Kidnapping Just For Fun

GIVE TRUMP CREDIT. He called off any further strikes against Venezuela. Or at least he said he did. But you know how things go with Trump,in terms of sheer honesty and reliability of word. Thus, only the kidnapping of Madura, this time around, at least for now. Smoke was rising from several different places in Caracus, according to the network video. And, evidently, fire sas exchanged, and some Venezuelans were killed. Official sccounts given by the Trump administration are of course vague, murcky, and impossible to take at face value. Such is Trump. It was more than a mere kidnapping. It was an attack. From any logical perspective, the raidand kidnapping acomplished nothing; the entire rest of the Maduro regime remains intact ,from the Vice President, who now becomes president, down through the ranks to all the bureaucrats, who presumably remainin place. Everybody just moves up one notch, and Venezuela carries on. This new president lady certainly does not look like someone who would be an easy patsy for the United States to push around and give orders to. She looks tough and smart, like someone who has attended a few rodeos,so to speak, which she probably has, having somehow risen to the top of the Venezuelan political power structure. In terms od attempting to regimechange in various and sundry countries, teh United States, variably,needs to be careful what it wishes for. The prime example is the CIA, under Eisenhower, helping Castro come to power in Cuba in 1959 by running the cruel dictator Baptista out fo the counrty. Its fairto say that this little adventure in regime change nation building didn't work out at all like the American corporate plutocracy planned. Castro turned communist socialist and got in bed with the Russians and the young girls, and all that. The rest, as they say,is hsitory. Decade after decade of Castro as a huge thorn in the American corporate capitalistic side, namely. Overall, however,the signs are ominous. LittleMarco,on network television, made it abundantly clear that these United States under Trump insist on complete cooperation from the post Maduro Maduro government, meaning that Venezuela will be expected to comply with all instructions handed down by the Trump junta, with serious consequences for failing to do so. Perpetually scowling Vice President Vance went further, went back to the Monroe Doctrine, now the "Donroe Docrine" (cute, eh?): this is our hempisphere. You'd have to figure that fishing boats leaving Venezuelan ports and venturing out into the larger Caribbean to do some deep sea fishing will if it hasn't already become something of a lost art. Other that that, we can probably look forward to a few more sucker punches from old bones spurs on other weak, third world countries, the list of possible targets including Colombia, as well as a couple in North Africa. Donroe himself said flat out that he got his rocks off hitting Caracus. Another sources of spiritual orgasm for the Predator-in-Chief seems to be brutality visited upon average, upstanding, upstanding American citizens by the I.C.E. agency, which has morphed into Trump's personal Gestapo under the command of his version of Himmler, the sexy, seductive Kristi Noem. If this regime can spin a video recorded stright up murder of an innocent wife and mother by the govenment into an heroic elimination of an attacking terrorist, then it can and will spin anything into anything. That's how Trump's insurrrection, the anniversary of which we just "celebrated", became, in the Trump fun house,a harmless pep rally gone a bit overboard.

