Getting Back On the Bike

MY STATIONARY BICYVLE broke down a few months ago, so I have been using the one at the senior center two blocks from my house, which is a good arrangement for me. Yesterdya a good friend of mine happened to drop by for a visit, and he repaired my stationary bike, no problem. I think a chain had fallen off or gotten disconnected from the axel or something like that. At any rate, I'm back on my bike looking out the window of my computer room spare bedroonm, happy as a lark.I like the bike at th senrio too, and there may be days when I ride thirty minutes on my bikd at home, then, drive the two blocks to the senior center, and ride their bike for another half hour. That is precisely the sort of thinking I am crazy enough to do. I am a big stationary bike enthusiast as I said, but I really freer bikes with arm attachment, so that whil you peddle withoyr legs, you alsopush and pull metal bars back and forth, working out the upper body also. The repair that my bike neded was simple; simply reattach a nut and bolt type connection, but I had neglected doing it, in typical laxy form. Thank goodness for friends. Esercise is either tha ost important part of my life, or among the most important, and has been for decades. I am grateful for it all. There is a treadmill and a stationary bike at the senior center, and there is one of each in my house, the treadmill is in the dining room, and the exercycle in the second spare bedroon of a three bedroon house; exercise and fitness are built into the decor of my house, which, fortunately, has no carpet, but rather all hardwood floors except for the kitchen, dining rooom, and bathroom which are tile. As I refer for teh grand adventure of living inot my mid seventies and pperhaps beyond, the value of exercise is becoming increasingly clear to me, although it has always been evident. Few people have as little natural athletic ability as I. Strangely, that has never really mattered to me, From the earliest time I can rememer, I was hanginf out with bigger, older kids, usually the smallest and or youngest in the ball game. That's the kind of situation which'll improve ya. My interest in exercising, running around chasing a ball or just looking at the scenery is as fun for me now as ever, more so, asthetically. The sparebedroom - cmpute room wher my stationary bike sits looks at a window into my fron yard, which is full of trees I planted twenty years ago when I guilt the house, and are now full grown, beautiful, and totally dominate the front yard, making the hosue permanently shady, which I certainly do not mind. All my neighbors have huge trees right next to my property and house, so, my house is always well shaded, which as I said I prefer. More often than not I am certainly not going to get out of bed, ride thirty minutes on myexercycle at home, than go and do the sema thing at the seniore center. But, sometimes I like to do things a bit differently. Maybe I'll still be ridig a stationary bike when I am ninety, or a hundred. Maybe I shouldn't think about the future too much, since, as Einsten articulately uttered, it always arrives soon enough. For the tiem beieg this exercise habit-hobby-addiction is perfectly fine and pleasant for me, so, I shall continue with it. Knowing full well that it won't last forever, since nothing does.

Awakening To Rain

I was awakened in the middle of the night to the most beautiful, pleasant sound I coul dhave imagined; that of rain falling gently but steadily on the ground, and the roof of my house. Here in the great Amerian lower mid west, or the northwest south, whichever you prefer, we have been stricken with a long drought, and just in the past couple of days rain has arrived to save us. I live in the foothills to the Ozark Mountains, in heavily forested rolling hills, with many small streams and rivers, in a very small town on top of a plateau, altogether a pleasant locations and environment. I haven't travelled the world, but I have travelled the United States, and in my opinion the U.S. is an incredibly beautiful country, naturally. The human additions additions to the landscape are of course dabatable in terms of what they contribute to the landscape, whether we Americans and our America makes the land more or less attractive,is the topic of potential intense, heated, intelligent discussion and debate. The older I get, the more amenable I am to talking about the weather, or writing about it, in which case I always and inevitably include climate change in the conversation. If somebody says to me "have a nice day" I might say somethig like "this is one of those days when I kinda like climate change". If nothing else, that kind of comment has a chance of making people think.The people I pa attention to, and there really aren't all that many people in my life, either face to face or through the media, but thsoe that I know never seem to mention global warming or climate change, much less actually talk about it. And when on some rare occasion thay actually mention or talk about it, they usually fail to cut to the chase, preferring instead to make some flippant off hand semi serious or non serious blather. The fact is, as things stand no, we're toast. By "we". I mean humanity and all other species. By now there should be a comprehensive, world wide project well underway to save the planet by reversing and stopping global warming--climate change, because if we don't, we're toast. Each year is about one degree hotter than the previous. As things stand now, within five years the summers are going to be unliveable, wich daily chorching hot temperatures, week after week, month after month. It isn't going to be pleasant or pretty, and we are going to see it, soon. What we humans must do of course is to change our society, clean up the planet, and take better care of it, and ourselves. Billions of automobiles spewing tons carbon into the atmosphere every day is a dead end, and we are fast approaching it. Electric cars, mass transit, and bicycles are, we pray, saving us just in the nick of time. The remaining climate change doubters must accept reality, and notice that climate change deniers are, overwhelmingly, politically conservative and religious. When your political or religious viewpoint prevents you from acknowledging reality, like, say, climate change, you definitely have a problem, intellectually, if not emotionally. I hope I live a while longer, but know that my time is running out. While I am still here, I want to encourage myself and everybody to live joyfully and harmoniously. Although we still seem to have no real idea precisely what we and the univese are, we are sufficiently perceptive to sense its magnificence, and to be appreciative of it.

Controlling the Weather

I WAS AWAKENED in the wee hours by the most delightful, beautiful sound imagineable to me; that of a thunderstorm in progress, with rain beating down upon the roof and ground, and beautiful, rolling thunder. I have gotten into tha habit of rejoicing every time it rains in my part of the country, because in recent years, for some reason, I have developed an enhanced fear of drought, even to the point of starting to become paranoid if and when it fails to rain for a couple of weeks or so. It seems to be that over the past several years droughts have been more common and severe where I live, and that much the same is true particularly in the western part of the Unietd States, where it has traditionally, at least for the past several thousand years, rained less than in the eastern part of the country. Climate change seems obvious to me, and seems to me to be clearly happening where I live; longer, hotter summers, shorter, milder winters. Worst of all is when spring consists of that one day of perfect weather between bitter windy winter and hot, humid, dry summer, as one of my professors put it. To me climate change seems to be happening extremely fast, and I begin to wonder exactly how much more climate change I will live to see, at seventy one, in good health, with a world of medical marvels supporting me, at least supposedly. One thing I think I have noticed is that humanity is not solving the global warming climate change crises fast enough. A lot of hat, and no cattle, as they say in Texas. Your average Joe on the street doesn't even seem to know or care that within a few short years, Earth's environment will collapse, by which is meant that the climate of the whole planet will change drastically, and become more violent, with supercharged straight line winds and storms. Drought stricken areasr will becoem even more dessicated, monsoon and storm seasons around the world will intensify, as the number and strength of tornadoes and hurricanes increases with the extra heat energy in the atmosphere. At leasr twenty five yeras ago I read a comment from Dr. Michio Kaku to the effect that humanity will eventually be able to control the weather, and will therefore do pecisely that. I wonder if he still believes that, and, if so, if he has any notion at all of precisely this will be accomplished and expidited. Something will have to be done about sea level rise, which, if we don't do something to stop it, will within a few decades inundate millions square miles of land in ocean water, cutting deep into human habitat, unless of course our descendants decide to build cities on and under the oceans. Currently the world is experiencing a mysterious absence of hurricanes in the middle of Atlantic hurricane season, knock on wood. Somehow you sense that thi is only a temporary phenomenon, that all too soon, the hurricane machine will ramp back up, and start turning out storms off the African coast and send them across the Atlantic, just like normal. "Normal" climate patterns are changing, partly due to natural forces, partly because of human activity, and those who refuse for ideological reasons to accept this verified reality are only deceiving themselves, and giving themselves a good excuse to do nothing to help.

Leaving A Trace

ONE THING I DO is write and publish online one page of non fiction prose each and every day, at a minimum. If nothing else, some future historian might learn something from it; the personal habits of the early twenty first century American lower classes, or something like that. Sometimes I wish everybody would write his or her autobiography, or make a film describing his or her life.At the moment, admittedly, there doesn't seem to be any doubt that our current early twenry first century historical epoch will be well remembered and documented, magnitudes of times better recorded and woven into the fabric of human history than any and all periods of time before. I am a historian, and taught history for years at various schools, to various grade levels,and am painfuully aware of the propensity of young people to be disinterested in history. Let's remember that the way to make history interesting to young people is to make it interesting and fun, which it inherently is in any event, so, perhaps the task of a history teacher is simply to avoid ruining history by making it boring drudgery and work. In my days in graduate school studying European history I was required to take a class called "Historiogralhy" in my masters degree program. The class is essentially a sutdy of the historical professions, the "history of history" so to speak. It turned dout ot be an interesting class, learning about the most prominent, seminal historians and their works within the particular area of history, in my case, modern Europe (1815-present). Early modern Europe is usually considered to be from 1500, when several features of our modern western civilization emerge and come into play, to the preent. At least, that was the classification scheme in 1980 when I got my masters degree, and I think it still is. The Protestant Reformation, the rise of nation states, the economic expansion of Europe, and European colonialism characterizes the changes around that time which ushered in the modern world. History is a story told by a storyteller, usually in a book.I love listening to a good history lecture more than reading a good history book, although its close. Our (my) descndants might marvel that we in the early twenty first century still got in our cars, and drove hundreds and thousands of miles at high rates of speed, and that world wide, approximately one million people die doing this, and that yet, this doesnt seem to faze us, each day we pile into our cars and go speeding off down the road, wherever we wish. Surely that situation won't continue much longer. How can it? Trying to drive cars which spew no deadly poison into the atmosphere is crucial, and the best bet might be to quit driving these individual vehicles altogether, to rely entirely on mass public transportation. IN the long ago year twenty twenty six we were still damaging the Earth's ecosystem, but becoming increasingly aware of the harm, and tryng to change our ways, which, with any luck, and, we had better hope, happens fast. One milllion people killed in car crahses every year is hard to believe. When I consider that I was born and lived during the era in which people started traveling in outer space, I feel grateful. It is encouraging that there are conversations ongoing concerning threats to life on Earth and how to mitigate them. I want to leave more than a mere trace. I want to leave a thriving, healthy human culture.

