Blaming It All On The Russians

IT IS HARDLY SURPRISING, the increasing awareness that not only did the Russians interfere with the 2016 election using the internet, but that they have been interfering not only with American elections, but American society in general, using less technologically advanced methods, for decades. From their point of view, it makes sense. The United States is their enemy, a capitalistic colossus ideologically and stringently opposed to socialism, a military rival, an empire in direct competition for world influence with what thy have traditionally considered their superior culture, people, and values. The fact that Russia has been invaded, conquered, and virtually destroyed several time adds an overtone of paranoia to their mindset. The fact that American society is relatively open, with a highly visible, constant dialogue of various sorts publicly promulgated through the media makes American culture vulnerable to outside influence. The fact that American society is diverse, with many different competing groups and interests, seemingly always embroiled in conflict and acrimonious disputation, highly visible, create a perfect environment for meddling. The various ways in which this interference has been applied have only recently become known, are still coming to light, and may never be fully revealed. The main emphasis has apparently been to enhance conflict between already opposing segments of society. It now seems likely that some - no one knows how much - of the printed rhetoric attributed to groups like the KKK and aimed at the black community were of Russian origin. What better way to weaken American society than to further stir up already present racial animosity? It may be that already discontent labor unions have been aided in their struggles against the corporate establishment by Russian money or other assistance. In nearly every aspect of cultural endeavor, there is, in America, some sort of conflict either manifest, or lurking just beneath the surface, since America is a land of so many divergent viewpoints and interests, and is based so greatly upon competition and individualism. There are two possible solution sto this, two possible ways in which the United States might eliminate the foreign threat to its domestic tranquility, such as it is. the first would be to close the open society, to lock down the freedom os expression all American's have been accustomed to for the country's entire history. This, however, would obviously bee to too great a sacrifice, and would in effect award the victory to the Russians. the second, and much more tempting, would be to simply blame everything that goes wrong in America, from the smallest to the largest problems, on Russian interference, an audacious presumption of Russian guilt. Can't get along with your neighbors, or a difficult family member? Blame it on the Russians! Dissatisfied with your city council's proposals? obviously, Russian interference. Bad day at the race track? Again, those dammed Russians. if we can blame Trump's election on the Russians, we can blame anything and everything on them. And why not? Fake news and conspiracy theories are all the rage these days; this approach can wrap up all our problems in attribution to s single, sinister source, those Russian rascals. its worth a try; nothing else seems to be working.

Saving The Planet, Improving The Scenery

ABOUT TEN PERCENT of the American people are rock solid hard core unmovable climate change deniers, beyond hope and scientific literacy. another twenty five percent are skeptics, people who just plain don't know, but are doubtful. they are very nearly as useless as the outright deniers. To these people the science is murky (it isn't to most people), and the causal connection dubious (they aren't, to the well educated). Nobody who accepts the reality of human made climate change is allowed to serve in the Trump administration, alarming ini its disregard for human survival. We are confronted in America of being the laughing stock outcast of the civilized world, which includes nearly everybody but us. Worse, the United Stats is potentially the cause of environmental and thus human destruction. Fortunately, the rest of the world is sane, and is proceeding with measure to fight climate change, which are being joined by states, communities, corporations, and individuals in America who are interested in preserving the environment. Noam Chomsky accurately describes the republican party as the most dangerous organization in human history. this is because of its position on climate change, which is well known, and the potential consequences of it, also well known. Chomsky carelessly omits mention of the American conservative movement, unless he has recently expanded his remarks concerning danger to the world. If our republican colleagues will not permit us to elect an administration amenable to human survival, nor allow us to replace fossil fuels with sustainable energy sources, will they at least condescend to allow us to plant trees, say, one trillion, the minimum number needed? We would be willing to promise to leave the government entirely out of the tree planting initiative, to impose no taxes on the very wealthy to pay for the program, to make tree planting on private property entirely optional, and to use funds for the project taken from other social welfare programs, with the labor being done by volunteers, of workers paid minimum wage, from money diverted from the food stamp program. Whatever it takes to persuade our right wing fellow from quenching this desperate plan to save the planet, like they seemed determined to do with all other plans. Maybe some of the new trees would be planted in lawns in front of buildings known to house right wing individuals and organizations, improving the scenery.