Denying Climate Change

ITS EARLY JANUARY, and spring is just around the corner, amazingly. The big trees in my yard have buds, as if the leaves are ready to pop out. Pop out they will, well before March first. Fifty years ago in my locale the trees were still barren on March twenty. Irises could spring up out of the ground at any time. Last year at about this time it did exactly that, and promptly got burned on a freezing night. The climate has changed drastically in the past fifty years, and everyone my age (seventy) or older agrees. It is becoming difficult, neary impossible to deny climate change, so conservatives are now much more prone to acknowledge it. They still have the option of refusing to attribute it to human industry, which they invariably utilize, in their desperate need to deny any need to make fundamental changes to society politically, and economically. I plan to take a short but scenic road trip when the first blush of iight green yellowish color spreads across the tree covered hills of the Ozark Mountain biosphere. My best guess as to when this will take place is early to mid March. Nowadays you just never know. Last year spring sprang late,in late March, just like back in teh old days. Who knows? Maybe climate change is reversing itself, and the climate is going back to the wa it used to be, as President Trump, in all his wisdom, promised us it would do. He didn't specify when. Its a hoax, says the prevaricating president, but if it exists,its only because nature wanted it that way, we had nothing to do with it, and, in any event, it'll soo get back to normal. the sea level will stop rising suddenly, for no apparent reason,the atmosphere will cleanse itself of a trillion tons of carbon, and the immense amount of heat energy that has been trapped in the atmosphere in recent years shall magically, mysteriously radiate harmlessly away into outer space, of its own volition. As is so often the case, H.L. Mencken's famous quote applies here: "The fools would be humorous were they not in such deadly earnest." As always, the great tragedy is not only that a presumed reasonably intelligent group of people, the American people, would actually choose as their head of state a perosn who would actually utter such nonsense, but that those same people seem perfectly willing and content to believe it. Of all the pernicious, harmful policy positions embraced by Trump and MAGA, none is as pernicious and harmful to humanity as climate denial. Not the racism, not the aggressive, angry foreign policy, not the cruelty towards the poor, the verbal abuse of those to dare depart from the fuhrer and his fscism. Of all the numerous vile, disgusting aspects of Trumpism, climate change denial is by far the mostevil, the most harmful. Climate change, according to the D.O.D., is the greatest threat to American national security. Neither China, nor Russia, nor gay people, nor liberalism. Global warming, climate change, which, for the benefit of conservatives, are the same thing. The conservative approach to climate change, pretending that either it does nto exist or that if it doe sit is unimportant, is insane, suicide. There are a million reasons to get rid of Trump and to defeat his MAGA mob, and that is going to happen. The entire agenda is poison. But the argument which the Democrats must make above all, and must make it early, often, and incessantly, is that cliamte change is real, and that Trump, the Republican party, and conservative America generally, by refusing to take strong action against it, are contributing to the destruction of the United States and the extinction of the human species.

Denying Science, For Oil

I LIKE QUOTES. Especially the particularly witty or profound kind often issued by peple such as Mark Twain, Abraham Lincoln, Einstein, and so forth. Thomas Jefferson is a great source, and I often encounter wonderful quotes by Jefferson whih are new to me. Yesterday on Facebook I saw one, which, roughly paraphrased, is this: "Priests dread the advance of science like witches dread the approach of daylight." Like all great quotes, its great because it articulates a great, sweeping truth; it applies to just about everybody, clearly points out a msjor characteristic of all religion: religions resist new knowledge which contradicts their basic beliefs. Like many of Jefferson's best quotes, this one was evidently written in a personal letter. Jefferson assumed that the letters he wrote would be lost to history, but were not, much to our benefit. Jefferson loved science, but not religion, which in one letter he referred to as "superstition". The Jefferson quote also applies to us today, as is obvious in the various of the so called "culture wars" raging in the good ole U.S. of A. The Trump administration, even as we speak, has waged and continues to wage a vindictive war against science and education in 'murca, beyond doubt merely because Trump, and conservatives in general, do not like what science and education have to say about the world and reality, as well as Trump and MAGA. The reductions in federal assistance to science and education are drastic, and disastrous. Experts are warning that if these Trump policies are allowed to stand for very long, the United States could lose its current position as a world leader in scientific and technological innovation and development. Thomas Jefferson spent the final years of his life supervising the establishment of the University of Virginia. He said it was the best thing he ever did, better than serving as president or writing the Declaration of Independence. During his first term, Trump, by totally mismanaging the Covid epidemic, was arguably responsible for hundreds of thousands of American deaths. His general denial of and refusal to take action against the deadly virus was perfectly acceptable to his cult followers, who now constitute about thirty percent of the American population, still, amazingly, and who seem as antithetical to scientific reality as their cult icon. To deny climate change, for example, is as delusional as trying to explain nature with primitive religious beliefs rather than modern science. Climate change denial is a manifestation of anti-science bias. The same Americans who wish to insinuate their personal religion into the United States government are perfectly willing to pretend that global warming is a hoax in service to their conservative views, which include allegiance and addiction to a fossil fuel capitalistic economy. One of the inconvenient facts about solar energy is that nobody will be able to use it as leverage in international political, economic, or military warfare. Sunlight is so abundant in nature that it has no value at all. Everybdoy can havea much fo it as anyone could possibly want, for free. That fact must surely frustrate our fossil fuel corporate capitalistic elite billionaire class, who will continue to resist the inevitable clean energy future to achieve their sacred cause; sucking as much personal profit out of the dying planet as possible, no matter how many people die in so doing. We wee preciely who the enemy of humanity is, merely by watching Trump and his governing mafia mob rip apart and suck poor hapless Venezuela bone dry. Our only hope is that science vanquishes the witches.

