Vetoing

I WAS LISTENING TO THE NEWS with only half an ear, a habit of mine. I heard the announcer say something about the governor of Oklahoma vetoing a bill, and two thoughts came to mind. One, since both the governor and the state legislature of that red state are conservative Republican, a veto by the governor, of anything, would seem to indicate some sort of split in the G.O.P. party ranks, always a good thing. Secondly, why would the gov veto anything passed by his or her fellow conservative Republicans? Anything crazy enough to have the support of a Republican state legislature will surely have the support of a Republican governor, right? It turned out that the bill in question was one which had to do with funding college athletes, more specifically, helping them get more N.I.L. (Name, Image, & Likeness). Unless I badly misunderstood, the legislature had actually passed a bill which would have provided state money (exactly how much state money remains unclear) to enhance the amount of money athletes receive for using their name, image, and likeness for personal profit, in accordance with the fairly new NCAA policy which permits that, permits a college athlete to actually make money while helping their school make millions. Most is not nearly all fans of collegiate athletics agree on two things: One; this is long overdue. the athletes deserve to have the right to make some mony for themselves, since for decades they have been making it, tens of millions of dollars, for their schools, but not for themselves. And, Two: This current situation is so unregualted and confusing that it is essentially the wild, wild west of collegiate athletics, and anything goes, and, soner or later, preferably sooner, something will have to be done about it, to provide at least some remote semblance of a framework of regulation, organization, and sanity to the entire NIL process. The best guesss is that the Oklahoma state legislature had their eye on the state's two premier Unviersity athletic departments, teh beloved University of Oklahoma Sooners, and the beloved Oklahoma State University Cowboys. IN Oklahoma, as in most states, folks love their public university sports teams. So the Oklahoma state legislature got a bit carried away with itself, with its OU and OSU sports fan fervor. NO problem, that can happen to anybody. No harm, no foul, the governor simply steps in, with a cool head and a veto pen. The next step, one might suppose, is to wait for a similar scenario to play out in many, many other football happy states, and to wonder: in how many of them will the governor fall prey to the same bad idea, and refrain from vetoing? As they say: stay tuned.

Singing Gospel

MY CAREER singing in a gospel group, which has now lasted more than two years, may be coming to an end. Great though gospel music may be, there are undoubtedly other great kinds of music; classical, rock, jazz, country, and so on and so forth. Maybe its time to branch out, try something different. I have always loved singing, usually by myself, and singing with other people was new to me, and really, still is, although I feel I am just starting to get used to it. I have a good freind who has a karoake machine, and yes, karoake is a complete blast, a real hoot, as they say. Still, I prefer singing all by my lonesome...Each week the first song teh gosple group sings is: "I Shall Not Be Moved". Its a tradition. Its also a damned good gospel song, lively, energetic, affirmative, a testament to the enduring loyalty of the votary. But there is also another, very real, very valid way of looking at it, one that the faithful doubtless considered or don't care if they have. The Song is, in essence, a celebration of narrow mindedness. Rooted in Jehovah, I shall not be moved....I refuse to even consider the posibility that my personal beliefs are not all corrrect, or that they could be improved. I refuse to learn and grow. I shall not be changed, even for the better. That atttitude I don't like. And then of course I have railed before about my aversion to crucifixion theology. None of the songs rejoicing about being saved by having my sins washed away by the blood of Christ, - and there are many of them - I could do without, gladly. The bloody tortorous death part simply does not appeal to me, or give me comfort or a great sense of gratitude and rejoicing, Rather, it horrifies and disgusts me. Also, I object to the many references in gospel songs which talk about the poor, lost, unredeemed sinners I won't be seeing when I get to the promised land, the land of Canaan, Beulah land, Heaven's Jubilee! Als I have told many people how much I dearly love my favorite gospel song, "How Great Thou Art", so, no, its not a one way street. What I like about How Great Thou Art is the positive, praisful message about the wonder and beauty of nature and its creator. For me, the proper attitude about God is love, gratitude, and humble admiration, not fear and worship, both of which I consider extreme and irrational.

Sinking Too Deep To Be Saved

ON OCTOBER 8, 2016, when the access Hollywood tape with Trump was released and went viral, and millions of Americans heard it, I was absolutely convinced that Donald J. Trump was finished at the Republican candidate for president. I figured he'd have to step aside, and be replaced. what else could they do, what with their candidate caught on tape bragging about being a sexual predator? Obviously I was wrong. The rest, as they say, is history. Compared to what Trump has said and done since his election, the infamous Access Hollywood tape somehow seems tame. Now, that trend line, in which Trump's political support keeps getting stronger as his behavior gets worse, may be raching a crucial breaking point. Because, well, as of now Trump is the front runner for the Repbulican presidential nomination for 2024, while simultaneously his legal problems continue to proliferate, and most likely will only get worse. Much worse. And, try hard that his supporters do, it wll become increasingly difficult, nearly impossible, to continue to brush off Trump's criminal behavior. OK, sure. the indictment in New York is only a witch hunt, and this lady and her lawsuit against Trump for rape and defamation is bogus, a set up. Believe that if you want. But Trump's trying to bribe the Attorney General in Georgia for more votes in on an audio recording, and this whole insurrection business, for which Trump is apparently going to be, ultimately indicted, on audi and video both, with massive amounts of sworn testimony. the question is: exactly how delusional and in denial are Trump's supporters willing to be, how low are they willing to go to ignore their cult leader's massive, horrible, criminality? At what point do the millions of rats, so to speak, jump off the sinking ship, as it were? We now know that the stolen election scheme was launched by Trump well before the actual election, and that the widespread acceptance of Trump's criminal plan was greatly facilitated by FOX news, which knew full well the nefarous nature of Trump's election lie, but supported it nonetheless, for ratings and profit.

Posting Truth

WHEN PEOPLE POST messages in big, colorful letters on Facebook, surrounded by brightly colored backgrounds, you can be sure that the poster considered the message important, worthy of attention. sometimes, it is. One that caught my attention went something like this, roughly paraphrazed: "If somebody tells you that one political party is all good and another is all bad, the person is one dimentional and and extremely biased." Or something like that. I agreed with it, and still do. However, let's qualify this ideal by remembering that not all political parties are created equally, and that some are mmuch better than others, in terms of being beneficial to soceity, and helpful to people rather than harmful to them. Indeed, some political parties are much better than others. It may be, for example that none of the parties in post World War One Gernamy was up to the task of peaefully, safely rebuilding Germany, but it seems obvious now that by far the worst one, the party that Germnas should by all menas have stayed from andgivenno poer to - was the one that won, Hitelr's party. And yes, I think it was obvious even during the nineteen twenties and early nineteen thirties, when many political parties in Germany, Socialist, Communist, Conservative, National Socialist (NAZI, Hitler's party) were all actively competing for power. Its diffcult to imagine things turning out worse than they actually did, in real space and time, with the victory of the NAZIs in Germany. suppose, for example, you live in a country with two major political parties. In one of them, we'll call it "Party 'A'", a majority of members deny the existence of climate change, and oppose all policies to reverse it. The other party, Party "B" keeps screaming that climate change is an urgent emergency, and tries to hammer home policies to fight it. When the party that denies climate change, Party "A" loses a presidential election, most of its members claim that its candidate actually won the election, that it was stolen from their party, and then a majority of its members try to violently overthrow the government to regain power. Are you starting to see a pattern here? Party A tries to ban books, and limit free speech in public schools. Party B opposes this. Our Republican Party A still enjoys a great deal of support in the United States, amazingly, considering its far right wing out of touch with America extremist tendencies and policies, but trouble may be on the horizen for our notorious Party A. Consider its positioins on LGBTQ people, making voting more difficult, denying racism, Trump's criminal behavior, and climate change. That is simply not a winnning formula,a rodamap to future political success in the United States of America.

