FINISHING

THERE MUST BE a million unfinished novels in the world, a million unfinished poems, a million unfinished songs, and a million unfinished symphonies, lost in attics, gathering dust. The most famous of thie unfinished genre is surely Schubert's Unfinished Symphony, Symphony #8. In an era when all symphonies had four movements, this one has but two. Schubert moved on. He completed Symphony number nine, and oter works, but never came back to the Unfinished Symphony and wrote two more movements. Its one of my favorite compositions. Both movements are surpassingly beeautiful, both built a simple but strong melody which gets into your blood and stays there. Sometimes I wonder why Schubert, when he realized that he was going to add nothing more to what he already had, didn'tsiply declare the work complete, call it "Symphony No. 8, Abbreviated", or something, or just present it to the world, as is, both movements, and let other people give it subtitles, as happens often in classical music. We know that Schubert fully intended to complete a standardfour movemetn symphony, which is perhpas why he never pulled the stunt I would have, of declaring the composition "complete" as is. He sketched out a rough draft of a third movement, but never finished it, nor composed a fourth movement. Many musicologists believe that for the fourth movement, Schubert intended to use a version of the overture for one of his operas, because the orchestration is the same for both works, and they are both in the same key. Along came a modern composer who actually finished the third movement, using what Cshubert had already sketched out, keeping it true to Schubert as best he could. I do not know how he came to have permission to embark on this project, nor if he even needed it. Then, he wrote a fourth movement, based heavily on the operatic overture that Schubert would probably have used, in an imitation of Schubert's style. We don't know why Schubert didn't finish this syphony. Schubert left many many works unfinished; its seems to have been simply a part of his personality, I heard the completed version of the Unfinihed Symphony for the first time recently, and I whole heartedly approve. To me, it sounds exactly the way I think Schubert would have made it sound, both new movements fitting in perfectly. Franz Schubert only lived to thirty one years old, and yet, he wrote an incredible amount of great music. Maybe, had he lived long, in his later years he would have gone back and finished the compositions he had left unfinished decades earlier. Generally speaking, when people abandon an unfinished project, they seldom return to it later to complete it. Franz Schubert was, as mentioned earlier, a notorious non finisher. H eleft a substantial number of compositions, including many symphonies, unfinished. I have no idea whether other people, since Schubert's deah in 1823 at only 31, have since finished or tried to finish any of them.tI have no idea what that would entail, legally, with regard to Schubert's estate. Today's talented crop of modern classical composers oul probably do an amazing job of completing all of Schubert's unfinished works. But woule that actually be desierable? Or it it be better to accept what we have gratefully, and to leave his, and other's. incomplete works in their eternal, incomplete state? The recently complete Unfinished Symphony is a wonoderful work of music. But, on balance I think that I prefer the original, eternal "Unfinished Symphony" #8 by Schubert in two beautiful movements, as is. It sounds beautiful no matter whether you add anything to it or not.

Shutting Down

AS YET ANOTHER GOVERNMENT shutdown loomed larger, it became more relevant than ever to inquire into the causes, and possible solutions. Ultimately blame for the shutdown, whether or not it actually happens, belongs to us, the American people. After all, its our government. It shouldn't get this close. It never should have or should reach this point. The fact that we the American people seem to prefer a divided government, with Congress and the Presidency in the hands of more than one party, perhpas to accurately reflect a divided country, has long been observed. The divisions in the governent and throughout the country, are obvious, and seem greater and less resolvable than ever. Another obvious reality is that the most extraordinary development in American politics over the past few years, since, say, the rise of Obama, is the rise of the Trump movement. No matter what in particular is happening in American political life nowadays, chances are that the Trump movement had something to do with it, either through instigating it or responding to it. The problem with Congress is precisely of that nature. The Trump movement is attractive to the most extreme elements within the conservative community and the Republican party, the white supremecists, racists, far right religious community, and so forth. The Congressional Republican delegation, in both houses, is fundamentally and largely made up of Trump supporters. The extremests is the house, including some of the most maligned members of Congress, numbering about twenty, call themselves "The Freedon Caucus", and seperate themselves from the rest of the party. They should probably form their own party. They are the problem. It seem inevitale that the Republican party should be divided over Trump; even among conservatives, incitement to insurrrection, and ninety other felony charges, is enough to inspire second thoughts about a politician, former president or not. The majority mainstream republicans, much more willing to compromise with Democrats, are already blaming their fellow Republican Freedom Caucusers for the stalemate over funding the government, and they also know that the American people are very likely to blame the Republicans generally, and that the blame will quite possibly be reflected in the polls and voting booths in a little over a year. The first government shutdown I can remember occured during the Clinton administration, in 1995. Since then, there have been about ten more. It is becmoning more common. The extreme right wing of the Republican party, causing the problem with the government funding itself, is not part of the mainstream American political spectrum. The American people do not generally support their agenda Assuming that Trump continues his drive to the G.O.P. presidential nomination, and that all across the country many Republican candidates for state and local office run by supporting Trump and his agenda, the American people will have ample opportunity to express their preference for or against Trumpism. Going forward, Trumpism will by necessity include election delialism and approval of violent insurrection.

Going Lower Than Ever

THE REPUBLICANS have gone low before; arguably they often do, but this might be the lowest yet. Your average conservative Republican seems to have no idea exactly how low Donald Trump has taken the party, how deeply in the mud it is mired, because he is. It has gotten bad. I refer to the impeachment "inquiry" now going on in the House of Representatives. There is absolutely no halfway sensible reason for having an "impeachment inquiry" into President Biden. There is simply nothing there, no evidence of any crimes by the president, nothing upon which to base this tawdry theatrical display, including Hunter Biden. Sure, Hunter Biden may have, many times, taken advantage of his father's name to get special treatment. But there is no evidence that if he did, Joe Biden had any knowledge of it, nor anything at all to do with it. What motivates the Republicans has nothing to do with the pursuit of justice; its all about hatred. They want to bring down Joe Biden so badly, that they are basically willing to do about anything to accomplish it. Ironic, that they classify the exposure of Donald Trump's crimes as a "witch hunt". The real witch hunt is the one they are subjecting President Biden to. It has been made clear in the testimony of several key witnesses that nobody has any evidence against the President. Perhaps this whole proceeding will get laughed out of court, and out of the news. The desperation with which they are grasping at straws is astonishing. One would expect better of them, something at least a bit more plausible, and creative.It may backfire. This fake action against President Biden will soon blow over and be forgotten, while Donald Trump's legal entanglements and circumstances become increasingly complicated, and worse for him, drawing ever more media and public attention. Assuming a Biden versus Trump presidential race, what are the Democrats going to talk about on the campaign trail? "So, what happened with Trump in court today? I didn't get a chance to watch". Going into next year, Trump's various trials; he is now under indictment in at least five jurisdictions, looking at ninety one felony charges, will consume ever more of Trump's time and effort, distracting from the presidential campaign. Next year, Donald Trump'll be a very busy boy. If I am Biden, or on Biden's team, which in a sense I am, I'm not gonna just ignore Trump, and pretend that his situation is different from what it actually is, which, all things considered, is not especially conducive for running for president, we might agree. Surely we can all agree on that, if nothing else. That if you were running for president, you would probably prefer not to be in the legal situation Donald Trump is now in. Won't Biden, on the campaign trail, just be content to say "How in the hell can Donald Trump really be president from prison"? And leave it at that? True, according to the polls, if the election were held today, Trump would win, astonishingly. But that might change. Considering that most Americans are against banning abortions, most do not like book banning or infringing on the rights of LGBTQ people - the whole G.O.P. conservative agenda is not well regarded by most Americans. As Trump's legal difficulties expand, and become ever more apparent and publicized, it will not help his campaign for president. It will begin to be a drag on it, and will eventually bring it down. And that is why, and only why, they are now trying so desperately go after Biden - to change the subject. This Biden impeachment charade will divert attention from Trump slightly, for a short period of time, but the conversation is always going to come back to Trump, because Trump wants it to.

Talking Cats, Not Beer

MY LIQUOR STORE is way out in the country, and I don't drink much. When I drive thru, the ladies are all hard core country, not very friendly. This time, the blonde handed me back my debit card, and shut the window. No beer. A moment of shock and horror. In about two seconds she reopened it, chuckled, and joked, mumbling: "that was rude". Then she handed me my beer. Greatly relieved, I said; "No prolbem. But that's happened here several times. The lady over there did it to me about a week ago, I recall". She said: "We were having a conversation about cats,", as if cats automatically cause people to forget about beer. I replied: "Oh good! I love cats. I'll just sit here an listen!" Said she: "We have several that we are trying to find homes for. I hope we don't have to take thenm to the animal shelter". Me: "So do I. Its better to fix 'em, vaccinate 'em, and let 'em run free. Stray cats seem to get along fairly well. They seem to find enough to eat, generally." She didn't like this. I 9quickly pointed out that I was talking about only a last resort to avoid killing cats; I intended to emphasize the spay and neutering aspect. But she still wasn't happy. Grudginegly she acknowledged that she's rather a cat live as a stray than be euthenized because its a nuisance to humans. But she went on. "Song birds are disappearing. Some have already vanished. I think we need to reintroduce them back into the ecosystem. We need to protect birds. She went on talking about the apparent drastic decrease in the general bird population over the recent past, and about how stray cats prey on birds, and so forth. I already knew all about it, of course. Estimates are than cats in the United States kill as least one billion birds every year, maybe two or three times that number. Plus, over the past fifty years, bird populations have diminished becaue of other human activities, such as air and water pollution, destruction of habitat, pesticides, etc. Overall, there has evidently been aat least a one third decrease n the general bird population. She spoke in a rather confident, aggressive manner, as if she really had to seriously emphasize her point so that I would be able to understand it, and would have the good sense and decency to agree with her. Really, she didn't need to. I was a bird fan efore you were born, kid..no, I didn't say that. I didn't say anything, except I kept nodding "yes" to her, smiling, and making eye contact, and repeating: "yes"....."I agree"..."sure". Her presentation was articulate, and persuasive. I have vaguely known this woman for several years, but have only engaged in the briefest, most cursory converstaion with her. She and I don't seem to be too terribly fond of each other, somehow. Within one minute she said more to me at the drive thru liquor window about saving birds than she had ever said to me before, about anything, more than she is ever likley to say to me again, at one time or altogether, about anything. And, the truth is, I found myself admiring her, happy that an apparently only informally educated liquor store employee would know enough and care enough about environmental health to hold forth so well. Maybe, after all, there is hope... When she seemed to be finished, I enthusiastically reiterated only that I fully, completely agreeed with her, and thanks for the beer! (which she almost forgot to give me). What I did not do was try to talk to her, to say "I already knew all that" to her, or anything conveying irritation with her for her aggressive, lecturing style. Some battles are better left unfought. I smiled, and stepped on the gas. There was a car in line behind me, thank goodness.

