Telling Unflattering Truth, With Facts, And Making America Great, Finally

IF YOU HAVE A DOCTORATE in linguistics and philosophy, and you spend sixty two years and counting as a professor at M.I.T., and you revolutionize the science of linguistics like Einstein did physics, and you engage in political activism and do research and writing in American history, politics, and current events, and you accuse the United States of murdering and torturing millions of innocent people, and accuse every American president since World War Two of being a war criminal, you had better be able to support your claims, as well as your work, with a considerable amount of verifiable facts, or you will promptly lose your job at M.I.T.., which is currently rated the best university in the United States, with good reason. Institutions like M.I.T. do not like having their reputations besmirched by bad scholarship, or unfounded claims made by radical academicians. Such institutions do not tolerate academic incompetence, dishonesty, nor unsubstantiated accusations by its lecturers. That is why Noam Chomsky, who has been at M.I.T. doing all the above since I was born sixty two yeas ago, is still there, stronger than ever, regarded as the supreme American intellectual everywhere in the world except America, where he is largely ignored by mainstream society, due to his unsettling radicalism. conservative mainstream American do not like being questioned, much less exposed. The only problem with Chomsky is deciding which of his dozens of extraordinary books to read first. It really doesn't matter, as long as you read them all. Permit me to suggest "Manufacturing Consent", "Failed States", "hegemony of survival", or his latest, published in 2016, "Who Rules The World?", a true barn burning eye opener coup de grace. From there, you're on your own. Another problem with Chomsky is that he tells the truth, and backs it up with facts, and the truth he tells about the U.S.A. is far from flattering. We Americans much prefer being flattered. In this world, including the U.S. past and present, the truth is, regrettably, often neither appealing nor flattering. Chomsky redefines patriotism. He replaces blind, pandering loyalty and showy ostentatious display with a sincere attempt to improve one's country through sustained, thoughtful, cogent, courageous analysis, coupled with a willingness to accept what such analysis reveals, including unpleasant national reality, past and present. This improved brand of patriotism leads hopefully to the bringing to fruition our espoused lofty values and virtues, and the desired result of fulfilling finally our true potential for greatness, by making America great, not again, but for the first time ever, such as she has never yet been before.

Teaching Congress To Behave Properly

YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE TROUBLE believing this, because its hard to believe. You'll think its funny, in a sardonic sort of way, because it is. And it might make you roll your eyes, or cry, because it should. it can be seen as an indication of just how far American society has sunk, hoe desperately we seek to heal ourselves, and how pathetic our efforts are. Its this" there is a bill being introduced into congress, sponsored by the lady Senator from Minnesota, which would require mandatory sexual harassment training for all members of congress. Not voluntary, not optional, mandatory. Recent revelations of serial sexual harassment among the rich, famous, and powerful are currently all the rage, as anyone who has not spent the last few weeks in Earth orbit doubtless know. Men powerful in corporate, entertainment, and political America, unable or unwilling to accept their limitations and curb their barbarous impulses. We the people seem to love knowing about it, the media seem to think they can profit by telling us all about it, and so we hear about it, with depressingly increasing frequency. The "me too" movement, mostly on social media (where else?), is bringing victims out of the woodwork,, almost like hopefuls in line at the lottery ticket window, or the confessional booth. are we coming out to complain, confess, or to demand something? Why the wait? Fear of retaliation, likely. Our national cathartic moment of therapy! It might help, in the long run. Finally, congress itself, the seat of power, the climax. at least, we hope its nearly run its course. Bear in mind that all this started with the president himself, before he was even elected, and that he was a perpetrator, not a victim, and that he was proud of it, not ashamed. What will sexual harassment "training" for members of congress accomplish or entail? will it be for men only? Gentlemen, we are met here to remind ourselves of the proper way to treat a woman any woman, all women,, for those of us who were either raised wrong, or have forgotten. First, always bow from the waist, as a show of deference. Address all females as "ma'am". Madam congressperson will also suffice. Never touch anyone, never ofer your hand, never kiss hand or cheek. We are not French. Three feet of separation, minimum. No compliments on appearance or attire...Will it work? should a basic sex education class precede the harassment avoidance training? Maybe a brief lesson in common courtesy, like children get at boarding school or in dance class. We have sunk far, and the hopeful part is; surely we can sink no further.

