Courting Conservatism

YOU CAN BET your bottom dollar, five'll get you ten, that the supremely conservative United States supreme court will bring an end to affirmative action. It says here that the vote will be five four or six three, depending upon the chiefjustice, who has the temerity to openmindly give due consideration to all points of view, an amazing achievement on a court packed with far right wing idealogues, by design. The three liberals will side with harvard, whih seks to preserve race based quotas, and the conservatives will side with the plaintiffs, who seek to eliminate it. The court will heard and act upon fallacious arguments. the assailants of affirmative action will have argued that the wrongs of past racism cannot be righted by more discrimination, what they call "reverse discrimination". The Harvardians will have argued that eliminating affirmative action racial quotas will do great damage to racial, ethinic, and cultural diversity, take your pick, at great cost to institutional wholeness. Justice Clarence Thomas broek his thirty years of stolid silence to remark that although he has heard people use the term "diversity" numerous times, he still has no idea what the word means. He could remedy his ignorance by either purchasing a dictionary, or by consulting a fourth grader... The cards have always been stacked against American minorities, wherein white male partiarchy remains a core value, despite recent decades of striving by progressives to undermine tradition and to create a society based on true equality by progressives. Cnservatives, quite naturally, have long opposed the seemingly inevitable evolution towards equality of citizenship and opportunity. Affirmative action is not and never has been "discrimination", but rather, a remedy for exiting discrimination. It does not, as conservatives would have us believe, unfairly favor minorities. Actually, it redresses past wrongs, and attempts to remedy them by restacking the cards against no one, and equally for everyone. More importanly, affirmative action addresses not only past wrongs, but present ones. It is as if a very bad call has been made by the referee in a football game, and, instead of accepting the unfairness, the recipient team of the unfair ruling is given equal treatment by calling the same penalty on the recipient. Whether the unpenaized team deserves its artificial penatly, the game becomes fair, and the unfairly penalized team cannot win the game unfairly. No one has ever treid to argue that affirmative action is anything other than an arbitrary, artificial means of creating racial equality. Nor is cultural diversity the key ingredient. The key ingredient is equality, and the attainment of it, artificially, by the only means possible Without affirmative action, without the government forcing racial equality down America's throat, American racism, which to a degree has gone underground, buried deeply within the legal, criminal, and even medical systems. would remain visibly extant, and America's core value, racism, would endure. Most likely it would endure no matter what, will always endure, and now, is virtually guaranteed to endure.

Praising the Nonexistent "Deep State"

EVERYONE WHO ACCEPTS REALITY is quite well aware that there exists in the American government no such thing as a "deep state", that such a creature is purely the invention of conservative America, also known as "the far right". There are approximately two million people employed by teh federal givernment, and there is among thm no vast conspiracy to undermine consrvative policies. The deep state is but another in the long litany of fabrications by those who support Donald J. Trump. The sort of people who envision a mythological deep state also tend to embrace "Q-Anon", whose secretive, sequestered leader is doubtless a high school drop out living in his parents basement. The same sort of people who believe, or claim to believe that Hillary clinton ran a pedaphile operation out of teh basement of a pzza parlor which has no basement, who claim to believe that the presidency was stolen from Trump, and that Trump is an instrument of Jesus Christ, rather than the devil. But jpurnalist David Rothkopf is willing to give the notion a run for the money, in his fascinating new book "American Resistance; The Inside Story of How the Deep State Saved the Nation." Rothkopf stimpulates that the "deep state" consists of all two million federal government employees. Why not? then he proceeds to detail the numerous instances, all documented and confirmed, in which bureaacrats within the government prevented President Trump from breaking the law or enacting idiotic policies simly by refusing to comply with them. Its a long list. Peole within teh governmental bureacracy expediently brushed aside Trump's suggestion that not only should a wall be built along the entire U.S. - Mexican border, but that beneath it there should be built a moat, filled with alligators. Likewise, when Trump proposed that missile and bomb strikes be used to destroy advancing caravans of refugees from Latin America, before thay reached American soil, in stepped teh deep state, bailing out the maniacal president, saving him from his own idiocy and lunacy. Assuming that the "deep state" consists of members of teh governmental bureacracy, it should be given credit not for trying to derail Trump's aganda, but for saving the former president from his otherwise likely fate; a stretch in a mental health asylum, or more appropriately, prison.