Mass Murder; Getting To Root Causes

SO FAR THIS YEAR there have been 389 mass murders in the United States. Gamblers in English pubs are likely doing a lively trade taking wagers on when the next will occur, and how many will die. On this we can all agree: before the end of this year, there will be more, perhaps even a sufficiently murderous one to inspire coverage in the mainstream media, which reserves its attention only for the most gruesome, the most sensational, for entertainment value, the very best. The very nature of the media coverage should serve as a warning sign; these nightmares are, in a sense, nothing more than an additional few minutes of additional morbid entertainment for we the American entertainment addicted, a few million dollars more of commercial value for the vast media corporations which feed us whatever we seem to want, whatever advertising sales and ratings analysts indicate if currently en vogue among the consumers, who spend trillions of dollars annually on entertainment, making their wishes and preferences paramount, and thus highly scrutinized. The advertising you see on this web page, the advertising you see on Facebook, the advertising you see on the outfield walls of televised major league baseball games are not really there; they are ephemeral, designed specifically for you, according to what extensive, detailed research and analysis has revealed about your personal tastes, and likely future purchasing habits. If this does not alarm you, it should. American mass murders, whether we accept this fact or not, are part and parcel of the package. The notion, widely circulated, that the killers are lone wolves with mental problems, and nothing more, is true, yet absurd, in that this convenient explanation leaves out almost all the underlying reasons for ongoing national nightmare, which, upon cursory reflection, are right before our eyes. Nations, like people, who are emotionally proud and brave do not like to admit their weaknesses and sicknesses. So it is in America. We do not take kindly to the idea that this epidemic of violence is in fact but a symptom of far deeper, fundamental characteristics of our culture, which have always existed, and if not altered through direct action will only continue festering, gifting us with a never ending torrent of blood. Ours is a nation founded upon violent conquest, extermination, slavery, and the lust for wealth. That undergirds all else, and cannot be dismissed. These fundamental values have never changed, and are prominent in our current behavior, domestic, and foreign. We hardly need mention the tragedy of American foreign policy, wars of aggression, and our occupation and exploitation of foreign lands worldwide. Excellent scholarship has well documented all this. Interviews with veterans of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan attest to our ongoing violence and anger, turned outward. We turn it inward as well. Our grotesque economic and social inequality are more extreme than at any time during the past one hundred years. Even the successful among us are not satisfied, and you hear their anger on any talk radio program. America's mass murder nightmare is a result not of random behavior by a few deranged people, but rather, the direct result of the fundamental nature of American society, in which we all participate. To the extent that we deny this and refuse to work for the fundamental change that we so desperately need, we are guilty.

Revealing Ourselves, For Whom We Really Are

EVEN MORE HUMOROUSLY, TRAGICALLY reprehensible than Alabama senatorial candidate Roy Moore are his supporters. America's extreme right wing continues to unabashedly expose its evil insanity, unwittingly rendering the country a service. America's right wing, including the evangelical community, was willing to overlook unrepentant series serial sexual misconduct to elect Donald Trump, therefore tacitly condoning his criminal behavior. Self righteously the self righteous conservative Christians talk about forgiving sin. To forgive trump is impossible, because he has failed to admit sin and repent of it. In any event, to forgive someone may be admirable, but to vote to elect a person of and obviously immoral nature is easily avoidable, and much better for the citizenry. To do so reveals poor judgement, questionable character, and a lack of integrity. When Roy Moore acknowledges and repents of his sins, may we all forgive him and provide the help he so desperately needs He needs psychological medical attention, and ethical instruction. Electing him to the United States Senate ia another matter entirely. he should not even be allowed to carry the banner of any self respecting political party, and nobody of good character should vote for him. To the extent, if any, that the republican party continues to support his candidacy of their civic and moral standards. If Moore is elected, those who elect him will have forfeited their privilege of the respect of others, and will have revealed their moral bankruptcy. We might note that Senator Al Franken has already admitted and apologized for his bad sexual behavior. It would seem that liberal democrats and conservative republicans do indeed have different ways of dealing with their personal conduct.