Defending the Faith

I DON'T OFTEN, if ever make positive remarks about religion, either in person or on Faceboo. Why should I? I truely do not like religion bery much, and one of my world view beliefs is that the time is rapidly approaching when it would be beneficial for humanity to evolve religion out of existence. At the same time, I want to be, and try to be honest, and "balanced" in so far as that is possible. It was on Facebook, which I don't take very seriously and don't get too involved in, that a few people made negative comments about religion. I'm not sure what motivated me, my tendency towards "contrarianism", or whatever, but I felt impelled to type the following and post it: "Maybe religions are invented by people to help meet their emotional needs of security, comfort, and inspiration." I liked this comment, then, and now. I think it is quite true. Also, its kind of hard to refute, becaue it has an analytical, fair sound to it, as if this assessment of religion's origins is intended to be neither positive nor negative, but merely, illuminating. The first and I think th eony response my comement got was some guy wo said, roughly: "Yeah, but religion has been taken over and used for political reasons". Not the exact words, but close. This too is true, of course, but I didn't know whether the speaker was implying that coopting religion by powerful forces within society for the purpsoe of gaining power, influence, and control was, like...the latest thing? So I reaponded to him: "Precisely, sir, as always", meaning, of course, that of course religion is misused and abused by the powerful, but that, shoot, its always been that way, and likely always will be. And indeed, that's one of my many objections to it, the fact that religion, by which I mean organized religion, is inherently such a perfect tool for various forms of oppression, including political, as well as intellectual and spiritual. then, of course, there the problems associated with religion's always archaic, primitive world view, ideology, doctrine, and dogma, and its inherent resistance to self improvement.

Fighting the Book Burners

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER SAID: "Don't join the book burners. Don't think that you're going to conceal faults by concealing evidence that they ever existed. Don't be afraid to go in the library and read every book". Now, obviously, there are books that are not worth reading. And, in truth, one must to a certain extent be selective and picky about what books to read. After all, there are so many out there, and one must use one's precious reading time wisely..But the point Ike was making is quite obvious, and valid, even sacred. An eloquent defense of the sacred principle of intellectual freedom. There are so many ways in which President Eisenhower was a truly great man,so much greater and oh so extremelly different from today's scurvy batch of Republicans. For one thing, he constantly encouraged te nations of the world, including his own, to reduce military spending and preparation for war, in order to reduce the likelihood of war. If anyone knew well the horrors of war, it was General Dwight D. Eisenhower. Also, a quick look at the Republican Party official platform for the 1956 pesidential campaign, in which Einenhower was running for reelection against Adlai Stevenson, who himself might have been a great president. Just google it, the G.O.P. party platform adopted at ther convention in 1956. Hell, it reads like Bernie Sanders: it advocted expanding women's rights, corporate investment in workers and commmunities, limiting military spending, support for labor unions, and so on and so forth.The nineteen fifties was a time of political moderation, with most Americans in the political middle. Oh, how the Republican party, and for the most part the Democrats too, have moved to the right. The Republicans are banning books and criminalizing freedom in education. The number of officially banned books in Republican controlled states is increasing enormousl, alarmingly. the books being banned are usually those in which gay people are mentioned or featured as fictional characters, or books which onestly, incisivelly discuss the history or racism in the United States. And of course any book even remotely atheist in viewpoint. Thie book bannign movement is one hundred percent Christian conservatism Republican. Democrats andprogressives generally are staunchly, heroically opposed to book banning or burning. This fact is worth considering on election day. It depends on what kind of society you want: intellectually free, or fascist.

Phoning Up

I HAVE TWO CELL PHONES, which is truly remarkable, since its me. Its almost surprising that I even have one, let alone two. Throughout the nineteen nineties I was mildly amused and annoyed watching people driving while talking on a cell phone, a big, lumbering cell phone which provided unreliable service, frequently fading out when in the wrong neighborhood. I became convinced at the time, and remain so to this day, that people deliberately made a point of talking ont their cell phones while driving in order to be seen talking on a cell phone while driving, which in those days was a sign of wealth and prestige. Gradually, painfully slowly, common sense and the law caugt up with this all too human cultural behavioral trend, and nowadays we seem to see drivers talking on the phone far less often, unless they're using blue tooth with no phone to the head. Most folks are nowadays afraid of getting busted for talking, texting, while driving. I got my first fliip up cell phone in 2005, but as I recall, I never made any special effort to use it while driving for ego and reputation. In 2007 when the first smart phone came out I really didn't fully comprehend the fuss. In fact I sort of decided not to make any attempt to get one, that it was too expenxive, and anyway, I really didn't need to walk around with the internet in my back pocket. Also, texting did not appeal to me, and never has. In fact, I learned how to send and receive text messags just the other day, when I realized that my flip up cell phone, which I have had for several months, does indeed include that service. I got my first smart phone just the other day, a free phone for seniors from an offer on the internet. I sure as hell wouldn't pay for it. Now I have my little Jitterbug flip up, and an Android smart phone with all the bells and whistles. And yet, I seldom use a phone. Of all people to have two cell phones, I would have thought that I would be among the very last. But now, here I am, a person who seldom receives or makes phone calls, up to my ears in cellular telephone service. somehow, I'll muddle through. At least now I feel morelike a normal Anerican, although I have already decided to never take the smart phoen out of the house, but only the flip up phone. I don't want to risk losing the expensive one, and besides, I refuse to become one of those people, the majority of Amricans, who spends all day walking around or sitting around with a damned smart phone glued to their faces, staring at it for hours....

Congressional Discriminating

IT WAS ONLY A MATTER OF TIME, most likely. Only a matter of time until America's greatest healththreat and national security danger, the far right Christian conservative political, social, and economic agenda, finally arrive full force in the hallowed halls of the United States House of Representatives. For it is, alas, a grass roots movement, but alarmingly upwardly mobile. The House Republicans, holding only the slimmest of majorities, voted to prohibit transgender girls from participating in girl's athletics in America's public schools. Whether this applies to colleges and universities remains in question for now, but knowing conservatism's penchant for incremental encroachment upon society, it would not be surprising to one day awaken to a nation in which being transgender is illegal. For anyone who doesn't think this is possible, or that, for instance, Donald Trump could become president once again; think again. never underestimate the power of evil in American society. This insane bill will never pass in the Senate, and Biden is sure to veto it, in any event. That not only the Republican party but American Christian conservatism in general are bigoted become more evident with every discriminatory legislative initiative promulgated by the malign movement. American conservatism, like social conservatism in every country, has always been antithetical to gay and transgender rights, now as much as ever. Check out the number of African-American REpublicans who hold public elective office in the United States. Notice how many, or rather how few, gay people are members of the Repbulcaan party. At any Trump rally or Republican National Convention, notice how few African-americans or Hispanics there are in attendance, compared to their percentages as the general population. There is a reason why more than nine out of ten African, Americans are Democrats, and progressive politically. In everyy Republican dominated state in the union, laws are being passed by Republicans state legislatures limiting, reducing the rights of gay and transgender people. It is becoming illegal in moreand mpre public schools int hese states to even mention gay people or homosexuality in school. Welcome to semi-fasacist America, the home of the white Christian conservative political party.