Inadvertently Revealing Racism

ALTOGETHER, the conversation was pleasant, as it normally is with my right wing pro-Trump friend. We kept it light, as always, discussing the high quality of the cuisine at the senior center where we both regularly have lunch, the weather, sports. We both have the good sense not to broach politics. Then, somehow or other, the topic turned to racism. I forget how that happened. We assured each other that neither of us is racist. Silently, to myself, it occurred to me that we were both well meaning, and believed we were being honest, but perhaps were not. Arguably, technically, anyone who embraces the racist paradigm - that homo sapien sapiens can be neatly categorized according to skin pigmentation, is a "racist", in that they accept race as a valid concept which, arguably it is not. Arguably, indeed demonstrably, every person, living and dead, has a unique skin color, as measured by the wavelength of light reflected from each human body. All "black people" may indeed be dark brown, and all "white" people may indeed be lighter brown. But hold your forearm next to that of any other human in the world; there will never be an exact match. If there is one race, the human race, then there are, as measured by skin color, nearly eight billion races, technically, and counting. The concept of "race" is simply that: a concept, categories devised by society for convenience, just as Aristotle invented categorization to help exlain all natural phenomena. As an emmployer, said my friend, if he received applications from an African-American who was more qualified than one recieved from a "European-Amerocan", he would instantly hire the black person. I felt hopeful. My hopes were womewhat diminished when he indicated his belief that the insurection at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, has been, as he said "overblown", presumably by the media and the public. I pointed out that thousands of rioters smashed down doors and through windows and ransacked the Capitol's interior, that feces were smeared on the walls, and that at least seven peope were killed, and many more severely injured. Also, that Vice President Pence was being hunted, with a gallows erected in the Capitol's parking lot. My words seemed to have little or no impact. Then, he may have slipped. He said, straight out, that if the two applicants for the job were of equal qualifications, that he would hire the white guy. In other words, he is a racist, or so he unintentionally stated. It was Gore Vidal who pointed out that, ultimately, anyone who accepts the categorical skin pigmentation paradigm is, in essence, a "racist". The human mind, unable to comprehend a universe of infinitely unique variety, creates categories to simplify the world, including the artificial concept of "race". Einstein one worte a message for a time capsule in which he said, addressing future generations,paraphrased: "If you have not become more humane and compassionate than we were, may the devil take you". He could have added that he hoped that eventually, future generations would dispense with innacurate categorization, and develop an ability to comprehend reality.

Cracking Up

DONALD TRUMP did not cause the disease. Rather, he is merely a symptom of it. There is sidespread agreement about that. The decline of the once marginally respectable Republcian party into a criminal, terrorist organization began not with Trump, but with Newt Gingrich, who convinced his fellow Republicans in the early nineties that the best way to oppose the liberalism of Democrats would be to attack them personally, in what came to be called, first by Bill Clinton, "the politics of personal destruction". This is the essential theme of a newly published book by journalist Dana Milbank; "The Destructionists: The Twenty Five Year Crack Up of the Republican party". Milbank doesn't use footnotes. He doesn't need to. All of his stated facts are common knowledge. He uses demonstrable, verified facts to show how the Republican party has deteriorated into what it is today: a cult following, the cult leader being a psychotic criminal; a terrorist criminal enterprise. Two thirds of registered Republicans still insist that the presidency was stolen from Trump, based only on the words of a confirmed liar, without further supporting evidence. The RNC (Republican National commmittee), thinking it necessary to weigh in on the insurrection, voted on it, and reached the following conclusion: the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, was "legitimate political discourse". Legitimate political discourse? Smashing down doors and through windows, smearing feces inside teh nation's capitol building, killing people? Legitimate political discourse? Dan Milbank, one step at a time, makes his case. It is not a difficult case to make, nor to prove. The two Republicans members of the House of Representative sub committee investigating the insurrection have been censured by their own party; for merely taking part in the investigation. The indictment of more than eight hundred of the insurrectionsits teh party calls "persecution of ordinary citizens". Nto mentioned is the fact that ordinary citizens do not refuse to accept the results of a free and fair election, and they do not express their disappointment by trying to violently overthrow the government. Republicans, it seems, cannot be expected to understand that.

