Arguments, Unvarying, Traitors, Unintentional

 MY ARGUMENTS, and probably those of those who share my opinion of Trump, have not varied for at least nine years. When the president of the United States is defeated for reelection, he or she should congratulate the winner,offer to help the winner, and leave office with dignity. He or she should neither falsely claim to have won the election, nor should he or she conceive, organize, and orchestrate a violent attempt to overthrow the United States government. Another argument which has endured is that any president who does these things is a traitor not only to his country, but also to democracy. A some what more controversial argument I have made and still make is that those who continue to support the former president after all this are traitors, by their support, if not by their intent. Thus  have I introduced the possibly novel concept of the "inadvertent traitor", or an  "accidental traitor". Trump supporter, even post insurrection, not only do not consider themselves traitors, they consider, themselves  no matter how ridiculously, to be great American patriots defending....whatever. It is worth mentioning that all traitors throughout history have held the same view of themselves; that they are acting on behalf of a higher cause, usually that of their country, or freedom, or...whatever. Benedict Arnold thought he was trying to save a failing American revolution from inevitable harsh British retribution. Brutus thought he was attempting to save Rome from tyranny and return it to its former state as a republic. Lenin was trying to save Russia from the tyranny of the ruling imperial Romanov dynasty. Donald Trump and his supporter seem to think that they are saving America from what I to them the dreadful specter of progressive Democrat socialism and secularism, in defense to what is to them the sacred principle of unfettered corporate capitalism and Christian nationalism.  History has decided that all the historical traitors who saw themselves as heroic saviors of their countries are, and shall always remain, traitors. The same will be  said by future historians of Donald Trump; his attempt to overthrow the American government will mark him as a traitor, by future historians. The term "Traitor" is not applied to Adolf Hitler, or to Mussolini,because they brought their respective countries to ruin not only with the most fervent nationalist "patriotism"imaginable, but with the avid approval and support of a large portion of their constituency. And yet, today, so great was the devastation their disastrous rule wrought upon their nations that, in a very real sense, they were "unintentional traitors". And thus it is with Donald Trump and his "MAGA" supporters. They are traitors, if unintentional.

Forcing Religion Down American Throats, Again

ITS HAPPENING, AS USUAL, IN THE REPROBATE RED STATES.  The forcing upon innocent school children of one particular religion, in a country of religious  freedom, tolerance, and diversity, in which there is no official, formally established religion, supposedly. The Ten Commandments are being state legislated onto the walls of public school classrooms. The required dimensions of the stone tablets are even given, something about a minimum size of fourteen by twelve, inches,  fortunately,  not feet. We must wait to see whether classrooms across America's fruited plain are soon festooned with holy scripture of the Hindu religion, or the Shinto, or any of the other approximately four thousand two hundred recognized organized religions which grace and infest human civilization on planet Earth. One can safely bet not...John Adams, in the "Treaty of Tripoli", articulated a founding principle enshrined in the United States constitution: "The United States is no more a Christian nation than an Islamic nation". All this is quite predictably ignored by the Christian dominionist  extremist zealots doing the unconstitutional religious indoctrination.Ironic it is that these for the most part are the selfsame self proclaimed American patriots who sanctimoniously  argue for an "originalist" interpretation of the constitution, which to them is considered a sacred document on par with the commandments themselves, except,evidently, when pertaining to matters of religious freedom,and separation of church and state. Regarding  the purportedly God given instructions supposedly given to Moses on Mount Sinai, one could better,one could do worse. the best of the admonitions, the ones having to do with lying, stealing, and killing,seem so obvious as to not need mention. The  "thou shalt have no other god before me order smacks of divine jealousy and pettiness, and needlessness; if there is only one god, exactly what other gods are there to have "before me"?  Assuming that any and all other gods are pure fiction, what is there to be concerned about, in terms of deity job security? Thou shalt not overt Covet what? Food, clothing, and shelter? A relationship with God? That one is vague, whether by design or poor editing. If we're gonna put stuff on the wall to keep stern George Washington company as his eyes follow everybody around the classroom no matter how hard they try to hide,let's think carefully about what we really ought to put up with. Do we really want  precious first graders to ask teachers, administrators  and each other what "adultery" is. We can expect nothing less from youngsters into whose growing minds knowledge is being fed, and curiosity is being encouraged. Somewhere, some when, somebody is going to ask, you can bet your bottom Bible on it. And when that happens, let's call in the experts to provide the answer.  Class, today we are honored and privileged to have with us a special guest, your local conservative evangelical Christian Republican politician, member of the majority party in our esteemed state legislature, who is here today to explain to you exactly what happens when people have sex without permission from the Christian God.