Kidnapping Trump

THE NUMBER of indisputable reasons why Trump's kidnapping of Madura, his attack of Venezuela, is and shall forver be regarded by historians as idiotic is greater than the number of elementary particles of matter in the known universe, and the accounting has but barely begun. They are at once philosophical, moral, and pragmatic. For one, regime change, as a rule, doesn't work. Almost invariably the negative, undesirable results and consequences thereof outweigh the benefits by a considerable margin. You don't just invade another country, kidnap its head of state and hold him or her captive, without expeiencing some bad karma, unintended consequences, and repurcussions, We know that Trump has, without doubt, brought about deteriorating relationships with most if not all of the some two hundred nations on Earth, that he has helped end wars and bring about peace nowhere, despite his flagrant lies to the contrary, and we know that everything Trump does regarding Venezuela will do only in his perceived personal best interests. Such, as they way, is the nature of the beast. American fuel companies are already, it is reported,being invited by the Trump administration to come swooping in, assume control fo Venezuela's oil producing infrastructure, which we are told is in very bad repair, refurbish it at a cost of billions, and proceed to enhance their already record shattering profits. As always, the American corporate oligarchy triumphs over all. Unless, of coures, Trump signs, say, an executive order mandating that all proceeds from the regifted oil fields of Venezuela, which produce seventeen percent of the world's oil, be distributed among the world's poorest people and countries. Fat chance of that. Give credit where due. Rather neat, extracting the head of state, leaving all else intact, including the Venezuelan government, and just have everyone move up a notch, the lady Vice President now assuming the presiency. The likelihood that she will merely continue to pursue Maduro's policies notwithstanding, Trump's United States shall doubtless remain stationed nearby or in country in large enough numbers to ensure compliance with the almighty Yankee Norde Americanos As always, we the American people si tidly by, twiddling our thumbs, gaing at our collective navels, passively accepting our beloved United States of Aggression in its role as "owner of the western hemisphere" as Trump says it, applauding our coporate masters and their bursting billfolds. This thing ob kidnapping another country's head of state, incarcerating him or her, trying, convicting, and sentencing, then licking up for life has merit, and a substantial part of the American public, as much as sixty percent thereof, are asking: "Why can't somebody come over here and do that for us?" Why do we always miss out on all the fun? You can imagine it now.In a meticulously orchestrated conspiracy, larger even than that which managed to steal the twenty twenty election right out from under Trump's nose, helicopters swoop into the nation's capitol under the radar, land on the newly paved rose garden, a nice place to land a chopper,and in a lightening quick operation, escort Trump from the White House. or maybe better to pull off this daring hypothetical raid at Mara Lago, where Trump is much more likely to be distracted by young ladies, or whatever,and unguarded. A "Go Fund Me' account to pay any willing foreign power to render the American majority this invaluable service could never grow too big, like a lottery. Sound crazy? If nothing else, its certainly worth fantasizing about.

