weather patterns (climate) we have now are totally, entirely different from those fifty years ago. The growing season keeps getting longer, begining in winter and continuing well into autumn. March has become a spring month, October has become a summer month. Over time, you notice these changes. An yet the United States, rather than leading the world into a new era of sustainable energy and economics, dallies at a mere twelve percent renewable energy use, and is now tryng to get oil producers to increase production to keep the cost of gasloine from climbing ever higher. If you didn't know better, you might think we're doomed, and you might be right.

Hearing Something Horrible

ONCE IN A HORRIBLE WHILE you hear somebody say something that you wish you hadn't. And Its news so awful that you simply want to hide under the bed and avoid it. When you hear it from a credible source, from someone you know isn't B. S. ing you, its all the worse. That's why I jolted alert and cringed when, on National Public Radio the other day, they said that in some parts of the country, people are leaving the Democratic party and joining the Republicans. The they went on to give some numbers and stuff, but to me the whole thing sounder rather shaky, uncertain. For example, are there any Republicans leaving the Republican party and becoming Democrats? Surely, just a few. There seeems to be a slight uptick in ethnic diversity in the grand ole party - there are more black and brown conservatives nowadays. This horrible inflation will cost Biden and the Democrats the November election unless something changes very soon. That would be especially taagic, becaue niehter Bidn nor any of the Demmocrats in office had anything to do with it, the inflation, that is. For that, blame the pandemic. There is absolutelly no sane reason for any reasonably intelligent being to leave the Democratic party and become a Republican, period. Or, "full stop", as we say these days. The mere fact that about seventy percent of registered REpublcans still support Trump clearly proves this, proves the intellectual and moral bankruptcy of the Republican party, and Christian conservatism in general, which is the G.O.P.s base. With each presentation by the Congressional committee investigating the Capitol insurrection, Trump's villianous criminality is made more and more obvious. It is becoming increasingly difficult to even imagine that the Department of Justice won't indict him. I've got news for those who need it. Becoming a Republcian, embracing and enacting Republican economic policies will not solve or help the inflation problem, nor any other economic problem, period. Conservative economic policies only glorify, aid, and abet unregulated free market corporate capitalism, which only concentrates wealth among the wealthy. If you love Trump, join the G.O.P. Otherwise, strive, like good Americans, to defeat Trumpism and the infamous Republican party...This viewpoint is not predicated on divisiveness or hatred. The American people must ask themselves whether it is truly in their best interests to support a political party most of whose members believe that using violence to overthrow the American government is an acceptable solution to the problom of their candidate losing an election. Or whether to support a political party most of whose members believe that global warming and climate change are a hoax. Or a political party which, if given power at the national level, would almost certainly legislate to make abortion a federal crime, and would quite likely do the same with contraception and same sex marriage. The choice is whether to move forward with progresssive policies, or backward with outdated ideals.

Comparing, Learning

ALTHOUGH TRUMPISM IN AMERICAN is beginning to look like a forlorn, rejected lost cause crusading cult, its members firmly holding to irrational, discredited beliefs in an almost religiously faithful way, it cannot in any sense be compared, at least yet, to the origin and evolution of the Christian religion. For one thing, quite obviously, there is little to compare between Jesus of Nazareth and Donald J. Trump. Even non Christians claim to admire and emulate the former. the latter? It has reached the point with Mr. Trump where an reasonable person acknowledges his criminality and general evil.Unfortunately, we know much more about Trump than we do about Jesus, and are learning more every day. What we now about Jesus is very little, and we will most likely never learn anything knew aobut him again, even though "we" ( the historical profession) have in fact learned more about him in the twentieth century. Nobody who met or knew about Jesus wrote or said anything about him. The four meager accounts we have (the gospels), are contradictory, sketchy, incomplete, have been endlessly translated, changed and edited, and were written decades after Jesus lived and died, by people who never came within a thousand miles of him. We really cannot be absolutely certain he even existed, although he probably did. He said and did some ostensibly strange, questionable things, according to our modern standards of behavior, but, on the whole, was exemplary in every way, as an enlightened being. Trump, about whom we know much and ever more, is quite the opposite of Jesus, and when Trump's devout Christian cult followers try to tell me that several times in the Bible God evevated miscreants to positions of great importance to do his (the Lord's) work, I want to laugh, puke, or strangle. In truth the rise and persistance of Trump and Trumpism is much, much more akin to that of Adolf Hitler and fascism.. The current conservative Christian Rpublican interest in Viktor Orban and his Hungarian government proves this point precisely. Tucker Carlson is leading the way. Viktor Orban, Vladimir Putin, Modi in India, the Brazilian dictator Jiar Bolsonaro, Boris Johnson, and Donald Trump are all manifestations of this bizarre, twisted, malignant right wing "populism" sweeping not only the world but America as well, but which, knock on wood and God willing, are past their prime, and ready to fade away and die. Adolf Hitler would've fit right in with this crowd.