Banning Honest Medical Care For Kids

SOUTH CAROLINA, I believe, has become the twenty fifth state to ban gender affirming health care for people under eighteen years of age. All twenty five of these non great states are, predictably "red" states, states dominated by conservative Christian  voters, politicians,  dogma, ideals, insanity. A transgender young person, needing medical attention, will be required by law to receive said treatment as if he or she were still of the gender on his or her birth certificate, the gender into which he or she was born, instead of the gender into which he or she has transitioned, by choice,  or by urgent necessity.  Thus continues the extremist Christian conservative crusade to impose its malignant agenda upon what could, would, and should be a more rational, intelligent America. People have the unalienable right to wear and color their hair as they choose, to dress as they choose, to weigh whatever they choose. People in America also have the right to be homosexual , although  until recently they did not, with homosexuality being a criminal offense until recently in the land of liberty, the land of the free. In our modern age of advanced technology and medicine, when we replace knees and hips with titanium replicas, and remove a human heart and replace it with that of another, and so the same with livers and kidneys, restructuring sex organs is a criminal offense, only because of the sexual fears and inhibitions of the self proclaimed morally superior. Because heterosexual conservative evangelical Christians are what they are, so should everyone else be, so they are impelled by their mental illness to believe. Whereas these criminally insane religious fanatics will fight like hell to prevent government from regulating the economy to prevent corporate exploitation of workers, in the name of freedom, and will support like hell a criminal politician like Donald Trump, they will oppose equally strenuously the right  of women to control their own bodies and reproductive freedom. The economic freedom to exploit they advocate is worker exploitation. The alleged morality they seek to impose upon the nation is not only immoral, it is the antithesis of fundamental human decency. They seek not freedom of religion, but rather, the  imposition upon the nation of a malignant religious based agenda. Their opponents seek religious freedom in a country which guarantees it in its constitution. One should be hardly surprised, for these are the "human beings" who worship a diabolical deity who slaughters thousands of people whimsically, and demands the bloody torturous murder of his only begotten son, to atone for sins committed by creatures he allowed to become sinful, as he sits in judgment over creatures of his own creation.

Bullying, Like A True Christian

 MY NEIGHBOR, apparently, is quite angry with me. He is from Guatemala, a former Catholic, converted by the love of  an American woman to the Pentecostal faith. In other words, from bad to worse. From infamous, to insane. As Voltaire said of the Catholic church: "crush the infamous thing".  (Voltaire was quite controversial, but charming,brilliant, and entertaining, and had the good favor of the King of France) My Hispanic neighbor is big, strong, macho, somewhat of a bully disguised as a follower of Jesus, with his name "Mejia": tattooed on one muscular arm,  the phrase "Jesus is my king" on the other.  Its bad, but it gets worse.  Eager to praise the Lord, and to share his faith, not so eager to listen to any other point of view.  Normal Christian behavior. He has the audacity to tell God what to do. "Tell me what do do", is what he told me he told the Lord. A direct order to God. Predictably, he considers LGBTQ people sinners, certain to go to hell for their genetic inheritance. I  can think of little or nothing more evil than hating human beings  because of whom they love, who they are attracted to, what their chromosomes require of them. But my Hispanic neighbor wouldn't understand that, for, after all, it's science, logic, understanding, acceptance,and compassion, ideals often foreign to devout Christians.  Love the sinner but hate the sin? Garbage. Our sins are we. We are our sins. Mejia evidently does not trust God to  judge or not judge and deal with gay people, he must step in and do the Lord's work, a self appointed role which he gladly accepts, being a hard worker. I cannot imagine Jesus hating, judging, or harming gay people. His father, the diabolical mass murdering Judeo-Christian biblical god, I can. Mejia and I were talking. He started referring to  the father and the son, and I listened. And I listened. Then I asked him a few questions, about the Bible, the number of books in it, about who wrote it,when it was written,by whom. He couldn't answer, and I could, and I did. I know these things because I have read a few history books, history books other than the Bible. Mejia has not. After providing him with a brief Bible study, and briefer history of his religion, he erupted. Mr. macho Christian did not take kindly to a mere pantheist egghead knowing more about his Bible and about the history of his religion than he, and having the audacity to share it. After all, he is going to heaven, and I, poor unsaved I, straight to his hell. I can think of nothing more pernicious, more hateful than inventing and believing in hell, and consigning somebody else to it. Anybody who believes in hell is either mentally ill, hateful,  or both. My Christian neighbor is angry at me. I know this, because every month I give him and his family a large box of groceries.  Christian behavior from a non Christian, as usual. This month, he gave them back. Perhaps I will offer them to him another time,when I see him again, in heaven or in hell.

