Say Hey Willie, Juneteenth, and the Reinvention of Slavery

I HAD INTENDED to write an essay about Willie Mays, and one about Juneteenth and the end of slavery. Now, upon further reflection,I find it tempting to combine the three topics into one hoped for succinct essay, three birds with one stone, so to speak. The end result may be considerably other that anything I had planned. When a friend mentioned that slavery was horrible, stating the obvious, and that the end of slavery was something indeed to celebrate, I responded that argubaly slavery never ended, but was merely reinvented in less formal forms, and that the reinvention continues to this day. Nothing that has happened in the last few minutes has changed this personal opinion, nothing that happens over the next few decades is likely to either. I pointed out in the course of the ensuing "discussion" that slaves were valuable property, were generally well enough if sparsely, spartanly fed, and that the beatings,whippings, and rapes were indeed real,but that conditions varied widely from plantation to plantation, and that only a tiny fraction of the white southern population owned more than one or two slaves,and that those same slaves tended to be spared harsh treatment, and indeed often integrated into the family, quite by accident, an accident of human nature in which familiarity breeds contempt, but also, at times, love, especially when both parties are not equal in power and status, after the fashion of dog and master. I futher asserted that the treatment of African-Americans scarcely improved post slavery, and indeed,in many cases, worsened. Being free has its limits when one has no land, no property, no job, no money, no home, and too little to eat. The corrupt bargain of 1877 elevated Rutherford B. Hayes to the presidency, and condemned the former slaves to a life of misery. Slaves, if little else, at least had homes, food, work, a purpose in society, if only as chattel property. Arguably, Their condition post slavery, after the end of reconstruction, was equal in terms of sheer deprivation if not worse than what they had endured while enslaved. To a large and very important extent, objections to slavery are purely, properly moral, when compared to conditions experienced by freed slaves in America ever since, which are quite real, and objectionable on both moral and practical terms. We continue to reinvent slavery, and give it new names. Now we are banning mention in American public schools of enduring systemic racism in the United States, which, as someone congently pointed out, is in itself a perfect example of systemic racism. Next thing I know, I'm being accused of failing to adequately condemn formal slavery. I had rather condemn the four hundred and five years of the African-American experience, than single out two hundred and forty six years of formal slavery for special, righteous condemnation. Yes, slavery was and is horrible, wherever, whenever. Lettuce so stipulate. But instead of dwelling on it and acting like by condemning it was have somehow solved and moved beyond the fundamental problems associated with it which plague us in our world today, extending it into our own times like residual historical stench and limiting any hope of actual racial equality to rhetoric unsupported by substantive facts, its time to stipulate the horror of slavery, to move on, and to talk about ourselves, and our refusal to let go, of formal slavery, and change our focus to the enduring informal slavery. Condemning slavery is all well and good, but using it as an excuse to self congratulate ourselves on progress which esixts in self congratulatory flowery rehetoric, but not so much in the real world, defeats the very purpose of opposing, eliminating,and condemning formal slavery.

Facing Up To Facebook

CRAZY THING IS, after all these years, all the misadventures, I'm still up and running, ready to rock n roll. Twenty five years ago, on AOL, in the era of the not so immortal chat room, I positioned myself as an observer, there only to write a book all about it, a book which never got written. In the intervening quarter century,I wrote and published no fewer than five thousand four hundred and two pages of incisive non fiction on this website, with many more, knock on wood, to come. (I'm aiming for ten thousand total one page essays before I pass). Fifty four hundred is enough for eighteen three hundred page books of essays, so, no complaints. But,so far, no seminal monograph. But that may change. Now, my research for a future book centers around the messages I receive daily on Facebook,and their what to me is nothing other than bizarre content. I never message anybody, but boy, do I get some doozies, great fodder for a future book, methinks, for a guy who doesn't even have a profile per se, nor a selfie with which to grace it. That, although basically all I do on Facebook is share pictures of cute kittens, pretty flowers, and scenic scenes, throw in a few unpleasant comments on posts unfavorable to one of America's more controversial former presidents, and post advertising promoting this website. And, for all that, despite the apparent innocence of my Facebook activity, I get repeated warnings about violating "community standards", as if I'm selling child pornography. On occasion, they give me a one hour sit on the bench, which I judiciously use to drink coffee, catch up on email, twiddle my thumbs, and grin sardoncially. Evidently, community standards do not sanction cute kittens and pretty flowers. My impression is that other Facebook folks are similarly confused. Why bother reading the incoherent jumbled "explanations" provided by the Facebook God? Have the algorrythms gone insane? Has the great Zuck himself lost his Harvardian mind? The best scam message this morning, so far,(but its still early), came from a dude with the usual greeting. The "Hi Bob how are you hope you are well where are you from can I see your pic?" sort. Standard stuff. I prompted with "I am well in Arkansas why are you messaging me?". To the point, please. The point, believe it or not, was that the gentleman was soon receiving one point five million dollars in pay, in cash, from his former employer, a company of some sort. I, and only I, it seemed, could help him, could do him a favor, by receiving it, presumably at the doorstep of my lovely ranch style suburban home deep in rural Arkansas. Red flag, flying high. One quick caveat. He asked me if I would be good enough to not steal any of it, which I thought was fair. I would get my cut, he assured me. That was nice to hear. I like doing favors for good, honest folks, but a little gratuity goes a long way towards "sweetening the Pot", as it were. By this time I had long since typed in my usual disclamier, the one about where I, as a purely precautionary measure, record all offers I receive on Facebook, and send them to law enforcement, for the pros to look over, to weed out the potential scams. I'm sure you have nothing to worry about, I cheerfully offered. Keep talking, I told him. Seemingly unfazed, he kept talking. Usually they shut right the hell up, smartly. An oblivious or interpid few of them, seemingly enjoying living on the edge, this one included, pretended to be umoved by my mention of law enforcement. Pretended. Dollars to donuts he was moved. The pleas suddenly became plaintive, almost pitiful. "I guess you're not ready for this". No shit,Sherlock?", as we say. He had the basic courtesty to type in "bye" just before he vanished, just before I blocked him. I must confess I am half tempted to unblock his stupid scamming ass and play with him a little more, but I don't want to get greedy, and, in any event, I have a veritable multitudinous plethora of forthcoming scams to deal with, as its still early, mostly from young, very attractive ladies (they always send pics, and ask for mine) who just cannnot wait to "hook up" with a 69 year old retired history professor, if only they can borrow the gas money it takes to get all the way to Arkansas. Those are by far the most fun, fodder for my still unwritten book, a seminal monograph. no doubt.