Weaponizing Nonsense

YOU MAY HAVE NOTICED, unless you've been living on, say, Mars, that the Republican party of the United States of America has changed a lot over the past few years. Not only has it moved considerably to the right, waxing ultra conservative, but has, to an objective observer, gone a bit bonkers. Eisenhower and Nixon now seem, by comparison, like flaming liberals. Ronald Reagan, who despite his considerable womanizing was and still is lagey regarded as a man of principle, might at this very moment be turning over in his mausoleum. Check out the 1956 Repulican party platform; if you didn't know better, you might think it was written by Bernie Sanders. Trump changed everything. As always, many voters in 2916 were loooking for a non-politician Washington outsider; in Trump, they got one. The rest, as we say, is history. In an insightful new monograph: "Weapons of Mass Delusion: When the Republican party Lost Its Mind" author Robert Draper lays out in graphic detail the transformation of the G.O.P. from a conservative-moderate entity of the business establishment to....this. This? This is a party more than two thirds of whose members still insist that the election of 2020 was stolen from Trump, more than two thirds of whom still regard the capitol insurrection as justified, and if not most of whosse members subscribe to a whole host of fatuous, debunked soncpiracy theories, of the sort popularized by the shadowy internet entiry "Q-Anon".The new breed of youg republicans, margie t. Greene, Madam Boebert, et al, are a group of loud mouthed alarmists who think that anyone who does not support Donald Trump is destroying America. Like birds, crazies of a flock flock together, it seems. Current republican projects include making it as difficult as possible to vote so as to reduce the turnnout of liberal minorities, eliminating all mention of homosexuality or racism from America's public schools, and reducing violent crime by arming America to the hilt. If you don't think all of thes twisted platform planks are over the hils and far away crazy, go check yourself in. We are fortunate that people like Robert Draper can stomach the material well enough to research and write about it. It might amuse our descendants, or, perhaps, horrify them.

Inflating the Inflation Issue

INFLATION, which hasn't been this much of a problem more than fort years ago when I was a teenager, is being promoted by Republicans as the sinlg emost important issue on the ballot in the midterms, the only important issue. As usual, the Republican arey lying to us, and expecting us, evidently, insultingly, to believe what they say. Inflation is not an issue, politically, in this year's election, for the imple but obvious reason that neither major political party in America is anymore to lame for it than the other, and there is nothing either of them can do about it. The current inflation problem is world wide, and it was cauused by a world wokd, global phenomenon; the pandemic. the pandemic caused teh sorld to shut down of necessity, and greatly reduced theoduction of goods and services, which are still in short supply due to the world's economy's failure to catch up post pandemic. Actually, the pandemic is still very much with us, but sufficiently reduced in severity that we seem tp prefer to pretend that it is in fact over. Because people have had less to spendon the past couple of years, their is, in a global basis, pent up demand, money, burning holes in people's pockets all around the world. Lower supply plus increased demand equals inflation. Joe Biden, with all his incredible power, is not powerful enough, not by a long shot, to cause inflation all by his little old eighty year old self. Any econoist will tell you that, and all the rest, above. But as former labor secretary, UC Berkeley professor Roberr Reich tells us. American corporate profits are sky rocketing, setting new records, all becuase corporations are taking advantage of the supply and demand situation to jakd u= their prices, way up. Part of the problem is corporate greed, the corporate oligarchy placing profits above all else, above the national interest, above the health of the American economy and the economic well being of the average American citizen, unsurprisingly. Youre'e not going to solve the inflation problem by voting for either Democrats or Republicans, but if you vote for Democrats, you will be voting for candidates who are much much more aware of and much much more concerned about the corporate greed problem in America. Republicans generally do not view excessive corporate profit and greed as undesirable. Democrats say: tax 'em. Lowering taxes on teh eealthy, which is a favorite Republican strategy, will not help reduce inflation, nor help the economy generlally, nor will it help the average American citizen, who will have to pay the increased taxes to compenstae for the decrease in tax revenue from the wealthy. The Republican party is the party of the wealthy, and it mueasures economic prosperity by how well the wealthy, not the poor, are doing. Its not "Biden's inflation", or the Democrat's inflation. Its our inflation.