Chatting, Part III: Going Off, Chinese-American Style

THE YOUNG LADY is twenty nine years old, and her picture bears that out. If memory serves,our conversation started when she messaged me on Facebook, she asked about myself, and I told her about my sick cat. I never message anybody. If somebody messages me, I respond,hoping to gather material for my forthcoming book about online culture. She responded to my grief and worry by typing long, extremely well written sentences giving good but generic advice, about appreciating what time I have left with my pet,savoring every moment we had together, stuff I already knew but appreciated hearing. Her writing style was so eloquent and elegant that I was drawn to her. She seemed,and seems,quite a departure from the usual young American lady vernacular, which is full of "OK", "really", "Ok hun", and a morass of bad grammar and little to no punctuation. This lady could think and write. Our chats evolved into intellectual topics both voracious readers, we traded book recommendations, She sent me a long list of high quality titles of literary value, none of which were familiar to me. I sent her favorite titles of mine,academic stuff. She was familiar with every book I mentioned,and proved it by providing an immediate synopsis of the work. I was amazed, It was as if she had read anything and everything of value. I concluded that she, forty years younger than I, was much better read than I, better educated, and more intelligent. Best of all,she was cute, very cute.she sad that her parents were from China, but that she had been raised in Boston, and is currently living back in China, caring for an elderly grandmother. Kudos for her.  She stated her areas of education and expertise, which included everything. Digital technology stands out. Finally, the woman of my dreams! Young, beautiful, cute, brilliant,highly educated. It turned emotional, loving. She stated calling me"babe", and I reciprocated. I am sure that I told her the basics about me: sixty nine,single,retired teacher. Incredibly, she had not yest for a "pic" of me. All women who message me demand my picture. When I tell them that I do not take selfies,do not trade pictures,and that the only "pic" of me is on my website, they invariably start arguing about it, or vanish. Good riddance. Miss Kim Nyugun,or whatever her last name is, (that common oriental  surname see all the time) wasn't like that..only she was. She started talking about her financial difficulties, a red flag, She asked me for my pic, I told her it was on my website, and she started arguing. Utter deflation. Here we go again. Another pic mongering money grubbing young woman after all. We had the usual argument, and it got bad. I told her that I desperately wanted to visit an read my website, (this website), because it reveals my true self, the man she loves. She refused, more violently than all the others.If effort is required, they have no interest.  The picture must be hand delivered, with no effort from them. It ended with our "break up", over...a...picture... I blocked her, for both of us to cool off. After a couple of days I unblocked her,and told her I missed her,blah blah. No response. Nothing.  Whereas I had previously told her that I , under no circumstances, send money to people online, this time I offered to send her money. Still no response. And s that is where it stands now. This dramatic Victorian saga is either ongoing, or it is over. Your guess is as good as mine. Once again, as have been have a thousand times, I am reminded why I never got married, never wanted to. The diamond in the rough is that it makes a good story,good material for my forthcoming sizzling book about online culture in these United States.

Biden, aka Brandon, Coming Out Swinging Part II

 BRANDON is back at it, coming out swinging. In a speech filled with new found exuberance, he yelled: "If Trump is reelected, do you think he is going to appoint somebody to the Supreme Court who has a brain?" No, I do not. Since Republicans seem unable to find a more piercing insult than to call Biden "Brandon", they surely haven't the imagination, creativity, or intelligence to elevate to the high court a person with a brain. So history would indicate. One caveat ;if one has a brain, even a great brain, but either fails to use it or uses it improperly to do damage to herself, to others, to to her nation, then, then one, for all intents and purposes, has no brain. Examples of this are plentiful. The "Uni-bomber" comes to to mind. A point worth repeating and hammering home is that nobody, especially Biden, needs to lower himself to the level of Trump and the Republican Brandon mongers to intellectually defeat the former insurrectionist-in-chief. For example, Biden's previous recent sharp jab at Trump was an ostensibly innocuous casual remark: "I hear you're free on Wednesdays". That one had to have stung, assuming Trump and his cult have the brains to understand it, rather than to merely ignore it or pretend that it never happened, their usual method And that, dear reader, is precisely what Brandon Biden need to do: yell, at campaign rallies, comments at and about Don the Con which are both factual, verifiably so, understated, and...highly insulting, as a bonus. And, of course, humorous as hell, an essential ingredient, mandatory. A veritable flurry of packed punches, all packaged into a single well aimed roundhouse uppercut. "Anyone with a brain.."."Free on Wednesdays" LOL, as we say on the internet. He, Brandon, will have innumerable golden opportunities for this at both forthcoming debates, in which there will be no love studio audience packed with MAGA mobsters, and microphones will be turned off when a debater is not debating. By surprisingly agreeing to these terms, the Trump gang, apparently suddenly or chronically brainless, has fallen into a deadly trap, from which extrication is impossible. Suddenly removed from use are Trump's to most lethal if lame weapons: an audience hand picked for emotional support an harassment of Biden, and any and all opportunity for Trump to interrupt, talk over, or hurl gratuitous insults at the president. In 2020, the stable genius was actually able to goad Biden into shouting, in abject frustration: "shut up,man?". This was a huge mistake, coming unglued like that, losing control, showing Trump and his MAGA packed studio audience, the Nation, and the world, that Trump can do more than blather; he can under Biden's heretofore presumed thick skin.  Not a good look for Brandon, to show his emotional vulnerability like that. People with brains live and learn from their mistakes. Biden, demonstrably, has a brain, and learns from his mistakes.  Trump, who hasn't, doesn't.