Sharing The Wealth and Explaining Socialism, Through Baseball

WE WERE HANGING OUT, relaxing before we began our weekly gospel singing. It was going to be a light turnout, I knew I would have to sing loud. No problem, can do. Someone asked me what I had been doing during the past week, and I was ready. "I spent four days in Kansas City, watching my beloved Yankees take two out of three from a very good Royals team", said I, and, during the day, I spent most of my time roaming around the Nelson Art Gallery, taking it all in". Fired up, I chose not to stop talking. "Its really amazing what a good ballclub three hundred million dollars will buy you", I flippantly intoned. Actually, the Yankees have the third highest payroll in baseball, ranking behind the Dodgers and their crosstown rivals, the lowly Mets. I went on to give a few more facts: The New York Yankees have an estimated street (market) value of about seven point five billion dollars, annnual revenues of nearly one billion, and the slightly more than three hundred dollar payroll.(I can never resist the temptation to show off my knowledge, of anything.) Nobody knew what to say, of course. Gospel singers don't usually make good baseball fans. Then, the farmer in overalls spoke up, at least willing to give it a whirl; "Seems like there's just too much money in the world", said he...I could have responded to that in almost any of a number of different ways, from sarastic, to agreement. The ostensibly ridiculous observation wasn't as ridiculous as it sounded, so I decided to give it the limited respect it deserved. A perfect opportunity to inject a little democratic socialism into the fray, I thought, feeling a slight burst of adrenalin. Well, actually, said I, the problem isn't so much the amount of money or wealth in the world, its the way in which its distributed. In this country, for instance, far less than one perent of the population owns and control more than one fourth of all the wealth in America, and that leaves many people at the bottom ofthe economic pyramid without enough disposable income or personal wealth to actually have an impact on the economy by driving up demand, and thus stimulating production, and increasing aggregate wealth throughout society. Also, the eight richest billionaires in the world have a combined wealth equal to the bottom half of all the people on the planet, which has the same effect, of stagnating consumer spending, and economic growth. Straight out of Joesph Stiglitz (The Price of Inequality), whom I almost mentioned and recommended, but didn't. There was no need. I had explained the essence of the benefits of widely distributed wealth in a capitalistic economy so cogently, so lucidly, in a single sentence,that every gospel singing farmer at the table knew exactly what I was talking about, and they all agreed with me. This, in a deep down in the south red state where Trump gets forty percent, whether or not he happens to be in prison, and the words "Democrat, "socialist", and "cultural diversity " are synonimous with the word "satan", notwithstanding the willing participation of these rural folk in socialist programs like Social Security, Medicare, and farm and agricultural subsidies. They get around this inconvenient bit of hypocrisy by proclaiming loudly, albeit falsely, that such government programs are not actual socialism, but instead, just plain, good common sense, "progress", as one old coot of a conservative religious fanatic put it. But I have finally found the method. If you want to explain to people that not only are they already living in a socialist country, but that they really do embrace socialism, whether they know and accept it or not, all you have to do is mention a few baseball player salaries, and you're on your way around the bases, heading for home.