Going Somewhere

WHAT WITH ALL the busloads of brown skinned people being forced onto buses in the south and sent up north for those damned Yankees to deal with, one's thoughts turn to buses in the south in general, seemingly a recurring American motiff. It was after all a dark skinned lady in the deep American south, Rosa Parks, who sparked a revolution by simply simply boarding and sitting on a bus, up frot, where blacks weren't allowed. It turned into a fad, a "craze, if you will. For some reason the sture story of Rosa Parks got lost, as they say, in the shuffle. American school children were taught about the incident as if it were entirely serendipitous, coincidental, as if Rosa Parks was just a tired old black woman, getting off work, trying to get home, and too tired to walk to the back of the bus and sit where she was supposed to. So, she thought, to hell with it, I'll take my chances. Actually, Ms. Parks was a serious, professional political activist whose choice of seats on the bus was quite deliberate, pre meditated, intended to provoke a certain response, which it of course did. she succeeded in starting the trouble she so dearly wanted. "Freedom Riders" were people, mostly black but some whaite, who emulated Rosa Parks, boarded buses and sat in other than the required color coded sections, mixing races, fomenting rebellion. It came to a climax in the early sixties, when thousands of passenger - protestors finally forced change. Hell with it, just sit where you want. All this non conformity and change was too great a shock to the conservative south; hence was born "Reverse Freedom Riders", in which buses were loaded up with black skinned people and sent north, to places like the Kennedy estate in Massachusetts, and fancy, upscale honkie enclaves. If it sounds familiar, it should. Southern white right wing rednecsks forcing minorities onto buses and sending them as far north as possible is nothing new, you see. And, as now, the victims of reverse freedom riding were wholly uninformed or misinformed about their destination and their circumstances and opportunities upon arriving there. And so, despite my best efforts to convince people otherwise, it does sometimes almost indeed seem.....as if...history repeats itself.

Shining the Light

THE BEAUTIUL THING ABOUT the congressional investigation into Trump's insurrection at the Capitol is that nearly all the information it obtained was through sworn testimony and not only is almost all of it confirmed by other testimony, almost all of it comes from Trump insiders, Republicans, people whose motive for telling the truth is not helping or hurting Trump, but merely telling the truth. This is smart strategy considering the alternative is contempt of congress. In order to discount the investigation as a "hoax", or a "set up to get Trump", you'd have to bend over backwards, so to speak, to invent some very wild and highly improbable consiracy theories, not that Trump supporters are inadequate to that task. Two seminal points have been proven: Trump had decided, months in advance of the election of 2020, that no matter what the outcome, he would claim to have won the election. After the election, Trump was perfectly well aware that he had in fact lost the election, and said so to several different people. Trump planned his big lie, and he never believed it, he always knew the truth, even though he promotes the election lie to this day. Pretty bizarre stuff. It never ceases to become more and more amazing the number of people who continue to support Trump politically and would vote for him again in 2024. They support a man who says that he can declassify Top Secret documents just by thinking about declassifying them. A man who once said that during the Revolutionay War, George Washington's army captured every airport in North America. Who said that wind mills cause cancer. It has always been necessary to compartmentalize to support Trump, to separate one's morality and intellect, and reason from one's political beliefs. What one must ignore or overlook is staggeringly enormous; the lies, the criminality of all kinds. Anyone who knowingly follows such a person over a long period of time is indeed a cult member.