LearningTo Live and Love At The Senior Center

JUST WHEN YOU THINK SOMEBODY, or some group of somebodys, is beyond redemption, they turn up big. Maybe that's how the Lord teaches us; form an opinion, but be ready to change it. Mike Ditka, long time great coach of the Chicago Bears, once said go ahead and make your plans, but you'd better be ready to change them. Smart guy, Ditka. There was a time when I wasn't the most popular old guy at the senior center. Pantheist socialists have a hard time fitting in around these parts, which tend more towards Pentecostal conservatism. So, for much of the past two years of my membership, many of the regulars haven't like me, and I haven't liked them. Particularly egregious to me was the one who allegedly said that a true Christian voted for Trump, implying, evidently, that all Hillary voters were either atheists, or untrue Christians. That made me a mite wrathy, as Davy Crockett might've said. So, I wrote about it. that did nothing to enhance my already tenuous standing within the senior set in my small southern town. But I meant every word of it, and still do: to say that any true Christian should have or must have voted for Trump is ludicrous, vicious, or worse, and I assume the person who said it know it, deep down if nowhere else. Millions of good Christians voter for Hillary, herself a good Methodist. what is it about Donald Trump that reflects the glory of Jesus Christ? the self proclaimed sexual predation, the billions of dollars, the outlandish lies, the marital infidelity, or the fact that he has not lately been seen rendering unto Caesar, but instead hiding his tax returns, nor giving unto the poor, instead investing heavily in recreation for the wealthy, and supporting tax breaks for them. If Trump is not the opposite of Jesus, which he well might be, then he is not someone a true follower of Christ ought necessarily to vote for. having said all that, the folks at the senior center, republicans though they mainly be, aint so bad after all. In fact, they tend to be warmhearted, kind, loving, and, if you give them a couple of years and show some personality around them on a daily basis, they will come to accept you, even it you happen to e a left wing Bernie sanders democrat of the socialist variety, who happens not to believe in an anthropomorphic deity, but rather, the deistic deity of Jefferson, and the pantheistic deity of Einstein, which ultimately, are the same thing; atheist, from a Christian perspective. I should be glad that the seem to like me for the most part, considering my unacceptable qualities.

Refilling the Swamp Trump Drained, If We're Fortunate

TRANSITIONING FROM ONE PRESIDENTIAL ADMINISTRATION TO ANOTHER is a difficult, complicate process, involving thousands of people, requiring everyone's cooperation. what usually happens is that the day after the election, the new president elect sends forth swarms of representatives and probable appointees to the various cabinet level executive departments, to meet with the outgoing experienced ones, to learn the ropes. There they are met by the outgoing people with at least four years of experience under their belts, who have prepared in advance by reserving parking spaces, preparing notes, and making coffee. All for the purpose of facilitating a smooth transfer of power, amicably. This time, it didn't happen that way. Trump tweeted about his oh so terrific make America great destruction of Hillary Clinton, and nobody showed up - anywhere. The Obama people waited in their offices, wondering where everybody was, while the coffee got cold, and the parking spaces set aside for Trump's hordes stayed empty. At agriculture, energy, and all other departments, nothing happened. The Ag Dept. is responsible, mind you, for overseeing and protecting the nation's food supply, among other duties, and the Energy has as its task the control of the nation's nuclear arsenal, and energy grid. Pretty important stuff. You want the people in charge of it to know their stuff. finally, when the trump administration was full ensconced, the Obama holdovers reported that, across the board, the new arrivals seemed to have little knowledge of and little interest in learning and performing their jobs. As if they didn't want their jobs, or didn't think they were important. When Trump's people finally deigned to show up, it was widely reported that they were dismissive, arrogant, and uninterested in being taught anything. They already knew everything they needed to, it seems. Many positions went unfilled, and still are.. The State Department building is nearly empty. anybody who believes in climate change is not allowed to work in the Trump administration. they are screened out in advance. Obama climate change believers were purged out, fast, witch hunt style. The result is that the Trump administration if full of incompetents. Nuclear physicists in the energy Department and agricultural science experts in the Ag Dept. have been replaced by political hacks, billionaire contributors to the Trump campaign, and right wing ideologues, people who neither know how nor care to do their jobs. Long time employees say that moral has never been lower among the actual qualified people, and that the new people are behaving as if they actually want to destroy the agencies for which they allegedly work. If that's Trump's idea of "draining the swamp", we'd better hope that somebody comes along and refills it, fast.