Ending Apartheid, In America

 WHEN I WAS IN HIGH SCHOOL, in the early nineteen seventies,I was enrolled in a supposedly desegregated school district, in full compliance with Brown vs. Topeka Board. Only, I wasn't. Sure, our school of about a thousand students included both black and white, white in the large majority, and indeed both races inhabited the same building. But there the "desegregation" ended. You know the drill. Before school every morning, when hundreds of students gathered together to mill about and visit, the African-American kids clumped together in a corner of the building on the first floor, the same corner every day. Everybody knew exactly which corner, and stayed out. The rest of the campus belonged to us. We white kids segregated only according to social and economic class, jocks and eggheads, cool and uncool,  blue collar and white collar,  the usual all white cliques, but not race.  Again, if you were white, you stayed out of the black section. Everybody know it. The feeling was mutual. Both races knew their turf. The arrangement was strictly if informally enforced. Even then thought the situation kind of "sucked", but,in reality, I was fine with it.All my friends were white, upper middle class, cool. Rhodes scholar Jonathan Kozol began his teaching career in  in 1967, and immediately noticed that rock solid racial segregation ruled in the generally racist city. He wrote a book about it, "Death A An Early Age", which took the education world by storm. It detailed the brutal treatment of African-American kids,and caused a game changing uproar. Then, he spent the next fifty years furthering his  research. Now, Kozol has published probably his last, culminating study of the same situation, which, he maintains, has not only not improved, but,in some ways, worsened. The new seminal monograph is titled: "An End To Inequality: Breaking Down the Walls of Apartheid Education in America". Today;s racism in public education is less overt, but ultimately, no less brutal. The sanctioned physical brutality visited upon the minority by the majority with administrative heads turned  the other way is perhaps less extreme; the segregation  in the classroom and the different treatment of students according to race is not. The affluent white students are tracked into an ambitious curriculum, the black kids in what to the author is an obvious pattern, are placed in and educated through a more generic, less ambitious course of study, regardless of intelligence or capacity for high academic achievement.The assumption is that African-Americans from poor Boston neighborhoods simply will not be going  to college. He has recently seen misbehaving black students locked away in closets as an official means  of punishment. Isolation from the community, isolation which Kozol maintains somehow fails to include white students in any way even remotely proportional. As you might suspect, the author offers recommendations, including a comprehensive systemic change with the goal of achieving the dream martin Luther King articulated in 1963: that of an all inclusive education system based on human equality. But in a country infested with the conservative ideology of pretending that racism no longer exists anywhere in America, prohibiting the teaching of the truth about America's enduring racism, of denying the realities revealed by Critical Race Theory, our best expectation and indeed only hope is that the progressive community will step forward, and, as always, lead the way in creating a new and improved America, an America that was meant to be by its founders, who themselves  failed to live up to their own aspirations. There is no acceptable alternative.

Chatting Part II

THE MESSAGE POPPED UP, another attractive young lady.(Arent they all?). "Hi there", she types. The usual start. "Howdy", my usual response. We go through the usual questions and answers, she asking the questions, I providing the answers. I never bother to ask anything about them; I know what they want, and what kind of people they are, within moments of the pop up. Young ladies,scamming. Exploiting their sex appeal for profit. More research fodder for my book on Facebook in American culture. Call them "social networkers", "digital operators", "online facilitators"; I call them scammers because that is what they are. A full or part time job,tricking men,or trying to, old, young, middle aged men, all comers, out of their money, using long distance romance as the vehicle, modus operandi. They are not particular. Arkansa, 69, retired history professor, single, no kids, all that.I answer all questions, willingly, happily cooperating; research for my book. They think they are leading me on,deceiving me. Actually, it is I,doing the leading on, the deceiving. Tit for tat. She is favorably impressed with my "credentials". (Aren't they all?) This one skips the usual "I just love sixty nine year old men maybe we can date" routine, and is unusual in that she calmly accedes to my insistance that I do not trade pictures, that my picture is on my website, instead of arguing about it. (they almsot always argue about it). This one, perhaps sensing an easy mark, gets right to the point. My mother is deathly ill, needs medication badly, its urgent, can you help me out? Her mother is seventy two, she mentions. That is her first real mistake. I mention Medicare, and she ignores my mention, perhaps sensing her mistake. Still unfazed, she jumps in deeper. Now, I ask the questions, and she contrives the answers. She has already asked all of her other Facebook friends, no help. Same for her real life friends and family menbers. Everybody said no, apparently content to let mom die. These young scammers have had a lot of practice, and provide answers for everything. Yet, they are young, their knowledge of human nature not yet fully developed. Their mistake is underestimating the experience, savvy, and percipience of old men. As if we have never been around the block, as if this is our first "rodeo", as people say,as if we are so lonely and horny that we can be taken for all we're worth. Some, perhaps,can. I cannot. While letting her swim around and look at the bait, mistakingly thinking that I am the swimmer,I reflect on how juicy and humorous my book is going to be, and silently thank her for helping make it possible. She is relentless. They all are. This aint their fist rodeo either. She ignores all of my scam busting arguments, never mentions Medicare after I do. Smart move, but not smart enough. Instead of seeing how I am setting her up, how she has been misled by me into thinking that she is the fisherman, she keeps swimmmng towards her inevitable doom. This old guy is gullibe, his arguments will melt away. Little does she know...Finally, its time to reel her in, to "lower the boom", which I do. Good try, but not quite good enough, I say. The FBI is monitoring this converstation, I tell her. I work with the FBI, busting online scammers, and you will soon hear from them. She vanishes. I wonder what she's thinking....