Preserving Ourselves

THE PROSPECTS for human survival, which is a topic of great interest to me, are, in my opinion, fair to decent. Obviously the greatest threat to human existence is humanity itself, through nuclear war, bio-chemical or chemical warfare; we humans have a seemingly unlimited number of ready to go self made suicide methods for our species. When you consider that that human history has almost been a constant litany of warfare, and you consider the human propensity for organized violence of all kinds, one can only logically conclude that our species is perfectly capable, and arguably perpetually on the brink of self extermination. Obviously, the human species is nowhere near getting rid of war in general. It seems to be too deeply ingrained, built into our basic instincts and behavior as a species of defensive, often violent, predatory animals. We have been assured by none other than Bill Gates himself that as of now, nowhere in the world is there Artificial Intelligence of any sort which has escaped, gotten out of the lab, and is acting independently, on its own, without human supervision. Comforting as this is, it might not be quite comforting enough for some, myself included. I am thinking about the speed with which Artificial Intelligence appears to be advancing, progressing constantly, virtually guaranteeing that within the next few years, computers of remarkable power and intelligence will become part of our lives, one way or the other. Precisely what way is, of course, the penultimate question. What Bill Gates did not tell you, but what he knows very very well, is that the cat is out of the bag, the cow is out of the barn, the computer is out of the laboratory, out from under human control, and, at this point it appears highly likely that computers will start reprogramming themselves, communicating with each other, thinking for themselves, and developing their own ideas and strategies, and making their own plans. Another question is; will we humans be part of those plans? Bill Gates acknowledged in an interview that computer technology, Artificial Intelligence, is advancing at a super fast, prodigious rate, all over the world, without any sort of global cooperation or agreements among people and nations concerning what the ultimate goal is, what we humans are trying, exactly, to do with all this computer machine intellihence. I for one, would like to know. For one thing, let's keep computer power and Artificial Intelligence out of the hands of petty tyrants, dictators, and criminals and madmen who would only use it to take advantage of and hurt other people. Who precisely, if anybody, among human beings, can be trusted to have control over powerful computers? Can computers ever be trusted to have self control? That's a question we may need to think about before its too late, if it isn't already.

Worshiping Alone

THIS WEEK I failed to arrangement for a ride to church, and since I really don't care much for driving, I think I'll stay home and appreciate, revere, and give thanks for this amazing life in the privacy of my own home,and the internet.One does not have to go to church to express love, gratitude, and admiration for the supreme being. "My religiosity consists in humble admiration of the infinitely superior spirit which reveals itself..." as Einstein wrote so eloquently. The most truly spiritual people probably don't really need or have a strong desire to attend church, but rather, to contemplate the amazing universe in which we live, the miracle of nature. Which raises the question: "why does the universe, why does anything exist"? And, of course, it may well be that nothing exists, that this seeming life in this apparent universe is nothing more or less than a dream, the great dream of the great dreamer.I can have a nice little worship service here at home, alone with my cat Mandi.It will be entirely mental, contemplative, and brief. My true form of existential appreciation this morning will turn out to have been in part my time exercising on my treadmill, which, after a couple of cups of good coffee, I am definitely in the mood for. Caffeine seems to be my drug of choice. I drink regular coffee every morning, and then burst forth upon the world in a glorious blaze of activity, usually exercise. This is a gorgeous day, warm and sunny, a good day to go running outside. For the time being, however, I think I'll hop on the treadmill and look out the kitchen window as I slowly but steadily turn up the speed on the machine and end up getting a good work out. This is also a great day to go out to the lake, and maybe hike or jog the trails, or along the highway, and it is a great day to merely walk out the front door, and start walking jogging or running along the road, at whatever pace feels best. As almost all regular runners doubtless know, whn running one can actually lapse into or settle into a sort of meditative zen state, with a very clear mind, and the oxygen producing mental state of exhileration, or "runner's high". Its very real, and its very pleasant,largely because of knowing that you have earned it. If we humans manage to avoid destroying each other, our dscendants might have an opportunity to enjoy a wonderful existence, bucolic, artistic, richly culturally rewarding, adding ever more to what they inherit from us. Einstein was once asked to contribut a message to a time capsule to be opened in one hundred years, sometime in the middle of this century. He wrote: "If you have not become kinder and more compassionate than we were, may the devil take you." Based on that criteria, you'd have to say that there seems to be a good chance that the devil will take us. Amazingly, we humans do indeed seem to be becoming less violent, more peaceful, over the centuries, statistically. Hard to believe, but statistically true. So, maybe there is hope. I like going to church and in the future will probably, for the most part, go. But I also relish being at home with a hot cup of coffee and a soft warm fuzzy kitten. There is still tiem to go to church if I decide I am willing to drive over there. Wither way, the important thing is to anjoy and appreciate completely every moment of every single day, which can be difficult but is always possible, and do basically the same thing at home I would be doing in church, giving thanks.

Accepting Climate Change

ONE OF THE PRIMARY PURPOSES of this essay website is to clearly highlight and elucidate the reality of global warming, climate change, call it whatever you may. Whatever you choose to call it, or whether you choose to accept the reality of it,it very obviously, conspiculously exists. I have been closely monitoring climate change where I live, which is southwest Missouri and northwest Arkansas. The basic fact, the basic reality, is this; you simply cannot do what we humans do on this planet without changing its ecosystem by pumping billions of kilowatts of heat into the atmosphere on a daily basis. We need to change our societal ways, and we ar beginning to do it. The question is, are we converting to a non fossil fuel energy economy rapidly enough? Solar energy is above all other kinds what we most need to develop and increase. In a single sunny day, solar energy pours into the Earth's atmosphere enough free, clean energy to run the planet for more than a single day. For much more, in fact. It should, with the development of solar energy, be possible to provide more than enuogh energy for everyone. The answer to climate change is to remove carbon from the atmosphere. Apparently, the necessary technology to accomplish this is now within striking distance of our scientific understanding and development, We humans began putting carbon into the atosphere in serious amounts since the eigtheenth cenutry, when the industrial revolution, witih its massive numbers of coal burning plants and stoves, spread throughout Europe, polluting the atmosphere, blackening the air, concentrating the manufactured wealth in the hands of a vanishingly small elite, and ruthlessly exploited the masses with the tyrannical, dictatorial imposition of brute labor and low wages. People who don't want to redistribute the manufactured waleh of modern society throughout society relatively equallly are of course teh ure capitalists, those who do want to have the government redistribute the wealth can be anything from centrists to liberals, to socialists to communists. depending on dagree. For some people to have more material or financial wealth then others is perfectly understandable, in a capitalist economy. Absolute economy equality is, most folks now believe, impractival to implement and operate effetively. A society in which everyone has a chanve to make a meaningful contribution through work, and in which everybody is guaranteed a minimum standard of living regardless of circumstances is worth striving for, still, and always. Scientists tell us that we can't do much no about stopping or reversing climate change, that instead we will have to work on developing ways of coping with it. That means living on a hotter planet, one on which both polar icecaps have vanished, melted into ocean water. A snow and ice free world.. My grreat grand children may hear funny strange stories from the past in which his great great grandfather bruised his knee in high school sledding during Christmas break, 1972-73. There will come a time, soon, unless we do something, when there will no more snow and ice on Earth, it will have all melted. I think we should do everything in our power to reverse and stop climate change, while adjustng to it.

Changing Our Behavior

SPONTANEOUS EXPRESSION has its value, within limits. Class, your assignment today is to write a one page essay describing what you did last summer, and why. Its due at the end of class today. Begin. Conversation tends to be spontaneous expression, since one never knows what one's conversation partner is going to say, and a response must be created on the spot. Spontaneous essay writing is probably theraputic, on some level. One can even forget to bring or lose one's reading glasses, and get by. My thoughts invariably return to climate change, at some point, but I can write about many other topics also. Getting rid of Putin, Trump, and several current world leaders is a project worthy of widespread acceptance and support, using the pen, always, and never the sword. I really want my future, remaining conversations with people to be rwearding, agreeable, and worthwhile. To meet that criteria, a conversation does not have to include climate change. However, any conversation which does include climate cahnge, between any two people, is beneficial, because it increases people's awareness of the situation, awareness of the dreadful current situation we are in regarding the Earth's ecosystem, climate system, the health of its land, air, and water, the health of the planet generally, ecologically, environmentally. Although you cannot honestly, verifiably say that the Earth's environmental health is good, you certainly can say that it could sure as hell be a lot worse, if we keep going the way we are now, and don't change our behavior, a lot, fast. I also need to remember that when I talk about this, I am talking primarily to myself, knowing that I can imporove my behavior alone and nobody else's. At some point, for instance, it probably would be a good idea to give up driving, if I live that long. I really don't think I want to be driving a car when I am one hundred, if I live that long. Our internal combustion engine cars need to disappear fast, and be replaced with electric cars, mass transit, or whatever. Bicycles are best. In this, as well as many other ways, the United States should be more like Japan, China, and Europe. What I see as I approach the end of this life is a planetary ecosystem suffering and collapsing because of human activity, pollution of all kinds, as we seem to be plumeting towards our self destruction. At this point I hope I live to be a hundred, close to it, or whatever. At seventy one I am in good shape and health, and I think I can function well, productively, and independently for a long time to come. I want to live long enough to see the day when we humans know for sure that global warming and climate change are not a threat, and that we humans have found ways to stop them. Human nature is complicated, with destructive and creative impulses both. If we choose wisely, our species can survive.