The Psychology of Denying Climate Change

IT IS ABSOLUTELY THE MOST AMAZING, or among the most amazing sociologoical, behavioral phenomena I have ever seen, in a world filled to the brim with amazing sociological, behavioral phenomena. I am referring of course to climate change denial. I often see a Facebook post, which I have mentioned before,urging bipartisan action to fight climate change. To me, that's a good idea, even though I wonder how possible or likely it is. AT this point, it is very hard to imagine conservative Republicans suddenly chomping at the bit to work with Democrats to fight climate ahange. I always read the comments people put below the post. Every comment is from a climate change denier, and nearly all the comments have the same message: The climate changes naturally. They either stipulate that it changes all toe time, including now, or,they stipulate that it has changed many times in the past. That's all. They say nothing else, ever. As if they are providing a startling revelation of an esoteric truth. They do the same thing in person; make their comments about natural climate change, and then say nothing further. What more need they say? They never say that the claim that humnan activity is causing climate change is wrong, but that is exactly what they mean, and what they assume we'll understand, as if we didn't already know that the climate changes naturally. Dear climate deniers, you needn't remind us that the climate changes. We already know that. To the deniers, this naturally changing climte somehow, magically, mysteriously prevents humans from impacting, changing the climate. It does not. Whether the climate naturally changes constantly, seldom, or never at all, the natural change has nothing to do with human activities and their impact on changing the climate. the fact that deniers so conveniently believe that it does, and that everyone should easily understand why, exposing the purely emotional nature of their thinking, bypassing reason in favor of a more comfortable if false reality. Often as they explain that the climate changes all by itself, they write and speak articulately, intelligently, even persuasively: "The earth'climate, over a long period of time, changes naturally, according to natural cycles which humans have no control over. Its all in God's hands":...Its all in God's hands...Yes, some of them actually say that. We can see how mass delusion are self perpetuating, self reinforcing. It reminds one of the mass delusion of election denial, many of whom the same people are climate deniers. The question to ask is: "Since you know that the climate changes naturally, and just told me, do you suppose all of the thousands of climate scientists know it as well? Do the scientsts know that the climate changes naturally? Sure they do, right? Even though they know it changes naturally, they still say that we humans are changing the climate, warming the atmosphere, with carbon emmisions. If the current climate change were indeed a natural event rather then man made, do you think the climate scientists would figure that out, and stop talking about human made climate change? Climate deniers all seem to think that tey understand climate patterns better than the experts, better than the scientists who have been studying the environment their entire lives. climate change is now plainly visible, as well as its cause. Peopl who deny this reailty replace it iwth their own invented one, a reality in whcih some all powerful being in the sky controls everything, and therefure we needn't be concerned about our activities being harmful, nor how to repair whatever damage we have already done, which is none.

Conforming, Extremely

EVERY SOCIETY BY NATURE establishes social norms and values, for the sake of social cohesion. Those whose behavior strays outside these limits experiences the consequences of their nonconformity, often negative. The rule is: conform or be outcast. In American culture, which espouses the virtues of individual freedom, there are certain social constraints within which people are expected to remain. Over the past few years, there has been much talk in the media, particularly social media, about the increase in "extremism" in American society. This is reflected in the number of websites devoted to non mainstream ideologies, and the apparent drastic increase in the number of what are considered "extremist" organizations, devoted to ideologies outside the accepted social norms. Some analysts have traced the rise in extremism in America to the political rise of Donald Trump, and his incendiary political style, and style of speaking. A true demagogue, Trump likes to exhort and encourage his listeners to states of anger and resentment, as in the famous speech of January 6, 2021, (go to the Capitol and fight!) which precipitated a violent insurrection. The names of some of the more prominent extremist groups are well known: The Proud Boys, The Oath Keepers, The Two Percenters (or is it three percent?)...Numerous white nationalist and Christian nationalist groups have sprung into existence in recent times. Various forms of what can be called "exremism" manifest from both ends of the political spectrum. On the left, in recent years, has come the "Black Lives Matter" movement, the gay and LGBTQ rights movement, both of which had existed for decades, and have accomplished much progress. The anti-Viet Nam War protest movement was a phenomenon of the far left, which eventually grew to include mainstream sectors of society. There is a growing protest movement, world wide, against the failure of governments and corporations to address climate change, a left wing movement. Conservatives, especially in the United States, have shown no inclination to advocate strongly for changes necessary to preserve the environment and fight climate change. On the extreme end of the conservative spectrum come the Christian antionalist movement, which seeks to formally turn the United States into a Christian nation, with biblical law and values forming the foundation of the legal and social system. The white supremecist movement, which includes anti-semitism as well as anti black and anti brown ideologies, is an example of conservative values becoming extreme. To review, far left wing extremism includes advocating for equality, social, and all other kinds, for gay and LGBTQ people, and for black and brown people. Protests against environmental damage is a far left wing phenomenon. None of these causes seeks to exclude straight white people, but only to elevate all others to their level of societal acceptance. Barry Goldwater famously said that "Extremism in the cause of liberty is no vice". With regard to left wing extremism, this indeed seems to be true. No decent human being can possibly argue that it is wrong to advocate for fair and equal treatment of everyone, regardless of skin color or sexual orientation. But what about extremisn on the far right? White supremacy is not in any way, shape, or form trying to advocate for social equality. Quite the opposite, it seeks to place "white" people in a position of superiority. Nor does Cristian nationalism seek religious equality, but rather, preferential status for a single religion. On balance, all things considered,an argument could be made that left wing extremism benefits society, while right wing extremism harms society, and therefore, all of us.

Telling It Like It Is

YESTERDAY PRESIDENT BIDEN flew to Michigan, went straight to the UAW workers striking picket lines, and joined the crowd. He grabbed a megaphone, and yelled into it, dressed in working clothes, and looking like any other worker on strike. His message, roughly, was this: "When the pandemic hit three and a half years ago, the American economy shut down Without any vaccine, we had to isolate, and quarantine. Everyody suffered, in many ways. You working people agreed to take a big hit in your personal financial situation, in order to help save the comapny to keep the compnay going until someday the pandemic would end, and we could get back to work. Finally, when teh pandemic abated some, we got back to work,and the workers of America once again stepped forward and got the country and the economy back on its feet. Now, three years later, the economy is recovering rapidly, mainly becaue of your hard work, dedication to your company, and love of your country. Now, corporate profits have never been higher. Now it is time for you, the people who made this great recovery possible, to be rewarded for your contribution to this great economic turnaround. The new wealth and profits of this company, your company, should be shared with the working people who produced the wealth." The president's message was very well received, as you might imagine. One day later, one day after the president's inspiring visit with the striking workers,, Donald Trump planned to go to Michigan, for the purpose of, as he said : "To save the workers" He said: "I just love the workers, and I will go there and save them". Yes, he really said that. Incredible, that anybody would say something like that, even Donald Trump. Obviously, his psychopathic, delusional narcissism is getting worse. We await his words. Trump is not going to speak, or even appear, with a crowd of union automotive workers. Instead, he is going to give a speech at a non union corporate facility, a parts distrubution center of some sort. Again, non union. What will he say? Maybe,"my friends, I am the victim of another witch hunt. You may have heard that a deranged judge in New York has found me guilty of financial fraud, without any evidence, even though I did nothing wrong". The only way I can help you, the only way I can "save" you, is if you stand solidly behind me in fighting off these bogus charges, so I can once again lead you in making Amrica great again". You can almost imagine him saying things like that, and you can almost imagine his hand picked right wing audience to gleefully cheer for him when he says them. Of this, you can be sure:Trump will spend more time and enrgy talking about his misfortunes and unfair treatment than that of the workers. Never in his sordid sleazy life has Trump shown the slightest concern for and interest in the conditions of working people, and he isn't about to start now. He will not shout in defiance:"Workers of the world unite, you have only your chains to lose"! What he will offer is vague, plaintive platitudes about how badly things are going in America, all because Joe Biden, rather than Donald Trump, is president. Vague, rambling nonsense talk, the usual Trump crap. Trump is hoping for a publicity opportunity to offset the Repbulcian debate, which e is wisely avoiding. Why should he participate in a debate with his opponents when he has a forty two point lead over the next closes Republcian? Better to be seen on TV, pretending to give a damn about working people.