Deciding Which Is Which

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN good guys and bad guys can be and often is vague, murky, subtle, difficult to determine. After all, all of us contain elements of both, if we are honest about it. Most of us are basically "good", but all of us embody a nearly limitless number of traits and behavioral characteristics, not all of them good. And that is precisely the problem with this simplistic, misguided conservative gun policy which encourages law abiding citizens, "good" people, to legally own firearms to protect society against the "bad" guys. The problem is our inability to determine for certain exactly who the good guys are. Good guys make mistakes, misuse firearms, and when they do, they become, in effect, bad guys, shooting somebody who didn't really need to be shot, by which time its too late to undo their damage. In just this past week an eighty four year old good guy shot and killed an sixteen year old African-American teenager who knocked on his door mistakenly. The boy was intending to pick up some other kids at an address called "Maple Street", but instead went to "Maple Avenue", which cost him his life. In another similar incident a young white woman was shot and killed because she knocked on the wrong door, at the wrong address. And then there is this headline: "Home Depot Worker shot to death in California while trying to Stop a Shoplifter". Now, arbuably, obviously, an employe has a right, indeed an obligation, to try to stop shoplifters, preferaby by calling the police. But the police take a few minutes to arrive, so oftern the employee must try to detain or delay the culprit from leaving the premises. However, we now live in an age in which shoplifters are increasingly likely to carry firearms, just as members of society generally are. Then too, many states have enacted these dubious "stand your ground" laws, which essentially encourage people to take the law into their own hands. The number of good, law abiding citizens who end up killing someone without it being necessary is only going to increase in the futre, and it will be our responsibility as an alleged civilization to decide what to do about it.

Karma, Going Around

NOW THAT FOX NEWS has admitted before God and country that as a corporation it behaved nefariously, broke the law, and sank to shocking depths of journalistic depravity in its coverage of Trump's big election lie and its consequences, the right wing television network is now a known felon. FOX "News" had it coming, and it came. It is a propaganda slinging pro terrorist organization, supportive of Trump's attempt to overthrow the government, and the criminal network may change it ways, or may not. Only time will tell, as we say. Justice is, wisely, deliberative, but inexorable. According to sworn testimony by Ivanka Trump, two weeks before the election her father told her: "No matter what happens, we'll just say that we won. Fuck it". FOX knew Trump's lie was and is ridiculous, like everyone else. But tellng the truth cost it much coveted ratings, and so, it persisted with the lies. Now its more than half a billion dollars poorer, its reputation, such as it ever was, severely damaged. But one must never lose sight of the profound depravity of millions of Trump supporters, and their willingness to let their lies and fantasies endure by clinging to them. The lawsuit by Domininon and the resulting out of courst settlement with FOX will not doubtless become another "witch hunt" for far right wing Christian conservative Trump America, another in the seemingly endless list of hit jobs fabricated and perpetrated by the many foes of the Donald; the media, the Chineese, Democrats, all the usual suspects. Neither Mr. Trump nor FOX News is finished dealing with lawsuits. More are in the pipeline for both criminals. Trump will likely be indicted by Georgia, and by the U.S. Department of Justice, among others. Currently one of the women he allegedly raped is having her day in court. The wheels of justice turn slowly, but they turn... Long ago it was proven that Donald Trump knew full well that he lost the election to Biden, but chose to pepetuate the big election lie nonetheless. It is difficult to think of any greater betrayal of America, any more vile criminal act by a sitting president. Now that FOX has been clearly exposed and confirmed as complicit with Trmp's criminal behavior, his millions of cultish followers, many of whom still embrace the lie, are finding themselves on ever shakier ground, in terms of evidence and valid support for their fabricated claim. But so what? They'se always been on shaky ground, and it never stopped them before.

Explaining the Unexplainable

AMONG THE MOST fascinating, inexplicable, and arguably disastrous trends im modern American politics has been and continues to be the emergence of the evangalical Christian community as a driving force on the far right. Since the late seventies and early eighties, commencing with the emergence of Jerry Falwell's "moral majority", American conservatism and the Republican party have become increaslingly entwnied with and dominatef by this rising evangelical political tide. How and why this came to be, and most recently how on God's green Earth this movement ended up in bed with Donald Trump and has remained there even since is perhaps the most urgently immediate question in today's American culture generally, as well as its political culture. The fact that traditional, fundamentalist, conservative Christianity and conservative economics and politics are both deeply rooted in tradition and resistant to change seems to be a starting point in understanding. Maybe a good place to gain understanding is to let someone with a scholarly, analytical, journalist bent, someone who was raised in the evangelical church and embraced conservative politics, only to abandon far right religious community after further introspection do the explaining. Fortunately, we have such a explainer. Jon Ward fills the bill in his newly published book: "Testimony: Inside the Evangelical Movement that Failed A Generation". Arguably the title is misleadingly narrow, and should actually be: "Inside the Evangelical Movement That Failed A Nation". After all, it took more than one generation to elect Trump, to support his false claims of election victory, and his violent attempt to overthrow the U.S. governemnt. It took an angry mob of millions of religious-political Trump fanatics, far right wing pro Trump Christian zealots. Jon Ward uses his personal life story as the vehicle with which he elucidates his change of heart, his rejection of and departure from his family and community roots. In the process he evaluates and analysizes the reasons for his own behavior, both before and after his departure, and offers and ideas on how the national national conservative-christian became so egregiously disconnected from its own principles. Ward increasigly came to lament his own faith community's encroaching rejection of truth and reality, abandonment of moral character, and attraction to authoritarianism and conspiratorial thinking. What makes this reelatory book so urgently, vitally relevant is this simple fact: Conservative evangelical Christianity in America today is more virulant, more activist, and therefore more dangerous to the nation's future than ever before.