Enjoying Fall

I LOVE THESE BEAUTIFUL soft warm, lazy autumnal days, when it gets close to eighty in the day time and down to about fifty at night, nice and crisp. Although some nice, steady, soaking rain would be wonderul, and is just what we need in our drought stricken part of the country, it is nonetheless a beautiful day, if a bit warm for this time of year. As I keep mentioning, the monthof October over teh past coupld of decades has tansitioned from being primarily a cold weather month, to being a predominately warm weather month, almost like an extension of a never ending summer. A never ending summer is precisely what is predicted according to climate change theory, aas climate science. The way things are going, the general trend in recent years, has been for the winters to be less frigid, warmer, and the sumrers to be longer, dried, and hotter, as if we really neeed any more of all that. I can remember more than sixty years of weather, close to seventy, and yes, it certainly seems to me that the climate where I live has changed, quite a bit, and I would hazard a guess that most folks in my general age category (I am 71, a baby boomer) would agree with me, that over the past fifty years, the climate in the lower mid west has definitely changed, with summer getting hotter and longer, and less cold ans snow in the winter time. Around her we used to get snow several times each winter, if only a couple of inches most of the time, real soft and fluffy, the kind that melts fast once it starts to melt. I can remembr when September was always either about ten degrees cooler and less humid than August, but it seems nowadays that September has changed totally into a summer month, more like August, with not a trace of Autumn. Like most people, spring and fall are my two favorite seasons, although I have nothing against summer or winter. WE have many deciduous trees where I love, and they often become beautiful in their bright fall colors. this year, though, is bound to be a disappointment, because with our continuing extreme drought, most of the leaves are gonig to be on the ground vry soon. They are falling fast, helped by the drought. My sister and I used to joke about the fact that our mother talked incessantly about the weather. in any conversation she got involved in, the weather was almost certain to be mentioned, because mother would almost certainly mention it. I seem to be becoming that way myself, late in life; weather oriented, nearly always have something to say about it during a normal, everyday converstation. I love and appreciate the beautiful diversity of weather we have here, hoping that our future weather is pleasant if at times volatile, and that the changes it makes are likewise pleasant.

Reversing Climate Change

EVERYDAY I see a new layer of leaves covering the yard. Each late afternoon, when the leaves are dry and the hot October summer temperature starts to go back down below ninety ( and yes, its crazy having ninety degree daily temperatures), I spend a little while raking up leaves, raking them into small piles, then, putting them in garbage cans, sometimes it seems like one leaf at a time. Maybe this is what's keeping me off the streets and out of trouble. The drought we have been having in the American mid south is quite serious in my yard, and, pesumably, everywhere else within a few hundred miles of Mo-Kan Ok-Ark region to which I am long accustomed. One of the arguments I use trying to convince conservative, climate deniers and idiots that climate change is very real is that I don't have to wait for somebody or anybody to tell me about it, to tell me that climate change - global warming is real: I am experiencing it in my own back yard, daily. If I can do it, anybody can do it. This current early Autumn drought is as far as I can recall the most severe drought we have ever had durig this time of year, and is becoming one of the msot severe drought at any time of the year around here. I recently heard a number given for the percentage of Americans who deny that climate change is real, who believe, or claim to believe, that global warming is a lie, a hoax, a liberal trick of some sort. We have all heard or heard of people who actually believe that nonsense, or say they do, for some reason, perhaps because they value stupidity as a human virtue. IN the U.S.A., climate change deniers are always, invariably, political conservative. Of all the seemingly non- sensical, insane claims made by internet types and American conservatives is that climate change, global warming, is a trick, a hoax,a ploy by American liberal Democrats to give more power to the government, or something like that. Recet polls tend to indicate, I believe, that the percetage of conservtive American who deny climate change is decreasing, and that the percentage of conservatives who accept and acknowledge it as reality is slowky but stedily increasing, thank heavens. There will come a time, fairly soon, when people will be amazed when they read history books about the early twenty first century, and discover the shocking number of people who refused to accept climate reality, preferring to embrace an obviouslly false version of reality while ignoring and thus doing nothing to help actually fight climate change by doing something about it. That, we are indeed capable of; doing something about global warming, namely, stopping it. It would help immmensely if the whole population would "get on board" and encouage the global effort required. We can do this, but only together, all humanity.

Still Obsessing

EVERYONE would agree that a person needs to stay busy to stay happy. That's especially important when one is quite young, and when one is quite old. Both physical and mental activity are necessary to stay sharp and healthy. The old people who never stop moving seem to be the ones who live the longest. AS I age ( I am now seventy one, and doing well), I am, probably justfiably, increasingly proud and grateful to be at this particulae age, which has been my lifelong tendency; the older I am, the cooler I am, and whatever age I am, that's the right age for me to be, the proper age. I have a feeling of having been born at the right time, and living my life in perhaps the best time of all time. To have been fourteen years old, a bright and curious teenager, when Armstrong walked on the moon was exhilerating, exciting and the memory of it remains the same nearly sixty years later. My good luck in life started early; I was born asthmatic, with allegedly weak lungs. I had asthema pretty bad a few times, and spent time in what they then called an "oxygen tent" if you happen to know what those were and perhaps still are. My parents told me that they asked the doctor whether I would live, and she said yes, he'll grow out of the asthema. Darned if she wasn't right. By the time I graduated high school asthema was long behind me. I am grateful to have grown out of it. IN fact I hae big, strong athletic lungs, "runners lungs" if you will, as if over my life time I have been compensating for my lungs shaky beginning by growing big and strong. Actually, I have been exercising vigoroslsy my entier life time, starting when I was a little ied, and loved running around, chasing balls, playing games, etc..At my local seior center they have a wide variety of activities involving exercise for the members, which is vital cn crucial for the health of a good senior center. They have a little physcial fitness room in the back, which doubles as a storage room. It has a couple of stationary exercycles, and treadmill, and one of those skiing machine, whwer you move you rfeet and legs on thess pedastals as fi you were skiiing or skating or something. I haven't don much of it so far, but I have tried it a little, and I can tell that its great exercise. Maybe I can gradually work into it, start using the ski machine, since, after all, we have one.

Raking Leaves, Again

SINCE I HAVE about twenty mature deciduous trees in my yard, I have a lot of leaves on the ground every fall, and I have a variety of strategies for dealing with them. My favorite strategy is to do nothing, and let the leaves accumulate in the yard. When I resume mowing in March, I begin the process of chopping the leaves to bits, which, once begun, tends to proceed rapidly. By the end of March or April, scarcely a trace of last year's leaves remains. They have degraded into the soil, nourishing it. The best thing about raking leaves, my favorite thing, is that its good exercise.If I can put in an hour of leaf raking every day throughout the autumn, the leaves are gone by Christmas, if not before. I want to leave most of them, for fertilizer. Also, day after day of leaf raking should help my fitness level, which is already good, my being an exercise and fitness enthusiast, By Thanksgiving the yard should look good, and I should be in good shae. My mother worked in her yard for a couple of hours nearly every day, and held down a full time job as a nurse, working the night shift as the head nurse in a big hospital. I never moved my mother's yard when I was cgrowing up. She did it, almost as if she enjoyed doing it. I so, I can understand why. I like mowing my yard, and its a pretty big one, maybe one third to one half of an acre. I do it all with a push mower, and it takes about an hour, of great exercise. No matter. if I ever gave or give anybody any advice at all, its to exercise, somehow some way. No matter who you are, you need exercise, as all humans and other animals do. In his literary classic "Candide" Voltaire uses hte expression "we must tend our gardens" This pharse is actually the central theme of this great novel, highly recommended. I like stationary bicycles and treadmills, and I have one of each at home. Then, they also have one of each at the senior center, two blocks from my house, where I go for lunch five days a week. The senior center food is decicious, and the exercise machines help me avoid gaining a lot of weight from all that delicious food they serve at lunch. As I age my appetite doesn't seem to be decreasing, with all those carbs and calories is certain to start decreasing as I age if it hasn't already. I recoil in horror when I think how much weight I could and undoubtedly would gain without any exercise, and all that genroud amount of deciduous high calorie food. Then too, there is tha "Snack Cake" table, which doesn't do much good in helping anybody, including me, lose weight and keep it off. Exercising, in some way, shape, or fashion, is one of the things I hope to keep doing the rest of my life. It helps to start young, of coures, middle aged people who suddenly decide to start exercising and become paragons of body shape and fitness often run into trouble eary on, when they fully realize exactly how much hard work and daily devotion this requires. In order to become and stay physically fit, one must love and enjoy exercise for its own sake, for the sake of exercise. One must enjoy the sweat, shortness of breath, fatigue. ahve afreind ho, when I mentioned ot him that his cigarette smoking wasnt going to do his health any god, replied that "something's gonna kill you". True enough, but does that mean that we ought to kill ourselves? The treadmill and exercycle are just fine, just wonderful, but I yearn for the wooded trail at dawn or dusk.