Praying Improperly

AMONG THE PEOPLE at the local senior center, as elsewhere, there are the well and poorly educated, the intelligent and otherwise, the open and narrow minded, a synthesis, to borrow from Wallace Stevens, of hyacinths and biscuits. In the above dualities, I much prefer the former, and they much prefer me. the latter I avoid, and get along reasonably with only because of my effort to do so. When the lesser sort (to borrow from Madison) belatedly perceived that my pre lunch prayers never made explicit references to Christianity, and could in fact be applied to most forms of religion, some of them protested. The director and I agreed that henceforth I would abstain from my place in the prayer rotation. I would rather bow out than cater to the intolerant ignorant. My form of prayer is quite acceptable to anyone with intelligence. The less informed need to be reminded that the senior center, like the United States, is not a Christian entity, but rather, a secular civic one, in which a large majority of membership happens to be Christian. Anyone wo fails to understand this should read the constitution, study government, and remember that the senior center is supported by government funding. Anyone who after a moment's reflection fails to comprehend the folly of protesting my style of prayer wants enlightenment, to borrow from franklin. When throughout your life you are told by people of less intelligence and perception that you should change your religious beliefs in order to become a better person, you eventually los patience, sooner, rather than later in my case. You begin to resent the ignorant nonsense, the arrogance, the intolerance. you grow tiered of being insulted. Anyone engaging in an attempt to influence another person's religious beliefs need not deceive themselves that they are performing a noble function, with good intentions. They are displaying astonishing arrogance, and are noting but a bully. they are the ones who need to fundamentally change, not the ones whom they are trying to change.

Protesting Properly, and Getting To The Top of the Mountain

THE CONTROVERSY engendered by NFL footballs players who are inconveniently aware of African-American historical and contemporary socio-economic reality, in concert with a pervasive arrogant, dismissive, fiction of post-racial America, coupled with a healthy dose of faux self aggrandizing patriotic fervor, lingers, regrettably. If only the right wing nuts would simply acknowledge that the players have a point, that they do not intend to disrespect the national anthem, but that they merely wish to highlight a long standing and huge injustice by attracting as much attention as possible to the situation, this artificially generated controversy would abate. Frankly, the national anthem serves as a fine vehicle for legitimate protest. Kneeling during the national anthem harms no one, diminishes nobody's patriotism, and whether one is sitting or standing, the anthem plays on. Many religious groups in America do not stand for the Star Spangled Banner, for religious reasons, and they are never condemned for it. The outrage over the players is based on racism, and false indignation. Nobody who stands during the national anthem truly cares who does not stand. They care far more about the outcome of the upcoming game, and their own lives. These are people who enjoy taking offense, enjoy becoming a victim of some perceived offense, on order to create debt in others. In order to serve its purpose, all protests must gain attention, otherwise, there is no point. Martin Luther King, fifty years ago, was criticized by conservatives for walking down the middle of the street with his followers. They might have preferred that they gather instead in someone's basement, to enact social change. A solution is needed. During the national anthem, let the players all stand, hands of hearts. then, immediately after the anthem, let them walk to the middle of the football field, stand in a long line, each holding a sign which says "equality for all". In fact, it would probably work better if different players hale different signs. A few suggestions might include: "246 years", referring to the duration of slavery in America, or "1619", referring to the year in which slaves for first brought to America, "Jim Crow", "racism lingers" - the possibilities are numerous. maybe a two to five minute period of protest after the anthem, before the game begins, long enough to gain attention, long enough to outlast commercial breaks, maybe even long enough to arouse the wrath of right wing good ole white boy football fans, which is the central point of the protest. martin Luther King had no attention of accommodating his Caucasian colleagues, rather, he wanted to enhance their awareness, shame them, and motivate a desire to facilitate positive change. There may come a day, fifty years hence, when today's NFL players are enshrined as heroes alongside of MLK, who was no hero in his day, but is now, even among reluctant right wingers, who go along for the ride, or risk criticism. above all, the NFL players must not stop protesting, and if they must do so so as to appease the hostile, hypocritical white right wing of the American citizenry,, so be it. There are many ways to the mountaintop.