Fighting The Liberal World

IN THEIR CAMPAIGN COMMERCIALS and general spew, Republicans often make reference to something they call the "radical liberal agenda" as if it is a pandemic plague, to e avoided at al costs. Republicans run their increasing radical far right candidates, replete with their insane ideologies and ideals, as the only possible salvation from the radical liberal left. In their twisted view, racism is essentially nonexistant in white conservative America, and must not be mentioned in public schools, for fear of poisoning the minds and attitudes of the young with the horrible idea that America has been and remains a racist nation and culture and that we will have to continue the work of eliminating racism in America. Equally horrible, those radical liberals, by teaching that gay and transgender people should be treated with equality, are actually promoting the "gay and transgender lifestyle", which, as all conservative know, is a sin, against their God. Those damned radical liberals would have America's children believe that there are many religions in the world, thousands of religions, including in the United States, and that they all deserve to be allowed to flourish without either government oposition or support. those damned radical liberals don't even want our kids to pray to the Christian God in school, or to be taught the Bible. Which is perfectly true. Radical liberals indeed do not want religion of any sort in America's public schools, and furthermore, they want to United State of America to be a secular democracy, not a theocracy. Those horrible radical left wing nuts actually believe in climate change, that humans caused it, and that it is now a dire emergency, and that we must take every possible action to fight and reverse it, including spending billions of dollars, and restructuring our economy and our society in general. They, those horrible radical liberals, have the further audacity to believe that the wealthy should be taxed higher than the poor, and they (the rad libs) do not automaticlaly think that government is always the problem, and that we always need less government. If a soul didn't know better, she'd almost think that those damned liberals want to change the world, as if it could be any better than it already is.

Just Trying To Help

OVER THE YEARS I have learned that there are great benefits, often, to being particularly pleasant, friendly, and nice to people who dislike me, because they become uncomfortable with their negative attitude towards me, it somehow doden't feel entirely right to them, and they often ameliorate it somewhat, if not altoghther. Another way to express this is Machiavelli's famous "keep your friends close and your enemies closer". There is nothing anothe rhuman being can do to anger me more than merely dislikig me, and showing it. To me, that's the greatest of all sins, and when its obvious to me that somebody dislikes me, I resent it, and am tempted to bhave coldly and dismissively towards the person in question. Often, that's exactly what I do. But it harms me not to throw in a friendly smile or howdy once in a while to the assholes; who could use a bit of attitude adjustment, even if it requires a bit of manipulation. I assume that Dale Carnegie talked about this techinique in his classic "How To Win Friends and Influence People". published decades ago. Among many illegal Latin American immigrants in teh United States, this philosophy of turning the other cheek seems to have taken hold; organized groups of illegal regugees from latin America, even as they are being bussed like pawns out of Texas and Florida in yet another shocking display of right wing moral bankruptcy, are organizing and helping clear the rubble and clean up and repair the damage from hurricane Ian. Before you throw us away like the garbage you seem to think we are, let us help you recover from your recent disaster. More Power to the undocumented immigrants, and may teh governors of the states of Texas and Florida go straight to you kno where, and may they take with them everyone who embraces their policies. Ironically, the people being used as political props by the morally bankrupt governors are far superior human beings to those gubenatorial scoundrels, and are procedding to prove it every day.