Setting Things Straight

I'M AT THE STAGE OF LIFE where/when I want to make things right, set things straight, by which I mean resolve and end all outstanding quarrels and disputes, of which, as far as I can think, I have few or none. I have always tried to avoid conflict with my fellow pugnacious human beings, though I am certainly quite capable of engaging in it. With Trump and the Repbulicans, for instance, I can merely agree to disagree. No actual conflict of any sort necessary. With my aprents, God rest their sweet souls, who despised FDR while he was alive and president, and kept despising his memory the rest of their lives, because FDR was a damned democratic socialiss rather than a good, solid Republican capitalist,I simply spent my life disgreeing pleasantly with them, since FDR remains to this day among my greatest heroes. My parents voted Nixon over Kennedy, did not like LBJ or Jimmy Carter, my mother half made fun of Bill Clinton, half liked his looks, and my father, who was dead before Clinton took office, would most assuredly have hated the brash Arkansan's guts had he lived to see them. Certain that my parents and grandparents never voted for a Democrat, I am even more equally sure that I have never voted for a Republican, and never will. Actually, my senior year of high school, 1972-73, my friends and I were roaming the hallowed hallways chanting--whispering "re elect the presdent", being as we were overall very very satisfied with Nixon's first term in office, not without some degree of justification, and we wanted four more years of the same. What we got, of course, was considerably different than our expectations. I dropped Tricky Dick like a bad habit by graduation day, as I recall, early enough to save face, at least in the mirror. Never since have I voted for any Republican, and not in my wildest moments of freelance fantasy can I even remotely imagine myself ever voting Republican again. Never, of course, say "never". I can recall when the two parties were more alike than different, a certain "Tweddle Dee Tweedle Dum" arrangement, back before Reagan, who really and truly turned the Republican party to the right. And whereas there has always been a "far eft" socialist wing of tne party of Andrew Jackson, it has never managed to gain a strong, powerful position of dominance or leadership within the vastly diverse Democratic Party. Of course, neither has anyone else. Our modern Democrats seem fearful and terribly reluctant to embrace once again the putright socialism of FDR, or even the strong liberalism of LBJ. The JFK centrist semi-liberal approach has gained preeminence within the party of Jackson, for safety reasons. There is a bigger slice of the American electorate waiting to be carved ouf of the center and slightly left of center than way over there on the far left, which, ironically, is precisely where a goodly number of Americans already are, on the far left, or are heading. Every European country has a complete range of political parties, from far right to far left, and must, in order to accomplish anything, form pro tem ad hoc coalitions, forever shifting as circumstances seem to dictate. Maybe that's what we need in ye olde U.S. of A, what with our huge country, disparity of ideologies, and rough hewn, either-or system of realistic political choices and options.. But if you are off the well trod spectrum, if you fail or refuse to submit your political self to the existing template, good luck, you're on your own in America, relegated to the baskwaters of the body politick and maintream political America, at home, and at ballot box. So welcome to the club, the great American political free for all.

Being Grateful

I PREPARED to be picked up for church by putting a pair of cammo fatigues military pants, and a bright red T shirt with a college logo. Around here, that's dressed up, or at least you can get by with it. The message I have for myself, and for everybody else is that its all good, all is well. The universe, and life within it, is as it should be. I am grateful, and I intend to make gratitude teh main theme of my church going experience from now on. An attitude of gratitude, an expression I am sure has been used often. I fully embrace it. Later this afternoon, the local "Autumnfest" weekend activity will wrap up.It has been a lot fo fun, as always...And it came to pass that church went very well for me, as it ueually does. There ware a total of eight people in the building for the service, including the clergy. It was a fine service, and in a way its too bad that more people didn't attend. Every once in a while I am chosen to lead the Pledge of Allegiance and say the prayer at lunch at the local senior center. I am always happy to do it, I never make any direct reference to any certain religion, or any religion at all, I simply tell "God" that I am grateful for evyrhything I have in this amazing, wondrous thing we call "life", or a lifetime, I love and appreciate Him for giving it to me, I say. I always make sure I give great thanks to God. I have alwas enjoying praying, as I remember, even when I was a little kid, when I eas basically forced to do it by society, with my parent's evident approval. My parnts, I firmly beilve,were firmly opposed to influencing their children's religious evolution, and decided that kids could eevol their own religious views, over time, without any instruction, guidance, or persuasion. Nobody helping the kids, unless the kids ask for it. Both of my grandmothers were born in the late nineteenth century, and were strict, straight, stong Victorian women if ever there were such, and there were. They both wore dresses every day, dresses with long sleaves and the skirt nearly touching the ground, covering everything, ankles, feet, etc. One thing of which I am crtain; both of my grandmothers would be thrilled to knwo that I am going to church nearly every week, and have been doing so for at least a couple of years now. Whether they would approve of either the Unitarian or Presbyterian chucrh I cannot say; by the tiem I got through explaining to them that I didn't trn out to be a Christian in my adult years, they might be a bie disappointed, but they certianly shouldn't be surprised. During their lifetimes I never showed up at their churches, or any churches really, except for a few times here ane there. I was never forced to go to church when I was a child under eighteen,, but I was probably encouraged a tiem or two, evne though Is houldn't have been and probably was evident to both of my parents that I was simply not going to turn out to b a big time religious person, a devout Christian, and,I didn't. However, I believe in God and I am grateful, to God, if nothing else. "The infinitely superior spirit" as Einstein called God, whcih seems beautiful to me.

Community Gatherings

I CHOSE TO LIVE in a tiny town near a much latger university town because I wanted to be close to a hustling bustling metropolis, while enjoying the relatively bucolic, quiet environment of small town America. I wanted to best of both worlds, and, after more than twenty years of trial, have decided that I achieved my goal twenty one years, ago, and have indeed been blessed with the best of two disticnely different universes; a small town, insular, seemingly unchanging, dormant, juxtaposed againt a frenecic college town of aobut one hundred thousands permanent residents, and more than thirty thousand university students. After all these years, I am still not sure whether, when the population figure of about one hundred thousand is given for the town-city, it does or does not include the tens of thosusands of collee college students. I believe, if I am not mistaken that it does not, that the one hundred thousand city population doe not include collged students wo come from other towns and states, and are living here only temporarily, only because they are going to school here. During my forty five years here, it has grown from a small college small town to a big university big town, there has been, in essence, a forty year economic and growth boom, which is still ongoing, making me wonder if and when it will ever end. It will have to, at some point, correct? Ther is only so much land here, just like everywhere else. A going up everywhere on a daily basis.S more people move here, construction, both residential and business, continues to keep pace, with new housing subdivisions. Its been that way for decades, one new subdivision after another, as thousand of people, thirty to forty people every day, decide to move into Northwest Arkansas. This week is "Autuman Fest"in my town of just over two thousand people, and its quite a shin dig, so to wpeak. The senior sells an amazing, unbelievable breakfast for eight dollars, up from seven dollars a year ago,in our age of inflation, but still, worth every penny and then some.I got mine for free, because I volunteered to work at teh event, my official duty being garbage. My jos is to take the big black plastics sacks full of gargabe out of the garbage cans, and out to the dumpster at the back of teh parking lot. An important job, one of those somebody's gotta do it jobs,and I accept it, with relish. The breakfast served by the Senior Center includes alt he basics, eggs, bacon, biscuit 'n gravy, sausage, a big paper plate loaded with carbs and calories, recommended for anybody and everybody. My recenly sprained ankle slowed me dow a bit, but it didn't stop me. I managed to walk the three blocks to the senior center, to avoid adding my car to the traffic jam, was offered a free breakfast as I knew I would be, acceped it as I knew I could, and devoured it with relish, as I knew I would. My plan a Saturday college football tok center stage was to repeat the process tomorrow, to walk back over to the snior center for their finale the Sunday morning eight dollar breakfast. Usually they ake close to two thousand a year with this wonderul, fun activity-event. Its good and healthy for me to participate in community activities, to break up the monotony of my alone time, which I love, in limited amounts. Even loners are social animals, and most people claim to be loners. When Autuman Fest is over on Sunday evening, Monday morning, the town quickly returns to normal, quiet and slow. And I appreciate it more than ever, because of the big party being over, my life again quiet and slow.

Trump. Becoming Authoritarian, PART !!

Donald Trump, we can all agree, likes having power, and either wants to become an authoritarian president, or already has. There are certain steps necessary to achieve this, and, arguably, Trump has already taken them all, or is about to. The first step is to expand his own power as president, which in essence means expanding the power of the office of the presidency for future presidents, since everything that an American president does is a precedent for future chief executives. The first step is, and has been for Trump, to expand the executive power of the president, by taking actions as president which are highly questionable in terms of being legal,arguable either way. Then, assuem and take a chance that Congress will do nothing about it, nothing to stop or reign in an activist, questionably constitutional presedent. And indeed, Trump has blatantly overstepped his authority, pushed the boundaries of what is legal beyond what is reasonable, and audaciously acted in violation of the law and the legislative branch,upon numerous ocassions. So far, he has gotten away with it. A vital step towards an American president becoming an authoritarian president is to "capture" the other two branches of government, most eaisly by simply having a majority of their members, members of the judiciary, and members of congress, of the same political party and political proclivities as the president, to serves as his rubber stamp,rather than offering any opposition to his agenda and policies. An authoritarian president in the U.S. would need to have Congress and the courts on his side, as Trump certainly does. In fact, Trump, for all intents and purposes, has both Congress and SCOTUS eating out of the palm of his lecherous hand. Nexy, a would be pesieential tyrnat must break, ruin, destroy the power of the rest of the federal government, including Congress, SCOTUS, and all the executive and legislative agencies which operate freely. Break the government, fire everybody, and replace the vanquished with loyalists, precisely as Trump has done. Install all around you and throughout the immese bureaucratic apparatus of the government with legions of groveling, sycohantic, pandering loyalists, just as Trump has done and continues to do. Currently, the U.S. government is Trump's government. A successful, effective authoritarian American president must attack truth and free expression, neither of which are likely to be on his side. A successful tyrant in the modern world needs a strong, crafty, shrewd propaganda machine behind him, supporting him, just as Trump has. Not only must our petty tyrant attack and discredit truth to govern authoritatively, but he must invent, create and promulgate an entirely alternate reality, and spoon feed it to his cleverly oppressed subjects. Part of this includes creating an enemy, an enemy of the great leader, and therefore an enemy of the people, and of the state, and the nation. Trump, as you know, is a master at creating and accumulating enemies. He seems to enjoy it, and does it remarkably well. Vulnerable communities must be scapegoated, blamed for the fuhrer's failures. Trump really has it in for the "radical extreme left", of which there is actually little to none in America. The final step in the elevation of an elected president to that of petty authoritarian tyrant involves the use of state violence, and the normalization of it. Every protest against Der Fuhrer is a riot, and must be quelled, immediately. Trump is doing a decent job, by the book, of cleverly, subtlely, sneakily elevating imself to an authoritarian head of state. We'll see how far we the American people let him continue his pathway to authoritarianism.