The Big Lie, Going Local, Getting Religious

ANYTHING THAT HAPPENS, whatever happens among humans, can be explained in terms of chemistry, in terms of physics, or in terms of biology, or any or all of the above. someone told me long ago that in her view, the entire universe can be, in fact must be explained in terms of human psychology, since, after all, it is the human mind which has been for ages and continues to be deeply engrossed in the daunting enterprise of figuring out the universe. Makes sense, if you think about it. Think about it too much and it begins to hurt. Fair warning. Among humans, sociology comes in handy when examining and explaining the behavior of large groups. Of particular current sociological note is the apparent evolution of election denial into....a religion. Election denialism of course began with Trump, stemming from his big election lie, to which he yet clings, and will, likely, forever more, the lie which began long before teh actual election in which Trum falsely claimed, in advance of the actual vote counting, that the election had been "rigged", stolen from him. The lie went viral, as we say these days, and what greater comfort to the sore election loser than to earnestly brainwash the self into believing that an actual victory was stolen? But now, more than a year and a half in, the lie which morphed into a movement, the movement, which, much like the Christian religion, began as a political revolution to overthrow the existing government, is morphing into...a religion. On christianity, Goethe said: "The Christian religion began as an abortive political uprising, and, when that failed, turned moral". Trump's lost cause stolen elction is now beginning, among its "votaries" (pun intended), to assume the nature and magnitude of a holy crusade, a lost cause, whose vindication must ultimately occur. It is becoming, has become, a holy crusade of religious proportions. A socio-economic, ethnic, or religious group, subjected to oppression (percieved or real), relegated to second class status, seethes with frustrated anger and looks for ways to escape, and for a great leader to lead them to freedom and glory. Suddenly, from out of nowhere, a big talking, charismatic stron person (always male) appears, talking big, offering salvation. Naturally people flock to him. Jesus knew full well that he couldn't possibly deliver on his followers fondest, deepest desire; liberation from the Romans, by wny means necessary, presumably violent and divinely inspired and guided. So, he used a strategy of substitution, promising something even better than liberation from roman oppression. He promised them salvation for all eternity, beyond death, beginning at death. A strange fact of human nature is the bigger the talk, the greater the belief and devotion. Of course, there is never any evidence that the messiah fulfills his promises. But the words, and theh hope, remain. Eventually something dreadfulhappens to the great leader, somebody, society or the world turns on him, and he becomes a martyr for his now fully indoctrinated cult followers. Then the great misinformation machine kicks into high gear, the dogma is established, and the aborted political revolution turns moral, and begins its steady ascent to the status of "religion".