Taking the Dad You're Dealt

MY FATHER qould now be one hundred four and a half years old, amazingly, He died at sixty eight, which I nearly am now, when I was thirty one. Hard to believe its been so long. He chain smoked and drank for years, so I was fortuante to have him as long as I did, and since I do neither of these things, and I stay in shape with a lot of exercise, I think I have a chance to live longer than he. At least I hope so. I always admired and respected him, and still think of him as one of my heroes, despite his flaws. He was in the navy during World War Two, and pursued a career in law. Maybe I should write a book about him. A lady who lives near me and is close in age to me (I'm 67) wrote and self published a book about her father titled "Catch Me Or Kill Me: The Saga of Charles Parrot, One of America's Best Bank Robbers". I attended a lecture and book signing by her, and was greatly rewarded. I intend to beg or borrow a copy of the book, and either skim through it or read it thoroughly. The author, Susan Parrot, is the daughter of rather notorious bank robber Charles Parrot. Charles Parrot was notorious becuase he was something of a Robin Hood, who became known in his part of the country as someone who was extremely nice, pleasant, and generous with his help for poor people, ill gotten help that it might often have been. Parrot was able to flourish like a normal citizen for years, because the people in the town in which he lived all helped protect him from capture and prosecution. Although the law eventually caught u p with him, and he died at the relatively young age of sixty three, his career as a bank robber was highly successful and filled with true stories and adventures which make for highly entertaining reading, as Susan Parrot has thoroughly done the research, and has become an expert on her father's criminal career. She isn't proud of it, but her ability to approach the situation from the perspective of a historian and to contribute to modern American history has helped alleviate the shame. My father once told me that he robbed a bank, but at the time he and Iwere both rather drunk. Its possible, but like I told Susan Parrot, "I'm almost jealous of you because my daddy wasn't a bank robber, your history is so interesting. I almost wish he had been." "No you don't", was her only response, but she seemed to really mean it.

Getting to the Bottom

IT IS NOW WIDELY RECOGNIZED that Donald Trump was not and is not the cause of the Trump movement nor of the success of the Trump movement, but is only a symptom of it, a sort of catylist, of that success. The Republican party was already basically America's white, conservative,Christian party long before Trump switched parties, and it is America's conservative white Christians who propelled Trump to the top and threaten to return him there. Right before their disbelieving, right wing eyes, America is becoming a country in which white people and Christians are both rapidly becoming a minority. They hate that reality, above all else. Trump said he wanted more immigrants fromplaces like Norway, and fewer from "shit hole" countries such as those in Africa. And yet, the brown skinned Latin American folks continue to surge northward, in record numbers. Latin Americans and those of Latin-American descent will soon be the majority in the United States. Ironically, no matter how many bus loads of desperate, frightened, confused people punks like governors DeSantis and Abbott send north, in their cruel, twisted lust to do harm to society, the immigrants will for the msot part remain in the United States, will somehow survive, and spread out all across the fruited plain, including to shit hole states like Florida and Texas, (which are "shit hole states" only because they are governed by the Republican terrorist party, and can still redeem themselves) just like the rest of us. The white evangelical far right Trump gang is fighting a losing battle, in more ways than one. Non Christians of all shapes and colors are going to be assuming prominent positions in American society over near future. Deal with it. This especially includes members of the LGBTQ community, which conservative America hates so dearly. For the time being, super-bizarro election deniers are being elected to public office. But the election denial disease will ultimately die, and along with it, the entire twisted right wing ideology with which the United States and other countries are currently infected.

Staying In Touch

THERE ARE REPORTS that Donald Trump told people that since he left office, he has stayied in touch with the dictator of North Korea, Kim Jong-un. You may recall the circumstances of their relationship. donald Trump cameinto office with his "America first" policy, which proved to mean "America Alone". Trump expressed full support and agreement with America's long standing policy that North Korea must not be allowed to obtain nuclear weapons, but since they have already obtained them, they must not be allowed to keep them, must get rid of them. Obviously, this policy on the part of the United States has thus far been, to say the least, a complete failure. He, Donald Trump, certainy wasn't gpoing to get pushed around by the likes of Kim Jong-un, that cantankerous pipsqueak of a petty tyrant. He, trump, would be teh first and only American presdient to take the little man's nukes away from him. You will doubtless recall Pretty much the same trajectory Trump shared with Vladimir Putin, from introduction, the friendship, to Trump being putty in the hands of another diabolical, crazy dictator. Alarming trajectories, to say the least, to witness an American president, any American president, being controlled and manipulated like that by a smarter person. It also raises another, even more alarming question: exactly what did Trump plan to do with all these Top Secret classified military and nuclear weapons documents he stole and kept in his own house? Did he have some sort of deal working with Kim Jong-um and/or Vladimir Putin? How easy would it have been for Trump to merely have faxed the material to his buddies overseas? One would think that at some point in the future the public will be told information concerning the reason(s) why Trump chose to take all those documents with him, illegally, when he left office. What other motivation could he have had other than to benefit personally from them in some way? Consider the ramifications if it were proven that Trump sold or gave American military secrets to Putin or Kim. He would instantly become the biggest traitor in American history, if he already isn't. (Please bear in mind that he tried to overthrow our government, violently). And yet, the extreme right wing evengalical Christian Republican community would probably support Trump more than ever, and claim that the Democrats set him up to look guilty, and that Donald J. Trump was sent to us by Christ, by God. For they (Trump's supporters) are no better than he (Trump).