Putting Jesus and Trump side by side

BEHOLD THE SPECTACLE, the sad travesty of conservative Christian talk radio head cases conflating Jesus Christ and Trump, seemingly confused as to which is which. To disentangle them is a work of monstrous proportions for them, a prodigious undertaking requiring knowledge they evidently utterly lack. No matter what Christian radio station in America you tune in, the political message accompanying the Christian hellfire indoctrination is the same: Vote for Trump or risk your eternal personal salvation. Voting for those socialist, gay loving, tax loving welfare stating baby killing Demmocrats will destry the country and send you straight to U know where...This is unsurprising; Christian conservative talking radio heads cen't even count. If someone was murdered on Fricay and brought back to life on Sunday, its a two day, not a three day resurrcetion process, correct? But, well, anyway...Whether they worship Jesus or Trump more is the flip of a coin. Trump may have the edge. Jesus admonished people to pay their taxes, which Trump refuses to do, making him the darling of the far American anti-government right. The evangelical cult of Trump is well armed, with Bibles and assault rifles, and therefore, dangerous. Jesus the executioner, coming with a flaming chaiort and terrible swift sword, mowing down the infadel opponents of the gospel of Donald Trump. Jesus was famous for showing interest in reprobates and trying to uplift them. Is this the key to the evangelical-Trump marriage? Doubtful. The radio talkers unleash daily their venom upon the AMerican jusicial system which, since it dares indict the fuhrer, must necessarily be corrupt, or overrun with liberals. They ridicule due process, preparing an all out assault on American justice. Precisely how moral or immoral are the Jesus - Trumpers? Sufficiently so to bemoan the failure of Trump's violent coup to keep him in office, sufficiently so to ignore the seven people who were killed on January 6, 2021 fighting against the United States government, to ignore the dozens of police officers who were maimed for life trying to defend it. Maybe these true believers believe that some fine day they will be raptured, into Trump Tower.The diametric opposition of Jesus and Trump could not be more obvious to everyone other than the evangelical smitten. The evangelicsl Christian pro Trump movement is pure toxicity, sheer lunacy. But since Volatire was correct, or we can hope he was correct when he said "All comes out even when the day is done, and more even still when all the days are done", we may assume, that in the fullness of time, we all end up where we belong, even if it takes a while.

Big Banks, Going Liberal

AMERICA IS FUNDAMENTALLY a progressive country, as Michael Moore points out in his seminal political documentary "Fahrenheit Eleven Nine". By that he means, and surveys repeatedy indicate that, on issues such as reproductive rights, LGBTQ rights, the economy, public policies of all kinds, social programs and policies, separation of church and state, climate change, and on and on, a majority of Americans agree with the progressive, rather than the conservative position. Not overwheliming majorities, but majorities. And that is precisely why so many big corporations, Fortune Five Hundred types that are overwhelmingly owned and operated by wealthy conservatives, so often embrace progressive policies, such as action to reverse climate change, support for LGTBQ, gay, and transgender rights, and so forth, despite teh frequent disapproval of the conservative community. Big corporations get big and walthy not by being stupid, but by knowning where, to coin a phrase, which side their proverbial bread is buttered on. The action now is in Texas, where it so often seems to be these days when social - cultural wars are being fought. The big banks in that great backward looking state are indeed supporting progressive causes which many wealthy elites deem unacceptable. Throughout the Repbulican controlled and dominated Texas state legislautre, both houses, a roilng boiling movement is afoot to remove state money from all offending banks, meaning banks which support obviously correct, progressive causes, instead of merley tacitly supporting the conservative status quo. The problem is, that government accounts and finances are in many instances so deeply insinuated within and entengled with these same banks that it might be almost impossible to pull off a complete divorce without seriously disrupting not only state business and functioning, but the portfolios of many of these same wealthy conservatives. Quite a mess. The banks, knowing that they ultimately hold the winning hand, are for the time being just sitting tight, pledging to continue their fine tradition of serving the best interests of everyody in Texas, and so forth, blah blah. five'll get you ten that the big banks wil remain in Texas, under arragnements acceptable to them, which means still supporting proressive and minority investors and causes, just like all banks smile and wave and kiss babies of all who enter their doors bearing money. Meanwhile, the great Christian conservaitve self righteous community will quietly, grudgingly stop their gratuitous, politically motivated attack on our nation's fine corporate financial system.

Hating On Elon

PEOPLE seem to either love or hate Elon Musk, most usually, it seems, the latter. For me, he's a mixed bag, but I am beginning to think that my negatives on Elon outweigh the positives. What I despise most about him is his apparent extreme right wing conservatism, about which I knew nothing until quite recently. Evidently his conservatism is especially closly associated with economic matters, surprise surprise, he being an evident neo-liberal laissez faire keep government out of the free market, all of that blithering nonsense. And yes, it is blithering nonsense Serious economic research always concludes that some degree of government involvement in and regulation of the economy is necessary for a healthy capitalist economy. Also, progressive taxation benefits everyone, including the very wealthy. Like all rich people, Elon simply doesn't want to pay taxes. Now, the pompous ass, (oops, did I really say that?) is after National Public Radio (NPR), on Twitter, Twitter being the big social medial company which Musk bought for billions and has been trying to destroy ever since, witih some degree of success thus far. So big Elon tweets out some idiotic comment about NPR, calling it "state radio", then later defending his lie by remarking that NPR is heavily funded by the government. This is another lie. NPR gets about one percent of its funding from government sources, the rest comes from private donations, including a lot of money from wealthy benefactors and big corporations. NPR is proud to be independent of corporate control; the donars get nothing in return for their gifts, no promises concerning program content, no influence, nothing. They aslo get no advertising, free or othwrwise. So, wisely, NPR has dropped Twitter as one of its promotional platforms. Complete divorce. This event does more damage to Twitter than to its former corporate associates: if they all leave Twitter, Twitter has nothing, but the big corporations, including nonprofit ones like NPR, can carry on quite well, on other social media platforms.

Critically Reading the Scripture

THOMAS JEFFERSON, who not only was not a Christian, but had the audcaty to take a copy of the Holy Bible, cut it into shreds, seperate what he thought were beneficial passages from those he considered primtive, barbaric, or downright wrong, and and then to publish his own version of the Christian scripture, which he called something like "A Narrative of teh Life of Jesus of Nazareth", but which we tend to call today simply "The Jefferson Bible." Any good unversity library has a copy. As the old TV ad used to say: "Try it, you'll like it". Arguably, Jefferson's version is much better than the "original", in terms of quality, if not quantity. the way he described it when somebodoy sked him what the heck he thought he was doing with his tatterd, ripped apart Bible and a pair of scissors, dreamy Tom replied: "I am removing diamonds from a pile of dung". Yes, it seems tha tour nation's third president and principle author of the Declaration of INdependence did indeed call the Holy Book, or at least most of it: a "pile of crap." Jefferson, like most of America's founders was passionate about science, far more devoted to and trusting of science than to religion, did not like stories and anecdotes involving miracles, or any events which to him blatantly contradicted the known laws of nature, such as, say, folks walking on water and mountains and oceans obeying human commands. His harshest judgement he reserved for the best and last, the infamous "Book of Revelation", which Jefferson described as "the rantings of a lunatic". Arguably, john of Patmos was a tad......how to say this...touched? Maybe drug addled?... Today the best, most scientific, factual scholar of early Christian history and the Bible is Bart Ehrman, Dean of religious studies at North Carolina, Chapel Hill. The author of many seminal books on the topic, his most recentis titled "Armageddon: What the Bible Really Says about the End". without giving away any spoilers about what Ehrman says the Bible really says about the end, one can derive from hsi writings certain general conclusions. One, he seems to agree with Jefferson, that book number sixty six of sixty six is indeed the work of a troubled mind, or maybe a troubled God.