Running For President, Regardless

WHEN YOU RUN FOR PRESIDENT, there are certain things you automatically know, or should know. Among them,you know that you will be getting a lot of attention, and, if you are not already famous, you will be. You know that your life, past and present, will be closely examined by legions of journalists and historians, among other people, and that whatever mistakes you have made, whatever bad choices you have made and nefarious actions you have commmitted; people, probably many people, are going to find out about them. This fact makes Donald Trump's entire political career since 2015 so spectacularly amazing, the mere fact that he did what he did, pursued power and even more fame, deliberately sought the power and fame and attention and scrutiny inherent in running for president. Donald Trump has been lying, cheating, and stealing his entire life. That fact was made obvious, demonstrated and confirmed over and over, by the end of his term as president, because of the dozens, seemingly hundreds, of books about him written and published by people who have been and in some cases still are very close to the Donald, and know him very well, and shared much in print, much of it damaging to Donald. There is a common theme to these revealing books; that Donald Trump is and always has been an entitled, privileged narcissist with absolutely no decent moral character whatsoever, who is willing to do anything to get what he wants, no matter how horrible, brutal, or illegal. Surely, in the name of common sense, when Trump was deciding whether to run for president, the thought came to his small mind that some, maybe much, maybe all of his shady deeds would probably come to light. It almost seems as if he knew, but didn't care. Why should he? All he has to do is deny, deny, and lie, and hit the accusors back with worse accusations - we all, by now, know Trump's methods. This civil lawsuit conviction in New York, while indeed civil and not criminal, nonetheless convicts Trump of a multitude of criminal acts, for which he will pay dearly, financially, but won't, sadly, be sent to prison. And of course he'll once again play the part of the poor mistreated victim, hounded by the forces of evil, liberals, democrats, trump haters who will do anything to bring Donald Trump down, so you, dear followers, must rally together behind your dear leader, to protect him from the forces of evil, aka, the American legal and criminal justice system. Very soon he'll spend more time with the UAW strikers talking about his mistreatment than about theirs; bank on it. Trump, over the next few months, will be spending more and more of his time in court, with the charges against him in full view, day after day. We will see how his political opponents as well as his supporters react to that. The evidence of Trump's financial crimes is so obvious that the judge ruled on it without bothering to have a trial, which is his perogative. According to New York law, Trump may appeal if and only if there was a demonstrable mistake made in applying the law in this case, which was brought by the Prosecutor on behalf of the people of New York. There was not; again, you can bank on it. Inflating the value of his properties and wealth to get favorable lender conditions is only half of the Trump criminal equation. Just as often he has lied about his wealth, deliberately, greatly underestimating it, for tax purposes. We will be hearing more about that, along with the rest of the vast and repidly expanding Trump criminal universe. But no matter how dire Trump's legal situation becomes - and its going to get a lot worse before it gets better for him - his loyal, sycophantic cult followers will indeed rally around him, and maybe, just maybe, elect him as president next year. That is not as improbable as it may seem; If the election were held today, he would win. That very thought is simultaneously horrific, and hilarious.

The Changing Climate

THE SECRET to getting long with Trump supporters is avoiding political discussions with them. By now, millions of people have either figured that out, or acquired the habit of avoiding Trump supporters altogether. The best way to get along with climate change deniers, who generally tend to be the same people who support Trump, is probably to never mention climate change to them. The last person I mentioned it to, a good friend of mine who is also a Trump supporter with whom I never discuss politics, looked at me dismissively and said, "You don't really believe in that stuff, do you?", as if belief in climate change were tantamount to some superstitious nonsense, which to them, it is. At some point, however, somebody must find a way to educate and elucidate climate deniers, for the benefit of human climate cooperation; so far, nobody seems to ahve accomplished that lofty goal. Deniers, at long last, have largely given up on the argument that climate chage is a hoax perpetrated by the liberal media or politicians looking to increase government power in our lives. That argument, in context with the reality that most people accept climate change as observable fact, including everyone who understands science, has become silly to the point of sounding ridiculous, which it indeed is. Most people have heard the current climate denier argument of choice: that the climate changes all the time, naturally, or that it changes often, naturally, and is has nothing to do with human activity. Climate scientist Michael Mann has probably heard this argument more than most of us, so he decided to do something about it. He wrote a book , titled "Our Fragile Moment", about the history of cimate change, going back millions of years. The conservaives who use the natural climate change argument, as if this fact somehow prevents human beings from impacting the climate, lack a basic understanding of science, and their stating of the obvious fact that the cimate changes naturally seems to imply that they think they have something to teach about science, as if they are sharing a revelation. We already know that the cliamte changes by itself. Not only that, we know quite a bit, through science, about when the changes have occured, and what caused them. Michael Mann discusses all the major changes, bringing us up to date with the most recent natural change, in about 1850, when the roughly three hundred year "Little Ice Age" came to an end, and winters in North America became far less brutal than they had been throughout the entire American colonial period. We also know a great deal about current climate change, and the direct causal relationship of human industral activity, pouring billions of tons of carbon into the atmosphere every year, which we are still very much still doing, alarmingly. Michael Mann's monograph is written in scientific language, and at times can seem rather dense to lay people, but he makes his central point quite effectively ; that we already know that the climate changes of its own accord, but that this natural climate change in no way prevents humans from having their own impact on the climate, which we are now in the process of doing, dangerously. Michael Mann helps us draw lessons about adaptability from climate change history, and his narrative gives us hope, that through our adaptive capabilities, by changing our habits, and by using technology available to us now, we can sufficiently mitigate future climate change to preserve a habitable planet for our descendants. Referring to this excellent scientific work is a good way of responding to the denier's lame natural climate change argument by simply saying: "I already knew that".

Phoning

I WAS ELEVEN YEARS OLD when I was mesmerized by the hit new TV show, Star Trek, starring William Shatner, in 1966. The technology and special effects, which seem to quaint and primitive today, amazed and inspired me. Photon torpedos, tricorders,transporters, and,a bove all others,communicators caught my attention and imagination.I wanted to have a communicator.We got walkie talkies for Christas about the same year, and they were wonderful, but, somehow, not quite the same. Telephones in 1966 were big, bulky black boxes which were immobile, and when they rang, either you answered the phone, or you had no idea who just called. A cell phone was an idea from the far future, pure science fiction. Many years later, the man who invented and patented the design for the first cell phone said that he got his inspiration from the communicator devices on Star Trek; I am not alone in my admiration of Trek tech. That little chirping sound that communicators made when calling out or receiving a call were particularly appealing to me. About three decades later actual cell phone made their appearance; I first become aware of them in te early to mid nineteen nineties,but by that time I was pushing forty,and evidently the magic had worn off. I recall listening to talk radio shows, and it seemed that everytime somebody called the show using a cell phone, they were given special treatment, moved to the head of the caller list, because in those days, when using a cell phone, you never knew when you were going to lose contact, ending the conversation, especially if you were calling while driving, which, it seemed, everybody was doing.I still recall that throughout the decade of the nineties it seemed as if most people driving a car were simultaneously talking on a cell phone, on purpose, as if to convey an impression of wealth and social status. I was unimpressed. I didn't even bother to get my first cell phone until I was fifty, in 2005. For a few weeks, until I grew up, I may have been guilty of doing some driving and talking of my own. I got my first smart phone, I think its actually an "I Phone", earlier this year, a few months ago, at the belated age of sixty eight. Rarely does it leave the house with me, I don't send or receive text messages nor take pictures of my lunch to post on Facebook, and I never look at the thing for more than a few seconds at a time, two or three times a day. Had I been among the first in line, back in 2007, to get one of Steve Job's internet phones, who knows? I might have gotten smart phone started at a more impressionable time of my life, and might, to this very day, be walking around like a zombie, hours every day, the phone a few inches in front of my face,my eyes glued to the screen, hour, after hour...I like to think not, but, again, you never know. As far as I can tell, many people still do that, especially the young and the restless. There will probably come a time when smart phones are so ubiquitous, so common, that people stop getting addicted to them. We can hope. During the last decade more than five hundred journalists, world wide, have been murdered. Journailsits by nature are often adventure seeking risk takers, and end up in dangerous places covering and reporting on controversial stories involving powerful people, who are not always scrupulous. A nosy journalist can get in the way. become a problem to be eliminated. Journalists also frequently report that their phones often do things on their own, without any propting or action at all by their owner, as if they are reciving commands and instructions from an unknown source. Wealthy, powerful people, sometimes the employeers of journalists, often find it beneficial to find out exactly what communication is taking place on the journalist's phone. People, ordinary citizens, often tell me that the very moment they show interest or express interest in some consumer prodcut, they receive an ad for the product on their computer, or smart phone. That seems spooky to me, because I suspect that something similar has happened to me. If and when I can say for certain that it is happening, I might toss my smart phone in the garbage, and run like hell. I'm not so sure all this technology is as wonderful as it was cracked up to be when I was a child, longing for it.

