Talking Cats

WE WERE TALKING ABOUT CATS, as it seems I often am. Cats can be a topic somewhat like the weather; innocuous, agreeable, hard to argue about or engender controversy and resentment. She was a ninety year old lady I had known for awhile, and had mixed emotions about, having heard her say things like: "Nowhere in the Bible does it say that its OK to have women ministers". But she was saying all the right things about cats. About how she had had a cat for twenty years, but that it had died, and that her grief had been so great that for a long time she simply wasn't ready or able to obtain another cat, not enough time had passed since her loss. Somebody said that she must have taken very good care of it for the cat to have lived so long, and I agreed. She mentioned that at various times people tried to gift her with a kitten for adoption, and she had simply not been ready. We all agreed that we knew exactly how she felt. The empathy was apparent. Then she said that finally, the time had come, and she knew she was ready to adopt another cat. She said that she wanted to pick one out for herself, rather than have somebody siply present her with one. For some reason that raiseda bit of a red flag with me, although I'm still not sure why; really, I cannot fault anyone for wanting to choose their own pert, nor, for that matter, for having preferences about the animal's appearance, such as color, gender, and so forth. she said she had indicated that she had always wanted a black cat, and the guy told her "Ma'am, there isn't a white hair on his entire body". So, at last, she had a black cat. Then came the bombshell. the first thing she did, she said, was to have the cat declawed. Instantly, I felt the shock, anger, and hatred surge through me. To me, and probably to most people, declawing a cat is torture, abuse, and should be illegal. She kept talking, saying that cat's don't need their claws on their front feet anyway, since they actually fight with their hind legs only. And besides, she had to protect her furniture. Incredible, that anyone would actually say that; cat's don't use their front claws. More proof that people are willing, ready, and able to invent any fantasy, embrace any lie, which suits their interests by justifying their beliefs and behavior. What, pray tell, kind of person would choose to declaw a cat, then invent and embrace the idiotic lie that cats only fight with their hind legs anyway, so do not miss their absent front claws. Merely to hide one's guilt? Why go to such an extreme? A real sicko, right? Or, maybe, just maybe a normal, ordinary human being. Hell, you just want people to have enough integrity to leave out the bullshit. Sickening, how often and how easily most people abandon their own moral principles for expediency. Are you listening, Trump people?

Dumping and Trumping

LIZ CHENEY is an absolutely ideal conservative Republican. Or, so it seems from the other side of the isle. Obviously, she has a good pedigree, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney. Conservative to the core, with all the right positions on all the right issues, and among the most consistent supporters of Trump with her voting record in Congress, something like ninety seven percent Trump. And yet, here she is, esssentially alienated and ostricized from the Republican party, having two days ago lost by a very wide maring the Republican primary for her seat in Congress. The lady wo beat her is almost certain to defeat the Democrat opponent, another lady, this fall, in what is among the nation's and the state's (Colorado) most conserative congressional districts. And all because LIz Cheney had the guts, and the integrity, and the morality to call a spade a spade, to call Trump's big lie a lie, which she did from the "git go". Liz Cheney, despite her conservatism, has shown a great deal of courage and integrity. The lady, Hariet Hageman an outspoken far right wing lawyer and unconditional Trump supporter who defeated her is a big Trumper, and a vociferous proponent of the big lie of the stolen election sort. Eveyone, including Liz Cheney, knew that this was coming. Trump had endoresed Hageman weeks ago. Let that sink in, as they say. In order to run for election as a Republican, or to even be accepted in the Republican party, it is absolutely necessary, one simply must; accept and preach the big Trump lie, that the election was stolen from Trump. The Republican party is still the party of Trump, as evidenced by the fact that Trump's candidates are winning a lot of primaries against non-Trump candidates, and the Republican party is now completely founded upon a brazen lie. In order to be a member in good standing in the G.O.P. (republican party) you must swallow the lies of Trump, hook, line, and, as they say, sinker. How incredible, that one of America's two major political parties has come to this, has reached this incredibly low low. Maybe Trump and Cheney will both run for president in the 2024 Republican primaries. That would be high entertainment indeed. Surely we are witnessing the destruction and dissolution of the Republican party.