Counting Ducks: Being Where You Belong

MY FATHER ONCE TOLD ME that he sometimes felt as though he had spent half his life in gin joints. Having known my father rather well, I tended to believe him. In fact, when I reached adulthood, I became his favorite drinking buddy, and we had some good times, many of which, for some reason, are now lost to memory. He came about it honestly. His mother, whom I remember well, was a severe Baptist. To her, anything that was fun was sinful. A woman of the nineteenth century, she wore her ankle length white hair in a severe bun, and covered her entire body, wrists to ankles, in a dark dress, daily. My father wanted to be a musician, but was forced to go to law school. Just as he got started practicing law with my grandfather, World War Two broke out, and off he went, drinking his way through the navy. Then, he married, had kids, and practiced law, and, well, all of that together will turn the best of men into heavy drinkers. The stresses of the legal profession have driven many a good man to the bottle. At least that's what John Grisham says. Dad imbued me with a love of knowledge, learning, and reading. Thus I sometimes feel as if I have spent half my life in libraries, and relatively little in bars. One of my favorite local libraries has a wonderful duck pond. It was a bit rough around the edges, so a massive renovation project involved draining it, adding an encircling wall, and refilling it. The ducks, which were plentiful before the renovation, mostly green headed mallards, never came back. At least, not yet, and its been awhile. I started to worry about them, until I realized that they undoubtedly simply lost patience and took their business somewhere else, like out in the country. I still miss them, and hope they come back, because they were quite an attraction. I comfort myself knowing that they may yet return, but that if they don't, its only because they went to a better place. I use the same reasoning to comfort myself ever since one of my beloved cats sneaked out of the house and ran away about three months ago. All strictly indoor cats want to go outside. Anyone would. He still hasn't returned, but I maintain a faith that he will. For me, my cat, Shylow, shall return! The second coming of Shylow is my version of the second coming of Christ. Hey, we all have our religions. He might have already returned, but is probably enjoying the outdoor life, and maybe he found a new home where someone feeds him, and lets him live outdoors. I have noticed that stray cats tend to do rather well for themselves. All the ones I have seen are healthy looking, not underweight. Also, when they leave home, they know exactly how to come back, where to go, and whether they want to go home. Maybe some fine zero degree night this winter Shylow will show up on the front porch, knowing where to get warm. Wherever my dad is, maybe he finally found the right gin joint, or at least someplace to achieve peace of mind, away from the law office, away from the navy, and most of all away from his mother, whom he despised. I trust the library pond ducks, wherever they are, are doing well, and are somewhere where they want to be. As for my beloved Shylow, I will never give up hope. I may end up, twenty years from now, in a nursing home, wondering how his life turned out. He may come home tomorrow. But if not, I must have faith that my sweet baby boy is happy, being where he knows he truly belongs.

Loving On Americans

ALTHOUGH, BY THE GRACE OF GOD, I have plenty to eat, in fact too much to eat (note to self: stay away from buffets) I recently decided to sign up for all the local food banks, which in my area number three. I get the food, which is always handed to me in a convenient strong cardboard box full of delicious, nutritious edibles by warmhearted, kind folks. Then I take it home, and promptly redistribute it to my neighbors, some of whom, it seems to me, could use a little extra help. Sometimes folks who need a little help are a tad too proud or gun shy to go out and grab it. I may be wrong, but that nice lady across the street about my age with the three big strong husky sons living with her who are all in their twenties probably run up a pretty good food bill. I take joy in seeing families living together. The dad died, and they decided to suffer their grief together, as a family, rather then split up and make it each on his own, independent American style. I admire that, it warms my cockles, whatever cockles might be. One of the boys is a helluva cook, so I give them a variety of canned veggies, frozen meat, pasta, and spices, hoping he will scrounge up some good well rounded super delicious meals, and slide across the street and knock on my door, plate in hand. The ploy works every time. Thus, my motives are not all, shall we say, of the highest nobility. The very existence of such food banks is a clear indication of America's benevolence, of the kindhearted compassion of we the American people. There are many other such indicators. Notice that whenever a hurricane, fire, or tornado devastates a community, hundreds of thousands of dollars, Americans, and tons of food stuffs, including toilet paper and bottled water, descend on the unlucky town, bringing love and healing. In fact, we are becoming more compassionate with the passing decades. In 1906, when San Francisco was leveled by an earthquake then further devastated by consequently burning to the ground, a true double whammy, there was indeed a national response; free train rides out of the dead city, food and tents brought in by the military, and so forth, but also the army starting shooting looters on site, including those digging through the rubble of their own homes, and imposed martial law, without the consent of the governed, or the local government, or President Teddy Roosevelt. Attempting to create fire walls, the army destroyed entire neighborhoods with artillery fire, under the command of General "fearless" Freddie Funston, of Spanish War fame and glory. Freddie got a bit "over enthusiastic". He turned San Fran into a war zone, creating more fires than he put out. It was quite a scandal. However, there is no record of tens of thousand of benevolent Americans coming from all corners of the country to help rebuild and supply basic necessities. Maybe communication limitations of the day and primitive early twentieth century transportation slowed people down, plus, potential do gooders were probably scared off by the thought of aftershocks, and raging blazes. When my middle west American hometown was felled by a category five tornado in 2011, I spent three weeks digging through rubble, uncovered a couple of bodies, got depressed, and got a good does of PTSD, while about a hundred thousands angels of the Lord came from all across our fruited plain, bringing love and much needed help. My townies and I started gaining weight, so I had to start turning down cheeseburgers, which I still hope offended no one. You'll never catch me denigrating the compassionate nature of the American people. Their judgment, maybe, but not their capacity for love.