Lovin' Sisses Yard More Than she

YOU COULD PUT MY HOUSE inside my sister's house, but, hey, I'm happy. Who needs forty five hundred square feet? And I would rather mow my yard than hers, although mine aint nothin' to sneeze at. April here in mid America is the time of the awakening yard, with weeds first out of the ground, freaking most people out, inspriing them to get the mower out and start working on that grass. Oh, how we suburban Americans hate weeds! I looked at my sister's yard the other day and loved it. It reminded me of a pasture, or field of prairie grass and wild flowers. All natural, and beautiful..those tall skinny [urple topped weeds of early spring, respendent in their random profusion, rippling in the gentle breeze along with tall grasses and a wild variety of wildflowers of many colors. Natural heaven, to my way of thinking. It always inspires me to postpone that first grass moving just a few more days, to enjoy, one last time, spring's natural floarl bounty. My first thought was, what a geat insect and small animal wildlife refuge, what beautiful natural growth! I told her how beautiful I thought her yard was in this early spring pre mown state, and she recoiled in horror and disbelief at my poor taste, my low standards of lawn care, I, a vertitable wilderness barbarian. She minced no words in exclaiming in no uncertain terms: "I think its ugly. Its a complete mess"! Immediately I recognized her "problem"; what to me is a sort of mild neuroses, a typical American needless yet very present source of anxiety; our cuultural preference for the perfectly mown lawn, with every blade of grass the same species and length, thick, like astro turf, with absolutely no weeds allowed. The kind of lawns you see in neighborhdds where the houses go for upwards of a million dollars or more, such as my sister's neighborhood. The kind of lawns you see in movies featuring wealthy estate owners. There is nothing to me more boring or barren that kind of lawn, beautiful and neat though it is, nothing more boring than a neighborhood of millionaire yards. Like golf courses, nothing but perfectly manicured fairways and putting surfaces, without trees or sandtraps or ponds. For many years she and her hubby hired a lawn care firm to sod, resod, irrigate, andmaintain a constant supply of weed kilig posion spread across teh gree expanse, but, alas, it was expensive, and besides, a weed or two had teh audacity to appear out of nowhere, so they quit the contract. No, surrounde by wilderness, they're thinking of going back to upper middle class suburban lawn paradise, contracted out.

Republicans, Just Being Republicans

JIM JORDAN AND THE G.O.P. members of Congress are trying to stop the prosecution of Trump in New York by interfering in it, pledging to investigate the people investigating Trump, the usual sort of Republican perfidy. Harassing the prosecutor with death threats and attempts at intimidation is not a good idea, and, like much mainstream Republican activity, leads to valid lawsuits against them. Republican misbehavior attracts lawsuits like flies to bulldung, and if theres one thing Republicans know a lot about, its bulldung. Their constant dishing out of it, in words and deeds such as the great Trump election lie, have resulted in no fewer than one thousand criminal prosecutions and convictions for those involved in the treasonous Capitol insurretion, aka known by the Republican party officially as "legitimate political discoures, and among Republicans generally as "a guided tour gone bad". (Or maybe gone good, from their perspective.) Congress has no regulatory power over state criminal investigations, indictments, and prosecutions, but leave it to Jordan and his nefariously evil intended ilk to either not know that or to not care. There is no word sufficiently heinoous to describe the level of henious-ness to which conservative America has already sunk, and continues to sink. Avin Bragg obviously means business, as evidenced by his and his grand jury's indictment of Trump and now of Jim Jordan. I for one wouldn't wanna be either Trump or Congressman Jordan right about now, and I suspect that neither do they, although Jordan and his co-defendants in Congress, like Trump, will put up a phony act of victimization and defiance. The lengthening list if Republican moral abominations, like the long long list of Trump's crimes, only hardens and emboldens the deeply right wing Trump cultists, who only give their unqualified support and approval of his perfidy: Trump's big election lie, his attempted violent coup, and so on. Those who still support this are themselves criminals, as acconplices to and enablers of rime. Their cunnert attempt to thwart due process and justice in New York is nothing other than par for their massively corrupt course.

Predicting The Unpredictable

THE BANK SHOOTER was a current employee of the bank, an unexceptional one who did not stand out as a possible killer, and nobody, including the world's best shrinks, could have possibly guessed that he would walk in one day with a rifle rather ahan briefcase and open fire at his fellow employees, killing several. A totally unexpected, unpredicted, unpredictable shooting spree, as they all are. Indeed the young was among the millions of presumed "good people" presumed by Republicans qualified to pack heat, on accounta his failure to kill anyone yet, right up until the monent when he did. He was qualified to pack heat, and therefore he should have been packing heat all the time in public, to increase his chances of stoppng a "bad guy" in the act, so say conservatives. Hell, the more good people who carry guns, the better our chances of stopping the one bad apple who cuts loose with his legally owned assault rifle, conservatives say. What they do not say is that, with millions of folks conceal - carrying, the chances of one of the carriers erupting in a shooting spree is somewhat greater than the chances of a shooter being cut down in his tracks by a good person with a gun. there are no "good" or "bad" people carrying guns. There are only people, and they are all both good and bad. The trick is to find out which is which at any given moment, a near impossibility. Actually, we had a warning this time At least a few minutes before the shoter started shooting,his mother called 911. She was frantic, said her son was on his way to the bank with a gun, but the operator kept asking irrelevant questions, time ran out, and the warning did no good.Every victim of one of our patented all American regular garden variety mass murders leaves a gaping abys sthe silence of which reverberates through societ, leaving torn families and communities. Meanwhile the G.O.P. (Ghastly obstructionist party) rock solid supportive of their twisted, unorigianl misinterpretation of the second amendment, refuses to budge, to make even incremental progress towards mitigating our national epidemic of senseless gun violence. We will only convince them to ban assault weapons over their cold hands and dead bodies, and those of many thousands more.

Nonconforming, With A Purpose

I WEAR MY SOCKS MISMATCHED, almost by design. Into the laundry clean bin the clean socks go, never again to see their true mates. Random selection works wonders. Since I am retired and must answer to nobody, I dress how I want, which results in an almost daily donning of sweat pants and T shirt, shorts in warm weather. I wear them all day, everywhere, evn to bed. they make great jammies. Try it, you'll like it. They're Always clean as personal hygeine is of paramount importance, but sometimes a tad tattered. Likewise I always wear a ball cap, as I was trained to cover my hair during my four years volunteering in the senior center kitchen. A Razorback or Yankees emblem will do. On special days, like election day, I break out my "Make America Greta Again" beauty. It looks nearly identical to the standard MAGA monstrosity, but with a key difference, and it confuses everybody, since Americans tend to read in a cursory fashion. Some folks misread that I am for Trump, and are delighted. Some are madder than hell. But nobody sees "Greta" as Greta". I am always willing to clarify, about the cap being a reference to Greta Thunberg, my idol...Sometimes, just to be prepared for anything, i wear my "MAGA" cap, carried and concealed, underneath my Yankee or Razorback hat, ready to spring it into action if somebody wants me to show what I got.. When the situation gets a bit tridky, as it sometimes does, I blulrt out "Yeah, hell.they misspelled "great", so I got the danged thang fur a dollar. That always works among the sorts of folks on whom I use it... My eccentricities extend beyond the purely sartorial. Behavior matters. When conversing, I always use pronouns such as "she" or "her", "him" or "he", and "I" or "me" properly, which distinguishes me from 99% of all Americans. Sometimes I alternate between a noithern an a suthin accent, just to keep 'em guessing, and to keep their attention, which for your average American is about the length of that of your average goldfish. I often lapse into an ebonic or Hispanic accent, out of admiration for their beauty. No disrespect intended.