Amazingly Following Trump

THE MOST AMAZING THING about Donald Trump isn't his dishonesty or criminality; the most amazing thing about Donald Trump is the mindset and behavior of his followers, plus, of course, the sheer number of them, tens of millions. Amazing, that upwards of seventy million previusly presumed intelligent, decent Americans have chosen to deceive themselves by embracing Trump's lies and criminality. Trump's latest act of traitorous criminality, stealing, smuggling, and concealing Top Secret government documents, has now been verified, confirmed. He did it, flat out. but instead of simly acknowledging this shocking reality and condeming Trump for putting American national security at great risk, Trump's supporters are livid, outraged at the FBI, threatening the agency with violence and threatening the country with civil war. This civil war would presumably be between the Trump people, which for the most part consists of white conservative evangelical Christians, and the anti-Trump people, which consists of good patriotic Americans with moral values and an intellect. Sometimes Trump's supporters remind one of Hitler's followers; cultish, insanely loyal, reduced in moral and intellectual character to the lowly status of their esteemed leader. The FBU is in a purely defensive, ultra prepared position. Never before have Americans treated their own law enforcement agency this badly. The threates of violence are all over social media, and many are being received daily at various FBI locations aroud the country. The threats are coming exclusively from white Christian conservative America, from the Trump base of support. Defund the FBI, scream the same people who ridiculed thsoe who protested against the murder of George Floyd two years ago and called for defunding police departments. Trump and his base of support tried to steal teh presidential from Joe Biden by pretending that Biden stole it from Trump, then they tried to overthrow the government with a violent insurrection, and now that Trump ha been exposed as a criminal, once again, by stealing government secrets, his base continues to follow and support him, and will evidently continue to do so, all the way to hell.

Building the Future

IN SAUDA ARABIA, ther is a plan to construct a single building five hundred meters high, two hundred meters across, and about one hundred and seventy one kilometers in length. The outside of it will reportedly be covered entirely with mmirrors. The building will be a city, of roughly nine million people, acording to the plan, which evidenty was drawn up by some of the world's best urban planners and architects, and has the approval of the Saudi government, meaning the royal family, the king and his assistants, including the crown-(clown) prince, Mr. Bin Salmon. construction has already began, and by the year twenty thirty at least one point five million people are expected to already be living in it. In every nook and cranny of the giant building-indoor city, everyone who lives there will be within a five minute walk to nearly anything anyone can possible imagine needing, certainly all the basics and staples. The mirrors on teh entire outside of teh structure wil enhance the sensation tha the building is part of nature, blening in with and reflecting its surroundings. With regard to energy, food, and water sources, the new city will apparently be completely carbon neutral, and will damage, deplete or destroy no resources nor life. A sustainable city of the future, which, when you consider how narrow it is across (about two hundred meters) will actually take up consiedrably less ground space than other cities of nine million people. Amazing, to be watching the future unfold in science fiction style. even better, there are predictions that the solutions to climate change are already within our grasp, the we need only implement them, and that a rejuvenated "born again" planet Earth could be achievable within this century. Hallelujah and amen to that, right-o? The Biden administration and most of teh world's progressive governments and thinkers are on board with the "thirty by thirty" plan, according to which by the year twenty thirty a mimimum of thirty percent of teh world's land area and ocean area will be given over completely to wildlife habitat and wilferness. The plan's primary opponents, surprise surprise, are American conservatives. American conservatives, including Trump's special evangelical Christian MAGA mob, endorse the idea of exploiting one hundred percent of Earth's resources for profit, capitalistically and corporationally. You may recall their "bring back coal" plan, which, thank the dear lord, died with the Trump administration.

Decrying Trump's Mistreatment

AS THE HOURS AND DAYS passed post FBI raid-on-Trump, MAGA-America intensifeid its conniption fit. The very same people who ridiculed the "defund the police" movement after the murder of George Floyd, law and order pro Trump America, began calling for the defunding and destruction of that bastian of radical liberal political activism, the FBI, the agency whose director-decision maker was installed by Trump himself. This latest "witch hunt" is simply too much to take. After all, if it can happen to a former president (who should actually still be president) - it can happen to you. And thank God it can happen to tyou, or to any American who breaks the law by hording top secret documents instead of turning them over to the proper authorities, which is exactly what Mr.Trump seems to have done. Do we now expect him to call together a violent mob for the purpose of attacking and ransacking the FBI building? Most amusing, as always, are the many and varied lame defenses of Trump, and expressions of hatred by the far right agaisnt the law and order they so fervantly swear to abide by. Trump, it seems, actually had already declassifed all the top secret documents he illegally transported to Maralago instead of turning over to the government. Nobody seems able to locate any of the paperwork or presidential signatures which would have facilitated this. Will Trump escape indictment and prosecuation, now that he had been caught red handed, so to speak, with top secret material where it should never be, in his possession? If he does, he would deserve to be remembered as the second American teflon president, teh first having been Ronald Reagan.