Trump, Outdoing Himself, Undoing Democracy

OF ALL THE HORRIBLE THINGS Donald Trump has done since entering presidential politics in the summer of 2015, and they are so numerous as to be essentially innumerable, the absolute worst, arguably, is his denial of his election loss to Biden in 2020, and his continued insistence that he in fact won. Two terrible aspects of this stand out. One, that simple, factual revelation of the facts clearly show that the big election lie was a well orchestrated, very intricately planned conspiracy by Trump and his cohorts to steal the election from Biden, and secondly, that the lie was from the outset so transparently obvious, that nobody should have even considered believing it for one moment. Instead, nearly seventy five million people beieved both dishonest words (we won), most of whom still do. In effect, the conspiracy now consists of tens of millions of co cospirators, a few instigators in the inner circle, and tens of millions of bad citizen co conspirators throughout the United States. Fortunately, Trump himself, and many of his inner circle of conspirators are now indicted and preparing to stand trial for their election crimes. Unfortunately, there are about seventy five million bad citizens in this country who should also be on trial, but are not, and never will be. It all started with Trump, but those who now, more than two and a half years later, still refuse to call the lie a lie, are themsleves no better to Trump, having reduced themselves to his level of criminality by their cooperation with his. Two weeks before the election, according to sworn testimony given by Ivanka Trump, her father said to her: "No matter what happens in the election, we'll just say that we won. Fuck it". Case closed. It really should be that simple. Instead, the very foundtions of American democracy have been shakened and maybe irrepairably broken. It has already become more the norm to question election results, to claim voter fraud, and to demand one vote recount after another, needlessly, even without any real evidence to the claims of fraud. The cost to taxpayers for doing this is enormous. It is enormous financially, and enormously costly to democracy itself, which is at best a tenuous form of government heavily reliant on the acceptance, belief, faith, and support of the electorate. We can expect this suspicion of election results to continue, to become the "new normal" as we like to say. Of all the trained experienced election workers on the job working the voting places in 2020, more than one half of them have left their election worker jobs, fearful of attack by disenchanted voters. Their fears are very real, and very justified. Attacks on poll workers, both verbal, written, and physical, have increased dramatically since Trump started the process with his big lie, perhaps the most devastating lie in history, certainly in American history. Throughout the U.S.,there is a lingering, residual, chronic shortage of poll workers, and positions are of necessity being filled by new, inexperienced workers. New workers in any profession make more mistakes than experienced workers; going forward, we can expect the number of human mistakes in the voting process to proliferate, inciting even more complaints of voter fraud by losing candidates. Ironically, before Trump's big lie, the actual instances of human mistakes in national elections, indeed in all elections, was miniscule, too few to even mention or worry about. Now, that may be changing, as if in some sordid manner the purveyors of the big lie are bringing about the fulfillment of their own false prochecies. A good psychiatrist or hypnotist could probably prove that nearly all of the folks who claim that the electio was stolen from Trump really do not believe it, and never have, but are trapped by their own enthusiasm for their cult leader Trump, by their pride, and by stupid choices into clinging to the false claim,as Trummp himself is similarly trapped into continuing his lie. Over the coming years, history will record Trump's big election lie, and the social phenomenon it spawned, as among the most nefarioius episodes in American political history. Whether the damage done can and will ever be fully repaired is another matter.

Imposing a Far Right Agenda

AMONG THE MOST ALARMING TRENDS in American politics is the recent tendency for conservative, Republican states to elect super majority Republican state legislatures, and to impose a far right wing legislative agenda on the state. Its happened all over the country, is still happening, and arouses the fearful question of how far will it go? Suppose, for instance, that Trump gets elected in 2024, along with Republican majorities in both the Congressional House and Senate. It may be unlikely, but very possible. Undoubtedly the first major piece of legislation would be to criminalize all abortions in every state in the country. American women would be trying to get overseas to have abortions, or resort to the old tried and tragic method of coat hangers in dark alleys. The far right uses deception inlabeling to achieve its nefarious objective. Legislation passe in states intnded to destroy labor unions to drive down the cost of labor is misleadingly called "right to work" laws,as if they were liberating people from oppression, defending freedom and liberty, rather then actually doing quite the opposite. Conservatism in its current form is very anti-union, and very pro billionaire busiess and corporate owner. All the various pieces of legislation limiting discussion of racism in publi schools, prohibiting any references to sexual orientation or LGBTQ people,and banning books are given positive sounding names, like the "LEARNS ACT" in Arkansas, are part of a more conprehensive nationwide conservative agenda: to win the culture war on behalf of conservatism, to turn the United States into a legally right wing country, one piece of legislation at a time. Takig over the Supreme Court was a big part of the plan, and electing right wing lawmakers in as many states as possible, who in turn appoint right wing judges, furthers the process The United States is moving in the direction of a complete ban on abortion throughout the country, one sate at a time, regardless of circumstances. Some federal judges are slowing down the process, but not enough to stop it... Their ultimate goal is, again, the complete abolition of abortion rights nationwide. Consider some of the books being banned, or being onsidered for banning. Among them are some of the greatest novels in literary history, such as "The Grapes of Wrath", by John Steinbeck, and "The Jungle" by Upton Sinclair. Both of these novels were written in the eraly part of the twentieth century, before labor unions and labor laws had elevated teh working person to a level of respetability. Both novels tell the story of poor hard laborers, struggling to keep their demeaning jobs and also feed their families, which they barely can do. both novels were written by socially conscious writers who wanted to elucidate the truth about the plight of the working class in twentieth cantury America. Bot books are, in essence scathig attakcs on the greed and brutality of unregulated corporate capitalism, in which workers were abused and discarded like garbage. Both of these seminal works of historically accurate fiction aroused the conscienceness of millions of Americans, which resulted in popular activism which brought about funadmental changes in labor laws and conditions.Both should be required reading in every high school in America.The scathing attack on corporate capitalism is what right wingers don't like; capitalism, more than Christianity, is their true religion. Its amazing, however, in a way, that social critique novels written more than a hundred years ago, and advocating only for what today we consider basic rights, can still evoke such resentment among far right extremists. It just goes to show how backward and behind the times they are.

Thinking the Unthinkable

FOR THE PAST FEW WEEKS, polls have indicated a very close race between Biden an Trump,usually about forty two forty two, Trump sometimes ahead by a point. Of course, its early, and the polls mean little. But, still...The mere fact that Trump is running,the fact that he appears to be the inevitable Republican presidential candidate,the fact that he is apparenty currently ahead in the polls,and, worse of all,the fact that he very well could be elected and become once again the president of these Unted States...is shocking. Suddenly, there is one poll, a poll which is regarded as an "outlier", which has Trump ahead by nine points, shockingly. Surely this is not accurate...Neither Trump nor Biden is popular, nor ever, within recent memory, ever have been. Trump's unfavorable rating has from the beginning of his controversial political career ranged far ahead of his favorable rating. Both Biden and Trump, frankly, need, by popular consensus, to retire, and leave the governing to the next generation. Objectively, honestly, Biden has done will; his policies are working. But the increase in the price of gas and the price of food, both of which Biden has worked to mitigate, are driving undecided voters to Trump. Of the many possible scenarios, the most likely one is that Trump's very real criminal defense diffiulties will eventuallly drag him down, turn the undecided voters against him, and Biden will win another uninspiring election, while Trump and his supporters decide whether to once again claim that the election was stolen from them. Either way the country will be in trouble;another post election civil war, or, heaven forbid, Trump as president, again. You wonder about the complete arrogant confidence with which Trump and his gang would reenter the White House, falsely claiming a mandate from the American people to vigorously impose the entire wacky far right agenda on the country; book banning, mandated preyer in chool, complete deregulation of the ecoomy, bring back coal, and all. A Trump election victory in 2024 would inspire him and his supporers into a frenzy of extremist policies, and send the e of the country, the progressives, the indifferent, and the sane, into a tailspin of depression os such severity so as to possibly be unable to mount even a token resistance againt the fascist forces of the right. Several months ago I mentioned to my sister the possibility that Trump could be elected, considering Biden's unpopularity. She asked, in horror: "President of this country"? Unthinkable indeed.It is time to consider the implications of a another Trump presidency, unthinkable though it seems to the sane and the decent. It is also not only reasonable, but important to begin to consider of the even more seemingly unlikely, unthinkable scenario of a Trump convicted of multiple felonies, sentenced to prison, on his way to prison, and, simultaneously, president elect. It is beginning to appear that Trump's status as former president will not deter the criminal justice system from functioning normally with regard to his alleged crimes. The evidence against himforall inety one alleged felonies, is overwhelming.It is difficult to imagine Trump not being convicted of at least one serious felony, probably more. And, again,the possibility tht he might actually get elected president becomes more possible every day. To a very large extent, his support seems to besed on anger, resentent, and defiance. The more he is punished for his criminality, the greater his support seems to become. That's a toxic mix for a country in a toxic state of being.

Assessing Unions

THE KEY QUESTION about labor unions is whether they are good, or bad for society.Either you love labor unions, or you hate them. There is an "in between", and sometimes you hear it, but not often, not normally. The power of unions, their strength and size, has waxd and waned over the past enetury and a half, as they have alternately suffered and withstood the damage done to them from concerted attacks from the controlling corporate cutlure, and rebounded and recovered from the effects. Currently, and over the past few years, unions are eperiencing a sort of resurgance, after decades of decline under the withering assault of corporate attacks. The need for labor unions to counter the power of corporate ownership has been obvious from the very beginning of America's post Civil War industrial revolution. The war stimulated the need for a strong industrial economy to produce the metals needed for the manufacture of weapons. After the war, advances in science and technology, the birth of the steel, electrical, automotive, and coal mining industries spurred economic growth, including the growh in the number and size of companies, and the need for workers to work in the manufacturing facilities of the new factory system. The first factory workers, without unions, were treated like slaves, cattle, or worse.They were often locked inside their factories for back breaking hours at wages so low that they wre virtually slave labor, and such factory work became known as "wage slavery". Relations between labor unions an corporate ownership was strained from the start, and the first wage and labor disputes were violat affairs, with albor strikes often turning into bloodbaths as mobs of hired thugs assisted the millionaires in breaking up the strikes, which were regarded as traitorous insurrections, and force the broken workers back into the sweat shops. The union movement has, over the decades at an often painfully slow pace, transformed the lives of American wokers from miserable to what are today far superior working conditions and pay. Without unions American workers would doubtless still be virtual slaves, living in miserable impoverishment. Unions gave us weekends, and a five day forty hour work week, along with health insurance, and oher benefits. Social Security came ito being in 1935 only with strong labor union support, and Medicare and Medicaid began in the mid ninieteen sixties, again, with strong organized labor support. Because of strong labor unions America became a middle class country. The decline of the middle class, so noticebale in recent decades in the U.S., has been directly caused by the decline in labor unions, and the stagnation of worker's pay for fifty years. Perhaps now, that labor unions are onc again making their presence known in the American economy, the middle class will grow back to its former strength, their will be greater ecoomi equality in the country as there was between the end of World War Two and the nineteen seventies, and we can recapture the magic of the best economic era in American history, that between 1945 and 1970. When tens of millions of blue collar workers are underpaid, their spending power decreases, fewer goods a services are sold by American businesses, and everybody suffers. With a well paid working class, tens of millions of workers have spendable income, and they spend it on the goods and services produced by American business, to everyone's benefit. Without unsions, none of this would be possible.