Chatting Part I

IT ALWAYS STARTS THE SAME WAY. There is a pattern. A message pops us, from a young lady. (I never message anybody, everybody messages me, either young ladies seeking love, money, or both, or "gentleman", offering me a free government grant.) "Hi!", they begin...."Howdy!", I respond, thinking this might dissuade them. Terse answers help limit typing.(I always respond, and participate; I'm doing research for a book). Sometimes this countrified approach indeed dissuades them, and I hear nothing further. My loss. Then, the inevitable "How are you?"..."Well", I respond, everytime. If they understand this, they continue. "What are you up to?", always comes next. I Always answer "little"..this confuses and dissuades about half of them, the lower verbal half, perhaps Trump supporters. Then they ask all the usual questions. Age, location, marital status,children, job. How long have you been single? Sixty nine years. What do you do for a living? "Nothing",I say. That always confuses them. (I'm retired, as I eventually help them deduce.) Why are you not married? (as if being unmarried is a deadly disease). "According to my mother, its because I'm smart", I say. (my mother really said that, from experience, I think). How long have you been single? "Sixty nine years", I repeat. This confuses them,until I help them figure it out; I've never been married. That utterly perplexes them. Aren't mothers supposed to want their sons to get married and produce grand children? Isn't that the only option? Then comes the quinessential request, usually expressed in the form of a demand, for a picture of me. Sometimes, I suggest that they make a request,not a demand, and that they use the word "please". This, invariably, is when the "conversation" goes off the rails. I do not have a picture, I do not share or trade pictures, I tell them, because I do not care what people look like (this is only partly true), but rather, how they treat me, whether they are good ctizens, intelligent, kind to animals, blah blah,high sounding stuff. However, I continue, there is a picture of me on my website. (There is). This is my shrewd and subtle way of getting people to visit my website, this website. Instead of volunteering the name of my website, I wait for them to ask for it. They never do. Instead they start arguing with me. Why can't you just send me a pic? Why can't you just take a selfie,and send it to me? Because I choose not to,as I just said, I say. One thing is evident; women care a great deal about what a man looks like, almost but not quite as much as men care about women's looks. As for me, I really don't care; I know in advance that I am not going to have a "relationship" with a twenty three year young girl, not at my advanced age of sixty nine. No, I tell them, age is more than "just a number" (they always try that approach) ,notwithstanding what everybody says. Everybody is full of it. Old people, afraid of dying, say that. Ninety nine percent of young ladies who message me are trying to endear themselves to me, trying to start an online pseudo relationship, to lure me into an emotional state, to trick me into sending them money. Ninety nine percent. What would you guess are the chances that I actually send anybody money? Well and then, there are an infinite number of creative ways of dealing with attractive young ladies in bikinis who ask me for money, and I employ them all. This, for research for my forthcoming book on "Adventures On Facebook". I hope my book is as interesting as the experiences which precipitated it.

Imagining Clarence Thomas Unjustified.

CAN YOU IMAGINE the uproar, the wailing and gnashing of teeth, the righteous indignation and demands for investigations and resignations if, let us say, a progressive Supreme Court justice behaved as "justice" Clarence Thomas has and does? If a progressive justice received millions of dollars in favors from wealthy "friends" and donars? Expensive all expenses paid vacations, repeatedly, cruises, fine cuisine, and such, from wealthy elite benefactors whose legal actions were potentially headed for the scrutiny of the nation's highest court? Elegant housing, fine edifices for free, material wealth of all shapes and sizes? Then to, what if, to boot, the justice's wife were an avid activist for all manner of progressive causes, a left wing lobbyist, a woman who shared her husband's political proclivities? Yes, you can imagine, quite easily. The conservative community, especially the evangelical Christian hypocrites who support Trump and therefore support insurrection and election stealing, would be,as wey say,"pitching a fit". A gang of MAGA folk, Trump's always ready semper fi insurrectionist mob, would be at the doors of the stately Supreme Court building, doing Lord only knows what, storming, chanting, and, it is conceivable, burning down the house, as it well knows how to do, if a progressive "justice" behaved in the manner of the token conservative African-American Supreme court judge, Clarence Thomas, blatantly and unabashedly behaves. That Thomas should resign is obvious. That he should be investigated, indicted, tried,convicted, and incarcerated for fraud and bribery is eminently arguable. This,aside from the documented fact that the taciturn man has spent thirty years on the SCOTUS doing virtually nothing, contributing nothing but poor reasoning in slience, casting bad votes, writing absurd opinions. Recall that Thomas was nominated for the position he still holds in 1991 in a tempestouous proceeding in which a former legal assistant of his, Anita Hill, testified under oath that Thomas, while her employer, had repeatedly sexually harrassed her. Something about a pubic hair left on a glass of water on her office desk, among a few bizarre forms of harassment, of the sort which conservative reprobates seem to favor. Recall the southern conservative anachronism of a United States Senator, Jesse Helms or Strom Thurmond or some such fossil, asking her, condescendingly, chauvinistically; "Madam, are you a woman scorned"? Then, to the shock and horror of all morally decent Americans, aka proressives, Thomas got on, appointed in a cloud of ignomony and controversy. And there he remains today, useless as ever,rendering misguided opinions, schilling for the far right in an obvious attmept to remake America in his reactionary image. Actually, his slience is a great blessing, in disguise as wisdom and due deliberation.There is a distinct pattern to all this; of conservative Christian Republican hypocrisy and perfidy, of their bending over backwards to force a reprobate into American political leadership merely for the reason that said reprobate is a conservative. SCOTUS currently houses no fewer than two conservative sexual predators and a total of six "justices" who sit there rendering lunatic decisions, such as "Citizens United" and Roe v.Wade overturning, because and only because of the aforementioned hypocrisy and right wing perfidy. But consider, this is the party and political movement of Trump, and of the ascendancy of his MAGA insurrectionist mob.