Changing Color

"THE LAST WHITE MAN", a newly publisehd science fiction-fantasy dystopian sociological political novel by Mohsim Hamid, exemplifies its title. The protagonist, a white guy of Scandinavian descent, awakens one day to discover that his skin a surned a deep shade of brown. But he is not alone. In the unnamed country in which he lives, every other white person has the same experience, as if the universe wants the previously white race to understand the burden of dark skin by experiencing it personally. Hamid was inspired by Franz Kafka's iconic "Meatmorphosis", in which the central character turns into a giant insect. The people who turn dark are immediately treated differently, more poorly, by their friends and neighbors. This should not surprise them, but does. Thus has Hammid written an insightful examination of racism and personal identity. So much for white supremacy, numerical or cultural. Jews will not replace us? In the novel, the white race replaces itself, and joins the crowded club of darkly pigmented peoples. The current incarnation of the white Christian conservative Republican party knows the feeling, for it lives in a world in which white conservative Christians are being "replaced" by hordes of undocumented brown immigrants, courtesy liberalism. What a nightmarish reality which to invent, and in whcih to dwell. To be a Christian conservative must be sheer hell, constantly confronted with the hideious specter of ethnic, religious, and cultural diversity. the replacement project is neither random nor natural, but rather the carefuly orchestrated machination of......whom? A secret cons[iray of teh "deep state", millions of government bureaucrats organized to destroy traditional America, perhaps with the assiatance of the NAACP, the mainstream liberal midia, and the Democratic party? Upon further reflection, replacing America's paranoid delusional right wing with, damned near anybody, might not be such a bad idea after all. Glad they thought of it.

Deconstructing

IT ALL BEGAN with Newt Gingrich, the unrelenting attack on political civility and reason which has now become not only pervasive, but transparently visible within the Republican party, according to journalist Dana Milbank in his illuminating new book "The Deconstructionisits: The twenty Five Year Crack Up of the Republican party". The very moment Bill Clinton was sworn in as the nation's fortieth president in 1992, conservative America, accustomed to having the presidency, spoiled after twelve long years of Reagan and Bush, reacted with hostility. Young white men began forming "citizen's militias", hate groups well armed in the woods, pretending to be military organizations in defense of liberty and virtue, a trend which persisted but came to a sudden end when the federal building in Oklahoma City was destroyed by two militia members. Then came 1994, and Gingrich's "contract With (On) America". Gingrich, mentored by right wing extremist activist Carl Rove, himself a shady Nixonian figure, decided to destroy bi-partisanship in favor of all out, no holds barred war agasint Clinton, the Democrats, and progressive policies. Gingrich was successful in persuading a sufficient number of his fellow right wingers to adopt this approach, that it became the only approach employed by Christian conservative America. Never compromise with, never agree with the left, no matter whether the left makes reasonable proposals. Republicans had been out of power in the House of Representatives for forty years, and Gingrich decided that the time to work with Democrats across party lines was done, and that only by waging all out war and abandoning any pretense of cooperation could conservative America regain legislative power. The rise of Gingrich coincided with the entry of Dana Milbank into journalsim, and ever since he has carefully kept track of the situation, a situation he contends which led directly from Gingrich to Dondald Trump, passing through the Tea Party along the way. Thus has the Republican party evolved from a center right party of Reagan and reason, to the extremist, violent terrorist-criminal enterprise it is today. Milbank reminds us of what we already knew; that Donald Trump and "Trumpism" is a symmpton, rather than a cause, of this disease. There was a time when consrvative America reacted to its losses with at least some small degree of equanimity. Now it reacts by fasely claiming that elections are stolen from them, and by violently attempting to overthrow the federal government. Milbank details with incisive detail how we arrived at this sorrowful place.