Prizing Perfidy, Banning Books

ITS OFFICIAL: The great state of Texas is the book banning capitol of the United States, in freedom's land. But don't hand the crown to the Lone Star State just yet; the competition for this dubious distinction is far from over,for Florida, although lagging a bit behind at the moment, is a book banner's mecca, an increasingly bright red state where any book which ever dares to contradict the conservative establishment and orthodoxy is in jeopardy. Book banning seems aimed at preserving the traditional white Christian dominant social structure. For the moment, in terms of total number of books banned state by state statewide, Texas is in the lead. Texas and Florida are the two largest red states in the country, though there is a very strong progressive minority, which aint a minority by much, in both states. Both states could flip from red to blue in the fairly near future, ith immigration from latin America and north America. Books most likely to be banned are of two kinds; those which deal with racism, and those which deal with gay and transgender people. In these United States, their are, it turns out, plenty of both kinds; racists and anti-racists, and gay and transgender folks, who, over the past few years, seem to be "coming out of the wood work", so to speak, as the Pride movement grows and spreads, and tolerance and acceptance do likewise. Banning books which acknowledge and discuss racism in America, and banning books which deal with gay and transgender people altogether, as if they didn't exist, is already causing a considerable amount of "pushback" as we like to say nowadays, with much, much more to come. Simply consider the insanity of trying to indoctrinate America's children with the idiotic lies that there is no racism in America today, and the gay and transgender people do not exist, and must be completely ignored. The African-American and gay and transgender communities are both bigger than you might think, well organized, and ready to continue the fight, for recognition and equality. Plus, they have the entire progressive movement on their side, even as the entire conservative community seems arrayed against them. Once book banning-burning begins, it knows no limit, but expands to fill up the anger and hatred of its proponents. Book banning-burning always gets out of control, and must be stopped by the sane. Some of the books which have already been removed from public school libraries or which are up for consideration for removal would shock you, and include Steinbeck's masterpiece "The Grapes of Wrath", and Upton Sinclair's literary masterpiece "The Jungle". Books like that must never be banned, but rather, should be required reading for all Americans. When I was in high school, J.D. Salinger's jewel of a modern novel "The Catcher IN the Rye" was banned. It almsot seemes like there was a copy of the little red book in every locker, including mine. Its a great book; highly recommended for all American teenagers, though for all I know it is banned in Texas, Florida, and every other benighted right wing state in these United States, of which there are alarmingly many. In a free country like the U.S.it is only natural and quite predictable that a thriving counter culture will develop based on banned books. Banned book bookstores, bookclubs, and web sites are springing up all across our fruited plain, with more arriving every day. Banned books in this country are going to become famous, and, (heh heh), alluring, tempting, irresistable. Book banning in America is, like most evils, the exclusive purview of your basic Chrstian conservative Republican Trumper community. No surprise there. This movement must be defeated and stopped. Long live the intellectual free market of ideals! Stop American fascisim now! Many if not most banned books throughout history, as well as now, are protest books, books which "Show us our shame" as a great writer once said, books which criticize society by exposing its evils. The entrenched establishment power structure never likes or wants protest and criticism. But as Goethe said: "The world advances only because of those who oppose it."...Read at least one banned book every day. They are, after all, the best books.

Working Together

THERE IS AT LEAST ONE ORGANIZATION in America, and maybe more, dedicated to the proposition that we can and should all work together to fight climate change. Bipartisan action to reverse climate change, Democrats and Republicans, progressives and oncservatives, working together. Its a beautiful thought. But is it realistic? What percentage of conservative Republicans even believe in climate change? How many of them are willing to accept the reality that human beings are causing climate change, an that if something isn't done about it, disaster looms? Most conservatives are climate change deniers, are they not? What ideas can conservatives contribute to fighting something they do not believe exists? Many of them tout the value of fossil fuels, and denigrate both wind and solar energy, for spurious reasons. Progressives should reply that wind and solar are competing in the free market against fossil fuels, and winning. Republicans espous the virtues of capitalism and the free market; do not use the government to pick winners. Fair enough. Every year wind energy and solar energy are gaining a larger share of the consumer energy market. Since we need to convert entirely to sustainable fuels, why not encourage this transition with not only our consumer choices, but with cooperation between government and siness and industry, to ensure a survivable future for all life on Earth, including us. There is an ad for a bipartisan climate change project on Facebook,which I have seen several times. I hit the "like" button and the "share" button every time, to try to help promote this project. I read some of the comments people typed in below the ad. Many of them are quite alarming, reflecting a very harmful, unproductive attitude about climate change, and, even worse, a very common attitude among a high percentage of the American population. One comment merely said "climate change is a hoax". There were many such comments, using slightely different words to express the same false notion; that climate change is nothing but a false conspiracy theory,a hoax perpetrated by bkusiness interests and big government politicians who want to use a contrived emergency to give mor power to the government, crazy as it sounds. There are no longer any excuses for failing to comperhend the dire reality of human made climate change, by grasping the most basic laws of chemistry. The D.O.D. has for decades considered climate change to be the greatest threat to American national security. Climate deniers are, in essence, refusing to defend the country against its deadliest enemy; what kind of patriotism is that? One alarmingly articulate dude typed in a long paragraph praising the beauty of climate change, how global warming has transformed the world by turning desolate, cold regions warm, green, and verdant, improved agriculture, made the whole planet more pleasant and temmperate! Why would we wish to return to a mini ice age? This argument is frightening; it no denial here. It acknowledges climate change, but argues in favor of it! The one glaring fact about this ad for bipartisan action on the climate, it contans no actual suggestions for action, nothing. It is only a petition, asking people online to sign in order to put pressure on political leaders to begin to take bipartisan action, whatever that might possibly entail. At some point before the greenhouse effect turns the earth into another Venus, we'll stop pretending that climate change does not exist, or stop enjoyng it. At first climate deniers refused to believe in climate change. Then, they began to accept it, but claimed that it was not caused by human activity, but rather, by nature. We very definitely want everybody to believe in and help fight climate change, but we sure as hell don't want the crazy bastards to decide that they like it, and are happy to live with it.

Vaccinating

OUR GOSPEL SINGING GROUP was somewhat depleted Monday. There were, if I remember, only four of us, instead of the usual twelve or fourteen. That made the singing harder; I could hear myself better, not necessarily a good thing. I later found out that many of them had and still have Covid. I'm grateful to the fellow gospel singer who informed me of this, and I am even more grateful that I don't have it. However, my soprano lady friend singer - and she is a great singer - and I decided that we're going to take a couple of weeks off, away from the gospel singing. The newest version of the vaccine, which is supposed to be extremely effective against the current viral variant, will be available, according to my pharmacist, around October first, or shortly thereater. After I get it I will return to the gospel siging. Since March-April 2021, I have been vaccinated against Covid 19 no fewer than six times, the most recent this past June. The lady at the pharmacy advised me to wait until the fall to get it, because that would be closer to the predicted winter Covid upsurge. But I insisted; I wanted to get it while the getting was good. It turned out to be ther right decision. The upsurge came early, in late summer, and while this current Covid upsurge gets worse and worse, I am fully vaccinated, and will still be eligible for the new vaccine in a week or two, because they are starting all over, with everyone. Meanwhile, the anti-vaccination movement sees to eihter be growing, or, if nothing else, to be as strong as ever, which means, dangerous, deadly. I get the impression that there are many anti-vaxxers at my ocal senior center, among not only the gospel singers but the staff emebers and senior members. Covid has run rampant through the place every time there is an upsurge. The anti-vaccinatio point of view is, overwhelmingly, conservative, from what I understand. I have not heard about many left wing politically progressive Democrats being anti-vaccination. Anti-vccinationism is not only harmful, it is devastating to society, to the world. In the United States alone, tens of thousands of people have almsot certainly died because, and only because of anti-vaccinationism. There are countless stories of people in ICU, gasping their last breaths, suddenly announcing that they are now ready to get vaccinated, and could you plaease vaccinate me now? By then, it is much too late, and the medical professional has the depressing responsibility of telling the termminally ill far right wing evangelical Christian Trump supporter that, regretfully, it is too late. Over and over again, irrefutably, vaccinations for all diseases, including polio, small pox, malaria, chicken pox, the flu, Covid, and on and on - have been clearly proven to be extremely effective. Vaccines work like a charm, period. Opposition to vaccines has the same right wing, populist, anti authority anti science genesis as, say, climate change denial, and refusal to accept humman evolution by natural selection. Trump's handling of theCovid pandemic in 2021, his denial of its severity, his proposing quack cures, his refusal to get the government involved, was catastrophic, the exact opposite of what needed to be done. The attitude and behavior of his followers concerning the pandamic has been and remains equally devastating for the world. Because of this, the next pandemic upsurge will, as always, be much worse than it needs to be. If I can make it about two more weeks, I can get vaccinated again, and get back to singing gospel.