Traveling Lite

I HAVE A FRIEND of nearly fifty years who started a small business more than forty years ago, kept at it, and succeeded. Thought somewhat reluctant to travel when he was y oung, in fact he suffered early on in life with a comprehensive "socisl phobia", he eventually overcame his inner demons and busted out, hit the road, so to speak. since he is the sort who decides what he prefers and sticks with it, he developed a pattern of traveling to Equador, India, and Viet Nam, not necessarily in that order. he also threw in a few new Mexico visits, along with a few others. But Equador, India, and Viet Nam were his main stays. Never, as far as I could tell, Europe. Over the years I noticed that his trevels indeed took place in predictable patterns. As he described his journeys, it became evident that in fact within each fo these countries he had settled on certian towns, cities, and tourist destinations as his stopping points, every trip. I began tow onder about the reason for his seeming aversion to spontaneous variety. What I didn't realize was that these towns and tourist sites were in fact points of departure for impromptu, spontaneous excersions into the back country, into the areas of foreign countries off the beaten track, where not only most foreign tourists did not go, but neither did the locals. In this way he racked up a considerable body of culturally exploratory experiences. Far ranging quests into the unknown, with safe, solid bases of operation always fairly near at hand. What intrigued me was that he spent more time, much more time, teling about the towns and bases of operation than the unique, spontaneous adventures, which I had begin to suspect were actually far more interesting. One emboldened day I brached it. So what exactly do you do on these uplanned, exploratory sidetrips, I said, timidly? I soon learned precisely why he had never talked much about this aspect of his travels. Walked into a quaint village which had a quaint craft store. bought a beautiful, hand made prayer rug. Sampled local cuisine in anoutdoor cafe down the street. Had never had anything like it. Got a ride on an ox cart with a poor farming family, ended up spending the night in their hut, traded descriptions of America for explanations of rural Indian culture. Some things are too beautiful, and too elusive, to describe in words. My friend, obviously, somewho got the attitude that cities and famous tourist sites would be more interetsing to listeners than his personal, quirky, adventures. How wrong he was. Next I might summon the courage to ask him about Europe, and his seeming aversion to it.

Being Consistent

I CAMPAIGNED DOGGEDLY for every Democrat who ever ran for any office anywhere, starting with LBJ. With one exception. As a senior in high school I actually campaigned for Nixon, due to the influence of my friend and classmate, the president of the class, whose power and influence misguided me. Never again. What I see among recent Republican residents are one brilliant criminal (Nixon), three men of mediocre talent (Reagan & both Bushes), and a dumber than dirt criminal (you know who). Among Democrats I see a sly politicker with a great domestic agenda and misguided foreign policy (LBJ), a brilliant born again Christian with high ideals (Jimmy Carter), a brillliant womanizer (Clinton), a brilliant African-American (Obama), and a nice guy (Biden). Ever consistent, I like all the Dems, and despise the Repubs. But suppose one of the Democrats, say, Barack Obama, had behaved exactly the way Donald Trump behaved while in office. How would I have reacted? How would others have reacted? In the case of Bill Clinton, his supporters tended to ignore his womanizing, and his detractors emphasized it. The hypocrisy of this motivated me to examine my own hypocrisy. At length I became disenchanted with him, believing that he had thrown away a golden opportunity to promote a progressive agenda with moral integrity. But this I assert with the full force of my intelligence and moral values, such as they are: had any of my Democratic presidents behaved like Trump, I never would have supported the sad sack of shit. The constant, daily prevarication, amounting to an average of more than twenty falsehoods a day, the slanderous insults hurled at good people, including heroes like John McCain, the failure to staff and manage the state department and the EPA - these relatively "minor" presidential failure alone would have turned me against my own Democrat-president. But when Trump tried to steal the election from Biden with his outlandish lies, and when he sent an angry well armed mob to the Capitol to disrupt the electoral college formalization, it became serious, treasonous, traitorous. Any Democrat president who behaved like Trump would have evoked my harshest anger and disapproval. There is no doubt of that. Can you imagine how conservatives would have reacted to Barack Obama had he behaved exactly as Trump did and does?