Praying Properly and Speaking Acceptably In Provincial America

FORTY YEARS AGO I was in college, and spent some time in New York. One day during a class discussion I made the remark that for my money, New York city, far from being a cosmopolitan mecca of diversity, was maybe the most provincial place I had ever been. By "provincial", here it is meant narrow minded, self absorbed, unwilling to learn, unwilling to accept cultural difference. Guess it depends on how you look at it, who you meet, and your experiences. At one time or another I have described all of the half a dozen places I have ever lived, including the small town where I live now, as "provincial", except maybe Aspen, Colorado, which is in a class by itself, beyond categorization. At the senior center, the director called me in, and asked about my religious beliefs. I gave her the usual response: I follow Jefferson and Einstein, tend towards a deistic pantheistic view. She told me there were members dissatisfied with my style of prayer - we take turns praying before lunch - and asked whether I might be willing to bless the food, or something like that. My thought was that during prayer my thoughts tend more towards scarfing the food in front of me down, and letting my digestive system do the blessing. I long suspected that the seniors would eventually figure out that when I pray I make no mention of Christ's sacrifice or blood, and that therefore my religiosity might be unlike theirs, different, therefore suspect. And so it came to pass. No more praying for me, at least in public. Sad, since I love to pray. To me, their attitudes, about everything from politics to religion to football, are provincial, narrowly constructed, intolerant of diversity. Across the town square, at the quaint cute public library, I noticed when I first stated going that there was no culture of quiet, that all the employees kept up a steady flow of talk; they gabbed like magpies. This differs from all the other libraries I have ever haunted; Library of congress, Harvard, and numerous university research and city public facilities. Always a quiet culture adhered, except here in my small town. So, when in Rome. I couldn't beat 'em, so I joined 'em. Amazingly, I lasted about three years before being tossed out. I talked too much, I was too intellectual, and my comments were too outside the mainstream,, and included too much political history and current events, too many comments about the Bible and religious tolerance and diversity. Expelled for six months. I decided to make it permanent. When they accused me of harassment, I knew I was licked, the victim of a savage smear campaign. I have concluded that the intolerant provincial nature is nation wide, an all American trait. Consider this; a majority of the American people, on surveys, indicate that the reason Bin Laden knocked down the world Trade Center in 2001 was hatred and jealousy of American prosperity, freedom, and virtue. Omitted from mention is any reference to American foreign policy, including sending a half million member army to Saudi Arabia, and using it to attack, conquer, and occupy Iraq for twenty seven years, killing hundreds of thousands of people, mostly civilians. As if what we love to call "Islamic terrorism" has no motivation in our own behavior. Provincial? With blinders. Tragic, almost to the point of being humorous, like all the small towns I have lived in.

Watching the Judiciary, For All the Wrong Reasons

IF YOU ARE NOT FAMILIAR with an organization called "Judicial Watch", you probably should be, for your own safety, rather like one should be aware of an approaching hurricane, or an impending alt right white supremacist rally at a location near you. Being forewarned is a great survival expedient, which is one reason why we have eyes, ears, a nose, and precognition. Watching the judiciary, being aware of its behavior, is among the noblest of causes. Like Jefferson said: "If the people become inattentive to the affairs of government, the legislators and magistrates shall divide society into two classes: wolves, and sheep". Arguably, this has long since happened, and its far too late to change it. There can be little dispute that the American people long ago became inattentive to the affairs of government, or that American society is divided into two classes, the rich and the poor, the middle class having vanished before our very eyes. The question arises: What other purpose can there be for citizen vigilance other than to guard against encroaching government tyranny, or abuse of power? None, one might think. That's where Judicial Watch goes off track; early and often. Their purpose in watching the judiciary has nothing to do with Jeffersonian vigilance, and everything to do with base party politics, and political ideology, motives which to Jefferson and all the other founders would surely seem repugnant, if not traitorous. Jefferson, like all the founders, did not like political parties organized around ideology, considered them a threat to democracy, and would think that any organized group seeking to mold the nation's judicial system based upon ideology to be a great threat to justice itself. Judicial watch wants to stock the judiciary, nationwide, with conservative magistrates, and wants to ensure that decisions rendered from the Supreme Court down reflect conservative values. That is the sole reason for the organization's existence. To them, it is a noble cause, above reproach, for which they incessantly seek monetary contributions from anyone with a checkbook. That, and dredging up the long defunct Hillary Clinton email controversy, which they helped create, in order to put her in jail. No, our conservative colleagues have not given up the ghost on Hillary, even though she has long since faded from the electoral office political scene, and receded into the background, irrelevant to the future. The fools would be humorous, were they not in such deadly earnest, to borrow a quote. Anything to distract attention from Donald Trump, his abuses of power, and the moral and intellectual bankruptcy of the conservative political movement in general. Get conservatives on the bench, and destroy Hillary, that's it, that's their raison d etre. Nothing could be more debauched. No judge should ever be placed on the bench of any court based on his or her ideology, politically. the qualifications should be education, intelligence, integrity, experience, and the demonstrated ability to make wise decisions and render justice fairly, and dispassionately. Liberalism and conservatism should have absolutely nothing to do with it, but in our corrupt culture, political ideology has everything to do with it, among conservatives, even to the point of refusing to perform the constitution function of giving advice and consent for Supreme Court nominees; merely because he isn't sufficiently conservative, as in the case of Merrick Garland. Even more heinous is that the Judicial Watch group, staffed ostensibly by people of erudition, fail to see this, or pretend that they don't see it, or do see it, and simply don't care.