Rain, Finally Coming

THE MUCH NEEDED much anticipated rain finally came to my dry, drought stricken neck of the woods, and I, and I presume everybody else, am extremely grateful, to whomever. To God, to nature, to human enginuity, whatever. It started slowly, as a sprinkle, then, after several hours, began to rain harder, nice and steadily, nourishing our parched region with mucn needed nourishment. My personal gratitude to the elements is enormous. My yard, being full of maturetrees that I plantedmyself twenty one years and which I truly care about, will live to struggle and fight for surviver another day, in our land of icnreasing climate change, otter weather, more violent weather, and less moisture, as I see it. Climate change, already here and increasing fast, is our number one, primary problem and concern. Blocking a small part of the sun's radiation by spraying millions of tones of silver oxide into the atmosphere, is one porribility to alleviate global warming, but not nit be teh best answer. Changing our fossil fuel burning lifestyle is the best option, an option which we are beginning to pursie, albeit much to belatedly. The first cuple of days in October have been distincely summer like rather than autumnal, temperature-wise, and recent Octobers, over teh past fifteen or twenty years, have indeedery strongly tended to be summer rather than autuma weather wise. Somebody said that thsi coming wintere is going to be, allegedly, rather severe this year, but didnt go into details Mabe they were talking about ice and snow, bold weather, sub freezing or sub zero temperatures, etc.. Cimate change is, arguably, always happening, somewhere on Earth, and is as natural and normal as other forms of weather and climated. Tru enough. But that fact does nto prohibit human beings form adding to climate change by pumping their own addedpollution into the atmosphere, industrai chemicals, and, more significantly, heat. The accumualted mechanical industrial activity of mankind, including and particularly automotive transportation, is rapidly changing the EArth'sclimate,heating it upt rapidly, and if we dontdo something about it, something to stop or change it, we have no chanvce for a continued,sustained existece on this little fragile vulvernable planet as a species, and we humans will become extincet within a relatively short period of time, say, a few centuries if not before. Humanity and all the others species of life on Earth,billions of species of plant life and animal life, is currently grvely threateed by human activity, as we all know, or should by now. The situation is grave, teh situation is dire, and tat is the reason I keep harping on it in these essays: If I don't have a powerful, good essay written down or in my head ready tot upe into the internet, I type about climate change. Nothing is more urgent, orimportant. I won't live long enough to find out whether humanity survives it by reversing it, finding a miraculous marvelous way to eliminate global warming, by changing our human lifestyle, or whatever, but I hope that by the tie I die I have at least a vague general idea about the human future, about whether life of millions of species is going to thrive on this planetfor teh long haul, for centuries and millennia into the future, into the 26th century and beyond. I hope so,and i hope my life will have aided that process. The jury is still out on whether life on Earth will survive or be destroyed by people. Let's at least give it a chance, by changing our behavior.

Trump, Being Authoritarian

Nobody reasonable would disipute the fact that Donald Trump either wants to become anauthoritarian, powrful president, or has alrady become one, long since, perhaps, perhaps, from the moment of his first inauguration. Whether he will or already has achived that position is certainly debatable,with seemingly strong arguets on both side of the issue. Few if any would dispute that this is exactly what he wants and intends to do; be or soon become; an authoritarian, dictatarial chief executive, an essentially monarchial head of state. President's have always tended to grasp and grop at power, testing their limits within the three branc American system. Whether you think that Trump authoritatian power, or has already obatined it, few if any could possible argue that he doesn't want it and isn't actively seeking it.Not only the other tqo branches of government, but we the American people itslef msut remain always vigilant, and keep a close ey on Trump, a very close eye. There is a theoretical model as to how an tuthoritarian government becomes installed and entrenched within a European country, or any country at all, including the United States. The process can be could "The Pathway To Authoritarianism". And again, Trump has so far done this to a "T", and is arguably well on his merry way to becoming an American dictator, or is already there. TRump's plan is the model plan of would be tyrants. First, gain power legitametly, through the existing system, by beoming the head of state, the president. Then, expand exectuvie power(s), by taking bold actions of questionable legality, to "stretch your limits." and by using your power, constantly. Second, capture the other branches of government, by installing only sycophantic loyalists in the various branches and agencies. Break The existing government and rebuild it in your image, from the ground up, did Trump. Trump also launched and long maintained a large, sinewy, propaganda information program, and drenched we the Amerian people with it,touting the greatness, wisdom, and virtue of our thirty four time convicted felon chief executive head of state. Oh glory. The Trump administraion viciously and arbitrarily chooes and attacks the chosen enemies,with orrible, hideiousl slanderous lies, a true Joesph Goebbels type of operation.Attacking, controlling, and eleminationg free expression entirely throughout society is a goal of petty tyrants of the Hitlerian kind. Every petty dictatorial tyrant chooses and creates enemies, enemies of himself and therefore to the whole ountry, the state. He then rallies the whole brainwashed country to hate them, then, to rise up and destroy them, with his leadership, for the glory of great leader, God, and country. Jews, gay people, disabled people;, people with the wrong poliical or religious views; anybody will do. Divide and conquer, the tyrants playbook to power. Finaly, and st importatnly, teh final step in achieving authoritarian rule is to normalize state sanctioned and stae violence. This is done by making it normal, which is one by doing it a lot. A whole lot. This can result in the destruction and elimination of unwanted cultural minorities, or groups who simple do not scrape and bow down to and obey the ruling entrenched wealthy powerful elite, a seeming constant, ubuquitous, foundational part of every human society. We humans self segragate, and we build hierarchical power structures, bless our dark, devious little hearts. Are we at "Seig Heil" and "Heil Trump" yet?

Trump, Committing Felonies

PRESIDENT TRUMP, on a daily basis, is committing an unprecedented number of felonies, openly, without hesitation. He obviously considers himself above the law, is acting acordingly, is a great threat to America, and should be removed form power, immediately. Each of his inumerable felonies merits indictment, prosecution, and, almost certainly, conviction. Trump's crimes are committedin broadlight, in front of the whole world. Trump has evidently decided, finally ralized, the trying to concel crimes does notwork, that it inevetabl leads to their being discovered, and the hiding makes it worse. Also, he knows that, as preident, he is almost totally, ond hundred percent immune from prosecution. Now, if he atually sot somebody down in he millde of he day on Fitfh Avenue, who knows? Most New Yorkers would probably just walk right on by it, without noticing. e also knows, however, he has to know, that he will instantly become legally exposed to legal prosecution, so he either plans to leave teh country when he leaves office, or he doesnt plan to leave office. It is not too early or or too crazy and unlikely to start talking about this, and to talk about it widely, with many people, and to have soem sort of plan just in just it actully happens. Can you, fo rinstance, imagine Trump, about a week before teh election or about a week before leaving office in mid January, suddenly ceclares that the United States is suddenly confronte with a great, grave threat, an implacable eneny from within or without, that is such an immediate threat to American national security, nay, to Ameruca itself! (He salutes the flag, shakily) that it has suddenly, surprisingly becoeme absolutely urgently necessary to suspend all normal government internal operations, such as transitioning to a new presidential administration, and devote full energies and attention to this horrible enemy, threatening America. NO time to break in a new president at a time like this, in other words. Maybe later. Ask yourself this: can you imagine yourself, sitting on your couch with a bag of popcorn, some nachos with jalepons, soft drinks and beer, and watching President Trump shake hands with the incoming president, a Democrat, and tell the audience, America, and the world that he, Donald J.Trump, is honored to have been your president, has done the best he could under all conditions, and now is pleased and honored to hand this extremely important job to his honorable replacemant, a lady of unparalled talent, intelligence, integrity, and capabilities. No, you cannot. You can't imagine, nor even remotely conceive, of such an event. You cannot even remotely conceive of Donald Trump leaving office voluntarily, willingly, happily, honorably, or even remotely decently, like a normal, intelligent adult, on January 20, 2029. You can imagine Trump hiding in the basement of his ball room, surrounded with I.C.E agents in full gear wearing MAGA patches on their uniforms, and you can imagine tens of thousands of screeming, angry, violent, well aremed red neck American idiots, a MAGA mob streaming down Pennsylvania Avenue from he Capitol to eThe White House, maybe, but you sure as hell cannot imagine Trump pleasantly hugging Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and saying, "congratulations, Madam President". America, all of it, Democrat, Republican, and independent, all Americans, must prevent Trump from pulling something, and you know damned well exactly what I mean.

Trump, Taking Control of AI

PRESIDENT TRUMP, in typical simplistic, childish, idiotic fashion, is all gung ho about Artificial Intelligence, and presenting himself as the people's champion of AI. So enthusiastic is he that he has already renamed it "super intelligence", like he renamed Lake Ontario "Lake America', and the Gulf of Mexico "The Gulf of America", and so forth.. His next step will be to claim that he invented artificial intelligence, and rename it after himself, like, "Trump Super Intelligence", or something. Trump, after all, like most far right wing extreme mentally ill demetia ridden narcissistic idiots, calls himself a genius.The CEOs of AI companies, all the real inventors of aritficial intelligence, and all AI scientists, are strongly urging the federal government to hurry up and regulate AI, to try to ensure that it won't someday take control of all life on Earth, and destroy it. Normally champions of unregulated corporate capitalism for profit, the CEOs are begging President Trump to save the world and themselves from Ai, by forcing it to slow down and proceed with advancement more slowlyand cautiously, since they themselves are apparently somehow incapable of doing so by themselves, without Trump's help. Trump is convinced that he and only he can and will take control of AI and force it to obey him, the Donald. Could he possibly be planning to use it to nelp him remain in the presidency for life after his second term is supposed to be over, to avoid the horrible fate of having to face justice in the court systme after he is out of office, for all the many crimes he has committed in his second term and before, and all the crimes he is committing now, day after day, such as his most recent blatant crimainal act; using public money to buy television advertising for himself, campaign ads? He knows that the Republicans sre desperately behind in the polls for the upcoming midtermns, and that if something drastic doesn't happen, we the American people are going to elect a heavily Democratic congressional majority, which will not only completely stymie his agenda during his last two years in offce, but will move to impeach and remove him. If he can somehow use Ai, with the help of his crimanal cult's inner circle of associates, to cancel the election of twenty twenty eight by declaring an emergency or martial law, he could in theory remain dictator for life, like Hitler, and avoid prosecution altogether. For Trump to champion and try to spearhead the unmitigated, unregulated super fast devolopment of AI is a policy probably more deadly and wantonly suicidal than his desire to continue using fossil fuels, and ignoring solar and wind energy, and keep digging all coal, natural gas, and oil out of the ground in every corner of the planet, thus making energy as cheap as possible and corporate profits as high as possible with fossil fuels only, thus destroyng all life on Earth with rampant, runaway climate change. Trump would flood the Earth's atmosphere with so much carbon that the Earth turns into another Venus, with temperatures of more than eight hundred degrees. It is possible. Trump will be dead by then, so it doesn't matter to him. Trump, signing an executive order using AI to perpetuate his power, by controlling the internet, using Ai to lock in his authoritarian power for life, and to thus commmit planetary suicide by drowning us all in carbon and heat sounds like a dystopian science fiction novel, but at the rate and in the direction events are prceeding, that is precisely the end result which currently begins to seems more and more possible, even likely. Getting Trump out of office now, before its too late, is more than mere political preference. It has become a matter of life and death.