Eating Shit, And Dying, For Trump

THE FACEBOOK POST made no bones, was quite explicit. It said,roughly: "I am not part of the 'tolerant left'. I am part of the 'eat shit and die you treasonous bastards' left". This person had reached the end of his or her rope, tired of talking, tired of trying to compromise and understand. Being accepting of LGBTQ people, illegal immigrants, racial, ethnic, and religious differences and diversity, is all well and good,indeed, hallmarks of proressive ideology. But, enough is enough. One reaches the end of one's rope, one runs out of patience when confronted with unrlenting, unreasoning evil by the same people,inessantly. This "eat shit and die" approach resonated with me because I reached this point long ago, perhaps even as early as the day when the "Access Hollywood" tape came out in early october, 2016,and I thought and assumed, quite reaaonably,that this vulgar display of salacious insensitivity by a reprobate bragging about being a sexual predator would mark the end of the political career of Don the Con Trump. And indeed it almost did, but didn't. The Republican National Committee tried to tell Trump to hit the highway, but backed down like squirming cowards when he said, simply; "make me". The rest, as they say, is history. And now, here we are, on the verge of reelecting a convicted criminal, a repeatedly proven low life criminal scoundrel back to the White House, for another chaotic, senseless term in office, after years and years of glaring proof that he, Donald Trump, may be the least qualified person on the planet to occupy political office or a job of any sort. He could shoot somebody on fifth avenue in cold blood in broad daylight, and they wouldn't care, said the icon of insanity in one of his rare moments of honesty and lucidity. They would only approve of him and admire him all the more, for his willingness to "get things done". To hide their hatred of LGBTQ people, to disguise their racism, they pretend that inflation is still a horrible problem, when in fact it is receding, in full retreat, declining to very acceptable levels. They pretend that the disorganized,chaotic immigration at the border is out of control only because of Biden, when in fact it is Trump who guaranteed that it would remain out of control, by ordering his puppet Republican members of Congress to walk away from a strong bipartisan immigration bill, written by Republicans, which would have taken huge steps to rememdy the problem, and would have been signed by President Biden, if only the little Hilter Trump would have pulled his puppet strings sanely, would have put country above politics, and permitted it. Under Trump the economy crashed, largely do to his insane policies concerning Covid 19. Under Biden the economy has come roaring back to life, largely because of his legislative initiatives. Trump's treasonous, traitorous election lie his supporters ignore, or embrace. His violent, well planned violent mob insurrection to try to overthrow the government and isntall Trump illegally in power they consider justified. Try to talk to and reason with Trump supporters, for instance, by pointing out to them that there are many politicians available who hold conservative values who happen to not be criminally insane, and all they do is stare blankly, or change the subject, or start reciting lies about Biden and his policies, or become angry, and spew the same babbling meaningless gibberish as Trump, as if having been schooled by him in the art of communicating incoherently. So why bother? Why bother trying to establish rappor with people who make themselves unapproachable by design and intent.Thay must be defeated at the ballot box,or, in the joyful event of their election defeat,in the streets. Meanwhile, I know exactly what they can have for dinner, and exactly what they can do immediately thereafter.

Attending Church

Sunday, June 16, 2024, I attended church, at a small,rustic,ancient brick building deep in the Ozark wooded hills. The church has been in existence for nearly two hundred years, but the congregation has never been smaller than now. I am told that thirty years ago their were usually about thirty or forty people in attendance, and that one hundred years ago the number of congregants was about one hundred. Today there were nine, incuding me. Testament to the decline and death fof the Christian faith, in rural America, and throughout the United States and the western hemishere. Western civilization, it would seem, is growing up, abandoning its ancient superstitions, if only gradually. I love going to this little church, having gone now several times in the past few weeks,and I fully intend to make it a habit. This, despite my firmly held lifelong conviction that the Christian religion is a barbaric, primitive,idiotic religion, badly in need of extinction, and that the world will be better off after it has died,which it surely will over the next few centuries, if not sooner. Why then, might a normal run of the mill intellect ask me, do I attend church, given my feelings aobut the Cgristian faith? To these less than brilliant "intellects" I offer the following response:permit me to introduce you to what is apparently a novel concept to you; that of "open mindedness". I have my opinions, as other do. Mine are no better or worse than any others. My personal opinions, however, may or may not reflect provable, demonstrable "reality", just like those of other people. So, maybe I'm wrong, dead wrong, going straight to hell wrong, and maybe the Christian religion, of all the thousands of religions on planet Earth, is true. Not only that, but maybe the Christian religion is the one true religion throughout the Milky Way galaxy, and throughout the inconceivably huge universe, which consists of trillions of galaxies, untold mega trillions of stars and planets. And, if there is indeed life on other planets, which seems increasingly highly probable, indeed almsot a certainty, maybe Jesus Christ goes from planet to planet being crucified over and over again, trillions of times, to save all the intelligent species in the cosmos, by dying for their sins. I highly doubt it, but maybe so, and maybe I am wrong. (If he does, does he ever get tired of it?) Maybe Jesus Christ was and is the one true son of God, maybe he died for my sins and everybody else's sins, and maybe, just mabye, one must accept HIM as their personal Lord and Savior to enter into the kingdom of heaven after death, and live eternally in what would seem to me a very pleasant but ultimately quite boring heavenly home. Communion, the symbolic consuming of the flesh and blood of Christ, what Geroge Washington called "symbolic cannibalism"(he attended church, but never took communion) is not only proper, perhaps, but absolutely essential to any legitimate church service. Maybe. Who knows? I certainly don't, and I strongly suspect that nobody else does either. Mark Twain said it best, as he said many things best."The easy confidence with which I know another man's religion is folly teaches me to suspect that mine is also". Well said, Sam. It seems to me that the Christian religion is one of many primitive forms of attempts that small, ignorant little primates use trying to comprehend and deal with reality, and that it is entirely Oudated, anachronistic, in need if discarding, in favor of modern science. But, maybe I am wrong. And, in any event, going to church is a nice experience, good messages are given by the pleasant minister, its a good way to participate in a community activity, and, to boot,they make good coffee and have good donuts before and after the very pleasant service. Also, I rather enjoy group singing, even if the songs are idiotic, to me.