Walking Away From Racists, Whenever Possible

MY MOTIVE was to engage in a moment of pleasant conversation, over a cup of coffee. So, thinking no harm could possibly come of it, I broached the seemingly most innocuous topic imaginable. I asked whether the gentleman to whom I was speaking were a sports fan, and if so, whether he rooted for the athletes of our local university, like everyone around here. Seemed harmless enough, sure to engender a few smiles and male bonding. "Oh hell" he responded, "I don't give a damn. Its just their niggers against our niggers anyway." so much for the harmless chat. Life is full of minefields. I guzzled my coffee, enjoined the gentleman to "have a nice day", and got the hell out of dodge, aka our local senior center. might as well go look for conversation online, maybe read Trump's most recent tweet, or log on to a white supremacist site, or maybe try the alt right site. Racists, most the most part, have gone into hiding in modern politically correct America. When I was a child, fifty some years ago, my racist family members were openly proud of their folly, as was most of conservative white America. but over the decades, they've been driven underground, forced into public denial, while, and this is the crux of the matter, remaining unchanged in their hateful attitude. I have an elderly uncle who lived for years in Minnesota, and when he visited us in the lower Midwest, ridiculed us for "talking like a bunch of niggers", referring to what he thought were our suthin' accents. Now, he's reigned it in, and has become a closet racist, like the rest of them, except for the alt right and fringe lunatic groups, and hides his views around his extended family, knowing racism has never flown with us - but, his own children testify that, yeah, he used the "N" word early and often regarding Obama. The prevailing notion now among the right wing is that we now liv in a "post racism' America, in which racism would never ever rear its ugly head were it not for trouble making liberals who manufacture racism out of the blue by merely making mention of it. a clever ploy for our right wing post racist racists, among whose ranks racism has always found its home, and still does, albeit in disguised guise. the proof in the pudding is that right wing America elected a racist president. yes, racist. Donald J. Trump spent several years telling anyone would listen, and it was the conservative branch of the body politic that listened, that Barack Hussein Obama was in fact not an American citizen, that he had in fact been born in Kenya. There is no other motivation for this than hatred, and racism. Bill or Hillary Clinton would never have been accused of having been born in Ireland. Nobody would have cared, including those who hate them, and tried every lie, trick and tactic known to humankind to destroy them through false attacks, and are still doing it, even after twenty five years of failure. the key ingredient in the claim of Obama's Kenyan birth is Kenya. The motivation is racism. My fellow citizens, our president is a racist, and oh that it were only possible to walk away from the idiot as easily as I walked away from the racist at my local senior center.

Democrats, Bringing Hope To America's Working Poor, If They Choose To

THE GREAT STATES of new Jersey and Virginia, having resoundingly elected democratic governors, have given democrats something upon which they might hang their fedoras. Fedoras, because Trump supporters have for the moment succeeded in coopting the traditional emblem of the working class, which used to support democrats, the great American ball cap, tragically tainting the iconic head gear with the sin of corporate party politics, elite governance, all in the name of something called "conservative populism", whatever that could possibly be. It is the democrats who more represent the interests of the working poor, by favoring policies of taxing the wealthy and raising minimum wage and protecting labor unions against destruction by corporations, and who therefore should properly don ball caps, and leave the suits, ties, and fedoras to the republicans, who dig ever deeper into the pockets of the wealthy. Demographics favor democrats. The fading baby boomer generation trends conservative, the up and coming millennials lean heavily to the left. Every few seconds a republicans ascends to heaven, or goes in the opposite direction, and every few seconds a millennial member comes of voting age. Furthermore, the democratic party is a melting pot of minorities, while the G.O.P. is lily white, and, as right wingers are so apt to switch into panic mode and point out; colored folks are increasing in number, pure white America is steadily sinking into minority-hood. America's future, according to sheer numbers, waxes democratic progressive. The tragic truth is that in America today, there is no representation for the working class. Labor unions represent only about seven percent of the workers, and the socialist and workers parties are but a pathetic drop in the great political ocean of American politics. The United States is the only industrialized country on earth which has no organized, major political party truly representing the interests of the working class, no socialist party, although both democrats and republicans, laughably, claim to fill this role. The mere fact that the poor greatly outnumber the wealthy in America, and that the republicans hold elective offices nationwide, is proof positive that there is no advocacy for the working or the poor in the United States. But there is a glimmer of hope. Bernie sanders gave Hillary Clinton a run for her money, but in the end her money, and the fact that she used it to purchase the controlling apparatus of the democratic party to exclude Sanders from any chance of seriously contending, offer more proof that socialism in America, the only true political philosophy of the working class, is nearly nonexistent in America. We have a conservative party in America, the democrats, and an ultra conservative party, the republicans, both of which serve the interests of the corporate wealthy elite. The people in general are largely without representation. In the past thirty years, both parties have moved markedly to the right. Things look good for the democrats in 2018 and 2020, as witnessed by results in New Jersey and Virginia. But if the democrats don't start moving in the direction of the Bernie Sanders wing, and away from the Clinton Obama wing, it will, as usual, make little or no difference which party prevails.