Learning To Line Dance

LINE DANCING is like Bingo, either you love it, or you don't. Its one of those hobbies which can become a centerpiece of your life, and the basis of your social life. My hobbies of choice are reading, writing, and working out, all of which are for the most part inherently solitary activities, which contribute little to my social life. Oh well, so be it. I prefer cats anyway. I love stationary bike riding, but nearly a year ago my classic Schwinn Airdyne broke, and I have been planning to get a replacement. However, the senior center has a stationary bike, and since it is only two blocks from my house, I use it about five times a week. I do not, however, participate in either line dancing or Bingo, both of which are offered and are very popular.Two days ago I seriously sprained my ankle tripping over an eletrical cord, and I was devstated, thinking I would be unable to exercise, let alone walk, for everal days. I discovered, hhowever, that I could ride the bike without causing pain to my gimpy ankle, and was pleased as punch. While I was riding today, two members of the Semior center entered the tiny exercise room, for a line danceing class. A sixty something lady of oriental descent intended to teach a seventy five year old gentleman, a good friend of mine, basic line dancing. As I peddled lowy, protecting my ankle, she guided him through the basic steps and patterns one step at a time, and invaribaly, he meesed it up, failing to accurately imitate her. I was tempted to tell him "don't give up your day job", like he did to me one day recently when I did some impromptu singing. I missed a good ppportunity for revenge, but, well, I took the high roqd. My impression waa thet she was a luusy teacher, and he was a lousy student. Soon enough, I began to change my mind. He was improving, pretty fast. When I finished my bike ride I limped into the main lunch room, where people were listening to a hillbilly band, and some people were line dancing to its music. My student teacher couple joined the group, and did passably well. I was imprressed. My final opinion was that if he practiced the steps every day, he would become good at line dancing, and would also get in shape, and I told him so. Looking back, I am glad I took this approach, rather than the "don't give up your day job" approach, which might have reminded him of his joke about my singing, (I'm actually a very good singer, as many folks would attest), His reaction to my pay back would've probably been a chuckle, but maybe not, Maybe he would have thought me petty. He would have been quite correct. Amazing to think that I have been going to this small town senior center on a nearly daiy basis for more than eleven years, and, the bottom line is, I have made some friends there, but have also accumulated a goodly number of people who either don't seem to like me, or who I don't particularly like, and in many instances, both. The fact that I dress like a teenager, that I wear dozens of necklaces and rings every day, bling bling, and that I am a blunt, sometimes abrasive radical intellectual with a sophisticated academic vocabulary and education is not necessarily compatible with blue collar farmers and conservative Christians with little formal education. People who say "He don't know oothing", instead of "He doesn't know anything" are not my kind of people, and when I say things like "This hillbilly music is disagreeable to me, I much prefer more intelletually, artistically art forms, like classical music, Hayden, Mozart, and Beethoven, many if not most of the farmers and factory workers shy away from me, and give me disapproving glances from across the room. I am convinced that I belong more in a place like Cambridge, Massachussetts, or Madison, Wisconsin, college towns, full of progressives and egg heads. But then again, even academics possess and display the human characteristics which alienate me from humanity generally; pettiness, greed, arrogance, and condescending judgmental disapproval. The rule of thumb is; when a human being gets mad at you, he or she stays mad forever, as if it has become imprinted on neurological circuitry. It may take years to overcome this, if you choose to. Sometimes I choose to, choose to spend the time and effort turning an idiot's attitude towards me around, turning disapproval into warmth, by using conversational honey and suger. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. So, sometimes I prefer to just go home, and spend the day, and my life, with my cats.

Itemizing Fascist MAGA Ideas

YOU MIGHT REMEMBER, if you're good at "Trivial Pursuit" the infamously fatuous right wing shit list "Project 25", their nefarious plan to destroy America, if unwittingly, a semi-fascist litany of evil, according to which conservative Republicans "articulated" their intent, around the year 2020, to remake the United States in the image of the John Birch Society" and the KKK, by mid decade. Like many of the worst laid plans of mice, this absurdity failed to gain traction or achieve implementation, God save the Republic. Now, the party of Jackson, FDR, Kennedy,and LBJ has decided to take a shot, called "Project 28"...For progressives its platform planks are a breath of fresh air tinged with incense and marijuana smoke. To conservatives, its anathema, pure cow dung. To get to the point, its platform plans are, to wit: 1) Overturn Citizens United. 2) legalize aborion, nationwide.3) Enact term limits for SCOTUS. 4) eliminate the electoral college. 5) outlaw gerrymandering nationwde.6) Restore the media "Fairness Doctrine". 7) legislate universal healthare for all. 8) Prohibit stock trading by members of Congress. 9) Cap congressional salaries at 1.5 times the American median.10) Tax billionaires out of existence. 10) Tax mega churches, all churches with substantial income flow. 11) Raise federal minimum wage to $15.00 to $20.00 per hour...The Republican Project 25 was insane, as you might suppose. It included insane stuff like outlawing all cooperative economics, and socialism, and renaming America the United States of Christ. The United States of Jesus, something like that. (We'll vote on it). Project 25 worships and enshrines pure neo-liberal corporate capitalism, complete individual economic freedom, every man for himself, you're on your own, dog eat dog, low taxes for the wealthy, with strict enforceemnt of the Christian faith with required membership in a Christian church of your choice ( religiousfreedon!), as long as it is a Christian church. They embrace Christian nationalism, with the muscular macho all American Jesus Christ, waving the American flag and carrying a Bible, cross, and an M16 assault rifle, none of which had been invented yet while Jesus was alive and walking the Earth, or a very small part thereof. Apparantly America is turning gasinst all this Republican rubish; pools clearly indicate a sharply declining popularity for Trump, the Republican party and their platform and agenda, and the Democrats on the upswing. Overall the Democrata have anywhere from a nine to twelve percentage point lead, nationaly, all campaigns and elections included. The government is the Democrat's for the taking and, they need only aggressively get their party members to gt out the vote, and kepp the momentum going between now and the sooh forthcoming election. Turning Trump into a total lame duck dead duck would and will be among the greatest causes for celebration imaginable for anti-Trumpers, which, at the current rate, will soon include everyone. Trump, after he leaves office, might by that time have sunk to such a low level of approval and high level of ubiquitous hatred that he slinks quietly out of D.C. and into utter obscurity, or goes and gets another hit TV show, maybe called "The Incarcerate." More likely, he will go completely nuts, start ranting and raving, or rather keep on ranting and raving, claiming that thee lection was stolen from him by the Democrats and Bavin Newsome, or Pet Buttigieg, AOC, or whomever. Trump aint going out quiet and easy. We know that.He will not gracefuly and humbly hand over the reigns of government to his Democratic successor. He'll make trouble. Big trouble. At leasr sifty five percent of the Amerian electorate can and will put a stop to it, while the dwindling mob of MAGA Trump supporters scatter like cockraoches in lamplight, and return to the mansions, hovels, and holes in the ground whence they came.

Comparing Now and Then (Trump, Making Things Worse)

TWO YEARS AGO Biden was still president. Are we better off now, or then? Let's compare. Two years ago there were no "internment camps", as the Trump regime calls them, concentration camps where undocumented immigrants, having been summarily rounded up and removed from the streets and their homes, seperated from their wives, families, jobs, and friends. Trump's American Gestapo had not yet taken to the streets, although the I.C.E agancy existed, and had for a long time. The U.S. was not involved in any wars, at least not any that come immediately to mind, although with the C.I.A. up and running, one never knows. Way back then, the government, acting on behalf of the wishes of teh people, funded science and edcation, rendering American higher education the best in the world, the envy of the world, but leaving her public education improving, but still less than what we want and need, for reasons not necessarily having to do with money. Two years ago public lands were not being sold for pennies on the dollar to fuel companies, which we choe to misnomerically call "oil companies". Public lands and national parks were held sacrosanct way back then, natural reservations for the enjoyment of nature by all Americans and foreign guests. Internationally, we the U.S.A. were friends with Canada, Mexico, and Europe, largely because the president wasn't threatening to attack, invade, conquer, and annex them, which always helps. Gas prices under Biden were roughly half of what they are now, possibly because the president wasn't dropping bombs on any oil producing countries, or kidnapping any heads of state and their spouses from oil producing countries, and putting them in American dungeons and jails. Clean alternative forms of renewable energy were on track to replace fossil fuel climate destroying, wind and solar energy were accepted as good, witout a patological president inventing one false reason after another for abandoning them, reasons such as: the sun doesn't always shine, sometimes its cloudy, sometimes its night time. Two short years ago inflation was down, not up and going higherlike it is now. Back in that bygone era which somehow seems like oh so long ago, food was safer and cleaner. Why? Because it was more regulated by the federal government, and the Uptun Sinclair "Jungle" was under control. The federal regulates what it regualtes, things like business, human health and safety, working conditions, and a whole host of other components of public life, for a reason; to prevent corporations and private interests from cutting corners, cheating on safety standards, and doing whatever is in their power to do to cut costs to themselves and to get as many consumer products, goods and services into the hands of as many consumers as possible, for the highest price possible for the sacred cow holy graille of profit maximation and stock price enhancement and investment stimulus, safety and quality of productand consumer safety be damned. Under forgetful and sleepy Joe Biden, eveything, and hat means everything, was better than it is now. Under sleepy diaper dementia Don Trump, everything is wors now, by any reasonable, verifiable standard of measurement. MAGA cult members paying higher energy, food, housing, and clothing prices, will quite predictably stick their skinny, empty wallets in their back pockets, blame Biden for everything from Trump's impotence to Trump's disastrous foreign and domestic policies, and sing the false, fabricated, fantasy praises of their hero with thirty four felonies, because his racism, zenophobia, homophbia and misogyny suit them just fine.