Running to the Right While Black

IN THE GREAT formerly confederate state of Georgia two black men are running against each other for the United States Senate, which undoubtedly proves, in the minds of conservatives, that racism no longer exists in Georgia, nor anywhere else in these United States. One of the African-American gentleman, the Democrat, is a politically progressive Christian minister, like jesus. The other, a Republican, is a semi-literate ex-jock with a bad temper and a probable past which contradicts his proclaimed values. He denies the probable past, of course, especially the part about urging his girl friend to have an abortion, then paying her to do so. She seems to have the proof. Quite the pro-lifer, that one. It must have been difficult for the Republican part in Georgia to find a black conservative with a resume suitable for politics, but they dug deep, and found one. The abortion controversy, as well as the intellectual and moral bankruptcy of their candidate is easy for conservatives to ignore, just as they continue to ignore Donald Trump's criminality because Trump suits their purposes; he voices their white rage over the growing political and economic power of minorities and their progressive values. Conservative evangelical Republicans, who overwhelmingly still support Donald Trump, care nothing about Trump's utter depravity and criminality; they simply ignore it as inconvenient, which clearly reveals the utter moral bankruptcy of conservative Republican evangelical Christians in general. The Republican Senate candidate from Georgia, Mr. Walker, if elected, will obvioulsy do exactly what he is told to do by whatever faction of the G.O.P. ends up governing Georgia. In many states across the nation, election deniers will get elected to office, an unpleasant, frightening thought. Anyone who truly believes that the election was stolen from Trump is demonstrably emotionally, mentally ill, and not qualified to hold office of any sort. If both houses of Congress are governed by a Republican majority, which seems quite likely, it will be interesting, in a bizarre, tragic sort of way, to observe the twisted, garbage legislation they try to palm off on the American people.

Poking Putin

IN A RAARE MOMENT of brilliance, I said to a friend: "The Unnited States has sent so much military asssistance and weaponry to Ukraine ou might've noticed, teh Ukrainians are starting to win the war, starting to defeat the Russians and drive them out of Ukraine." My friendnodded, as if in agreement. I tend to believe that msot Americans have noticed this change in the fortunes of the war. I for one am pleased as punch about it, so to speak. But I started thinking about the possible implications of that, and said to my friend: "Putin has hinted that he is willing readly andable to use atomic weapons to defend the land Russia has already taken and held their phony "referendum" in. How much defeat can Putin tolerate before deciding to make good on his threats? I'm just guessing that if the NATO-Ukrainian forces drove the Russians totally out of Ukraine, and then proceeded to chase them into Russia and to keep going East....Putin would use nukes. What Putin would do if Ukraine's army merely recaptured all of Ukraine's original territory but allowed all Russian forces to gain safe refuge on Russian soil remains anyone's guess. Suddenly, the world is closer to having a nuclear war than at any time since the Cuban missile crisis. Expert geo-political-military analysts tend to consider it a minor miracle, indeed a major miracle that there have been no nukes fired in anger since Nagasaki. But as long as nuclear weapons remain in the arsenals of nation-states, the possibility seems probable, even inevitable, that eventuallly nuclear war will happen. Humans by nature do not invent and manufacture weapons without using them. Unless, that is, the world agrees to eliminate all nuclear weapons from the planet, and then verifiably does so. The recently deceased Mikhail Gorbachev, while ruler of Russia, offered bilateral nuclear disarmament to then U.S. president Ronald Reagan, who turned the offer down. No one has explained exactly why Reagan didn't at least refer the offer to future U.S. presdents, thus merely postponing rather than killing the proposal. Ater all, it may well have been the best, and only chance we ever had to save ourselves from ourselves.