Arguing With Wyatt Earp and My Grandfather

WITH TYPICAL PENETRATING INSIGHT, skin deep, President Trump proclaimed recently that what we have here is a mental health problem, not a gun problem. He should know. Guns, it seems, have nothing to do with killing people. guns are merely convenient means, among many others. People kill people. Blame people and their mental health issues, blame anything, but not guns. hang on to that conservative NRA base of support. However, if you are a human being, mind, body, and spirit, and have lived longer than a few days, you are going to experience, sooner or later, illness, both physical and mental. Ask any expert. With modern medicine and normal human healing capabilities, we can usually heal, and delay death for decades. To say that our American mass Murder orgy (AMMO) is the product of mental illness is essentially saying that we are all capable of participating in it, responsible for it, and that at any given time anyone is capable of practically anything, which we already knew, or should have known. So, we need to turn to environmental factors, outside the human mind, for possible answers. In the United States of Ammo-rica, personal disputes are a dime a dozen. We Americans can't swing a dead cat, as they crudely say, without knocking down somebody we either hate, have divorced, or have already slandered or beaten up. In America, inter personal conflict is rife, interpersonal conflict is the norm, it is our way of life, it begins in grade school, and extends to the grave. The United States of Animosity is an angry, competitive land, where gangsters gather together. Enter the four million member NRA, with their good guys need guns mentality, wanting us all to be armed and ready to aim and fire. Our conceal and carry culture, with over three hundred million guns, is the law of the land. We already had the motive,now we have the means, far more convenient than rolling pins, knives, and baseball bats. Retribution as a safe distance. Fifty four percent of our mass murders are perpetrated by people who have recently perpetrated an act of domestic violence. Merely slapping one's spouse around a little bit leaves one unsatisfied, still angry, needing to vent more. We are back to square one, with motive and means. Conservatives say gins don't kill people, liberals say that people with guns kill people, people sing guns, people and their weapons working in tandem, as a team. We may never know which paradigm to call correct. My grandfather once said that if you put a gun in a man's hand, the first thing he wants to do is use it. Seems sensible. Wyatt Earp, when he was the law in Dodge City, did not allow guns to be carried in town. You could pick them up on the way out. domestic violence is a problem everywhere, but turns into a gun nightmare far more often in a country where guns are ubiquitous. There is far more gun violence in the U.S. than in England and Australia, where guns are scarce, but the same rate of domestic violence. maybe they know something we don't', or something we are unwilling to accept. For that mater, maybe my grandfather and Wyatt Earp had a point too.