Saying It Like Sagan

CARL SAGAN, who said many things best, said, paraphrased: "Why has there never been a religion which says: "This is better than we ever thought possible! The universe is larger, grander, more elegant, more subtle, more beautiful than any of our prophets or sacred scriptures ever told us? Glory hallelujah!" The answer, as Sagan was pointing out, is that by nature religion does not seek to improve itself, does not seek to incorporate new knowledge into its worldview, and refuses to accept progress, instead preferring to proclaim itself perfect, incapable of advancement. Religions prefer to keep their universes and their gods small. Carl Sagan, like most people well educated in science, had serious misgivings about religion. Sagan had what he called a love affair with science, as do many intellectuals. What he loved about science, as he indicated in his seminal book "The Demon Haunted World" is that it provides new knowledge, it expands humanity's understanding of the world and the universe, it gives us an enhanced appreciation of the glorious natural world, and, most of all, it seeks constantly to improve and correct itself, to learn from its own mistakes. Science inspires those who are amenable to inspiration. Science over the past four hundred years has shown us a universe far larger, more incredible, and more amaagingly sublte and elegant than any religion every has or possibly ever could, within the confines of religion's primitive, mistaken notions about reality. Sagan, like many well educated people, saw religion as confining, stifling, perpetually stuck in its own little world of profound limitations and falsehoods, its views of nature forever locked into a false reality, because of its refusal to grow, change, and improve itself through self correction. Science ceaselessly progresses towards a greater understanding of nature, including human nature. Religions remains forever moribund within nonsensical, primitive cosmic paradigms. According to the bible, for instance, the Earth is flat, and the stars are shiny little trinkets suspended from the solid dome of the sky. Or, they are the light of heaven, shining through pinprick holes in the great iron sky dome, according to which scriptural passage you accept, take your pick. This version of reality is badly out of date, and needs updating, an updating it will never receive, because the Bible is considered by its votaries to be inviolable, sacred, unalterable, perfect, tragically. Religion, every religion of the thousands extant, needs a new book, a new and improved version of reality. Science has a new and improved book every moment of every day. The only true religion is reverence of reality, as revealed by science.

Raidng Trump

THE FBI NEVER BOTHERS ANYBODY without good reason, despite the best eforts of conservatives to denigrate the agency. Donald Trump didn't say anything about whether the feds messed up his bedsheets or entered and rearragned his closets, but he did say that he was being persecuted for political purposes. Yet another Trump lie, more whining. Admittedly the FBU did, several years ago, harass a good friend of mine over an extended period of time by listing him as a "person of interest" in a string of serial killings, and admittedly that irked me a mite, but, well, they were just doing their job. The FBI never raids anyone's house without probable cause, formalized by the signature of a federal judge. Now we wait to find out whether Trump did indeed violate the law, as the Department of Justice suspects he did, by failing to turn over government documents to the National Archives, and instead spiriting them away to his Florida hovel. Hint: he spirited them away, he broke thelaw; otherwise Merrick Garland would never have sought the signature of a federal judge. Now the entertainemnt commcnces. Better grab your biggest popcorn popper. FOX "news", so I am told, is already "freaking out". We shall shortly be gifted the spectle of not only MAGA Amerca, but conservative America and evangelical America having a, as we say, "shit fit", about poor Mr. Trump, the messenger of chrst, being tormented mercilessly by those rascally liberal Democrats. We will learn that the FBI has been infiltrated by and is full of wild eyed liberals, bent of bringing Trump down. another conspiracy of the left wing media, the DMC, and, for good measure, the Chinese. The notion that Trummp is capable of violating the law, much less being a constant criminal, will never enter their deluded little minds. As the hours passed post raid, the righteous indignation of the right proliferated, stinking and shining like dead mackeral by moonlight. Thus came the calls for investigation of the FBI, the Justice Department, and promises of dire retribution. The members of the sub committee investigating Trump's failed violent attempt to overthrow the American federal government were threatened with jail, in the event that the Republicans capture the majority in Congress. It was pointed out that no former president had ever been treated this way. It was not pointed out that no foremer president has ever organized and orchestrated an insurection agaisnt the United States government. Good pro Trump evangelical Christians, always eager with threats of damnation, threatened to consign Democrats to hell. With regared to hell, they are the experts.