Loving On A Tiger

MY FACEBOOK FEED is so arranged that it is about ninety percent cats, for obvious reasons. These include lions, tigers, panthers and cougars, as well as housecats needing names. Cute kittens are a staple, as well as nearly all feline species of various kinds. I invariably like, share, and type in a comment like: "precious doll". I mean every loving word of it. If they go extinct (housecats won't..), we are the losers, which, arguably, we are anyway. The very thought of amazing beings like tigers and cougars going extinct is sufficient to seriously enhance the misanthropy of a misanthrope, such as I. Facebook sends me brief movies, "reels" in which a huge, beautiful tiger is being hugged and kissed by a human being, in this case a young attractive lady, both parties obviously enjoying every micro second of it. Facebook, if nothing else, knows my heart, knows what I like. Facebook is a shrewd manipulator of homo sapien sapiens....(beware Facebook.) The young lady buries her face in baby's side, and grovels, rubbing her head back and forth, the three hundred pound doll moaning, grunting, "purring". Baby turns his head to look, approvingly. She rubs baby head, and croons: "Did I do that?" Ohhh, "I'm sorry". The gorgeous being forgives her. A gentleman stands tall, hugging a huge tiger, the aninal standing on his hind legs, seven feet tall, paws wrapped around the man's neck, a true loving embrace. Reels of tiger panther lion mothers nursing their tiny precious pre weened babies are among my favorite memes. I have become envious of those who have the good fortune to spend their time with tigers, raising them from early cub-hood. I wish to be born again into that role. Never mind the fact that between 1800 an 1900 the British government in India caluclated that during the nineteenth century tigers killed and ate approximately three hundred thousand Indians. The imperialists had noticed that folks were disappering, wondered why, started paying attention, figured it out, and started counting. Staggering. Impinging upon the habitat of harmless beings has consequences, as we well understand today.I had my chance. Once, at an outdoor zoo, I had a sweet tiger, big, beautiful, three hunded pounds, paws four times the size of my hand, well accustomed to humans, on its belly, wanting belly rubs. I acceded. The fur was coarse, not soft. He could have turned over and killed me through the iron bars,but chose not to.My sister, at the same zoo,was with a group of well dressed upper middle class Americans, when the same tiger sprayed down the group, taking possession. Everyone but my sweet sister shrieked in horror and disgust. My sister, properly honored, said she would never wash her clothes again. I love my sister. I fantasize about raisng and living with a tiger, unto its adult weight of three hundred pounds, and beyond. I'd have to get a bigger bed (I like to snuggle) and a second job with which to buy meat. I am willing, ready, and able, bad idea though this is. Yes, I would sleep with my tiger roommate, assuming her willingness. How big and beautiful can an all night snuggle be?! My large yard, enclosed by a ten foot chain link fence, with toys, a small pond, trees, shade, a large open area, and, perchance, a companion for when I'm not home. As for exercise, diet, and such, I would have to consult an expert. Alas, another pipe dream, but a most pleasant one. Only in my dreams, as we say. What beautiful dreams! I'd wager my bank account that I am not alone. Even if I am, I'll keep right on dreaming...