Reading The Bible, Knowing Jesus

THE BIBLE is the most important book in history, the most misunderstood, and although it contains a fascinating insight into the nature of ancient culture and ant the ancient mind set, seldom does anyone read it in its entirety. It has multiple personalities, having been written having been written over a period of centuries by at least forty different authors, all with differing perspectives, most of them unknown, their identities lost in the mists of time, whose various styles reveal them to have been no more or less divinely inspired than any serious, talented author. Anyone who believes that the Bible is the Word of God must come to terms with a god who approves of slavery, gives instructions of the proper treatment of masters by their slaves, insists that disobedient children be put to death, and gratuitously slaughters thousands of innocent people for trivial transgressions unrelated to the victim's of god's wrath. The biblical god reveals itself to be a petty, jealous, vicious tyrant with multiple personalities, a penchant for psychotic behavior, full of unrelenting anger and intolerance, whose arbitrary and erratic behavior fits the profile of a psychotic serial mass murderer. The bible contains more violence than any other book ever published. Mark Twain, an avowed atheist, described the Bible as containing some noble poetry, some clever fables, a great abundance of obscenity, and no less than one thousand blatant lies. This collection of sixty six short books contains so many internal contradictions and errors that many decades ago every credible theological seminary in the world stopped teaching divinity students that the holy scripture is inerrant, and started dealing with the obvious and numerous imperfections honestly, by calling attention to them and including the scrutiny of biblical fallacies in serious, standard courses of study. As a result, many a born again theological student at places like Harvard and Princeton enter seminary as true believers, and leave as agnostics and atheists. Jesus himself is a figure shrouded in mystery, as each of the four gospels seems to be describing a different person, a different life. No one will ever know who wrote Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John, only that their authors were well educated and fluent in ancient Greek, unlike the undoubtedly illiterate disciples themselves, after whom the gospels were named. For certain is that none of the authors ever came close to meeting Jesus, they got their information third or fourth hand, and their books were written several decades after Joshua ben Joseph, aka Jesus died. it took Jesus well over three hundred years to become God, and he was elected to the position by the church Council of Nicea in 325 A.D.. The church leaders also decided which among the dozens of accounts of the life of Christ would be included in the canon, and only the familiar four made the cut. According to these four, Jesus was a working class apocalyptic preacher, among many at the time, endlessly warning his listeners that the world as they knew it would end within their own lifetime, and replaced by God's kingdom, removing all evil from an evil world and replacing it with glorious happy righteousness, and bringing judgment to all. He was dead wrong, it turned out. to his devoted friends he was a wise teacher, and maybe the future king of Israel. They called him "lord" and "master", commonly used terms of respect. To his loving followers he was fully human, and he never claimed otherwise, except in the book of John. Only in John is Jesus loquacious. In the others, he is relatively taciturn. John was the last of the four to have been written, it is universally agreed. Others versions are equally interesting: Peter, Mary, Thomas, Barnabas, and many others, all of which tell a different story. As time passes after His death, the more divinity he acquired. Every wise and beautiful piece of wisdom attributed to Jesus can be found in earlier writings, especially Confucius. A possible reason why he was believed to have risen from the dead by some of his disciples is their love, and simple unwillingness to let him go. The beautiful thing about Jesus is that there is no need to let him go, every reason to embrace him, and to hold him and love him forever.

Is Trump Bending The Rules A Bit?

WJEN DONALD TRUMP BECAMD PRESIDENT, he labored under the misapprehension that the president is responsible for directing and controlling the Department of Justice. Trump, mistaken about something fundamental. how surprising. Someone whispered in his ear, without getting sexually molested, and, to America's good fortune, the new p resident became apprised of the proper, traditional, and very important independence of the Attorney General. The Justice Department must absolutely be independent of executive control, for the sake of justice, without the potential of executive influence. Thank the goddess of justice that the president was disabused of his unbelievable ignorance on the matter. But it might not have done much good, or any good, after all. Donald Trump is no stranger to back room bargaining in matters of business; with Russians, or whomever. A T & T and time Warner, two huge media companies, want to merge, or as Trump might say, "get married", with A T & T taking over the joint venture. Normally this would be no problem,, and would gain the swift approval of the D o J, since the two behemoths operate in separate areas of the media, and thus do not complete, meaning that there merger would not hinder the competitive free market, or violate federal anti-trust law. for forty years such mergers have gone through smoothly, particularly under republicans administration, and in fact nearly all other corporate mergers have sailed smoothly through with easy federal approval, making some observers wonder whatever happened to the Sherman and Clayton Antitrust Acts. Suddenly, things have changed, mysteriously. Trump's Justice Department refuses to allow this marriage unless A T & T agrees to divest itself of the CNN network, which it flatly refuses to do, and threatens legal action. Red flags rise. We small a rat, from the direction of Trump Tower. Trump hates CNN, and accuses them of fabricating "fake news", fake news being defined as any comment of a factual nature which reflects negatively on the president, of which there are many possible. What CNN actually does is tell the truth about Trump, which the multi billionaire can't abide. Tell the truth about Donald Trump, you risk a savage twitter attack, or worse; people have been known to vanish. Does anyone even remotely suspect that the president may have text a terse text over to justice, something to the effect that "we must stop these media people from hurting America". something maudlin, simpering, yet crude. Who knows. perish the thought that someone of Trump's known integrity, honesty and moral rectitude should even consider illicitly intervening in the due process of justice to kick the corporate underpinnings out from under one of his many sworn enemies. But since the president seems to relish making then destroying enemies, who can say?