Singing, Just To Sing

SOMETIMES I WONDER whether anyone thinks it strange that I, who lack religious faith, sing with a gospel group. Or maybe they simply smugly assume that I am one of them, a devout Christian, and have been "saved". People, and particularly deeply religious people, are presumptuous. How on Earth could anyone possibly not be a Christian, especially one who sings in a gospel group? Well, dearly beloved religious, permit me to introduce you to a concept which to you is doubtless novel. Its called "open mindedness". One way to put it is "when in Rome". A better way is to say that it never hurts anybody, including me, to try to understand and experience the viewpoints of other people. In fact, it might help. Also, let's bear in mind that there are thousands of religions on Earth, about fifteen hundred organized in the United States and registered with the gevernment for purposes of tax evasion, and that, as Goethe said: "When I realized that everyone invents his own religion, I decide to invent mine." Any approach to anyone's religiosity which is not predicated on open mindedness and acceptance is unreasonable. No matter who yo are, your approach to god is not superior to any other. Its simply....yours. People who ardently embrace formal, organized religious dogma are by nature not prone to espouse or express empathy beyond the limits of their own faith, tending instead to recoil in horror, disgust, or mere disapproval of those outside it. I don't like organized, dogmatic religion, nor dogmatic, religious viewpoints generally. Give me the free spirited pantheist, agnostic, or atheist any old day. Having said that, I know many Christians who are extremely nice, kind, and good people. I firmly believe they would be that way no matter what their religious convictions, or lack thereof. I have never seen any evidence that religion improves anyone, and I suggest that neither has anyone else. Actually, research repeatedly indicates that atheists are morally of higher quality that the deeply religious. As Casey Stengal said: "You could look it up". Personal improvement comes from within. Contrary to what most people seem to think, religious influences come from outside the individual, bestowd by societal influences. Truth be told, I'd much rather gather together and sing classic rock n roll songs from the sixties, or I think I would. But, singing is singing, it is what it is, as the tired cliche goes, and if I can learn to tolerate their bizarre, unpleasant songs about being saved by being covered in the blood of Christ, they can learn to tolerate me, or better yet to accept me, since sustained tolerance, as goethe said, is an insult, whether or not they have the foggiest idea of my religiosity, or lack thereof.

CPACing

CPAC IS AN ACRONYM WHICH, if menory serves, stands for "Conservative Political Action Committee", or maybe "Citizens Poised Against Civility". Either will suffice, being accurate. They gather together once or twice a year, to spout what to them is inviolable verity but to the sane sheer nonsense. Among their featured speakers this year is the Hungarian demagogue-dictator Viktor Orban, their hero. Just the other day his speech resulted in his receiving a standing ovation from the assembled. He reminds them of Trump, he reminds himself of Trump, thus his hero status. All he needs to do is to be defeated for reelection, then try to overthrow the Hungarian government to achieve true Trumpian status. Orban is a true Republican. He is concerned about the purity of the "white" race, and believes that the immigration of brown and black people into Europe and particularly into Hungary is a great tragedy, because it dilutes raial purity. Like Trump, like Republicans, he would quite likely prefer that all immigrants into Europe come from, oh, say... Norway. Liberals sometimes accuse right wing MAGA types of being "fascists". Meanwhile, MAGA types bend over backwards, so to speak, to justify this unkind accusation. Viktor Orban indicated that it is impossible for Christians to be racist. Really? Wherever he got this notion, he needs to revise it. The American Republican party has been described by academicians as the "white Christian party". Take a quick peek at the audience for Orban, and bear in mind that the keynote speaker for CPAC is none other than Donald J. Trump, who wishes to eliminate immigration from what he calls "shit hole countries" of Africa, and to allow immigration from, as he said, Norway. Lily white, those Norwegians. Racism permeates the Republican party. Racism is a traditional, conservative, core American value. White nationalism, Christian nationalism dwell within the conservative community, not the liberal. And thus did the Hungarian dictator admonish liberals to "go to hell", and expressed concern that the racial purity of white European Christian civilization is gravely threatened by immigration of dark skinned Muslims. Magyar ethnic purity, and all that. Appropriately, conservative racially pure Christian Republican America gave him a standing ovation. The more racist the remarks, the greater the positive response at CPAC meetings. Then came Trump, who most of his life has falsely claimed that he is of Swedish and not German ancestry, a habit he got from his grandfather and father, the former having been kicked out of Germany for criminal activity. Did Trump tell the adoring white Christian conservative crowd that windmills cause cancer, or that George Washington's army captured every airport from the British in colonial revolutionary America, or that Friendship with Italy dates to the reign of Julius Caesar? Probably not. Trump doesn't like to repeat himself; doing so exposes lies. so, in with Norwegian immigrants and out with the black and the brown toned. That'll get 'em up on their feet, applauding. A healthy does of racism goes a long way towards satisfying white Christian America, for whom racism is a core cultural value.