Waiting For the Rapture

BELATEDLY I BECAME AWARE that on September 22, 2023, precisely at the stroke of midnight, the rapture was going to occur. I became aware of it only through repeated posts on Facebook by many different people, all saying the same thing: Rapture,September 22, midnight. Other than on facebook, I never saw nor heard anything about it; I wonder whether the meme was popular all across social media, or just on Facebook? Did it have a life outside the internet,in the real world of real space and time? Was there a specific real world church involved, perhaps as the instigator, or was the latest rapture claim the conbined effert of interdenominational cooperation? Did one of the big time million dollar TV evangelists have a vision, or a talk with God? Asalways, of course, the predicted,prophesied latest incarnation of the rapture date came and went, raptureless. Throughout history there have been numerous supposedly soon to come raptures, and never yet has the rapture come. Actually, it can be asserted, with some confidence, that everyday, since the dreadful day when Christ was crucified,someboy has predicted his return on that day. Every day for the past two thousand years has been predicted as the rapture. According to three out of the four goepels, Jesus told his followers that after he was put to death, he would return to them within their lifetmes, while they were still alive. We've been waiting ever since.In 1843 the reverend William Millertold his many followers that a certain day in October would be the day of the rapture, and to prepare for it. Prepare they did. Thousands of people, thousands of families, sold all their possessions, including their homes, and gathered together on top of hills in hundreds of American towns and cities, waiting to be swooped up and into heaven. They waited all night, but were never swooped up. They would have gone home, but many of the no longer had homes to go to, and had to make new plans quickly..Daunted but undeterrred, the reverend Wlliam Miller announced that through a minor miscalculation by one of his many subordinates,they had actually gotten the rapture date wrong by one year,and that it would, beyond all doubt this time, take place the following October,1844. Once again, people liquadated their possessions, gathered atop hills, and waited. Again, nothing happened. This time tere was some anger and resentment, and the reverend Miller layed low for awhile. Miller's ministry somehow managed to survive,and grew to become the Seventh Day Adventist church we know today, with a considerable number of members and congregations across America and other countries. And yet,the repature narrative keeps repeating itself. Whether this latest one was only online or had a life in the real word may,in the long run, not really matter. Whether it exists in real life or not, an online life is inevitable for the rapture meme. Future incarnations of it will probably circulate and multiply over and over again, online, and in real space and time. We humans just can't seem to get rid of this nonsense, end of the world theories, etc..The rapture didn't come this time either; it never will come, but that won't keep people from trying to create it.

Misunderstanding

FOR THE PAST SEVERAL YEARS I have been decided that I would not attend my 50 year high school class reunion. Over the past few years, my relationship with several of my best friends from high school have deteriorated, for various reasons. We'v veen friends for sixty years, but Donald Trump, as he did for millions of Americans, and their friends and families, has driven a wedge between millions of people, demaged or destroyed many friendships. This, in a country already long divided ideologically, along progressive conservative lines, a situation which seems to be becoming worse, if that's even possible. Donald Trump made a bad situation much worse,damn him. I can with pride assert that in none of these situations was I the one who become angry and alienated and ended the friendship; the other person was. I never bring up the topic of politics, but when somebody else does, no matter who it is, I express my opinions in no uncertain terms. I noticed that many people who love Trump become angry and even end friendships if you tell them that Trump is a no good criminal, a traitor, and that everyone who still supports him is no better than he. That tends to really anger people, if you can imagine such a thing. About five years ago on Facebook one of my high school classmates, a beautiful blonde, evidently referring to the undocumented immigrant problem, posted the following message: "The bible says that there is a wall around heaven, but that hell is an open border. Let that sink in"... When somebdy says "let that sink in" in any context, I wax a mite wrathty, as David Crockett might say. But, I let it sink in, taking all of one microsecond to do so. Then, I unloaded on her. "Believe it nor not, not everything that happens in life can be explained by using the Bible. Some of our problems have nothing to do with the Bible. Immigration ia purely an economic issue, not a biblical one." Her response, roughly, was :"thank you for reminding me that I am going to unfriend you in about five minutes." Damn! The most beautiful girl in the whole class, and I just alienated her... When I added up all of my lifelong friends, my high school class mates, who seemed to be a bit, shall we say, "put out" with me, it started adding up, and I was reluctant to attend our 50 year reunion. I drove to my home town the weekend of the reunion, to visit my sister. I said to sis: "I think I'll get in my car and go right back home, and forget about the reunion". Always a sage big sis, she said: "why not give it a five minute try. You came all this way." So, I decided to drop by, and give it a try. One way or another, whatever happens, I'll stand up to my rack, fodder or no fodder, as David Crockett said. I intended to stay five minutes, but I ended up staying eight hours, and wanted more, much more. It turned out to be the best time of my life, or certainly as fun a time as any other experience I can remember ever having. One by one I approached or bumped into people I thought were mad at me, and would treat me coldly. every single one of them did just the opposite! They all treated me with warmth and love, and we had great converstaions. The girl with the wall around heaven I did not see anywhere in the rooom, and I asked about."She's right over there", I was told. I approache dher, and asked her if she was still mad at me over the immigration argument on Facebook. She looked at me as if I were crazy, making it all up, then smiled, and gave me a big hug. Either she had no memory of it, which I think is likely, or, she was willing to foret about it. Either way, I was a happy camper, and told her so. I go tthe same reaction from everybody. Nobody could seem to even remember the incidents I was talking about, and which I remembered (and still remember) so vividly. On the one hand, its amazing to me how poor most people's memory is. On the other hand, I shouldn't complain about it, I should be greatful; I still have my friends.

Believing By Default

WE HAVE ALL HEARD religious devotees make the following argument; "I would rather live my life believing in God, then die and discover that there is no God, than live my whole life as an atheist, then die and find myself looking at God and Christ". And, truth be told so would I. Wouldn't everybody? There is a tendency to automatically agree with this statement, because it seems so beautifully, persuasively logical. Why not agree with it? It doesn't change the way I believe. We stipulate here that the proclaimer of faith is referring to the biblical, Judeo-Christian God. To live your entire life devoutly religious, devoutly believing in Almighty God and the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,to be totally wrapped up in your church and your religion, as many people are, living your whole life, every part of it, defined by your Christian culture, then to die, and find out that it was all make believe, that there is no Christian God, and that the legend of Jesus Christ is merely that, a beautiful legend; wouldn't that be devastating, extremely disappointing, a huge let down? Wouldn't it? Or, perhaps, upon awakening after death, and beholding the lack of any God, one also becomes aware of the real nature of reality, of the universe, and sees a glorious, beautiful, intelligent design, and rejoices foreverafter in total joy and bliss. The second part of the proclamation, that under no circumstance do you want to go through life as an unbelieving atheist, only to discover upon death that you are standing in the presence of the Almighty Christian God and Jesus Christ your should have been but never was lord and savior - sounds rather ominous. It is supposed to sound ominous, like, "you sure as heck do not want to get caught in that situation". That's because the presumption is, as in the Bible and all traditional, basic Christian doctrine, that those who die unsaved are destined to spend an eternity suffering damnation in hell. To live your entire life as a God fearing, upright Christian entirely because of fear that not doing so will result in eternal damnation after death seems a hollow, fear based, unsatisfactory reason to be a believer, of anything. Surely there are far more beautiful, inspirational, logical reasons to embrace religious beliefs of any sort. Precisely what, if any evidence exists that such a vengeful,vindictive God, the biblical Judeo-Chriatian God, actually exists? The answer is none. I much prefer the latter option,of not believing, but with a considerably different scenario and outcome. I prefer believing that if you spend your entire life as an atheist, then die and find yourself standing before God and Jesus, or whomever, that you will in fact be welcomed with open arms, with love and acceptance by a loving, accepting God. Why not? This certainly seems no less believable or possibe than the harsh biblical narrative, a narrative which can have the effect of driving people away from the Christian faith. I embrace a religiosity which consists in humble admiration of the infinitely superior spirit which reveals itself in what little we, with our weak and transitory understaiding, can comprehend of reality, as Einstein said. I like to think that upon death, if I confront anything which can be described as "God", I will be congratulated on a life well lived and I will be loved, not punished for using my brain and intellect trying to understanding reality during my short life. I do not believe in an almighty creator of the universe being so petty as to resent me and want to punish me forever for taking advantage of the intelligenc she gave me, looking at the universe, and quite reasonably concluding that there is no such thing as God.