Society, Trying To Decide

TWENTY FIVE PERCENT of American women have an abortion, according to numbers provided by the A.M.A. My mother was among them, myfather told me, long ago. He and I became drinking buddies when he was in his sixties and I was in my late teens and early twenties, and sometimes he became revelatory while in the sauce". He provided my enough details that I believed, and still believe him. My mother's abortion would have been sometime shortly before, during, or after World War Two. they got married in the summer of nineteen forty five, when he had returned from military duty in the navy, and she, a registered in our home town, was within days of her twenty fifth birthday. Before they were married, they simply were not ready to have children. Later, they were, for which I have always remained grateful. Throughout the course of my increasingly long life I have at times wondered about the older brother or sister that I would have had, but never had. What would she or he have been like? It may be that my mother aborted my best friend, my older, wiser protector, my role model. I hate abortion. I dream of a world in which abortion is perfectly legal, but vanigshingly rare. Don't we all? Well, not all of us. Our right wing Christian pro birth zealots would probably want abortion outlawed even in nobody ever had one. Their agenda is much more about imposing their twisted religious vies on teh rest of us than protecting life. What do they do to protect it once it is born? Little, other than to assert that "you're on your own", good luck, God be with you, and if you can't afford to have kids, you shouldn't have them. Abortion in America has since the beginning of the republic, like tariffs, been something of a roller coaster. Accepted widely, then not, and so on. During the colonial period it was quite common and accepted. Benjamin Frankin published a well known essay advising pregnant women on the best methods to achieve termination of pregnancy. The methods, by todays's standards, were primitive, a was eighteenth century medicine. By the latter half of the nineteenth century, the proceedure was much less widely accepted, and various states began to pass laws prohibiting it. This may have had something to do with the religious fervor which swept through the country in the eighteen forties, the so called "second great awakening". Even this is questionable, since a similar revivalist fad swept through the country a hundred years prior, during Franklin's lifetime, in the seventeen forties. Societal cultural trends can be delineated and explained only in a vague, general sense. You sense that there will never be a final determination. It may be that at some point in the far future our descendants will be horrified by our violent barbarity, by our willignness to rip fetuses from wombs and destroy them, as well as our willingness to engage in never ending wars, our destruction of our own environment, and our willingness to allow humans to starve to death. We can only hope.

Climate, Becoming Extreme

IN AND AROUND the Sydney, Australia area thirty nine inches of rain recently fell within twenty four hours. Tens of thousands of people were forced to evacuate their inundated homes, the usual scenario in massive flooding. Contrast this with the nightmarish drought and wildfire season which ravaged Aussie down under two years ago, the one in which nearly a fifth of the continent went up in flames, a billion or so animals were killed, a few of them human. Extreme, violent weather, which over a long period of time can be dexcribed as "extreme violent climate", is as everyone should by now know rather than deny, the result of us humans injecting billions of tons of carbon into the Earth's atmosphere in our never ending pursuit of prosperity. Those who deny this reality, principally conservative Americans, merely contribute to the inertia to change human behavior which we so drastically need. Those who ackowledge the obvious reality of climate change seem to be falling all over themselves to delay the necesary changes to the global human economy which would give future generations a fighting chance to exist and survive. Whether any species of intelligent being which calls itself "intelligent" and "civilized" is actually deserving of that description remains questionable. Nowadays when we pray for rain, which is often, we must add a caveat: send us rain, oh lord, but, please, not too much, in a world subject to alternating bouts of flood and crought. The window of opportunity, as we like to say, for reversing global warming is closing, precipitously. Ironically, the knowledge and tools we need to accomplish this are within our grasp. What we seem to lack is the will power to make the fundamental changes to human behavior necessary. I am becoming increasingly glad that I was born when I was (1955), which means that I will likely die somewhat before the worst effects of climate change manifest, and potentially disrupt human organized civilization to the point of global societal collapse. Einstein once said that the world war after the next will be fought with rocks. Maybe he was wrong. Maybe the next world war will consist of rock throwing. The best we can hope for is that we will live long, happy, productive lieves, and die when old. When and where one is born is paramount. It determines much. Who among us doesn't fantasize occasionally about having been born and having lived in another, hypothetical time and place? All things considered, one could do much worse than to have been born in the United States during the post World War period Or, as a friend said: "We'll be getting out of here just in time". Considering the state of human "civilization" at present, it may well be that I was actually born a few years too late.