Jonesing

LISTENING TO ALEX JONES experiencing his eureka moment in court evoked a mixture of utter contempt and head shaking pity, not so much for him, for the bizarre scam job he has done on millions of radio followers, and for what he has put people through who have already been through much too much. Having bleated for years that the Sandy Hook elementary school massacre was a hoax perpetrated by the "deep state" within the federal government for the purpose of collecting ammunation to justify banning assault rifles and taking good people's guns away from them, now, he waxes realistic, if not overtly contrite. Where he belongs, according to anyone with decent moral values, is in prison. Where he actually is is in court, as the court determines his liability and damages, he having already been convicted of civil charges. IN a predictable but disgusting attempt to avoid the huge financial settlement the court is likely to impose on him, he is also in bankruptcy court, although he is well known to be very well off financially. When one spends decades alluring the gullible with tales of the fantistically untrue, in this country, one gets rich, sometimes quickly. so he sat in court, all demure, and simply said, "I understand now that the Sandy Hook massacre really happened, and I never relly intended to hurt anybody, I never even used anyone's name". For that alone he richly deserves what was once called a "swift kick in the posterior". Witnesses said that when Jones issued his sorta pseudo mea culpa there were tears in his eyes, and he was perspiring profusely. Prsion is as good a place as any to cry and sweat. The Alex Jone's of the world have alwasy been an insidious infection in American culture, which itself originated and grew as a sort of scam, a culture of huxters. The internet merely magnifies and expands what is and has always been there, usually, in the past, in a religious guise. American culture is an incubator for newly born religions, various twisted versions of christianity. When we secularize nonsense, it takes the form of some imaginary "deep state", and a never ending slew of conspiracy assertions, assertions, because those who present "conspiracy theories" never present them as "theories", but rather, as proven, absolute fact. How else could they gain credibility, even among the gullible? P.T. Barnum may have said that "Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people". Well, depending on what happens in the penalty phase of Alex Jone's civil lawsuit, and what happens to him in bankruptcy court, someone may indeed go broke underestimating, if not the intelligence, the resolve of the American people and the victims of its violent culture. You'd be hard pressed to think of a more deserving criminal than Alex Jones, in or out of prison.

Voting On Abortion

TEH GREAT STATE of Kansas, irreedemably conservative, popularly voted by a wide margin, nearly sixty forty, to in, essence keep abortion legal in the Sunflower State. Right wing pro birth extremist Trump types immediatley claimed that the election was stolen, that it was riddled with fraud, and that in actuality the people of Kansas voted by a landslide to outlaw abortion. It is not yet known whether and when an angry mob of Republicans will storm the state capitol and ransack the joint, and perhaps kill a few liberals. The referendum was expected to be close, but wasn't.In one of the most right wing states in the union, they the people amde known and reminded usthat we the American people want access to legal abortion. supposedly, the divide between pro choice and pro birth America is rather close, with a slim majority favoring pro choice. Now, this assumption is suspect. It may well be that a vast majority of the American population favor legalized abortion, with, of course, restrictions and limitations. the voter turnout in Kansas was extremel high; nearly twice the normal turnout. Abortion is obviously an issue which brings people out to vote, and would probably attract a large turnout in a national referendum, a national referendum being quite possibly the best possible solution to the question, a solution which could and would, in theory, end the controversy forever. but in these united states, we are relutant to let people vote too often, on too many issues. After all, that's what our political leaders are for, and heaven foribd that we should actually become a democracy, especially a direct one, rather than a republic. In states where the demise of Roe v Wade is bmboldening Republican state legislatures and governores to enact severe restrictions on abortion access, in several cases banning the proceedure altogether, the wishes of the majority are being ignored, the people are being governed by a minority extremist political party with a minority extremist agenda, not only concerning abortion rights, but most other issues as well. Does a majority of Americans want to ban books in public schools because some books express acceptance of gay and transgender people? No, absolutely not. Does a majority of Americans want to make it more difficult to vote, as Justice Alito says: "merely inconvenient", in order to address a mythological nonexistant problem with widespread election fraud? No, according to all surveys. And the list goes on. An American majority is progressive on all issues, including abortion rights. The struggle now is to return government to the majority, which usually but not always knows best, contrary to the beliefs of the nation's founders (except for Jefferson), who gave us a republican form of government which places power in the hands of an elite, aristocratic minority. Our hope, and perhaps the best kept secret of all; is that we the people, by voting in large numbers for progressive causes, can overwhelm the extremist far right wing with sheer numbers, representing the wishes of the people at large. Let the revolution at the ballot box begin.