Coming Together

RONALD REAGAN, of all people, said it best, or as well as anyone. I believe he was either speaking at the United Nations, or holding a press conference, when the president said, essentially, that if suddenly the human race were confronted with an unfriendly, aggressive extraterrestrial threat, humanity would instantly drop all of its innumerable petty differences and unite against the alien aggressor. I could not agree more. I still consider this comment one of the best of the few truly intelligent remarks Reagan ever made. At least, it sounds good. However, even as we speak, humankind is arguably currently confronted with a threat to human existence every bit as real and deadly as alien invaders; cliimate change, and a collapsing ecosystem, both of which are totally obvious to anyone paying attention. Arguably, the human race should already have long since united in a world wide project to reverse climate change, heal and preserve nature, and save life on Earth, including humanity, for the future. Instead, we continue to engage in endless wars, quarrels, and petty squabbles. Much of what I see around me has me shaken up a bit. I swear I never expected to witness another European ground war in my lifetime. I would have thought them obsolete....Now, we seem suddenly, are suddenly threatened once again with nuclear war. How nice it would have been to have lived my life without the dreadful thought and reality of nuclear war hanging over my head. Where I live we are experiencing the second severe drought since summer. Vegetation is starting to die. The extreme weather patterns long predicted by climate change scientists have arrived, frighteningly. I grew up and live in an area which is supposed to be rolling hills, trees, rivers, and lakes. At least, for the past few million years its been that. I can see climate change turning my region into a grassland prairie, or worse. From now on every year is likely to be more extreme than the previous, climatically. Now would be the perfect time for us all to unite as a species, a truly united human species determined to reverse the damage we have caused. As I approach the end of my life I notice that I have become bitter, angry, cynical, and that I don't really like people very much anymore, not like I used to. Well, so be it. But I hope I can muster the hopeful attitude that for the future of life on Earth, including humankind, good, positive, healthy outcomes are still possible.

Walking Out

THREE CHEERS FOR THE THOUSNADS of Russian men leaving their country to avoid being conscripted into Vladimir Putin's army of imperialism. Seeing the miles of bumper to bumper traffic existing Russia on television gladdened my heart, and gave me renewed hope, in the redeemability of humanity. The total number who have already left Russia is now reaching..what...about a quarter of a million? That's a great start, but there's no time limit. Russians eleigible for the draft can elave Russia anytime they want. Throughout the Viet Nam War, Americans kept going to Canada. If only more had done so, sooner. Maybe if enough people leave Russia and go to Europe or the United States or Canada or wherever, Putin will be forced either out of office or into aggreeing to end the war on less than favorable terms for himself. Namely, Restore Ukraines's original borders, and withdraw all Russian forces from foreign soil. Albert Einstein wisely fled NAZI Germany long before World War Two and lived the rest of his life in the United States. He lived and worked in Princeton, New Jersey, constantly showered with the kind of attention only Americans can give to celebrities, and Einstein often responded to questions from others by offering his opinions on current events and public affairs. The cold war and nuclear arms race which followed World War Two so thoroughly disgusted him that he suggested the best way to end war once and for all would be for all men of military age in the world to refuse simultaneously to serve in the military. Cold War America culture, particularly the conservative part of it, did not respond favorably to Einstein for this, good idea that it nonetheless was, and for that matter, still is. When the Viet Nam War started for the United States, I was quite young, and had no idea where "Viet Nam" even was. I assumed, incorrectly, that it was somewhere in Russia. but by the time I graduated high school, in 1973, I new damned good and well that there was no way in hell that I was going to be drafted to serve in Viet Nam. I wasn't drafted, but I think I would have gone to Canada to avoid going to Viet Nam. Fortunately both the war and the draft ended just in time for me to avoid both. A military career can be extremely beneficial to many people. But being conscripted into the military of any country merely to be used for cannon fodder is justifiably unacceptable to any decent, self respecting human being. Civilians of the world: unite. You have only your military nightmares to lose.