Calling Cats Kittens, Digging In and Fighting

THE PRECIOUS KITTEN (I call all cats "kittens") spent the first six years of her life outdoors, in my garage and yard. She, with her mother, siblings,aunt, and cousins, ten in all, were well provided with an electric blanket on a mattress in winter, a ten foot tall cat tree with compartments, and an enormous hollow wooden box,a room of many mansions, for their perpetual exploration. They seemed to love all these amenities. There was and still is no room in my two car garage for my car. I did manage, however,to squeeze out a parking place in half of the garage, for emergency use only,in case of hail or tornados, but the fit was, and is, quite tight. Ah, the things we do for our beloved! Two mothers had come to me as feral strays, I took them in, and when they felt safely ingratiated, they proudly brought forth their heretofore hidden litters of four, like a girl friend, who, on the third date,says; "By the way honey, I have four kids." Gradually, over the years, the crowd thinned out. Males do not like be be ensconced with spayed females; a couple of them left home for greener, less crowded pastures; I love and miss them, and wish them well. If they hadn't found a better place, with less competition for attention, they would have come back, hungry, but they did not. I will always wonder how their lives went, but I will never know. Those that remained all remained remarkably healthy, and six years went by amazingly fast. We all know how that goes. In less than half a decade I had spent nearly half my life savings, which were not insubstantial, on veterinarian care, spaying, neutering, annual vaccines, the works. As any pet caregiver knows, veterinarians are inordinately expensive. Doctors are well paid, arguably, justifiably. But pet lovers become poor,draining their bank accounts on health care. Who needs to retire, travel, and tour Europe? Suddenly, the cute long haired Maine Coonish female, named "Diamond" started losing weight. Snot hung from her mouth and nostrils. It happened and worsened fast. The vet did X rays and blood work, and a thousand dollars later somberly informed that my baby girl was in dire peril, with a bacterial infection, and hugely swollen heart and kidneys. The doctor looked at me gravely, knowing that I knew the decision was mine. I told him that I was aware of my responsibilities, but asked for his best advice. "There are no wrong choices", he somberly replied. "Let her go, or dig in and fight". Without hesitation, I chose the latter. We would dig in and fight. Now she lives indoors with my indoor only twelve year old kitten "Mandi", who tolerates nobody. Diamond has half the house, Mandi the other half, and the twain shall never meet. Both are adjusting remarkably well. I am planning to take Diamond outside for a visit with her family, and to maybe return to them. She took to her litter box like Maine Coons to catnip. My girl is making a remarkable recovery. On steroids, she started eating everything in the house, and magically went from skin and bones four pounds to six,and is still growing and improving. She needs to top out at about eight.She sleeps on my chest, and purrs. Eventually I may have to put her on a diet, to stabilize her weight.This arduous adventure is ongoing, and may always be. Is it all worth it? When she sleeps on my chest and purrs, the answer is obvious.

Biden, Coming Out Swinging Part I

FINALLY, AT LONG LAST, President Biden seems to be emerging from his torpor,coming out of campaign hibernation. He's taking off the kid gloves,and coming out swinging, bare knuckles. With any luck, it'll soon be brass knuckles. He and Trump will,apparently,debate on June 27, uncharacteristically early in a presidential campaign,the earliest in history. "Anytime you want, pal. I hear you're free on Wednesdays", jolted Joe. Ohhhh...That's harsh. That's cold. That's throwing down. It happens to be true. Wednesday is the only weekday these days when Donald Trump, the multiply accused criminal defendant, is not a criminal defendant in a New York courtroom. Generously, Biden is willing to accomodate him. Any Wednesday is fine. To effectively debate, Biden need only state the facts. Trump relies on slander,insults,innuendo, and outright lies; Biden doesn't have to do that. He can rise above Trump's gutter garbage, and use facts as weapons. When Donald Trump the multiply accused criminal defendant slings his oft used "crooked Joe" insult, Biden can counter factually with: "accused criminal Don", or "courtroom Don"...the options are many. Fact; there isn't the slightest evidence that Biden has ever done anything "crooked". With Trump, the evidence for crooked behavior is overwhelming. That's why he is currently facing four criminal defense legal actions, with one now well underway. Distortions of fact not only are the normal standard strategy for Trump, but also for his votaries, who imitate his behavior, wanting to be like him, and who see in him...themselves. One strategy they use is to compare Hillary Clinton's reaction to her election defeat with Trump's, as if there is any similarlity, which they insist there is. Of course, there isn't. Hillary Clinton challenged the legitimacy of her election defeat, not the result, and accused Trump of winning the election with Russian interference.Trump's supporters omit mention of the fact that the Mueller report confirmed the Russian interference,as did the Russian oligarchs themselves. The Russians told us that they "did it", a fact that was not widely publicized in the media. They said that they would do it again, by the way. Then, what precisely is the crucial difference between Clinton's election reaction and Trump's? Its "self evident",as Jefferson might say. Hillary clinton not only did not claim that she actully won the election at the ballot box, and she did not plan, orchestrate, and inspire a violent attempt to overthrow the American government. That,indusputably, is a considerable difference. But, unsurprisingly, those essential facts are ignored by Trump's cult, the members of whom, by supporting him, are,in effect,making themselves accomplices to criminal behavior. None of this is going to change. Trump will keep spouting his lies and infantile insults, his cult followers will keep echoing them, and supporting an evident, obvious criminal for president. Biden has apparently been advised to fight back with facts, and to do so abrasively, harshly, repeatedly. Joe's been around the block; he's a smart, tough old coot. The interesting part will be seeing how we the American people respond to the forthcoming fireworks.