Changing Dentist?

I HAD A RUN of good luck,which essentially consists of two circumstances. To wit, I discovered a big stash of marijuana, still sealed in tight professional serious unopened packages from a marijuana disersary in a state wherepot is legal, and marijuana stored are every frigging were, to my great delight. And, I was once again, after a long absence, able to log on to the internt and to this essay website/blog. So, I unwrapped one of the packages, an eigth, several small buds, a good quantity considering how potent it is, and transfered the skunk buds to a small bottle, loaded up a pipe with a bud fragment, took a hit, and got stoned. Then, I turned on my silver laptop, and managed to log onto the internet and this website, or blog, which is mine. Both of these developments thrilled the dickens outta me, and for that, to God presumably, I am most grateful. It all makes me wonder if I am truly losing my mind, maybe to Alzeimer's. Is it Prevagen time once again? The first time I noticed no effects. On my mind is my dental appointment later this week, routine, my teeth are in relatively good shape due to assiduously dentistry. Te problem is, every time I make an appointment, six months in advance, the dentist's office calls and reschedules my appointment. Every....frigging...time.., which really doesn't hurt me or do any damage, but it annoys the heck out me, I feel disrespected, and inconvenienced. I really like this dental office, but am starting to think I should switch, which would be a real bummer, causing my patience and tolerance to waver. I must respond to this situation intelligently and maturely, not with anger, stress, anxiety, and all that. The rescheduled dentist appointment is, really, no big deal. I make it a big deal out of it perpaps from pride, imagining, incorrectly, that they lack respect for me. They say that they reschedule me all the time because they have to reschedule somebody, and I only live two blocks away from them. I think, so fucking what? I have a schedule myself, or try to, and being rescheduled everytime, at anything, can be a bit burdensome, a hassle, if you will. I seem to be rather intense about "respect", feeling on a daily basis that people in general lack it for me. That, of course, does nothing to help me get rid of the stress, anger, and anxiety, which, in any event, are not really all that serious,and I think I can control them, since in essence I have all my long life. This essay is very different from the most recent few thousand, because it is a sit and type stream of conscious writing project, like you might see and get in a high school English class, or a college writing class. When I finish typing this sentence, I should probalby hit the "publish" button, Hand in my impromptu essay, to the teacher? No, o me. One thinks, and one types the thought, asbestas one can. My research paper ins ixth grade was on "snakes". That much I remember. I have tended throughout my life to remember every deail of it, permanently, Now, at seventy one, I am paranoid that I am losing my memory, Very paranoid. I will write every day and see what happens. The essays prior to this one are generally highly intellectual, I think my readers will agree, and this one is a bit crazy, whereas all the others, all six thousand of them or so,are really pretty damn good, nay, very good, exremely good, if I do say so myself, although they could have been and could be much better. I will tell my dental assistant that I am workng full time, over time, and traveling all ver the world, which is not true, but is what I want to do, so I probably will. Call me crazy. Remmi's dead, but I still have two cats, aging cats. When they die, I will either get three new cats, or go to Europe. Maybe do both, Europe first. But I want to keep writing to you, for you, whoever you are. I write for the same reason I run, exercise, work out, read, play tennis. Fun. I love it. But how bored are people who might by some crazy miracle actually read it?

MAGA Contradicting

A COMMONLY USED technique in an argument is to accuse the opponent of being hypocritical, of finding and pointing out internal contradictions in his or her reasoning. Sometimes it seems to work. Let's give it a try. As our case in point, why not use, say, MAGA? Here goes nothing, or maybe something. MAGA, like probably every political movement which ever existed, makes much out of its concern for the future, for our children, their education, proper upbringing, the whole spiel. MAGA, showing its deep devotion to kids, elected a demonstrated pedophile to the presidency, a confirmed child rapist. The social, economic equality of women is also on the agenda, several decades too late, but still there. Meanwhile , no fewer than twenty four women have accused the MAGA front man, Mr. Trump, of rape. An abundance of evidence and testimony supports this, well enough to have forced Trump into numerous out of court settlements with hs accusers,with a rape convection in civil court to his name and record. Then, moving right along, we have the law and order president Trump, the I.C.E man, law enforcement's staunchest ally, with thirty four felony convictions, and possibly many more to come, once he comes out from behind the protective cover of the White House. Like all poiticians, The Felon stands solidly behind, of all things, truth and inegrity, virtues he apparantly sees as being forefront in his personality resume. And yet, by accurate accounting, Trump told a whopping thirty two thousand lies during his first term alone, depending on which accounting firm you use, and his total in his second term is off to an impressive start, with lies spewing forth at a rate which might well earn Don the Con back to back MVPs; "Most Vociferous Prevricator". A vast abundance of bad verbal behavior is issuing forth form just below his orange presidential toupe' in terms of sheer number, sufficient to convince observant fans of the sport that, yes, if lies were base hits, Pete Rose's career record total would be in danger, with The Donald closing the gap fast, with still several years remaining on his contract, and in his checkered career in the game of deceit. Moving right along to the category of "Family Values, Guardian thereof", the reigning champion is still the inimitable William Jefferson Clinton, whose reverse sexual morality reached impressively notorious levels, both before, during, and probably after his sexually active presidential administration. No accounting of big handsome randy William J.has ever been formally presented for verification, but, a little research among former associates and colleagues produces oft duplicated attestations of horny Bill's "conquests"... Power, wealth, and fame, the big three, the terrible triumvarate, was in his corner from eearly his political career, way bck down home in Arkansas. He said so himself, when he quipped that the Republcians needn't have spent seventy million dollars proving that he is a sinner; the good folks in the "Land of Opportunity" would willigaly, cheerfully have told the investigators for free. In various historical epochs and cultures sexual promiscuity has been considered a great virtue, but prudish America is not among them, at least not in "decent society". Like Clinton's, Trump's womanizing resume has reached legendary proportions, and, once that happens, the genie never goes back in the bottle. The Christian conservative wing of the G.O.P. is forced to wince, turn its head, and pretend that it aint so, Joe. The "Its the policies, not the personal behavior that counts" ploy also can serve weell. Clinton got through two terms carrying his overnight bag and package of condoms in his back pocket, and Trummp is keeping tradition alive. Most men of wealth, fame, and power cannot reist leveraging their assets for sex, men being the animals they are. Mistresses and one nighters come with the territory, like bonus points. As Mick Jagger, himself a prolific fornicator said in a song: "it Aint the latest thang."

MAGA Podcastors, Turning On Trump

ACCORDING TO A REPORT on CNN, MAGA podcastors are turning against Trump. Such reports, base on polling and surveys, are neraly always reliable, as is polling generally, despite widespread belief to the ontrary. One might sarcastically ask: "Welcome to the club, what took you so long to join? Trump's polling is in the mid thirties, and falling precipitously, heading south into Lincoln and Truman territory.The difference is that Both Lincoln and Truman were great presidents and men of honor and integrity, and Trump is a pathological liar convicted criminal sexual predator scum bag, and so forth. Ironic, because both Lincoln and Truman, hated by many as all presidents inevitably are, are by current historical consensus among America's greatest presidents, with Lincoln a probable number one, and Truman checking in soilidly in the top twenty, even though this was not always the case. Presidential rankings rise and fall like animals in heat, depending upon the "zeitgeist" of the time period, and the values of an American society, which maintains a solid foundation of unchanging values, but also, can reverse itself with the drop of a condom. In order to sink far below water in approval ratings, a president must not only engender the wrath of a growing poliical opposition, but also, alienate those in the center, as well as the apathetic, the uninformed, the poorly educated. Is is that Trump's MAGA base has always known what a reprobate their iconic leader is, but are only now starting to come to grips with this reality? And if so, is this because in issue after issue, even his staunchest supporters are being disappointed over and over again by Trump's repeated failures? His MAGA cult followers do not like Trump's war of choice against Iran any better than anybody else, snd who could blame them? There is no discernible purpose for having it, other than to distract the nation from the Epstein files, or from the currently disastrous rate of inflation which negatively affects Trumpers as much as his majority opposition? At the grocery store and the electrical and heating bill payment cash register, MAGA-folk are being hit every bit as hard as the sane and decent anti-Trump majority. Like Bill Clinton famously said thirty years ago between extramarital trysts: "Its the economy, stupid". Its always the economy, genius. Americans vote with their pocketbooks first and foremost, and always have, and always will. WE blame and take it out on the president when we lose our jobs, fail to get a pay raise, or fail to find a new and better place of employment. Human beings have never been famous for logically discerning causal connections, and are likley as not to blame the president of the United states for everything from the death of the family dog to the wrong team winning the World Series. Millions of people have either blogs or podcasts, podcasts having in recent years caught up with and surpassed blogs in terms of how many of them there are; people would rather talk and blather than think and type. The general mood of podcastors is a proverbial canary in the mineshaft in American media culture; a reflective indicator of much else going on, on the internet, the media in general, and throughout society. Now, the midterm electins approach, and the Democrats are sitting at sixty percent, with a cumulative twelve point lead over the party of Donald Trump. Unless something drastic happens in the interum, look for either an inside job attack of some sort to hit the United States, or for another kind of fabricated disaster to necessitate the cancellation of the election and declaration of martial lsw by the Pedophile in Chief. Trump tried to violently overthorw the Amerian government the last time his side lost an election. This time, as a lame duck, he has nothing to lose except his power, wealth, fame, and centerness of attention. Who knows what he'll cook up this time?