Preparing The Civil War

YOU CAN BEGIN TO SEE the basic alignment of the coming civil war: the forces of Trump on one, ensconced in their trenches, and forces of reason on the other, a much larger force, the American majority, equally dug in. The progressives and most moderates united expediently, if temporarily, to hold back the forces of darkness, blind blindly zealously extreme capitalist extreme evangelical minority. Today, exactly one year removed from the electoral travesty, taking stock, lock and barrel, we quickly surmise that the swamp, however defined by the great chief prevaricator, not only has not been drained, it has been deepened and reinforced with right wing fanaticism. Criminal indictments have already begun to dredge up and deliver into house arrest reptilian Trumpian low lifes. The process has barely begun. More, many more, will at length be forced to surface and come clean, under the threat of great penalty. Aside from the Reaganistic renewal of neo-economic economic fraud and nonsense, long discredited to all but the devout monger changers, a steady storm of insipid presidential ranting, a cascade of lies, the Trump administration is unalterably determined to ignore the stark reality of climate change, which condemns the rest of us to doom, a sure way to start a well justified civil war, if ever there were one. As a last desperate measure, just before rising sea water ruins our carpets and daily three digit temperatures boil eggs, pets, and brains, we the environmental wackos, as the right wingers terms who once enjoyed decent weather, rise up in shrill, screeching indignation, always the complainers, classically liberal, stylistically. We march down every Main Street in America, waving our "save the planet, sue sunlight, not coal' banners, while the NRA types who are happy with the weather await on murky sidewalks, armed with ARs. This is the way the nation ends, not with a whimper, but a bang. The skirmish lines are already forming. The Trump base is rock solid. we have segregated ourselves. the liberals inhabit the cities, conservative lurk in small towns and in the vast rural expanses across the fruited plain. Our neighborhoods are segregated according to ethnicity, skin color, wealth, and social status, as we seek out our own kind, preferring to see only ourselves, no matter how ugly the view.