Showing Off

SHOWING OFF, that topic, has made much ado in my life the last coupla days. My Facebook lady friend in Florida, a retired nurse with a long list of personal accomplishments and affluent lifestyle, posts a photo of her lovely swimming pool, if not once daily, then twice hourly, to exaggerate a tad. Yes, its lovely. So lovely and so often visually shared that I started making a few wisecracks about it. "I hear you've got a pool! Is that true." That sort of thing. I love the way she decorates her pool deck, with beautiful potted plants which she also has the good grace to share. A notion struck me, that she seems a mite proud of her cement pond, and likes to share it with others - to the point of "showing it off". She got a mite wrathy over my smart ass remarks; even gracious, affluent upper middle class ladies have limits to their tolerance, and those limits are sometimes easy to reach, bordering on the thin skinned. Finally, she snapped. "What's wrong with you lately?", she shot. "you tell me, you're the expert",I shot back. Then: "nothing's wrong with me that proper medication and a few years of psychotherapy can't handle. Lighten up. That's what you told me once". "I am light!" said she. "You're light, and I'm a few pounds overweight", I retorted. (Actually, I'm fit. Self deprecating humor works wonders). Then, as a last resort, I turned intellectual. I lectured her as follows: Human beings by nature are creatures who seek self esteem, approval, and apprecation. Basic needs. Mazlow, and all that. To that end, what we have, what we can do, what we do and have ever done, we share, with somebody. Sometimes we share it with the world, on Faceboook. Those who lack possessions or achievement either invent them, or languish in a self esteem desert wishing they had something about which to toot their proverbial horns. I am the world's worst, I continued. I love to mention my education, I like to strut my intelligence, such as it is,I play a mean game of tennis, I am a long distance runner, although a mediocre one. And, most of all, I love, simply love to brag about my five hundred blood donations over the past fifty years. I mean, I'm bad. But, it works. Hell, I feel better'n hell about myself, whether or not its merited. Merit isn't the point. The point is; food, clothing shelter, self esteem. Again, Mazlow. Now, the lady never did come right out and agree with me, and acknowledge that yes, she agrees with me, she understands my point, and that yes, she is proud of her lovely swimming pool, and likes to "share it" with others, aka, show it off. No, she didn't do that. But one thing she didn't do is express any disagreement with me. In fact, she smiled, and nodded, and that's good enough for me. I will never bring myself to exclaim: "my, what a lovely swimming pool". A swimming pool is not a personal achievement, but rather, a mere thing. But I will and do gush all over her beautiful plants, because they are indeed beautiful, she works hard to nourish and maintain them, whereas somebody else, her "pool guy" as she puts it, cleans her swimming pool. The plants are a true achievement, and the beauty they give her she gives to the world. God bless her. This essay is great.

The Gathering of the Sycophants

A CAVALCADE of obescient sycophants of the former criminal-in-chief and present defendant in innumerable criminal defense actions needn't worry about emotional support. Not only does he, Donald J.Trump, have the well wishes of millions of members of his criminal enterprise, the Republican party, upwards of one dozen of its elected political leaders are making the sojurn to New York City,entering the federal courtroom where the evidently most notorious criminal in U.S. history is being subjected justice; shoulders upon which the miscreant may cry, if only metphorically, between courtroom naps. The hegira of the heinous. Seekers, approaching the oracle of Delhi, this oracle dispenisng not wisdom, but spewing lunatic hatred and venom at his accusors. The leader of the gang is none other than Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, whose only apparent bibliophilic endeavor is his dubious claim that he is guided only by the Christian bible and has read it, to the exclusion of all other books. The bible only claim is doubtless true, assuming he actually has read even that miniature library, which is filled with violence and obscenity, as Thomas paine, America's essential kickstarter, accurately articulated. Will the Speaker sit smugly behind Trump and make chidish faces of disapproval at the federal judge like he did at President Biden during Biden's masterful, inspiring "State of he Union" address? He won't, if he knows what's good for him. This time his smirking insolence would be clearly seen by the judge, who'll be looking straight at him. You'll recall that the smirking was done behind the president's back at the State of the Union; potshots in the back. This judge has clearly demonstrated that he doesn't play games,doesn't suffer guff and disrespect. Trump already discovered that,having been fined several times for contempt of court. The criminal defendant may yet end up in jail, has already been duly so informed by the magistrate. It is not beyond the realm of possibility that the Speaker could be escorted out of the courtroom and out onto the lower Manhatten streets, if he similarly misbehaves. The other Republican political leaders on hand to hold the ex president's hand, a few members of Congress and governors unworthy of mention; heed this warning: if you act the way you did during Biden's speech, disrupting it with juvenile smirks, verbal outbursts, hand wringing and coughing remindful of a high school assembly featurig remarks by a Chief of police, you'll be gone to,like Billy Martin after a bad call during a game when the Yankees are trailing. One cannot deny that this would be good theatre. The media would love it, and would sell tickets to take advantage of the rare and exquisite opportunity to enhance media corporate profits. Progressive America would howl with laughter, scarf popcorn, and scream for more. Conservative America would hurl toilet paper at the television screen, scream bloody murder, and, like Speaker Johnson, repeat the tired idiocy that the whole legal affair is rigged, that the prosecutor, judge, and jury are Democrat plants as part of the massive conspiracy to "get Trump". Nobody has explained yet just how a federal grand jury can be chosen at random, with the approval of Trump's attorneys, and still lead the double life of a Democratic party plant, but that is hardly surprising. In the fun house fantasy world of Donald Trump and his huge criminal MAGA cult, nothing is ever actually explained with reason and proof, and nothing ever needs to be.