Descending

MOST SHOCKING AND DISAPPOINTING of all is the precipitous declie of the moralaity of the American conservative community, specifically, te evangelical Christian conservative Republican Trump movement, aka, "the wusual suspects". After all, isn't this the demographic which pride itslef on its moral speriority, patriotism, and religious devotion? Tragically, its all a sham. When eighty two percent of them support donald Trump a yer and a half after Trump's violent insurrection,and most of them falsely insist that the election of 2020 was stolen from Trump, where is the moral superiority? It seems more like moral corruption, immorality, and dishonesty. As for patriotis, since when do patriotic Americans refuse to accept the result of a free and fair national election, attempt to violently overthrow the government, by attacking and ransacking the nation's Capitol building, killing five people? The alarm sounded way back in 2016 when Trump's famous Access Hollywood interview, with its horrible debauched message, failed to bother his supporters - you knew something was wrong, even at that early stage. In retrospect, it seems evident that the rise politically of Donald J. Trump was the driving force which brought out the worst in the Republcian party, the evangelical conservative community, and destroyed its moral fabric, and any claim to moral integrity American conservatism might otherwise have had. By embracing Trump, American conservatism can feel comfortable with its own racism becasue Trump fels comfortable with it, comfortable tiwht its anti-immigrant attitudes, comfortable with its hatred of gay and transgender. people. American conservatism is a movement in denial; denial of alimcate change, of vaccinations, of Trump's election loss. All of these denials are deadly harmful to the country, harming the United States presumably well into the uncertain future. Ant attempt to suggest that moral decline is happenign equally on both sides of teh pooitical spectrum falls flat, untrue, without eny evidence to back up the notion. Moral depravity, like racism, sexism, and the various forms of reality denial, are characteristices of the far right, conservatism, political and religious. That iw why this malignant movement ust be voted out of existence, swept into the proverbial dust bin of American history.

Spreading Disease

TEH DISEASE, which began witha single, evil virus in the form of a ie, has, as they say, metasticized, has gone grass roots, and spread across the country, well organized at the local level, if not the national. Nationally, it remains a bit amorphous. Trump's big lie has gone viral, digging its insidious way deeper into the fabric of American culture and politics, badly damaging both. Now it has twisted and morphed into a holy crusade to reform already fraud free American elections, by giving Republicans the power to overturn them, and by making it ever more difficult to vote, thereby driving down the number of voters, eliminating mainly poor black and brown citizens from voting. All this is precisely as planned. If Republicans have their way, if Republicans gain control of congress and enough state governments, it will soon become very difficult for anyone oher than a white conservative Christian Republican to vote. Or if not, it won't be because the Republcian party didnt try. All over the country, in Republican primaries, election denial candidates are running for office, and although most of them are not winning, enough of them are to create alarm. Right wing groups all across the fruited plain at the local level are going door to door trying to persuade anyone who will listen that the election was stolen from Trump. They simply will....not...let...it...go. The insane irony of it all is how blatant and obvious Trump's lie was from the git go, and how transparently obvious a lie it reamins today. NObody can possibly really believe taht teh election was stolen from Trump. From a psychological and sociological standpoint, it is fascinationg to witness firsthand the phenomenon of seventy five milllion people instantly, en mass, fervantly embrace an outright lie uttered by a strangely popular, criminal demagogue, and then to proeed to turn the lie into an ideology, a cause, a crusade, a movement, a religion. Election denialism. It has utterly taken over and transformed American conservatism. American conservatism is now engaged in a desperate struggle to reduce the number of peope who vote in the United States, dangerously. Also, America's right wing wants to outlaw any mention of gay or transgender culture in public schools, and prohibit any mention of America's history of racism, nor of its systemic racism, extant today. American conservatism, embodied by the Republicna party and within it the evangelical Trump movement - is stark, raving, insane, as evidenced by its insane policies.