Running Against Biden and Trump

THERE'S A CONSERVATIVE, Doug Burgum,running for president who, on a lengthy TV commercial, repeatedly referred to himself as a "conservative", but not a "Republican", a word he never mentioned.That in itself elevated him somewhat higher in my esteem, but still far from high. Perhaps ultimately there will be formed a new politial party, a "conservative" party, dedicated to returning to the traditional base conservative agenda of Ronald Reagan, in contrast to the the unrecognizable extremist monstrosity the Republican party of Trump has become. Burgum's message is simple and straightforeard; President Joe Biden has done everything diametrically wrong. He specifically mentions the economy, energy, and national security as areas in which Biden is deficient but he means everything, Biden has done everything wrong, by one hundred and eighty degrees. His message on the TV ad failed to articulate any alternatives to Biden's policies, which is typical of Biden's Republican critics.They offer criticism and condmnation, but no alternatives. And indeed, Biden can present strong arguments in favor of his policies on all fronts. If indeed Burgum is a third party candidate, running against both the Demorats and Republicans, he may stay in the race until the very end and may take more votes away from Trump than Biden, assuming that Trump is indeed the Republican nominee, which, incredible though that seems, seems quite likely. The economy under Biden, and partly because of Biden, is doing quite well. The only fly in the ointment is the price of gas, which Biden haters keep harping on. They fail to mention that gas prices are determined by the global market, not the American president. Anybody running against Biden, Burgum, Trump, or whomever, will have to offer more than mere anti-Biden criticisms and complaints. Against criticisms of his administration, Biden and his team will be able to counter with a solid fact base record of tangible achievements as a rebuttal. A Trump versus Biden rematch will have some fascinationg components. What exactly can and will Trump and his supporters be able to say in support of Trump's return to the White House without sounding absurd? That Trump deserves your vote, because even though he won the election in 2020, it was stolen from him, and justice demands that he be given the opportunity of completing his unfairly interrupted administration? That by voting for Trump your vote will be guaranteed to count, one way or another; either Trump will be elected fair and square, or, in the event that he loses, he will once again assemble a violent mob to overthrow the government, which this time will succeed, due to strategy and techniques improved through learning the lessons of the first failure? All Trump can so is attack Biden, which will be difficult, and tout his own record and ability to do better, like politicians running against incumbants always do. This for Trump will become very tedious, and wil lsound strange, conidering the criminal behavior in which Trump indulged during his term in office. In response, Biden and his helpers will...what? Point to the ninety one felony charges hanging over Trump's head, and ask, rhetorically, how in the world Trump could possibly govern effectively from federal prison? Do we,the American people, really want to elect a person who has engaged in election tampering, voter fraud, incitement to insurrection, and dozens of other crimes? Biden, unless he becomes diisabled through cognitive decline, will quite naturally and inevitably use these facts a weapons against Trump, and, in a saner, more sensible America, they would work like charms. The problem for Biden, and for us all, is that, as has become painfully obvious, we do not now live in a sane, sensible America, assuming that we ever have.

Grilling Garland

ATTORNEY GENERAL MERRICK GARLAND spent yesterday enjoying the supreme honor of answering a bunch of loaded questions rapid fired at him by angry, aggressive politicians posing as vultures, waiting to pounce on the remains and consume them. Congressional Republicans summoned the poor, innocent decent man to the feeding frenzy,on a purely fabricated basis. Garland was accused of politicizing the Department of Justice, of conducting a horrible,unjust, witch hunt of an investigation and prosecution against our esteemed,venerable, morally above reproach former president. Garland is accused of weaponizing his Justice Department for the only purpose of destroying the iconic, virtuous leader of the oppostion party, while protecting President Biden by going easy on Biden's wayfaring son, and refusing to properly harass and prosecute the president for not only allegedly being involved in his son's allegedly shady business activities, but of being the young man's father, indeed, of ever having had anything to do with him. Were it not for the fact this this charade,this miscarriage of justice is being perpetrated by a group of far right wing Republicans,it would be difficult to believe that a small gorup of human adults, elected by the people to positions of leadership and responsibility, could behave in such an obviously vicious, unfair, gangster like manner. As the country has for years witnessed with astonishment, Republicans simply ignore Donald Trump's immorality and criminality, blaming it all on the people who expose and describe it, always claiming that Trump entirely innocent, and merely the victim of a campaign by his enemies to destroy him. No matter how conspicuous and henious Trump'simmmoral and criminal behavior becomes, his supporters and fellow Republicans make the same laughably outrageous claims of Trump's innocence. It has become such a deeply embedded humorous, twisted pattern, among the millions of Trump supporters thorughout the country, that they must now be regarded as accessories to Trump's crimes, and therefore, criminals themselves. Meanwhile, they attack Biden, who, after being constantly investigated since he took office, remains unblemished by even a trace of evidence against him. Consider Bill Barr, Trump's second or third Attorney General, put in office by Trump and the Republicans for one reason only; to serve as President Trump's personal attorney, to protect Trump against inevitable justice, and, simultaneously, to weaponize his Cabinet Department against any and all enemies of Trump. Bill Barr did exactly what the same Republicans are now falsely accusing Merrick Garland of, but not only did they utter not a whimper of protest at Barr, they approved of his nefarious behavior without hesitation,au he was, after all, serving the holy cause of protecting Donald Trump, who they believe was placed in the Oval Office by Almighty God to restore Christian virtue to America. So determined were America's Republican political leaders and to keep Trump in office that they supported, aided, and abetted Donald Trump's failed but impressive attempt to steal the presidency from Mr. Biden, and his attempt to overthrow the federal government violently. Significantly, alarmingly, they still support it,and would happily try it again. Merrick Garland appointed a prosecutor who is prosecuting Trump for voter fraud and insurrection, but since American evangelical Christian conservative Republicans are part of the criminal Trump conspiracy, they insist that Garland is the villain, and Trump, the mistreated hero. Their lunacy and criminality are astonishing.

Trump, Crusading For the Workers

UNLESS I'M DREAMING, and surely I am, Donald Trump plans to go to Detroit next week to support the auto worker's strike. I believe that he made this anouncement on his own social media platform, and as since confirmed it. Maybe he is hoping that by planning his visit for next week, he can delay it long enough that the strike will be over, and he can claim credit for resolving it, without ever having to lift a finger, using his so totally terrific bargaining skills. Indeed it may be over before next week, but it doesn't look like it. A representatve for the workers said that their wages could be doubled, and the automaking corporations would still make a huge profit, so great have their profits been in recent years. That doesn't sound like a strike that's close to being settled. Has Trump ever in his life supported workers in any way? Has he ever, as a politician, proposed any laws, regulations, or programs which would benefit the working class, especially the poor working class? Not to my knowledge. Has Trump the entrepenuer ever done anything beneficial for workers in general or his employees in particular, such as paying them well? Not to my knowledge. It may well be that some of the top people in Trump's organization, his closest assistants, advisors, lawyers, accountants, have been paid well by Trump, but probably only because he, Trump, had no choice. Trump has evidently famously hired undocumented workers, let them work, then refused to pay them because they were undocumented. Trump has never in his life advocated publicly on behalf of the working class, nor done anything to help and support workers. And now, this. "This" is an obvious publicity stunt, to get votes, to bolster his campaign for president by kissing up to millions of workers. Pretty smart move, really. But, so what? Regardless of motivation, which we all know, Trump is, or evidently will be, nonetheless, showing and thus giving support to the workers on strike against the big three big American carmakers. For all we know, the richest, most powerful excutives in one or all of these companies may be a big Trump hater, and the Don may in fact be just trying to get even. In truth, as far as underpaid, overworked, exploited workers go, the UAW folks don't have it half bad. Their pay is high, their working conditions and benefits have much improved compared to many workers over the years, and they now have a pretty good deal. Inflation, however, catches up with everybody, and they want to catch their earnings up with prices. What, precisely, Trump will say and do when he arrives in Michigan is of course a fascinating question, one which will most definitely be answered soon. Will he join the picket lines, and carrying a sign which says: "Union Now!" while defiantly walking back and forth on a street in front of an auto assembly facility? Frankly, its hard to imagine. Surely he will make a few remarks, or give a speech, maybe even a long one. Why not? Trump speeches never fail to entertain. Will his words sing the praisies of organized labor, of the millions of hard workng blue collar Americans, repairing the sewer system, cleaning bathrooms and buildings, hauling the garbage, and seeking only reasonably decent pay and treatment in return? Will he demand, on behalf of these noble workers, equal pay, and equality of living standard? Will he condemn the elitism and greed of the billionaire ownership class, and its wicked oppression of the workers? One thing we can rest assured he will not do, is raise his clenched fist and scream: "Democratic Socialism Now"! But at least, if he does indeed go join the workers, he will, for once in his seemingly dubious, bizarre life of privilege, controversy, greed, unethical and illegal behavior, be doing the right thing, even if doing it for all the wrong reasons.

Reenacting Nightmares

ALTHOUGH I DIDN"T REALIZE IT THEN, I grew up in the shadow of World War II. The period between 1945 and 1970, all factors considered, was the most economically prosperous time in American history, and we baby boomers were raised spoiled. Our parents were determened that we would never experiences the nightmares they had. So, we experienced our own nightmares, sometimes by inventing them. In the late fortties, throughout the sixties, and into the early seventies, American white kids, when they gathered together in groups of two or more, either played Cowboys and Indians, cops and robber, or Krauts and Americans. sometimes, whiffle ball. We knew about the war; our parets made enough references to it that it was obvious they had lived through somethng very impactful. We reenacted it daily, using plastic guns, helmets, and bullets, often cap guns which made a great noise, and when we faked our deaths, we collapsed melodramatically, after staggering around the yard for what seemed like hours. We were imitating real life from television and movies, which in those days were full of cowboys, Indians, and krauts. Fortunatelty, we recovered quickly, popped right back up, ready to fight, and die again.If it worked like that in real life, people would probably take no better advantage of instant reincarnation than we did.They would probably choose instead to fight, kill, and die over and over again, like we did. Then we grew up and entered high school, and the world became more politically correct. Pop guns were replaced by paint guns and cell phones. Unless I am seriously out of touch, kids simply do not pretend to be cowboys and indians, cops and robbers, or krauts and good guys anymore, at least not in real space and real time. Video games have taken the place of play acting, for better or worse. We also, when we were ten and eleven years old, ran around the neighborhood with BB gunas, shooting at anything that moved and most things that did not; it is hard to believe we actually did that, but we did, and if they tried it today, they'd be in big trouble, and their parents would be in jail for child abuse and neglect. In high school, in the early seventies, I was still interested in World War II, in fact, more than ever, before or since. I probably knew more about the war in high school than I ever have since, snce I read all the major books and saw all the major movies. Presumably, scholarship about the War, including the military history, has improved and evolved in recent dedades, just like every other period of history ; I can only assume this, but will never find out for myself; I have l since had enough of World War Two, including reading about it. the last movie I saw on the subject was "Saving Private Ryan", and that was quite enough. The one thing I never thought I nor anyone else would ever see again is a major land war in Europe, thank you Mr. Putin. During the seemingly interminable buildup of Russian forces at the border of Ukraine, I kept thinking: "surely this is all a big military exercise of bluff." Boy, was I ever wrong. The extent to which this war reminds me of World War Two is startling, even with the advancement of technology, especially drones. The mass infantry and mass casualties, and the constant artillary bombardments would do justice to either World War One or Two.I always figured that war in Europe in the future would be fought with either atomic bombs or computers, but not old fashioned infantry and artillary. Before its all over, the totla ead may number more than one million, a nightmare beyond anyting I had imagined. I should comfor myself that atom bombs aren't dropping on every major city in Eropeand North America, with hundreds of millios of people dead and radiated, like all the scare movies of the post World War Two cold war era depicted. Nightmarishly, all that is still very much within the realm of possibility. By comparison, BB guns and cops and robbers begins to seem mighty tame.