Controlling the Climate

IN MY NECK OF THE WOODS, in the lower midwestern mid south part of the United States, we are currently knee deep in a very serious drought. It rained not at all during December, and we had a few sprinkles, and nothing more, a couple of days ago. Meanwhile a drenching avalanche of an atmospheric river is dumping unwanted billions of tons of fresh water all over California, too much of a good thing. If only we could move some molecules around a bit, and redistribute all this hydro wealth, using human technology. That will likely be possible within a hundred years, famed scientist Michio Kaku said about a quarter century ago. The thought of the human species having complete control over the Earth's atmosphere, hence weather and climate,is at once awe inspiring and frightening. The "image" of waring countries using fabricated violent weather to destroy each other comes to mind. Over the past couple of decades our tendency here in lower mid America has been to have at least one, and sometimes too prolonged droughs each summer, but spring, fall,and winter have usually been adequately and reliably wet. A super dry December is new territory,as far as I can recall.In my neck of the woods, it is utterlly amazing hwo much the climate has changed over the course of my seventy year and counting lifetime. Around here, October used to be a cold weather month. Now, October is late summer, with temperatures in the mid eighties most days. It used to snow where I live, at least two or three times each winter, in amounts ranging from a fraction of an inch to two feet, snow which would usually melt rapidly and be gone within a few days, a feature particularly appealing to me. Now, it never snows, or hardly ever, and it seems to most of us that if probably never will again, or if so, only infrequently. I have started telling people that I predict that within my lifetime we will experience a summer in which the temperature rises to one hundred degrees on Memorial Day, and remains there until Labor Day. I am standing by that prediction while praying that it is wrong. We already have, as a matter of course, weeks on end of temperatures well into the nineties, so, we don't really have far to go. Those almost daily pop up showers in mid summer which used to briefly interupt our neighborhood whiffleball games are seemingly a thing of the past; now, when it rains, it pours, for days, and often, it doesn't rain for weeks, like now. The rain would stop, we'd have a few minutes of twig races in the flowing street gutters until the sun dried out the back yard ball field, then, back to baseball. Hopeful signs are that the world is becoming constantly more aware of and concerned about doing something about global warming, all except our beloved but recalcitrant United States of Amnesia. The world is converting to solar and wind energy at a break neck pace, thank heavens. Solar energy panels are flowing out of China and unto every human inhabited nook and cranny on Earth, while Trump's America ignores and tries to destroy this best hope for future economic prosperity. Take heart. Trump and his ridiculous cult movement will be gone not soon enough, but soon, and the U.S. can become, or will at least have a chance to become, a responsible partner in restoring the health of the planetary ecosystem. Its too late to prevent climate change made by humanity, but not too late to prevent its most disastrous consequences. As for now, we could, as usual, use a litttle rain.

Tending Our Gardens

THE ATTACK of Venezuela is perfectly in keeping with United States foreign policy towards Latin America since the earliest days of the American plutocratic republic. The Monroe Doctrine of 1823 made it "perfectly clear", as Nixon might say, that the United States would henceforth and forevermore regard all areas south of its southern border as de facto subject to American control, as a purely American sphere of influence. No other nations, especially European nations, would be allowed to exert any sort of influence or control of any kind in the western hemisphere. This ambitious, imperialistic declaration of continental suzzerainty by a rather fledgling United States has from its inception been largely ignored and disrespected by not only European powers, but in particualr by China, whose influence we see today. The Chinese are engaged in the construction of infrastructure and trading relations in Latin America, none of it with the approval of the powerless United States, powerless, that is, to enforce the breast thumping early 19th century declaration of imperialist intent. Since 1823 the United States has invaded Latin American countries regularly, dozens of times, early and often. A simple list of American invasions can easily be googled; the list is long and impressive, and includes something like twenty two separate occupations of Haiti.A seminal if slightly outdated monograph by historiam=n William Appleman Williams, titled "The Traddgy of American Diplomacy" details this history from the early nineteenth century to the nineteen sixties. Consider teh arrogance,let alone the aggressive underlying attitude, of a nation willing to prolcaim that the door to China is "open" in the "Open Door Policy" of 1900, without consulting China, and no less willing to consider itself the rightful overlord of the entire western hemishpere from the early 19th century until....today. Ther is absolutely no moral imperative or justification behind this attitude, only raw economic and military power, and the willingness and even latent desire to exploit it for the enhancement of the pwrsonal wealth and power of the plutocrats who govern the Unoted States, and always have. Ironic, in a way, that this latest American violation of international law and moral decency took place thirty six years to the day after a simliar exploit in Panama, with another of those third world petty dictators our neighbors to the south seem so adept at producing.Latin Ameria is a good lesson for lovesr of demoracy everywhere: you can expand voting rights as far and wide as you choose, but there is never any guarantee that we the people will not willingly elect a "atrong leader" who will, upon gaining power, soon morph into the sort of brutal, cruel dictator we now see so many of, staining the fabric of human civilization with their culturally suffocating suppression. In Latin America voters elect strong leaders who become dictators. In the United States we have elected a demagogue who is attempting to become a dictator, by governing by decree rather than by legislative and executive due process. Ultimately it is the people of any nation who must keep and defend their freedom and democracy, not some foreign power. We Americans can talk about the necessity of defending and supporting democracy all over the world all we want, even while supporting the petty tyrants of our choice but while doing so. It might not hurt us to think carefully about the current, evident threat to our own democratic system here at home, currently holding power. As Voltaire said: "We must tend our gardens."