Trump, Blocking People On Twitter, And Getting Sued

IN A PERHAPS INEVITABLE DEVELOPMENT, a college professor has filed a lawsuit against President Trump, because Trump blocked the professor on twitter, which inspired the academician to an act of clever litigation genius worthy of a scholar, to claim that the president is violating the constitution by limiting free speech and blocking access to what should be unrestricted access to presidential utterances, which are public property, relevant and important to all Americans, who have the right to hear what their president says. or something like that. On the face of it, it sounds pretty well reasoned, and probably is. We'll find out, through due legal process. I have never tweeted, nor shall I. I aint special, but I have standards, standards which prevent my knowingly entering a communications cesspool. I understand that anybody can join Twitter, type in their 140 character comments, which I recently heard was being increased to 280. Whatever happened to that? It might be too many letters for Americans to comprehend (just kidding).You tweet, people read, and if they choose, they respond. Right? Popular or famous people can accumulate millions of people who read their profundities, called "followers". Tweets can be "retweeted", whatever that is. Am I close? So trump has something like 35 million followers, quite naturally, any one of whom can respond. Everyday I am told on the national news what Trump tweets, and I think any intelligent person would be ashamed to say what he says, but that's another matter. Trump, and people like him, guarantee me that I will never join Twitter. The man is pathological, he frightens and repulses me, and he makes me tremble for my country, to borrow a phrase from Jefferson. The ability of every member of Twitter to block any other member from reading and responding is vital, of course. I remember chatrooms, and I know how it goes online. But Trump, so claims the professor's lawsuit, is public domain, and should be available to us all. (be careful what you wish for, professor). One can scarcely imagine how many people Trump blocks, through sheer perceived necessity. Trump's tweets should probably automatically be accompanied by warnings from the Food and Drug Administration concerning content. And warnings from the FBI about the inadvisability if inappropriate responses. In the meantime, we'll wait and see how the lawsuit turns out. It should provide us with a humorous story to tell our grandchildren, if nothing else.

Roy Moore, Profiting Politically Among His Followers, For His Indiscretions

ALABAMA SENATORIAL CANDIDATE ROY MOORE needn't worry about losing voter support, any more than Donald Trump. The national republican party has indeed cut off his campaign funds, but not his enthusiastic base. His democratic opponent, Doug Stone, arranged to have several women fabricate accusations of sexual harassment against this paragon of conservative Christian virtue, and that's that. Case closed. So say his ardent spokespeople. Why would a woman bring forth accusations of sexual misconduct forty years after the fact, were the allegations not "trumped" up (pun intended)? Why now, seemingly timed perfectly to destroy an honorable man's political campaign? The answer should be, and is, obvious. Women who have been molested by powerful men are afraid to come forth, for rear of retaliation. Only when a throng of other women have already come forth is it safe, they correctly think. Also, what better time to do so, than when a man who has sinned greatly and not yet paid for it, seeks to achieve political power for the possible opportunity of sinning yet again, unimpeded? We must ask ourselves, which is more likely: that women fabricate stories years after the fact, stories which humiliate them by bringing negative attention to themselves, or that powerful me seek to take advantage of their position in society by taking advantage of women with less power? Moore's right wing supporters are not to be believed. They are known prevaricators. They voted for Trump, knowing full well of Trump's self described misconduct, yet, they pretended not to hear it. The supporters of Trump and Moore have long since forfeited their credibility, and their integrity. Amid the turmoil of an avalanche of sexual harassment accusation made against male elites, we now know, once and for all, why women tend to attend public restrooms in groups; there is safety in numbers. Meanwhile, in the upcoming special election, the democrats will have to defeat the sanctimonious and libidinous former judge Moore at the ballot box, straight up. His political base will never abandon him. that's not in the right wing DNA, not when the alternative is the election of a non extreme right wing democrat, with good morals. When he was chief Justice of the Alabama supreme court Moore defied a federal order to remove the ten commandments from his judicial domain, an act of lawlessness that only enervated his selectively moral supporters. The defiant act cost him his job, but won the unanimous approval of the far Christian right. Revelations of sexual misconduct can only be expected to enhance his standing among Christian conservatives, to whom morality is relative to political expediency, not absolute, like the ten commandments, which neither they nor Moore have perhaps ever studied in depth. All this is predictable, because the election of Donald trump, facilitated by the same segment of American society, was facilitated by similar circumstances. It must be exciting and fun to be a conservative Christian republican, free of the burdens of genuine moral rectitude, unencumbered by any discernable connection to objective reality.