Praying On the Carpet On the Fifty

GIVE CREDIT to the religiously fanatic football coach who prayed with his players at the fifty after each game, experienced great resistance for doing so, fought the resistance, took the fight all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, and won. Said fanatic is the epitome of the "never give up" spirit which comes in so very handy not only in football, but in all sports, in all undertakings, in life itself. Thus the agenda of the far right evangelical Christian movement seems, repeat "seems" to be undergoing successful implementation, what with the election and administration of one Donald Trump, his three far right evangelical Christian Supreme Court nomineees, and the rest, as they say, is history. These seemingly mentally ill conservative religious judicial fanatics seem, repeat "seem", to be on track to truly convert these United States into a theocracy, a Christian one. But not so fast. Can we now expect religious groups of all sorts to instigate prayer at the fifty, preferably right after the game, but open to accommodation? In a nutshell, we can. As things stand, about half the people in America are Christian, and about half are not. thirty years ago it was over eighty percent Christian, twenty years ago it had fallen to seventy percent, and so forth. The percentage of Americans who are conservative evangelicl Christian is steadily declining, as the baby boomers begin to die off, the millennials assume power, and the post millennial generations come along. In these united states, as it is in Europe, the Christian religion is dying out. Whether that trend will be continued or reversed in the future remains, quite obviously, to be seen. There are several million Muslims in America, and goodly number of Buddhists, Jews, and even satanists and wiccans, not to confuse the two, and not to mention many, many more organized religions here in the land of liberty. Roughly fifteen hundred, if I understand correctly, about half of which are various denominations of Christianity, about half of which are not. If America were to become a "theocracy" (which it won't despite the alarmist outcries of secular progressive intellectuals), the question is, what sort of theocracy? Of what religion? All you Buddhists or HIndus or whatever go grab your prayer rugs and mats, your sacred texts, your incense, and whatever else you need, and get ready to gather at the fifty, right after the game, either before, after, or at the same time the conservative Republican Trumper evangelical Christians are doing the same. Whatever works best.

Having One

EVERYBODY'S TALKING abortion nowadays, with good reason. And you know what they say about opinions; everybody has one. And, of course, such is our sacred right, enshrined in American freedom. The trimester system obliges reason. Suppose that during the third trimester, abortion is illegal, strictlly banned, execpt in emergency situations clearly defined and spelled out. Situations, for instance, in which doctors determine that there is no hope for the child being born alive, or for the mother surviving the birth. During the first trimester abortion would be legal, and whatever persuasion techniques any person or organization wants to use to dissuade the pregnent women from having an abortion would be legal - but regulated. The second trimester would be a middle ground, in which almost all abortions are prohibited, except in certain exceptional situations, such as incest or rape. The notion of having different laws pertaining to abortion in every United States state seems chaotic at first glance, but perhaps is the best possible solution. Rather than having an overbearing all powerful one size fits all central government regulate a woman's body, leave it to "the several states", as the framers put it. All American citizens have the option of mmoving to and living in whichever state they find best suited, politically and legally, to their own interests and point of view. The federal governmentexists partly to ensure that all American citizens have the freedom to travel from one U.S.A. state to another, and to return, without being persecuted while obeying the law. NO state may arrest, indict, and punish any citizen for leaving the state, going to another state, having a legal abortion, then returning home. The insane fascist Republicans who seek to enact such laws, in addition to the insane laws they have alread enacted, must to stopped, and, preferably, locked up. Or perhaps, leave it to the counties and parishes to enact their own abortion laws, and to regulate the procedure. Or to cities, towns, and communities. Or to neighborhoods. Or maybe just leave it to the family, or, better yet, to the pregnant woman.