Coming from Monkeys, Improving the Mind

"IF HUMANS CAME FROM MONKEYS, monkeys would not exist", said the brilliant and very clever pentecostal - Maybe a bit too brilliant and clever for her own good. Who could fail to agree with sucn profound and obvious realities? Point taken, well put. However...um.....there is just one lttle, teentsy weentsy problem with that line of attack, one lil ole glitch in the proverbial armor. Namely, evolutionary science does not say that human evolved from monkeys. Before you perisn of shock and disappointent at your newly discovered failure to disprove the fundamental tenet of biological science, simply accept this inconvenient for you truth. What evolutiony scienc says, and proves and reproves every living day, is that human being and monkeys evolved simultaneously, for the same primate, a primate kinda like a monkey, kinda like a chimp, kinda like a human, but different from all three, a primate which indeed no longer exists, since they all turned into humans and monkeys. Take heart, oh deeply religious one; at least in spirt, you were correct, but not in fact. And no, what you thought about humans and monkeys and what the actual truth is are not the same thing, in fact, are totally different, as is usually the case when dealing with Pentecotals and reality. At least as disturbing as this evolutionary denial in the face of the obvious is the earnestness with which the religious fanatics disagree with the obvious, the fervor with which they tend to reject evolution by natural selection, and their extreme reluctance, indeed, refusal to accept imporvement in their ideology by accepting proven scientific reality. Most disturbing of all is their unwillingness to change and improve. Indicative of this nightmarish mentality is the popular gospel song "I Shall Nnot Be Moved", inwhich the protagonist is essentially bragging about being narrow minded. My beliefs are like the Rock of Gibraltar. I willl never change, because what I believe no is already perfect, and must not be questioned. A rampaging herd of buffalo couldn't get me to change my religiosity. this kind of intransigence, this degree of intellectual rigidity not only is detremental to human progress and improvement, but is downright frightening, for the popularity of it, ad its impact oh culture everywhere. Goethe said" "The world advances only because of those who oppose it." Agathon said: "Against stupidity, the Gods themselves contend in vain". And somebody, maybe Eistetien said, "The diffeence between genius and stupidty is that geniius is somewhat limited." And hell, a whole lot of folks have spoken about the imprortance of having an open mind, willing and ready to learn. They were all correct, and still are.

Stating the Obvious

SYSTEMIC RACISM is no less obvious in America than folks staring at smart phones, maybe more so. Overwhelmingly, its been verified by by academic and real life research, plainly visible thrughout American society by those who have eyse that see. And yet, right wing America seeks to and often does ban it from public school curicula, making it illegal to teach this inconvenient truth. Climate change, which has long been obvious and is more so than ever, and which will soon become more obvious still, is stil regarded by a majority of conservatives as a "liberal hoax". then too, there's evolution by naturel selction, a confirmed fundamental natrual proceess, which should be obvious to anyone who breeds cattle or dogs. And yet, many conservative Christians angrily, madly, righteously deny its reality, prefering to cling to their primitive creation myth to help fortify their religious beliefs. Then too, Joe Biden obviously won the election, as every vote was recounted, and they all matched perfectly with voter registrations. Conservatives preferred to buy into Trump's bie lie, they choose to support his attempt to overthrow the American government, and they still support him today, much to the detriment of their moral character and willingness to acknowledge reality. The only possible conclusion is, that since the same people for the most part promulgate all the above delusions, that this conservative community consists of liars, self deluders, idiots, criminals and traitors.To compromis with these views or the folks who embrace them is useless. Its been tried.To attempt any compromise or acceptance of their falsehoods would harm America. Better to defeat them at the ballot box, and wait for them to go extinct. One can hope.This position is not unfari, but rather, appropriate.There is no good reason to call man-made ltimate change a "hoax", other then for political expediency or clinging to outdated notions. the Department of Defense has for decades identified climate chage as the most serious threat to American national securityry; to deny its exixtence is, arguably, treasonous. tnis whole election theft business is traitorous, to the country, and to democracy. Its also mentally and morally ill. Now, again, stating these facts is not mean, cruel, or rude. It isn't intended as some sort of "hit job", or to "bash" conservatives. What it is, is the stark, naked truth, and its vitally important. Climate change, racism, evolution, Biden's election, vaccine efficacy, Trump's lie, are al, quitel simply, unquestionable facts, all of whicn most consrvative Christian Republicans refuse to accept, because doing so would threaten their ideology. We must always question and improve our beliefs, not cling to the stupid ones meely so suit our emotional needs.

The Land of the Free, and the Home of the Socialists: Part II

THE TERM "SOCIALISM" was invented in the early nineteenth century by a wealthy Welsh industrialist who, although he practiced capitalism for himself, advocated socialsim for others, indeed for all, and inspired others to write about, develop, and expand on the economic theory, a theory which spread and became quite popular, especially among the working class, and remains popular today. (See "The Land of the Free, and the Home of the socialists": Part I) Ever since, there has been a sizeable community of socialists in the United States, a community of sufficient size to earn the description "mainstream". There has been a tendencyamong socialists to carefully use the term "democratic socialism", to distinguish it from totalitarian forms of government. Today, most European countries have a democratic socialist government, as arguably, so does the United States, to a certain but limited extant. In Europe socialism works like a charm. Most Euopean countries are far more prosperous that the U.S, although Americans, indoctrinated by conservative media, are unaware of this. These facts are of course disputed, under false pretenses and for their own purposes, by American conservatives. Various American socialist political parties have never had the majorities necessary to win presidential elections in America, but Bernie Sanders, who describes himself as a "democratic socialist", came closer than many people might prefer. There have been many socialists who served as Mayors, State Representatives, and in other offices, most notably a mayor of Milwaukee, among other places. In 1920 labor union organizer Eugene V. Debs ran for president, and got more than a million votes despite being in jail at the time, for union organizing. He had also run in 1912, for the Socialist Party, and one out of six Oklahoma voters voted for him, mainly union members and small farmers, to whom he promised land reform and government agricultural assistance. Socialist programs such as Medicare, Medicade, Obamacare, the minimum wage, and workplace safety laws, all of which were once considered radical, "un-American", and impossible to implement, we take for granted today and could not imagine life without. They were all enacted with the help of the socialist movement, usually encassed within the Democratic party. I once asked my mother, who was born in 1920, whether she voted for Roosevelt, and she gave me two answers: "No", and "hell no". She remained a staunch opponent of socialism to her dying day. I am still not sure precisely what she thought socialsim is, maybe something akin to big government telling folks what to do; but one thing she knew for sure is that Roosevelt was one of them, and she wasn't having any part of it. She told me that when Social Security started in 1935 when she was a teenager, she and her parents were convinced that that they would never get out of it what they paid into it. In fact, she lived on Social Securiy for twenty seven years, got much more out of it than she ever contributed to it, but probably wouldn't vote for FDR if he ran today. This exemplifies perfectly the confusion most Americans have about exactly what socialism actually is, Americans who enjoy the beneifts of public highways, public schools, and public fire and police protection, even while condeming the dreadful specter of socialism-communism, or whatever, and who vow to resist to the death its incursion into their beloved America, land of the free, and the home of corporate control.