Saving Animals, Healing Ourselves, And Why

SOMEONE WAS SPECULATING on why people who try to save animals try to save animals. I took his meaning to be mainly a reference to stray and feral cats, and homeless dogs, but assumed that his musings could apply to any and all animals, sick, injured, hungry, in obvious need of any sort of assistance. It was a topic of personal interest to me, since I am among the large fraternity of tryers. My intended targets of salvation are stray and feral cats, of whom I have several currently, and, over the years, have had many. Eventually they all died; my grief is ameliorated somewhat by the fact that, well, at least I tried. And although I can never be certain, I can at least tell myself that, if nothing else, I gave love to a beautiful being who otherwise would perhaps have lived a life unloved. Even in this I can never be sure. All I can do is try, and leave it at that. He first conjectured that we try because perhaps we are trying to heal ourselves from all the times when we ourselves needed help, and it never came. He went on to speculate that perhaps we are trying to compensate for all the times we tried to save people, and failed, finally realizing that people cannot be saved by others, but can only save themselves. His final idea was that perhaps we try to save animals simply because we realize that they are eminently worth saving, or,if nothing else, worth the attempt. We try, and sometimes, we fail. Like prayer, sometimes the answer is "no". On the surface it may seem is if the final speculation as to motive is the only one applicable and necessary. Maybe so. We try because it is worth trying. But the first two, concerning healing ourselves through healing animals, somehow resonates with me, and, I might be so bold as to surmise, others as well. Perhpas is is true that we at least partly try to save animals as a means of trying to save ourselves, from emotional pain, or perhaps even from a life of meaningless unproductive futility. Distinctly I recall nearly fifty years ago I was taking a long walk,as I tended to do as a teenager and young adult, and came across an injured bird, lying on the ground, unable to fly. I raced home, got a cardboard box, raced back to the bird which had not moved, gently placed the struggling creature in the box, and went home. As I started to leave, a lady who happened to be watching, told me that she thought I was "a good boy" for trying to save the injured bird. "I'll see what I can do", I said, lamely. Suddenly I felt a great, unrelenting burden of responsibility. I also realized, although I was reluctant to admit it,to admit to myself that I had no idea in the world what I could possibly do to help the poor little bird, and I was quite well aware that indeed there was nothing I could do but keep it out of further danger,by guarding it, and hoping it would heal itself. Deep down, I knew that it couldn't, and sure enough, it died very soon thereafter. I gave it a private burial in my mother's yard, shed a tear or two,and went on with my life, knowing that I had, if nothing else, tried. It was small comfort. Until this essay I have never mentioned the incident to anyone, nor thought much about it. Now, fifty years later, I mention it to anybody and everybody. Perhaps all these years I have been ashamed of my impotence, my powerlessness, my inability to do anything meaniningful. Now, with the return of the memory, the memory of my grief returns, and I feel it all over again. Well, maybe by writing this essay I have, in some small way, healed myself. Again, a tear or two, fitty years too late. Maybe by acknowledging once again my limitations, I have grown. Maybe the lady, who is perhaps herself now dead, spent the rest of her life thinking about the incident occasionally, and choosing to believe for her own comfort that the nice boy actually helped heal the bird, and that it flew once again. At the end of our days, it may be that we can only say about ourselves what I would like to have engraved on my urn of ashes: I tried.

Dispelling Misconceptions, Religiously

MANY IF NOT MOST Americans are "burdened" by the misconception that the United States was founded on "Christian" principles,as a "Christian" nation, by founders (men) who were themselves "Christians". This is partly a result of wishful thinking and the projection of personal values, hopes and beliefs upon history. It is largely because throughout American history what has been taught in American public schools is not so much "history",as "hagiography", biased history written to glorify, glamorize, and sanitize a country's history by a country's educational system. This tends to occur in all countries; hagiography. Human nature, if you will. The USA, a majorty Christian country, prefers to think of itself in Christian terms, believing that this is preferable. Perhaps it is (it isn't), although even this is a dubious assumption. It is, however, decidedly untrue. The United States was founded on scientific, politically "enlightend" Lockian principles, intended to be a country with strict separation of church and state, with religious freedom, tolerance, and diversity. A secular democratic republic. "The United States is no more a Christian nation than an Islamic nation", wrote John Adams in 1798. "The purpose of seperation of church and state is to keep from these shores forever the ceaseless strife which has soaked the soil of Europe in blood for centuries" wrote Madison. The first amendment, perhaps written too vaguely and briefly, embodies, codifies this "wall of seperation" as Jefferson and Madison described it. Jefferson, in his letters, which he wrongly assumed would be destroyed rather than preserved as valuable historical documents, made his attitude about the Christian religion perfectly clear in private correspondence. He described it as "our modern superstition". Further,he wrote: "The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter". Perhaps the most fundamentel article of faith underpinning the Christian faith, torn to shreds by Thomas Jefferson, privately. His prediction has not yet come to pass widely in society, a fact which would possibly greatly surprise the scientific minded Jefferson, two hundred years after his death. But stay tuned. Science continues its inexorable march forward into the future, the wheels of reason and sense are turning, grinding ever on, and Christianity is losing its traditional iron grip upon the hearts and minds of American and indeed human civilization, albeit seemingly slowly. As for Jefferson, he himself was a confirmed "deist", embracing the ideal of God as a genius spirit creator above and beyond any human invented religion, who made the universe, and allows it to operate unimpeded, according to natural laws. Jefferson called himslef "a primitive Christian", meaning that he, like nearly everyone, embraced the wisdom and beauty embodied in the teachings of Jesus, but rejected the supernatural aspects of the faith, upon which the religion is so heavily predicated, as superstitious nonsense. He evenwent so far as to take a pair of scissors, and while president, cut the Holy Bible into confetti,and to reassemble it according to his own preferences, leaving out the superstition, leaving in the beauty and wisdom. The "Jefferson Bible" can be found in any good university library. "Deism: was the philosphy of the day among late eigtheenth century intellectualls, and Jefferson was one among many our America'a founers who embraced it. Deists, are among us today,cohabitating the Earth with the other approximately 4,200 superstition based religions with their various and sundry gods, along with atheists, agnostics, and assorted other spiritually oriented belief systems. God bless them all! Their very exstence is the tangible manifestation of the intentions of America's founders, and a lasting and fitting tribute to their genius, openmindedness, and brilliance.