Exposing FOX and Friends

THE FOX TELEVISION NETWORK is very sexy. Even the name is sexy. On screen, pretty people with pretty faces show extensive thigh and cleavage, just like the big boys ordered, just what we the randy people want. Little wonder that the libidinous executives and hot shot on air talking heads made a cultural habit out of preying on the delicious delectable scantily clad coworkers. Sex, the essence of FOX "news culture"< the essence of American pop culture. Even now, an investigation into shareholder monies being diverted for hush payments to buxom victims arouses law suits and possible high dollar white collar incarceration. And the sinning doesn't stop there. It extends clear into on the air content. FOX's boy, Donald trump, is being mercilessly hounded by all manner of duly appointed prosecutors and law enforcement agencies, proving that they must be corrupt, bought off, since Trump is a self proclaimed angelic victim of incessant media manufactured abuse. The various investigations of our beleaguered chief exec involve financial, disinformational, political, international collisional, and all conceivable varieties of probable wrongdoing. time, as they say, will tell. The worse Trump looks, the more FOX pushes back, as we like to say. Murdoch phones the prez a couple of times a week, to render advice and to receive marching orders. its a marriage made in symbiotic heaven, or maybe hell. Onto the screens and into the homes of the ethics free far right barge the pretty heads, spewing their petty self induced delusions. My mother, may she rest in peace, who was generally gifted with good judgment, repeatedly told me that Sean Hannity is the most gorgeous man on the planet, along with her adoring son. I tried to explain that snakes come in pretty colors, but gave up. It is remotely possible, but only remotely, that Murdoch, Hannity, and FOX 'n friends are not the scions of Satan Their scheme is to white out Donald Trump, and replace him with Hillary Clinton. Canadian concerns sold a minute amount of fissionable material to the Russians, the brokers being contributors to the Clinton foundation, thus, according to Mephistopheles FOX, Hillary Clinton traitorously transferred the entire U.S. nuclear arsenal into the hands of a sworn enemy. The democratic party compiled a file on Trump's 'alleged" collusion with the Russian, using a British researcher who himself had visited Russia; FOX and friends mystically transforms that into a spy thriller with, you guessed it, Hillary Clinton at its illicit epicenter. but of course, we the American people won't fall for this. The liars are not the Clintons, but rather, the FOXes in the henhouse of accurate journalism. the criminal is not the no longer relevant Hillary Clinton, but rather, the big man at the top of Trump tower, and his assortment of gangsters, who even now are starting to feel the impact of indictments, plea deals, and the necessity of singing like song birds, all the way to the top, to save their fallen asses. There is a special place in hell for serial prevaricators and predators like FOX, the far right, and the Donald, and the sooner they seek their own level in hell, the easier and more harmoniously the rest of us can rest.

Another Massacre: Saying It All Again, One....More...Time

OVER THE PAST FEW YEARS, after one of our patented American massacres, I usually wrote an essay about it, replete with cogent comments and pithy profundities, At least, I tried. I now begin to perceive that if I continue this pattern, I will eventually fill the known universe with redundant profundities. We are a sick culture, we are all complicit, and all that. The usual stuff. The time has seemingly come to lengthen the interval between essays to every other mass murder. Or maybe somebody smarter than I might write one final, definitive essay, describing what all these mass murders and murderers have in common, if anything, isolating the central problem, and describing specifically how to prevent future episodes. Then, at long last we could be done with it, and relegate the essays and this repeating nightmare to the history books, with all the other nightmares, where it belongs. How many mass murders have there been in the United States in the past twenty years, say, since columbine? Fifty? A hundred? Technically, there's about one a day, defined as three or more victims per shooting, most unreported in the media, which seeks only to entertain and sell advertising. The first two that I remember were both in 1966, when I was eleven, if memory serves; the Texas tower shooting spree, and the Richard Speck nursing student massacre in Chicago. So, its not entirely a recent phenomenon, but today's frequency is new, with increasing frequency of massacres as the years pass. The wager happy English are doubtless taking bets on when the next such event will transpire in the U.S.. We might all agree on one point: it probably won't be long until another. The fact that this particular killer was challenged by a good guy with a rifle will doubtless evince a torrential downpour of right wing know-it-alls, saying, "see, we told you so!! Just look what a good guy with a gun can do to a bad guy with a gun!". This shrill hysterical assertion will be no more reasonable now than ever before. Where was the good guy the moment the bad guy squeezed his first round? Why wait until twenty six are dead? More people should have been armed in church, and everywhere else, you say, to allow for a more prompt response? How many responses will come too early? How many times will a good guy with a gun, confused by all the noise and all the other drawn weapons, aim and fire at the wrong weapon wielder, triggering a frenzied scene of randomly flying bullets after the fashion of a maudlin Clint Eastwood movie? Good guys and bad guys do not exist. We are all both good and bad, in varying proportions. Circumstances bring out what they bring out. The more guns, the more gun violence. The fewer guns, the less gun violence. Note England and Australia, and note America. Look at the statistics, and the facts behind them. Then consider the angry state of our American citizenry, especially those, who in a fit of madness, voted for Trump. Do we really want those people armed in public, ready to personally defeat evil the very moment they think they see it? I'd rather take my chances, unarmed.