Fessin' Up With the Facts

AND NOW FOR SOME FACTS. Time to set things straight. When someone says it isn't about the money, its about the money. People for whom money maters not don't say that. the ret of us, for whom money matters mcuh, say it, early ad often. When someone that money is just a tool, same story. Why do we do this? Why, to give the impression of being above the fray, of having higher values than thou, of nobility of intent and soul. We wish to conceal our more base motives, like the acquisition of material and liquid wealth. similalry, thos who call themslev geniuses, ike Rush Limbaugh (RIP) and Donald Trump, are not geniuses. Geniuses do not call themselves "geniuses". Rather, they dowengrade their genius to others. Granted, many of us like to think of ourselves as geniuses, and like others to think likewise. As Goethe said, "We are never decieved". We only deceive oursleves". Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the undisputed genius of European literature, said quite a few things, all of which are profoundly wise. He was a true genius, who never even hought about calling himself that. The genius pretenders truly believe their own self flattery, or want to. Also, when somebody says, and you've heard this a million times: "I don't get man very often , but when I do, watch out! (nearly everybody says this) This also is pure rubbish. In fact we all tend to get mildly annoyedvery often, and to get very angry very often, but most of the time we are smart enough to disguise both, or to try to, not wanting to experience the consequences, the reactions of others. We say this becuase we want to project an image of power, and restraint, and again, nobility of mind. "Mind foreruns all conditions, mind is chief, of mind are we made." This is teh opening linie of the Dhammapada, an ancient Buddhist book of wisdom. Obviously this is quite true. We are wht we think. Reality is perception, and so forth. Just as the body is never perfect, and is subject to frequent illnesses, so is the mind. Depression, delusions: the list is long. And indeed depression is a normal, healthy response to life, just as self deception is. It becomes a mental illness only when it becomes so strong as to dominate one's mind, and to render one unble to function normally, as often it does, tragically. Theodore Roethke asked in a poem: "What's madness, but nobility of soul, at odds with circumstance?" But we heal ourselves, mentally, and physically. Sometimes we need a little help. Again, Roethke: "The mind enters itself, and God the mind, and One is One, free in the tearing wind."

The Land of the Free, and the Home of the Socialists: Part I

"AMERICA WILL NEVER BE A SOCIALIST COUNTRY", Donald Trump mis-spoke, as usual. As usual, Donald Trump was dead wrong. Actually, in large part, it (the U.S.) already is a socialist country, and long has been. In 1825 Robert Owen gave two three hour speeches before Congress. Owen, a wealthy businessman manufacturer from Wales, was a socialist ideologically, if not practically. In front of America's political leaders he railed against concentrated wealth, (somewhat hypocritically), against social and economic inequality, and against working class poverty. A regular Bernie Sanders, or maybe George Soros, of his time. But he was optimistic about the future, and predicted the coming of a new system cooperative economics, and a liberation from what he called "the brutality of capitalism". (we're still working on that). Owen called his visionary system "socialism". Sound familiar? Yes, he coined the term "socialism", to use capitalist parlance. John Quincy Adams, James Monroe, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, men well known to everyone, along with several supreme Court justices, listened with interest and qualified agreement, nascent socialists all. They don't teach this in high school, but of course they don't teach a lot of stuff in high school, such as Jefferson's aversion to Christianity and America's quasi-socialist origins. Intellectuals world wide also harkened, many of whom concurred and expanded on this concept in their own writings. Ever since, there has been a numerically sizeable socialist community in the United States, one largely overlooked by hagiographic historians and high school social science classes in Republican states. This communitiy is and alwasy has been of sufficient size to merit the description "mainstream", despite denial of this reality among conservatives and their false historical narratives. For the present, look to Bernie Sanders and his strong support base, which very nearly and still could propel him to the presidency. (If Trump can do it, damned near anybody can.)

Deceiving, Self Esteeming

THE SELF ESTEEMED FORMER PRESIDENT glared menacingly straight into the camera as he sorta perp walked into the courtroom. The camera glared right back, with America looking through it, seeing through the feigned charade of confident defiance. The great narcissist, suddenly camera shy. He tweeted: "Wow. This is surrreal. They're really going to arrest me." As they say, no shit Sherlock? The Donald always had a penchant for being unable to, or refusing to believe the believable, including his own bone deep corruption of many colors. This was the tweet and retweet of a man terrified, in denial. To his credit, Trump kept his mouth shut in court, the first and only time he has ever kept it shut anywhere on Earth, only his eyes betraying his anger and fear. Who wouldn't be (angry and afraid)? His necktie was straight, his hair, as always, perfect. Its the after-arraignment spew venting speech which merits concern. He seems already to have defied the judge's explicit order to tone down the tough talking delusional hate speech: no incitement of mob violence, this time, if you please, sir. A gag order is looming over his beautiful orange haired head. As if the randomly selected judge was chosen for his radical left leaning lunacy, the grand jurors were chosen because of their desire to interfere with the 2024 election. Mr.Trump must be confusing grand jurors with the Russians, but, wait......didn't he actually embrace the Russian election interference? As Trump famously said: "Gimme a break". On the down side or maybe the bright side, Trump is far more entertaining out on the street, than in prison. Folks are mentioning his preferentail treatment at not having been mug shotted and handcuffed. True enough, but, well, what we have, the indictment, the arraignment, and the prospect for more of the same in the future, certainly is far better than nothing.