Praying

I PRAY. Even though I am not religious, embrace no formal, organized religion, and in fact generally have contempt for all religion, I pray. Why? Maybe it works. In fact,it does work,demonstrably. Like religion itself, it gives comfort and inspiration, demonstrably positive, efficacious attributes. Someone noticed that famed scientist Neils Bohr had a horseshoe hanging on the wall of his office, pointing upward, an invitation to capture good luck. Asked why a solid, serious scientist would have this lucky talisman on full display, and whether Dr. Bohr truly believed in this superstition, the famed scientist replied: "Of course not, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't work". This perfectly matches my attitude about prayer. Whether or not it has any tangible benefit, it does for me, inspiration and comfort, so, I pray. The only thing I do when I pray is give thanks..to..whatever, whomever. I give thanks to what I call "God", and what Einstein called "the old eternal genius who built the world", and "the ancient one", and "the infinitely superior spirit which is revealed in what little we, with our weak and transitory understanding, can comprehend of reality". The Spinozan diety of Einstein and me, gluing the universe together, giving comfort and inspiration. As far as I am concerned I have lived and do live a happy, fulfilling life, and I am immensely grateful to the universe which has made it all possible. As you might expect, many intense, serious studies have been done on prayer, by very well ecucated researchrs of all acaademic disciplines,from mathematicians, philosiphers, and poets, to sociologists, psychlogists, physicists, and neural scientists. Any human activity as profoundly fundamental to human existence cannot avoid sustained sctutiny for long. The main result, reached repeatedly, is that the chances of a prayer, any prayer, being answered in the affirmative are identical to the laws or random probability. Prayer is a roll of the dice. God, strictly obeying the laws of nature, of quantum mechanics. To me, that makes perfect sense. I never ask my God for anything, or very rearely do. (A tight Yankees baseball game late in the pennant race can arouse me to make a rare exception.) I reason thus: why ask God for something, for anything, or try to control or influence God's behavior? Does God not already know, long before my weak and meager prayer, exactly what I deserve, what I will and won't receive, what will happen to me, why, and what he himself will do? How can I possibly change any of that? I have never heard a good argument to the contrary. Famed atheist intellectual Christopher Hitchens made an interesting observation. He wrote: "The man who prays thinks God has arranged things incorrectly, but that he can instruct God how to put them right". My thoughts exactly. To me, the "Lord's prayer" is nothing other than an orchestrated way of giving orders to God (give us this day our daily bread,etc.) The ritual prayer begins with a sort of pandering supplication to the Almighty, and ends with orders and demands, from us, to Him. Maybe Jim Morrison said it best, when he screams in a song: "You cannot petition the lord!" Certainly,that doesn't stop us from trying. I'll keep praying, just to say thank you, and leave it at that, without asking for anything, without trying to change God's behavior, or giving any orders to God. For my part, its the best I can do, and the only thing that really works, at least for me.

Restocking Bump Stocks

AL CAPONE is back in town, or could be, very soon. Machine guns, which the six clueless conservative members of the United States Supreme Court (SCOTUS) refuse to call "machine guns" are now legal across America's fruited plain, except in the twelve reasonably enlightened states which ban them. Our potential salvation from more mass murders is the fact that this horrible ruling by the nation's highest, most deluded court does indeed not prevent all fifty nifty disunited states from eventually banning the awful devices, although it is, one must admit, very difficult to imagine this happening in the many states dominated by gun loving conservative second amendment extremists. This highlights once again our desperate need for a new and improved American constitution wth a new and better, more clearly written second amendment, one which does more than allow muzzle loading muskets to be owned by members of a militia only. In decision after dicision the SCOTUS, with no fewer than two probable sex offending and no fewer than one upside down American flag flying right wing ideologues attempting to impose a hateful far right agenda on America from the bench, continues to judicially, injudiciously so impose. When a bump stock, a fairly recent invention from some dude's Frankensteinian basement laboraotry, is in action, the trigger actually moves repeatedly and quite rapidly, alhtough without human assistance. In a machine gun, this does not happen,the trigger stays still while the bullets spew at a rate of nearly one thousand per minute. Bumpstocking sends the lead flying at very early the same rate, but that seemingly salient fact is of no importance to the six right wing reprobates who infest our nation's highest, seemingly most stoned court. To them, the trigger action is the thing. Not the firepower nor the rate at which bullets come streaming out of the gun barrel towards their intended hapless victims, but...the precise trigger action. A thin dubious distinction, to say the least. Utter, outright insanity, to say the most. Again, conservative SCOTUS lunacy, sheer and unadulterated. Only the three progressive justices had the sense and sanity to point out that if it walks and talks and shoots bullets like a duck, it is for all intents and purposes a bullet shooting duck. Even the entirely benighted Trump administration was able to scrape up enough temporary sanity to ban bump stocks. Go figure, as we say. With bated breath we await the response of the Republican Christ-like icon for president, Don the Con. Will he condmen the reversal of his policy, as he always does? Will he take the plunge,and support, for the first time ever,an override of something he did? Or will he, as he often oes when confronted with tricky circumsances, retreat to his exclusive fun house fantasy land, and babble incoherently about boats, batteries, bullets, windmills, and his own inability to understand wind? As we like to say: "stay tuned", if you can stand to. You might have to expose yourself to hordes of criminal gangsters at Trump mob rallies wearing obscene messages on T shirts to hear what the criminally insane former president has to say, if you can wait that long, which won't be long enough. Meanwhile, let the carnage begin.