Becoming Important, In Fantasy And Conspiracy

THERE WAS A TIME WHEN November 22 was a spcial day, a special day of infamy, like nine eleven is now. I was eight years old when JFK was killed,, fully old enough to understand its importance, but barely. People two years younger than I barely remember it, and those three years younger not at all, whereas the memory is etched in stone in my mind, and will remain so until my dying day. Almost immediately after the event, the conspiracy theories came forth, and have not yet abated, if they ever will. The FBI, the CIA, the VP, the Russians (always suspects), Castro, and on...and on....Thank you Oliver Stone! Thus began a grand new American tradition. The modern American love affair with conspiracies began with a single question: "who killed Kennedy?" From the outset, the answer was obvious. Too obvious for our enlarged egos. We wanted something larger, more intriguing, more appropriate to the occasion than some twenty four year old nobody with a craving for importance and a mail order rifle. Fifty years later, we can't stop ourselves. We are addicted to fantasy and conspiracy, from video games, to fantasy football, to aliens among us, to shadow governments, we are having too much fun to desist. Mundane reality has long since ceased to suffice. The only question is our drug of choice,; mind altering meth, or mind altering pain killers. reality TV, social media, take your pick. the platforms are always reading and waiting, the vehicles for our departures from any semblance of reality. The less likely that something exists, the more fervently we will ourselves to believe that it does. The more obvious the fact, the greater our resistance to it, her in fantasyland America. More Americans believe in extraterrestrial control of the global economy than believe in global warming. Many, if not most of us, have either been abducted by aliens, interacted with a ghost, experienced death, or been born again. We have utterly abandoned critical thinking because fantasy is far more fun, and requires less effort than actual learning. Our corporate media masters are only too eager to comply and provide. Which lf the latest spate of sorcerer movies have you seen? What is your favorite reality TV show (reality TV shows are in fact pure fantasy), which demons and wizards simulation do you prefer, and which part do you play? On Civil War reenactment day, are you a Yank or a reb? (Civil War reenactments = fantasy). Yes, conspiracy theories and conspiracies have always been among us, and some conspiracies actually happen. but in modern American fantasyland, we have taken it to a whole 'nother level, and the amazing thing is that it all began with a twenty four year old very ordinary young man who wanted to be somebody, and saw his chance, as if a mighty pent up social force lay in wait for the firing of three sharp shots from a mail order rifle. lee Harvey Oswald, wherever he is, can take comfort that he accomplished much more than he ever dreamed possible, more than the mere killing of a beloved American president.

Hoping For The Best, But Getting The Worst

NOW THAT YOUVE HAD a "healthy" dose of Trump, what do you think? What I think is that Trump has the mental maturity of a child, a teenager at best. The president is constitutionally unable to keep his mouth shut, especially when he should. He pronounces people guilty who have neither been accused, tried, nor convicted, tainting due process. his twitter tweets are petulant, banal, and vacuous, with little content other than juvenile name calling. He talks like a teenager, on twitter, and in person; namely, inarticulately. Actually, most teenagers are far more articulate than Trump. The slightest hint of criticism directed at him evokes a verbal torrent of accusatory garbage. Why doesn't he understand that when a person to whom many people pay attention utters incredibly blatant lies on a daily basis, people notice, and respond appropriately, with horror, dismay, and well directed sarcasm? or maybe he does realize it, an even more frightening possibility. Either way, the level of his narcissism is pathological, psychotic. Is there anyone wo does not see the president as inordinately arrogant, vain, rude, petty angry, vindictive, and dishonest? Anyone wo does not is remarkably unable to honestly assess human behavior and character. Now, concerning policy. Simply put, if we do not reverse global warming soon, our descendants are doomed. About this, there is no argument. Arguing whether climate change exists, or whether it is caused by human activity, has long since become pointless. And yet, every member of the Trump administration is a climate change denier, and every action thus far taken by the Trump administration regarding climate change is adverse to continued human existence. For this reason alone, Donald J. trump can rightly be considered the most dangerous person in human history, and the republican party the most dangerous organization to ever exist. This opinion, which has a strong factual basis, has been expressed by many perceptive people, among them Noam Chomsky. Furthermore, all the other policies promulgated by the Trump administration, in every field of national policy, are diametrically opposed to sanity and societal health, as if the president and his supporters are intent on self destruction, societal collapse, and human destruction. There is still considerable time left in the Trump presidency, unless the various investigations into the Trump campaign's dealings with Russian operatives eventually reveal impeachable offenses. they currently seem to be heading in that direction. No decent American wants to see another American president removed from office in disgrace as a criminal. But considering the likely alternative, such a sad turn of events might very well be the best outcome for which we can reasonably hope.