Smoking Marijuana

I BEGAN SMOKING MARIJUANA in January or February of 1978, intrigued by it, inticed by a friend of mine who was devoted to it, and seemed healthy, happy, and successful. Not so much "peer pressure" as peer influence, or role modeling. Forty eight years later, I still smokeit, and still enjoy it as much. Even that occasional and well known paranoid feleing that comes with it is a bit of a thrill. I know, deep down, that all is well, I am fine. The fact that it has largely been legalized and is available is most states is a vast improvement both from a sociological and criminal justice point of view. t raises tax revenue too. As Lincoln said: "Prohibition gues beyond the bounds of reason, in that it makes a crime our of thngs that are not crimes, and attempts to control a man's appetites by legislation. Prohibition strikes a blow at the very foundation upon which our republic was founded." I laugh and smile nostagically when I remember how we used to hide behind barns and in closets to smoke, and spray our bedrooms and cars with Lysol after a toke or two. I can think of many dead friends who would've been better off smoking pot than drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes. I would have more living friends, with livers and lungs intact. True, smoking anything does not help one's lungs. Marijuana, however, famously expands the air sacs, cleans out the accumulated mucus, and was once the best and most commonly used treatment for asthma. When I was two years old, I had asthma so bad that my parents asked whether I would live, as I lay cold, frightened and lonely inside an "oxygen tent" in the late nineteen fifties, waiting for the world and its medicine to catch up to my needs. Eventually, it did. I probably love marijuana more now, or at least as much, as I did back then, in the faded jean jacket seventies. I have always and still do treat marijuana like fine wine, to be savored in small quantities, shared with friends at special occasions, such as hanging out with said friend(s). As far as I know nobody has ever died or been rendered chronically ill by smoking pot, although there are certainly people who disagree, mostly priggish conservative types. The fact that now I still love and enjoy it but can take or leave it is the perfect balance for me. I have to drive fifty mmiles across a state line to purchase it legally, which is a hassle if marijunnas is my only motivation. But I can make the drive, and visit my hometown, old high school friends, and my family too, killing several birds with a single stone, as it were. The shrunken asthmatic lungs i was born with have, over the decades, morhped into a deep thick chest with big, healty lungs, which require me, at rest, to inhale only about four times every minute. Daily exercise helps too, of course. Even when striding along at a good jogging clip on treadmill or wooded trail, my lungs cycle through in steady, slow form, not at all strained. I have to run a good healthy sprint to get myself breathing rapidly and deeply. I have noticed, for a long time, that marijuana sometimes dulls my ambition, makes me slugghish, and lazy. A little bit of that goes a long way, as I, like most Americans, smoke or no smoke, prefer being productive. Sometimes, it fuels my ambition and productivity. Go figure. With a bit of self dicsipline, I manage to manage that. I am not the sort to make dramatic, blanket declarations of intent, like "On January first I shall cease smoking, forever." Nor do I make New Year's Resolutions genrally.. I simply decide what to do, and do it, any day of the week or year. As Goethe said: "There is no sureer way to blunt a resolution than to keep talking about it." And, as we all know, talk is cheap.

Raking Leaves

TO MOST PEOPLE its a nuisance,an anoyance,even a migraine. To mie, its a rite of autumn, an damnedgood exercie for an older "gentleman". I refer to raking leaves on a one third acre suburban lot in a small town with about twenty mature maple and oak trees,which recently barely survived a massive drought, and let many of their leaves loose,to avoid dying, I suppose. Traumatized trees, trees in shock. The twenty or so deciduous treest I planted twenty years ago are fully grown, I hope,and my yard and my life are knee deep in maple leaves, much much too early in late summer, victims of he drought which have been somewhat alleviated, but probably not totally ended. For me, a positive thinker, that's a tip toe through the tulips. Their fate is a leaf by leaf affair, depending on my mood and the vicissitudes of circumstance and fortune. Some I rake and bundle up, for the garbage man's amusement. Others will remain dormant until I break out the lawn mover in early march.I don't want to pay anyone to do my yard work until I get too old and feeble to do it, which I hope won't happen until the day I die. So, I rake and bundle, filling trash cans and big plastic bags like a Republican filling the air with hot mess and lies...A few thousand years ago there was an estimated seven trillion trees on Earth, science says. Homo sapiens hs cut that number in half, and keeps going, madly, franticlly chopping and denuding. We aren't finished. Ten billion trees a year are human harvested. The good news is that some countries are belatedly but steadily beginning to perceive the problem, and make changes. Belts of new trees hundreds of miles long nd wide are being planted in China and all across North Africa.The day may come when sub Saharan Africa is a vast, verdant, lush forest, with climat change, and reverse climate change through human intrvention. When I planted trees all over the then barren yard surrouding my newly built house twenty years ago, my mother, understandably, predicted that I would live to rue the day. I can still see her point, but au contrar, dear mother, no regrets here. I am waging a small scale war against global environmental destruction. I would applaud anyone else for doing this; I'll let other people applaud me, if they can make the connection between my yard and the rest of the planet. Earlier today I told my neighbor that he and I will both live to see a summer in which the temperature rises to one hundred degrees by Memmorial Day, and largely remains there until Labor Day. His silence told me that eithr he thought I was talking crazy, or that he didn't care. I told him that it doesn't matter to me personally, that I will be dead soon, but that it sure as hell will matter to his children and now young grand children. Still no response. Americans don't care about global warming/climate change because they have air conditioning, and, well, it really isn't doing them any harm, so, so what, what's the big deal? Oh, but it is doing them harm. Food prices are already headed for the roof, as are cooling bills. Heat already kills more people in the United States and Europe, the places we care most about, than most other causes of death. And still we elect morons like Trump and other Republicans who will be dead in a few months and who lack the intellect and courage and integrity to accept reality. I'm seventy one, and can still run a fifteen minute mile. I should be able to rake leaves at least a few more years. My trees won't get much bigger, if any. I have the money to pay for yard work help, if it comes to that. So, it seems I'm set. Then too, as I mentioned, I'll be dead before humanity has to deal with and somehow survive climate change for real, or do someting to reverse it, which I, in my never ending optomism, think will happen. But, who knows? Either wewilor wewon't. i hope to live long enough to find out, but can't count on it.

Trump, Suing

DONALD TRUMP has been involved in thousands of lawsuits during the course of his ignominous life and career as a real estate scam artist. At last count, he is being sued approximately four thousand times, and is suing other people at approximately the same rate. After all, one requires balance in one's life. And, quite predictably, nearly all of these lawsuits are predicated primarly on money. Trump has a clever scam scheme in which he contracts construction companies to build things, and, when the projects, high rise apartments and so forth, are completed, he finds fault with them, and damands an unreasonable redress, monetary redess to which no reasonable person or businnes could or would possibly accede. Trump makes his litigation so irksome, odious, tedious, and burdensome to his victims that in most cases they lose steam, grow tired of hemmoraging money, run out of funds, and agree to settle out of ocurt, under duress and desperation, creating a circumstance in which Trump, his pockets still well lined and able to withstand years of possible extended future litigation, simply outlasts his exhausted courtroon adversaries, who, from sheer financial, emotional, and legal exhaustion, are willing to accept a settlement inimical to thmeselves, but less innimical than had they stayed the course, and attempted to confront Trump mano del mano ad infinitum. Trump wears down and wears out his legal adversaries. He is patient, and willing to wait to harvest his easy low hanging fruit, fruit that has fallen from the tree close, ready for a scavenger to harvest. Trump is indeed a scavenger, marauding through society like a gang of outlaws in late nineteenth century Arizona, or a carpetbagger in the defeated, prostrate, ruins of the post Civil War south. Trump is a vulture, preying upon carrion, the helpless and harmless, the defenseless. Jackels and hyenas come to mind as appropriate metaphoric animals with whom to compare the Donald, Don the Con. You don't want to be like Trump. Nobody of any character and intelligence does. Any normal human being, enbued with the slightest trace of moral human decency, steers well clear of living any sort of lifestyle which even remotely resembles that of America's most politically successful con man carnival barker. For a fact, nobody likes Donald J.Trump. Nobody in his immediate or extended family, none of his acquaintances or "friends" or associates of any sort want to have anything to do with him. Every book written about Trump is essentially the same. Hundreds of monographs detailing the utter moral depravity and ammoral criminality of a man whose entire life is devoted only to his own enrichment, seeking primarily to gain attention, his greatest addiction being to fame. The most insightful information about Trump comes from his niece Mary, who, with a doctorate in abnormal psychology, has her infamous uncle pegged to a "T", as we say. She describes him as indeed mentally ill, with the same extreme narcissism and pathological prevarication and lack of human enpathy which by now all Americans are so tiresomely familiar.The story of Trump is at once a comic opera and s Shakespearian tragedy of King Leer proportions, and future historical novels and historical narratives will agree that here was a man devoid of any positive human characteristics, a nearly perfect study in evil, one to rival Hitler, Stalin, or Caligula. And like these monstrous reprobates, future generations will marvel that such a demon could ever have existed in human form. When today's young adults are old, their grandchildren will be amazed at the stories they will hear from their grandparents. Edgar Allen Poe, in his grave, will be jealous that he missed the opportunity to put Trump on paper, in a macabre, twisted, terrifying narrative of pure, devastating darkness.