Dispelling Nonsense With Science

GALILEO GALILEI invented the telescope, which he called his "optick tube" at about the ame time that Hans Lippershey invented it further north in the Netherlands. Another one of those Darwin-Wallace, Newtwon-Leibnitz situations. Simultaneous inventors, splitting credit. When its time for an idea to come to fruition, its time, it seems. The men who got most of the credit for evolutionary theory, for calculus, and for the telescope were the ones who talked the most about their respective inventions and discoveries, early and often. Publicity matters. "I betook myself to observations of the heavenly bodies, and beheld the moon as if it were scarce two semi diameters of the Earth distant", he famously wrote. He bragged a bit too, making damned sure that everybody knew that nobody before him had ever done what he was doing, which was, as far as we can determine, true. But as we all learn one way or another, when one talks too much, one usually gets into trouble. Galileo learned the hard way. Being in Italy, he was an easy stone's throw away target for the super dogmatic seventeenth century Catholic church, and they came down on him hard, for having the blasphemous audacity to assert that the Earth is not the center of the universe, and that, cogito, ergo sum, the Holy bible was, how dared he say, wrong. His trial and house arrest are, as we say, history, the rest of the story. Legend has it that as he walked out of his inquisistion, he uttered, not quite beneath his breath, "I still know what I saw". Maybe his extended stay at home was extended further for that departing wisecrack. That remains unclear. What is clear is that he was never given an opportunity to prove to all concrned that his tiny weak litle optick tube actually worked; noboody was willing to have a look through see, nobody wanted to have their eyes bewitched by some devil may care devil. What Galileo did actually write was: "I do not feel obligated to believe that the same God who endows us with sense, intellect, and reason has intended us to forego their use." And that, as they say, says it all. Like most profound remarks made by great people, this one holds up today, always, and forever. It shouldn't apply today. It should be outdated, a relic of a benighted past. But, alas, it isn't. Its continuing applicability is testament (no pun intended) to our continuing early twenty first century languishing in darkness, when an invitation to see the light of reality is staring us straight in our confused faces, glaringly. At the precise time, or well beyond the precise time in human history and advancement of knowledge when science and reason should have long since asserted themselves, taken hold in the human mind, and dispelled superstition and religious nonsensical dogma, alas, it has not. Far from it. Instead, relgious nonsensical doctrine and dogma and superstitious nonsense seem almost to hold the human heart and mind almost as captive as ever. Almost, but not quite, for verily, religion is releasing its iron grip on humanity and the human intellect, if only grudgingly, only painfully slowly. Like lava spreading and cooling as it flows outward from the volcano, the enlightening power of science is creeping ever slowely but still perceptably into our sleepy, slowly awakening minds. Lord willing and the creek don't rise, may the creep continue, unabated, with all due haste.

Doing the Crazy, On, and On...

I JUST COMPLETED a swing through Kanas City,of Count Basie fame, where I saw my beloved New York Yankees take three of four from a very good team,the Kansas City Royals. Only a blown save in the ninth of game four preventd a clean sweep. Its a tradition I've been maintaining for sixty years; hop up to K.C. to see the Bronx Bombers. Impresseive,what a good ball club three hundred million dollars will buy. Impresssive,and crazy, from my perspective. Next up on the crazy to do "bucket list" (I hate that much overused expression), the Rolling stones, in the Las Vegas of the Ozarks, Branson, Mmissouri. Impressive, what a billion dollars worth of eighty year old musicians can do to remove a few hundred dollars from the pockets of a senior citizen latter day hippie, or two. Musicians never retire. Frank Sinatra sang his way into his eighties, until the self described "saloon singer" finally met his match with vertigo and gravity by falling off a bar stool or two, while completely sober. Mick Jagger stays in shape by running in place before he hits the stage, staying away from drugs, and by never sitting down, on or off stage. How Keith Ricahrds gets it done is among the greatest mysteries of science and insanity in all of recorded, and unrecorded history. Maybe its the whole body blood transfusions in Switzerland, maybe the cigarette perpetually dangling from snarling lips while hitting his licks. Whatever, it works. There is no law against a famous musician padding hiw podket book and ego until he or she drops. Nor evidently, is there any law, even though there ought to be, against digging big hole in what should have remained a bucolic Ozark mountain hill side and filing it back in with concrete, steel,plastic,and bleachers for the adoring fans of strolling bones. But the question, as it always is when dealing with human affairs, aka capitalism and entertainment,is: where do we draw the line? Exactly what are our limits? How much fun can we possibly have, and survive the adrenalin rush to tell about it? How many bucolic hill sides, how many billions of dollars, how many eighty year old slowed but not stopped rock icons does it take to satiate our bottomless appetites for escape? When we reach the point where we all agreee, with fingers crosssed behind our broad butts, that the Stones are "better than ever", have we approached our limit of fantasy and denial? Speaking of fantasy, denial, and ancient old age, Donald J.Trump, yes, THAT Donald J.Trump, turns seventy eight today. Add politicains to the list of never say retire profesionals. We are thus given a choice between two fossils for the next president of these dis United States. The "winner" will govern for the next generation, which should be governing for itself. As Jefferson warned, we do not want to be governed by our ancestors. Or do we? Seemingly we do, just as we seemingly want to be entertained by them. We cling to our outdated constitution, we cling to our political leaders who should be long since put out to pasture, and we cling, tenaciously, to entertainers who are, quite bluntly,no longer in their prime, despite our fervant desires and pretenses to the contrary Nostalgia is over rated. We pay big bucks to see rock stars who barely exist in the present, who exist essentially in the past, in our fondest memories. Retirement, with dignity and grace, is vastly under rated. Why not give it a try, Mick, Keith, Donald, Joe, et al, et al, et al.....I did. It works great!