Pretending To Help The Poor Through Tax Reform

TAX REFORM is difficult, because it involves the most sacred of human assets, money, and who has it, who renders it unto government, and what the government does with it in terms of allocating it. When people are dealing with money, especially their own, they become deeply emotionally involved, protective, and often angry. Thus major federal tax reform happens only infrequently, and although it is supposedly on the verge of happening now, we shall see. The plan before congress is pure republican, and few if any democrats are likely to cooperate. Plus, there is a growing number of reasonable republicans who are increasingly inclined to oppose whatever Trump proposes, merely because he is Trump, and by definition unreasonable. The republican tax plan is a fraud. Their intent to lower corporate tax rates is a not so well disguised scheme to lower taxes on the wealthy, a standard conservative agenda item. Changing the corporate rate from thirty five percent to twenty percent seems a bit extreme; it would probably require only a much less decrease to keep companies in the United States, and to lure back those that have left. After all, doing business headquartered in America is a singular and wonderful privilege, and does not require carrots and sticks. In countries where the corporate rate is lower than in the U.S., the individual rate on the wealthy, and everyone else, is considerably higher than in America. As a concession to progressives, the income tax rate on the extremely wealthy will apparently remain at around thirty five percent, much lower than in Europe, whereas it had been scheduled to be lowered. The money saved by large corporations and all businesses through lower business taxes, say the conservatives, will be reinvested in the economy, with higher levels of production, more jobs, and higher salaries, and more money for the poor working class. This is the same tired argument used by Ronald Reagan in the most recent tax reform thirty years ago, and it is a lie. Enhanced corporate wealth will in fact be channeled into the bank accounts of shareholders and executives, and since eighty percent of corporate stock shares are in the hands of the top few percent of the population, corporate tax breaks are nothing other than a gift to the already very wealthy. Middle class tax cuts under the current plan will be offset, slyly, by a reduction in standard deductions; the middle class will end up paying more in taxes, the very wealthy, who tend to fund republican politicians, will be made even richer. The gap between the rich and the rest of us, as always in supply side economics, will only increase, since the wealth never seems to trickle down, but remains bottlenecked at the very top. Our only recourse is to remove supply side conservatives from office, and to replace them with leaders who genuinely want to help the middle and poor class, rather than pretend to do so.

Opposing The World

THE WROLD ADVANCES, said Goethe, only because of those who oppose it. Those who oppose the status quo to a sufficient degree we call "radicals", a term which in our contemporary times we associate negatively. A radical is something negative, someone who will not cooperate, with wild ideas which do harm to social stability. But they shouldn't be so considered. Thomas Jefferson and the rest of the "founding fathers' were nothing but radicals. All of them wrestled with their consciences, their values, their beliefs before choosing a radical course. They were loyal citizens of Great Britain. It was only under the most extreme circumstances, and with the greatest reluctance, that they became traitors to their government, revolutionaries, radicals. Jefferson was quite conservative in 1773. By 1774, he had split with the establishment, and become a revolutionary. Benjamin Franklin was perhaps the most reluctant of all to revolt, having spent his first seventy years as a loyal British subject, extremely patriotic to the crown. George Washington was an obedient officer in the Virginia militia, an appendage of the British army, and he served under British officers, faithfully. The fact that as an American he was passed over for promotion by the British may have influenced him to join the rebellion. I have none of the greatness of these people, but I have their same revolutionary spirit. As a child in the nineteen sixties, I wanted to protest the Viet Nam war, like I saw the hippies doing on television. I secretly admired the long haired young hippies on college campuses, with their No More War signs and chants. I thought the war was useless, and even as a child could see its tragic futility, by watching the nightly news. My parents would have none of it. I was eleven years old. Nearly all middle class white people, including my family, considered it unpatriotic to protest, and they also considered Martin Luther King a troublemaker for protesting his station in American society. Among whites, King was no hero, but a troublemaker, ungrateful to his country for his good fortune of being a second class black man. In 1776, about half the American colonists despised Jefferson and his radical ilk, and as many as two hundred thousand Americans, loyal to England, got aboard ships and sailed for England, or other destinations away from America. Martin Luther King was murdered for his radical ideas of racial equality. The Viet Nam protestors were reviled by mainstream patriotic Americans for having the audacity to disagree with national policy, and to not support an American war... We now see that in every case, from Jefferson to King to the hippies, the radicals were in the right, they fought for truth against a society which embraced falsehood, and, at length, they prevailed. During the twenty two years he lived in New Jersey, albert Einstein, a radical, encouraged all young men everywhere to refuse military service. He was not popular among conservative Christians, this Jew with the long hair, radical political notions, and weird scientific theories. It is the protesters I admire, because it is they who ultimately challenge the world, change the status quo, and improve the world. The world advances only because of those who oppose it.