Keeping the Faith

I HAVEN'T BEEN Up and attem at midnight on New Year's Eve since, probably, I was about thirty five, if not longer. I recall 1985, I think, when I actually had a date, which fizzled like Roman candles in rain. Seldom am I asleep at the ball drops, but always horizontal. This year I cruised into the new year ready to kick butt, as usual, enthusiastic and optimistic, even though the world I inhabit bears nothing in common with one the one I thought, when i was a kid, I might live in when I reached the age of seventy, in the far distant future year of twenty twenty five. One year ago at this time I was dreading the forthcoming second Trump administration and swearing to almighty whomever that I would dedicate my energies to opposing it. I kept my promise in my own meager way, and now, with Trump's approval rating well below forty percent and most of his agenda stalled out, I feel a certain sense of vindicaation, and empowerment. Although there is no feasible way to remove Trump from the presidency until 2029 without seriously doing damage to all of us, we who oppose him can, are, and will continue to get in the way of the MAGA fascist agenda and, lord willing and the creek don't rise, bring it to a complete standstill. To reduce the Trump presidency to the status of lame duck is the best we can realistically expect at this point. We do not want to allow the whimsical invasion and occupation of our cities by our own armed forces, nor do we want to seriously disrupt the economy by deporting millions of agricultural and blue collar workers. It is hard to imagine forcing millions of people off of Medicaid by cutting its funding will endear the Republican platform to voters at the bottom fo the economic pyramid going into the 2026 midterms. This, notwithstanding the obvious, demonstrated historical willingness of poor Americans to support billionaire politicians such as Trump who have not the slightest conern for their well being. Precisely why anyone would possibly believe that a billionaire olitician would give the slightest consideration to the plight of the poor and impoverished is nearly beyond the comprehension of any reasonably intelligent person. When he wrote most of the constitution, Madison assuemd that the wealthy elite, to whom he gave all real political power, would naturally manifest their inherent "noblesse oblige" and look after those at the bottom of society. Within five years after the document took effect, he realized that there was no way this was going to happen, and he regretted what he had written, regretted that he had not listened to his mentor Jefferson, who had advocated for more restraints to the power of the aristocracy, and more guarantees of protected power for the common people, whom Madison called "the lesser sort." Madison's system won out, Jefferson's vanished, and here we are today. It is neither unfair nor innacurate to call Trump a fascist, and the Trump movement a fascist movement. His obvious intent to govern by presidential decree, and the submissive willingness of the Republican caucus to accede to this usurpation of its own constitutional powers in deference to their cult leader clearly evinces the fascist approach. A strong man, leading the country with an iron hand, with the support of a tightly knit well organized political machine. Fascism, pure and simple, invited into America by America's extremist right wing fascist movement. 2026 will be a very good year to continue to ANTIFA campaign to defeat Trump-MAGA fascism, and to return the country to sanity and basic decency.