Defining Jazz

LOUIS ARMSTRONG said that if you have to ask what jazz is, you'll never know. I decided to ask anyway, because I didn't know, and, in truth, still don't. I asked my father, who was a jazz lover and passable keyboard and drum man. What he said was: "American music". To me that seemed a bit,shall we say,vague. Louis Armstrong narrowed it down a bit, suggesting that jazz should be defined as "negro music". If we turn up the political correctness a bit, we get "African-American" music, and perhaps sastify both my father and Louis Armstrong, bless their swingin' hearts, may they rest in peace. One thing I do know about jazz,something that if my father and Louis Arstrong knew they had the restraint to never mention,is that the word "jazz" in its African language, maybe Swahili, means "to have sexual intercourse". A verb, as in, to get down and do the dirty thang. Namely,the "eff word". In sixth grade, I had the temertiy to suggest in music class that rock n roll was a form of jazz,and was immediately shot down by my very attractive young single music teacher, upon whom I had a crush, and who assured me that I was dead wrong. I thought I would soon be a little of both. I survived, good grade and all, perhaps because I played a mean trumpet in the grade school band. The hot young music teacher went on to mention Duke Ellington and Count Basie, and my curiosity was piqued by the fact that a couple of black guys could simultaneously reign as members of the European nobility and play boogie woogie at the Hammond keyboard. I got that misconception corrected too. Among African-Americans, a little grandioise nick naming helps dispell second class citizen status bestowed automatically by American racist society, the birthright of dark skin pigmentation. Louis, Count, and Duke never got together much, never performed together. They all three knew that each one individually took up all the air in the room. They each needed their space, their stage. They respected one another from a distance. Instead, they joined temporary forces with the likes of Sinatra, Benny Goodman, a vertiable who's who list of music celebrities. Sinatra hated racism, and hung out with Sammy D. But never together, these three incons of modern American African-American music, jazz culture, American culture. They changed America. Upper middle class ladies, whose only contact with black folks was at the country club where the ladies enjoyed clean toilets, and the very sight of black men would motivate the ladies to quickly cross to the other side of the street to avoid eye contact with those darkies, instead went home after brunch at the club, kicked off their high falutin' high heels, and put Louis, Duke, or Count on the vinyl hi fi, and shook it a bit, strictly in private, hubbies at the office. Louis wore his big heart on his sleeve, and smoked marijuana, which he called "gage", twice daily, until its criminalization in 1933 forced him to give it up; supposedly. Duke was all aristocrat,with a plethora of paranoid superstitions,and Count was all Kansas City, and addicted to gambling, which kept him perpetually broke, and working. Like most poweful men of their era, they married early and often, and had more affairs than marriages. They snuck in and out of back door kitchens to and from their concerts. Ten thousand honkies would file out, exhausted, and in the parking lot, a well dressed gentleman would hand Duke, Count, or Louis his car keys, expecting valet service. Colored restaurants, colored restrooms, colored drinking fountains, for all three. Precisely what did this marvelous trio do for America, to change America? President Eisenhower had no intention of sending the national guard to Little Rock, until Louuis Armstrong called him "gutless". Then,Ike sent in the troops. America fell in love with negro music, remains in love to this day, and always shall remain therein. The racism that has always plagued and characterized freedom's land has ameliorated somewhat, but not as much as we honkies like to pretend, like to think. What Count, Duke, and Louis did more than anything else, was to show us exactly how idiotic and unjustified our lingering racism is, by showing us how to make good music out of suffering. As if we need to be shown.

A Hollow Faith, Keeping Us In Line

CAN YOU IMAGINE a religious faith so hollow that its adherants staunchly, relentlessly struggle to force formal,organized prayer into America's public schools, despite the obvious unonstitutionality of it, while resisitng efforts by the governemnt to provide funding for free lunches for children of poor families? And, to make matters worse, all the while thinking that they are following the desires and intentions of Jesus? Imagination isn't needed. One only needs to examine the agenda of the Republican party, as promulgated by its most dominant base,the white evangelical Christian conservative community. Opposition to increased government funding for public school free lunch programs, support for the insidious insinuation of organized Christian prayer into civic, secular public schools. The form of Christian doctrine without the substance. Christian prayer, but nothing, no provision for prayer for any other religious tradition. To include prayer in public education is nothing than a form of Christian grooming, blatant Christian indoctrination, and clearly violates the sacred constitutional principle of seperation of church and state, as reinforced by the Surpreme Court ruling in 1962, which removed such prayer. Grooming, of the Christian kind, no less than gay or LGBTQ "grooming",(a form of grooming which is pure fiction, an invention of the sordid, salacious sexual suppression of the Christian conservative mind.) Another phenomenon demonstating conservative Christian hollowness and hypocrisy stands out. All across America's fruited plain, conservative Christians are falling all over themselves forcing "The Ten Commandments" onto the walls of public school classrooms, enacting legislation in conservatives states and communities to that effect. The same for courtrooms and other public places, such as on monoliths on the well groomed lawns of state Capitol buildings. Moses,not Jesus. However, you never about nor see the results of any attempt by this same community to place upon walls and monuments anything from the "Sermon On the Mount" or from the beatitudes, or from the other peaceful, beautiful teachings of Christ? The most direct, most profound, most seminal, most enduring, meaningful teachings of Jesus Christ himself, ommited from the public square and schools. "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the Earth?" Never seen, never heard. "Blessed are the peacemakers?" No way. Or what about" go thy way, and sell whatsoever thou hast, and give unto the poor?" Not in evidence. Never. The Lord's prayer is likewise missing. One can scarcely if at all imagine "forgive us our tresspasses as we forgive those who tresspass against us" engraved in stone or wood on the walls of American court houses, and,indeed, you don't see it there. Instead, you see the stark, authoritarian, harsh, negative Ten Commandments,compelling us in an ominous threatening manner, with threatening understones, keeping us in line, like sheep,rather than inspiring us as sentient, benevolent, loving human beings. But, of course, keeping us all in line, like passive sheep, is, after all, among the most important functions of highly structured, highly organized religion, is it not?