Striking

DESPITE ALL THE MANY BENEFITS AND VIRTUES of capitalism; its freedom, abundant opportunity,and prosperity, it has its shortcomings, there are problems with it. So much so, that capitlism, especialy big business corporate capitalism, has often been desribed as a brutal,inhumane system of oppression, not without some degree of justification. In fact, thsi argument has been made, that capitalism is inherently exploitative and unfair, so persuasviely, in so many books and other forms by so may brilliant minds, that a fairly respectable percentage of the educated population agrees, and calls itself "socialist". Even as we speak, the glorious world of free market capitalism is in a state of upheaval and turmoil, as srtiking labor unions make their mark in many diverse industries and businesses. The most prominent and largest ongoing strikes are of coure the writers an actors strike in Hollywood, and the automotive workers strike in Michigan. The former has been going on for months, with little to indicate a resolution in the near future. The latter is only several days old but threatens to spread like wildfire if an agreement hasn't been reached by this Friday. At the moment (Tuesday) an agreement of any kind is very unlikley; the sides are very far apart. Unions are formed only through dire economic necessity, rather than some vague urge on the part of workers to inflict damage upon their employers, and therefore society in general. People who oppose or evan hate unions, as many do, have a vested interest in the ownership class. Oftentimes union haters are members of the ownership class, wealthy stock holders, board members, business people of various sorts. The history of capitalism, the history of the relationship between companies and workers, employers and emloyeers in America, is filled with conflict, brutality, and violence. From the earlist examples of entrepenuerial enerprise in America, business owners have sought to exploit their employees, to exploit labor in general, as much as possible, to the point of reducing worker, employees, laborers, to virtual slavery. The lower the cost of labor, the greater the profit for the owners. In fact, during the earliest days of hourly wage labor, in the late nineteenth century, the system was widely regarded as a new form of slavery, "wage slavery", and vigorously opposed by many sectors of society, helpng to inspire the first labor unnions. From the beginning of their exixtence labor unions were demonized by corporate ownership as evil, nefarious organizations designed for and intending only to make needless trouble. Corporate propaganda against unions and union organnizing permeated American culture from the start, due to the ability of corporate wealth to finance the propaganda, and was especially evident in the movie industry. Many many movies have been made about labor unions. In general,throughout the history of Hollywood, labor unions have been depicted in the negative light cast upon them by their corporate overlords, and labor bosses and organizers have been portrayed as thugs, goons, and criminals. Only in the last few decads has a more balanced approach been in evidence, with workers given a much more favorable portrayal; as good, honest, but desperately impoverished hard workers, seeking economic justice..Economic justice is, after all, what all labor unions, from steel and farm workers, to major league baseball players, are all about. Both the writers and artists and the auto workers deserve better contract terms,and they will, after all is said and done, obtain them. According to pure capitalist theory, labor unsions shouldn't be unneessary, because wages and prices should, in the free market, naturally, inevitably reach levels accaptable to all; owners, workers, and consumers. And it you believe that, I have a piece of land in central Florida you might like to look at.

Opening the Can

THE YOUNG LADY who made the remark to me was very attractive, granted, but that only goes so far. She was also very religious, and very married. But two strikes is not an out. She said: "You'll find out when you die."... OK,so I'll find out when I die. At least I'll find out, although I certainly wouldn't mind expediting the process a bit. I am, after all, extremely curious. What, precisely did she assert with such great confidence, will I finally, at long last find out? Essentially, she was saying that when I die, I will suddenly, perhaps painfully become aware, or be made aware, of the salient fact that the Christian religion is true, the Christian, biblical god is real, that Jesus Christ is, or was, or could have been, my savior, or potential savior, and that, because I failed or refused to reognize and accept all this during all my live long days, I am now experiencing, shall we say, a very rude awakening. Presumably this sudden awareness will be mine as I reawaken and notice that I am in a very hot place, with a lot of fire all around me and the smell of brimstione hanging the air. An eternity of suffering in hell all because I did not fall to my knees, or whatever you do, an accept and proclaim that Jesus Christ is my personal lord and savior. That, incredibly, is precisely what she meant. This "argument" is fundamental to evangelism. I have come to discover, with a little research, that many devout people have made this exact "promise", or "threat" to many unsaved, and still do. My question is: when they do they do this, do they actually think that they have won teh argument? do they think that they have administered the intelletual knock out blow, and have decisively defeated any hope of effective counter response with a lazer like bolt of logic? They probably do, or they wouldn't keep using it. It is almost certain that they haven't the slightest notion that what they have actually done is to render unto the poor listener a very hateful, vicious, but hollow threat, based on nothing but hate and resentment, and on an unreasoning, aggressive urge to dominate and control other people. An urge to reinforce one's own dark, primitive religious beliefs by imposing them on other people in the most frightening, unpleasant manner possible, a threat of eternal nightmares. What this vaguely worded threat really does is to relieve the devotee of any responsibility or hope of actually winning the argument or prevailing in the discussion with logic, reason, proof, and solid, emperical evidence, by precluding any possibility of so doing. I can't prove to you now that my religious beliefs are the only true religion and that everybody else should embrace my beliefs,but I don't have to; you'll find out for yourself when you die. Jeez, talk about finding an easy way out. In one little six word declarative statement, avoiding the responsibility of proving that what you say and believe is true, while providing the other person with a seemingly rock solid means of findng out for himself, later. When I die, who knows what I'll find out? Maybe I will find myself in the glorious presence of the creator of the universe, and we will share a good laugh at the incredibly distorted, utterly innacurate visions of reality which not merely one but all the many religions invented by the human mind hath unveiled and foisted upon humanity. Who knows? I guess I'll find out when I die.

Giving A Pass To A Right Wing Reprobate...Again.

THE ATTORNEY GENERAL of the Republic of Texas has been in office a long time. He was elected and reelected for two reasons; he is an ardent,fervant,loyal far right Trump supporter who buys into Trump's election lie and supported the former president's attempt to overthrow the American government to remain illegally in power,and, because he wholeheartedly supports the far right agenda of the conservative movement, including eliminating all mention of racism from public schools, pretending that LGBTQ people do not exist by treating them by law as if they were not LGBTQ people, insinuating the Christian religion into the public, civic domain,and so forth, and so on. His credentials as a card carrying far right wing ideologue are unblemished by reason or morality,and include his firm belief that the more guns in the hands of more good people the less chance bad guys will have in a public mass murder or shoot out. His anti-choice pro birth stance is standard bill of faire among the radical reprobate right...In Texas,abortion is prohibited, and not only that, but anyone caught or accused of aiding and abetting an attempt by a desperate woman to obtain an abortion, such as fronting her gas money or helping her pack for a trip to a civilized state, is strictly verboten, and punishable by all manner of hideous repurcussions, including fines and imprisonment. In Texas, any citizen vigillante can easily bust any friend or remote associate of any pregnant woman in the lone star state, merely by claiming to have witnessed the criminal-against-forced- reproduction suggest to said pregnant woman that she has options other than to remain in state and suffer the slings and arrows of outragsous religious based legislation. In Texas, conservative evangelical Christians have such great power that they can ruin the lives of the pregnant, and the friends of the pregnant, all with the enthusiastic encouragment of the Attorney General. Thus the A.G. is in good standing with the far right religious community, despite the fact that he is a criminal of the most heinous sort. Bribery, financial fraud, abuse of power; the litany of white collar crimes of which he is very appropriately accused is sufficiently lengthy to place him in the company of America'smost notorious non violent crimainals,and to render him eminently suitable for inclusion in the Donald Trump inner circle of conspirators, for which a strong resume' of criminal ativity, past and present, is seemingly mandatory. So blatant and persistant are the A.G.'s crimes that he was,incredibly,impeached by the state legislature,and put on trial. He was,just the other day, found not guilty, exonerated of all charges, surprise surprise. The scenario played out like that for Donald Trump, the hero of the A.G.and of the Republican majoruty Texas legislature, and of most of the electorate of this blood red state. Specifically, do the crimes, many of them, get caught, be subjected to impeachment, but found not tuilty by a legislative body of fellow traveler Trumpers. Once again, mainstream conservative Christian Republicans have shown their utter lack of concern for whether a person is a criminal,as long as the person is a good, far right wing ideologue, or, as decent people of good moral character and honesty would put it, a complete reprobate.