Being Picky, Or Having Fun

TO BE, OR NOT TO BE....whether 'tis nobler...to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or...take arms against a sea of troubles...How, precisely, do you "take arms" against a sea? By swinging a sword at the water? We have here a mixed metaphor, making no literal sense, courtesy of a despairing Hamlet. Bad usage? T.S. Eliot himself pointed out the mixed metaphorical images, in his brilliant essay "Tradition and the Individual Talent". Then, my wise father asked me: "But is there any doubt about what old Shakespeare was trying to say?" No, there isn't. Shakespeare teaches that language is art, not science, flexible, not rigid, intuitive, not mathematical. Examples are abundant. The word "unique", say the sticklers, cannot be qualified. something is either unique, or it isn't. Nothing is ever "very unique", or somewhat unique." and yet, the number four trillion five hundred twenty two billion three hundred thirty seven million two hundred fourteen thousand five hundred and eleven is, somehow, more unique than the number three, because it is so very much less common in daily usage. A glass can never be "half empty", I heard a sports caster turned linguist assert. If it contains one drop, or many drops, it has water, and is therefore not empty. But, he maintained, it can be half full. well, whatever... I write and post thousands of essays on this website because I love to write, not because I expect anyone to read them, and I especially expect no one to care enough about my work to critique and correct it, not pickily. Actually, that is the great pleasure of self publishing on the internet; the author is beholden to no one, must please no editor or employer, and if thus perfectly free to do as she or she chooses, and butcher the language at will. I spent twelve years In public school, learning how to use English properly, and ten more years in graduate school being forced to apply what I learned, and decades behind the lectern, expected to impart my knowledge to others, primly and properly, and now, at long last, I am free to have a little fun, and to use this marvelous language "creatively", to the extent I can. and anyway, in a culture in which everyone seems to parrot everyone else, in which all problems are "issues", everyone is "going forward", in which appearances have become "optics" - oh, how clever we think we are when we merely mimic each other and words become fads - who in the hell cares whether the glass is half empty, or whether it is wrong for it to be that way. We all know exactly what a half empty glass is, do we not?

Losing Bugs

THE BAD NEWS IS, the insect kingdom is disappearing. there is no good news. We've been told for years that frogs and butterflies, both fragile animals, both indicators of overall environmental health by virtue of their sensitivity to subtle changes in their surroundings, are declining in numbers. many non scientists have observed this first hand. I have. I simply don't see the same number and variety of butterflies flitting about any given garden that I did, say, when I was a kid fifty years ago. And now, it seems, there go the insects, all species. this, from the entomologists, who are real scientists, and pay close attention to their insect subjects. The percipient ones have been noticing the decline especially throughout Europe, where there is no wilderness, where every square inch of real estate is spoken for, specifically allocated for purpose, manicured, groomed, assiduously managed. When something, anything about the land changed in Europe, like insect abundance, folks notice. In Europe, insects are disappearing. its also happening in America, and therefore more than likely everywhere, since, as all Americans know that the world follows America. What this means is, we're doomed. The human species cannot survive without insects, which constitute more than ninety nine percent of the planet's bio mass. Everybody knows about the problem with bees. They're disappearing. All over America, Americans, bless them, are doing something about it. They're nurturing beehives, and starting new colonies. Bees still have a chance. Something like seventy five percent of our food supply requires pollination from bees and other insects. We had better begin bringing back insects generally, somehow. Oh, those halcyon nineteen sixties summer evenings of my childhood, when jar in hand we set out catching fireflies and wearing them like burning rings on our fingers. Now I wish I'd let 'em alone. But, you know how kids are. In a word, brutal. Now, I don't see as many lightning bugs in the summer. Recently, in the midst of yet another of our all too frequent droughts, here in our "new normal" climate, I noticed a little toad hopping around in my yard, near my driveway, in and out of my garage. He was cute. I hoped and assumed, perhaps wrongly, that he has a water source, somewhere. Then, one horrible day, I ran over him with my car, barely. He sat there in my driveway. still alive, staring blankly, his guts hanging out. Guilt and grief stricken, I ended his suffering. I'm still trying to end mine.