Beginning the Feeding Frenzy

THE BURGEONING NUMBER of Republican presidential candidates was predictable, as are its consequences. They include so far a governor, two former governors, and a shrill woman form the deep south. There will be more, many more. The longer the campaign goes on, the more who enter the fray, the closer the election looms, the greater will be the acriomious viriole among and between them. They'll attack each other like dogs and cats, consuming each other like maggots on dung. Off will come the "kid" gloves. The current charade of coming to the defense of poor little indicted Trump, a ploy to avoid alienating the G.O.P. rabble, will vanish like dust in the wind. As David Crockett mighta said: " Ah reckon the fur will fly". The tactics can become hilarious. At a recent gathering of the Trump insurrrectionist mob, Trump held forth at his best, hurling insults, hollow platitudes, and dire threats to grand juries and prosecutors. An African-American gentleman stood behind the indicted one, gleefully absorbing every word, screaming like a cheerleader, all for the benefit of the cameras. The racist former president must be made, somehow, to look like something other than a racist. Its an uphill battle, as they say. Make a black man a guest of honor for a moment, why not? Good for street cred for the former prevaricator-in-chief. Apperances, after all, are paramount. In America there must be at least two African-Americans who actually support Trump, Conway West, and maybe somebody else. Probably antother gangstah rapper. On the street below Trump Tower the words "Black Lives Matter" are brightly painted onto the pavement. Trump didn't put them there. Actually, they helped drive him out of town. Trump, for all his wealth, cannot scrub them off, any more than he can cleanse his mind of racism, hatred, and his massive mental edifice of compounding lies. For decades, New York has despised Trump. Finally, he took a hint, and skipped town for conservative, senile Florida. Anything you can say about New York City is true, including that it has good taste and class. The carnival barker, who got confused held a campaign rally after rather than before the election he lost, two weeks before leaving office, used to gladly pose with trophy babes on arm for "The National Enquirer". Glady he insulted and humiliated people on elevision for his amusement, ego, fame, and profit, which was good enough among conservatives to render him ready for the White House. Real classly, those Republicans. Who other than Donald Trump would even consider giving a speech on the night of his arrraignment? How many cameras will he arrange to look into? A criminal, posing as a victim for his cult following to idolize.

Subsidizing Perfidy, Or Respecting The Law

SINCE HIS INDICTMENT, Donald Trump's presidential campaign has become flush with increased contributions. As of indictment day, donations are said to total about seven million dollars, and counting. Hard working people living paycheck to paycheck, sending their disposable income, what litttle there is of it, to a billionaire. To a billionaire who openly boasts about being wealthy, and backs it up by fyling around in a personal passenger jet. To a billioaire who brags aobu this wealth, but does not have a smuch wealth as he wants us to believe. Sending their money to a former prsident who was impeached twice, tried to steal the election after losing it, and then tried to overthrow the American government by organizing a violent mob to storm the Capitol. As we say, "go figure". Eighty percent of registered Republicans consider the pending charges bogus, politically motivated. This is a only a slightly higher percentage than consider the Capitol insurrrection 0f 01/6/21 to have been justified and necesssary, or, as the Republican National Committtee clearly, amazingly says in its official position statement: "legitimate political discourse." The masses of garden variety Rethuglicans apparently endorse this outlandish nonsense. We therefore need not be surprised that they wholly approve of Trump's many instances of obvious criminal behavior, believe all of it to be either acceptable behavior or a hoax, and virulently disapprove of the several pending investigation into Trump, beleiving them all to be works of purely political motivation. Trump is not the first president to have been arrested. U.S. Grant, quite the adrenalin freak, was speeding down Pennsylvania Avenue at full gallop in his horse and buggy in 1872. William West, an African-American police officer, pulled him over, and gave the president a warning. Grant apologized profusely, congratulated the officer for doing his duty, for enforcing the law fairly and equally, and promised not to let it happen again. Quite a difference from Trump's reaction. It happened again. Grant, the speed merchant. This time West had less patience and understanding, and wrote the president a speeding ticket. A date for a court apperarance was set, but Grant failed to appear, electing instead to forfeit his twenty dollar bond. West, a compassionate man of honor, chose not to discuss the incident, nobly foregoing potential profit from its disclosure, preferring to save Grant any public himmiliation. (When a culprit is courteous, deferential, and contrite with law, good things happen to said perp.) He waited until 1908, thirteen years after Grant's death from throat cancer, to report the episode, which was verified by others. Grant, a chain cigar smoker, barely lived long enough to complete his seminal autobiography, which he intended to provide financial assistance to his surviving gamily, which indeed it did. In the lengthy book he did not mention the incident, possibly from embarassment. Naturally, most autobiographies are hagiographic, tending to emphasize the subject's virtues, and to interr the embarassing with their own bones, as Shakespeare might have said. Thus Trump's dilemma is not altogether an historical first. In reconstruction era America, African-Americans could become police officers, and tended not to murder the the people they arrested, and blacks were elected to political office, if only at the point of the guns of the American army. Not all history is progrees. It often lapses into cycle of regression, as we witness currrently.

Changing the Plan

"THE CRHRISTIAN RELIGION BEGAN as an abortive political uprising which turned moral". (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe). The Hebrew people, long subjugated by the Roman empire after having been simililarly subjugated by other empires well known to even the most nascent student of biblical history, seethed with discontent beneath the boots of their oppressors. They longed for a prophesized messiah, a military strongman messiah who would appear and lead them out of oppression and to freedom. By "messiah" they meant conquering hero and liberator, not prophet. None appeared. Then came the rabbi Joshua ben Joseph, who through translations into Greek and Latin became known as "Jesus". His message, of acquiesence to Roman power (render unto Caesar), emphasis on eternal afterlife rather than temporal earthly life, and pacifism, did not please them, although it attracted a fairly large band of followers, followers who understand the futlitly of resisting the Romans and found his promise of eternal life hereafter appealing. They knew they were destined to endure misery their entire lives, and were willing to so do in exchange for eventual unending bliss. The compromised, "aternative reality" as Trump followers might say, gained popularity, and spread rapidly by Saul of Tarsus turned saint Paul, among others. Obviously, its an appealing message for anyone, now or then, whose life is filled with suffering, as all lives are. Hence, the cult of the Hebrew prophet turned spiritual messsiah-savior spread throughout the Mediterrean basin and Romam Empire, using the well developed road system of the empire. For whom is the christian message not appealing, in its rudimentary form? With it, one can essentially escape death. "Pure was Jesus in his passion, in his heart but one God serving. Who of him a God would fashion, from his sacred will is swerving". (Goethe). The first followers simply called their message "the truth". The term "Christ", meaning savior, and "Christian" evolved later, cannonized, along with the Bible, at the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D..Jesus knew where his bread was buttered, and quickly recongized, as he became popular, that he would be perceived as a threat to the Hebrew power extablishment. Therefore he was quick to remind anyone within earshot that he came not to challenge existing Hebrew law, the "Old Testament", but merely to augment and amplify it. A good way to avoid trouble, and prosecution. Obviously, it didn't pan out. The notion that Christ knew from the outset that he was "God", knew that he would be tortured to death, and that his death would redeem the eternal souls of all who worshipped him, is highly questionable. A new religion thus emerged from within the old, and thus, today's Christian community has a "love-hate" relationship with Judaism. Actually, Jesus became a God, part God, part human, by being elected to the position at the council of Nicea, after a vigorous debate, whereat all the basic Christian dogma sprang into existence at the behest of the Roman Emporer Constantine, whose intent was to standardize the religion for his own political purpose, he having converted to it for the same reasons, pesonal, political. He too knew where his bread was buttered within the framework of the rapidly spreading faith, which by that time was clearly destined to conquer the Roman empire, despite its strenuous initial opposition from the Roman establishment. The Christian religion, a cult gone viral, has always been a work kn progress, and still is. There is a different version of Christianity every century, and although, like all religions, it seems destined to wither away in the future, we have yet to see its final version.