Hunting, Hounding Hunter Biden

HUNTER BIDEN IS A HERO, for one simple reason; he had a terrible, serious disease,a self inflicted disease, and he had the courage and integrity to stand up to it, fight it, and, apparently defeat it, although it is commonly believed within the medical community that one never totally conquers an addiction, one merely manages it and keeps it at bay, one hopes, for the rest of one's life. So it is with all drug addictions; alcohol, heroin, and caffeine. Anyone with a drug addiction is a medical patient,or potential should be medical patient, and shouldn't be regarded as a criminal, but rather, as a person with a serious medical problem, a disease. Perhaps the enlightened day will come when society as a whole realizes and understands this vital distinction. Biden was indeed guilty of attempting to purchase a firearm illegally, by lying about his drug addiction.The purchase of firearms should be closely regulated; allowing drug addicts to purchase them would be a serious mistake. What Hunter Biden deserves is probation, with community service,a prohibition against his ever again owning a firearm, and most important of all, sustained medical attention and drug treatment therapy. Prison time would be irrelevant,counter productive, harmful to society, in that a potentially productive reformed citizen would be prohibited from being productive, and instead would be consigend to unproductive incarceraton at public expense. Hunter Biden at this point is perfectly positioned to become an exellent counselor against drug use and addiction; if anybody knows about the perils and pitfalls and roads to recovery, from drug addiction, surely it is he. Former criminals, reformed criminals, make the best criminal counselors. What Hunter Biden and his father, President Joe Biden will instead receive, are already receiving from America's reprehensible conservative evangelical Christian Trump supporting community, is ridicule, condemnation, sanctimonious lecturing. What he should recieve from these alleged but fake Christians is admiration and congratulations, support, well wishes and help, but they are utterly incapable of rendering these things,utterly incapable of compassion, understanding, and forgiveness,the very virtues they so falsely, hypocritically espouse. This,all because the victim of a terrible disease and poor judgment is the son of their hated enemy, president Biden. One can imagine the total difference in their reaction if the victim, for instance, happened to be a child of their criminal felonious icon cult leader,Donald J.Trump. In that case, they would doubtless ignore the situation, and accuse the media of attacking Trump through his diseased child, even if the media downplayed the situation, just as it has magnified and constantly talked about Hunter Biden's difficulties. Accusations would be made that Trummp was under attack, that the drug abuse and addiction was being misrepresented,and that the poor unfortunate child of Trump was being abused by an uncaring biased media and by hateful liberal Democrats. The justice system is rigged against Trump, but effective in dealing with Hunter Biden. Whereas Hunter Biden is taking responsibility for his behavior, and his father is refusing to pardon him, Trump denies all his criminality, and his supporters cry foul, while Trump promises revenge on the justice system, and promises to pardon himself if he can. A stark difference indeed. Just like almost every public affair in America is being distorted, abused, lied about and used for perceived political advantage by the far right extremist community, no matter what the circumstance, never underestimate the ability of conservative evangelical Trump supporters to find the best way of injecting their vile hateful ideology into every possible situation.

Inventing the Bad Ass Jesus

PEOPLE WHO PAY ATTENTION to recent trends in American culture, especially policical trends, can not help but notice that the white evangelical community has come to play an outsized role in American culture and politics. This, despite its relatively small numbers: less than twenty percent of the general population self identifies as "white evangelical Christian", and the number is decreasing. And yet this is precisely the demographic which is widely given credit for spearheading Donald Trump's political career,for electing him to the presidency. The accuarcy of this assessment is revealed by the fact that more than eighty percent of the white evangelical community supported Trump in 2016, and the same percentage still supports him, despite everything. A fascinating new study: "Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted A Faith and Fractured A Nation" provides a much needed, sweeping revisionist overview of the white evangelical movement over the last seventy five years, and explains much about the phenomenon, politically, culturally, religiously. Kristin Kobes Du Mez, the author, is a profesor of history at Calvin University, and a renowned scholar of modern American religious and cultural history, who has written mainly about women's issues for the Washingtion Post, as well as various Christian publications. She dispells the commonly held notion that white evangelicals support Trump out of any "practical" considerations, and instead posits the notion that their support is predicated primarily upon the reality that indeed Trump is the very embodiment of their most deeply held ideals and aspirations. The Jesus of the New Testament gospels has been cast to the side, and a new, more virulent, more masculine version has taken his place. Contemporary popular American culture is central in shaping the reformed image of Jesus. The new and improved all American Jesus Christ, tough guy bad ass conquering warrior for God,virtue,purity,and the bad ass American way. Christian movies, books, merchandise, and music play a vital part in the promulgation the new image as virule, masculine, featuring a patriarchal family framework, ardently opposed to the LGBTQ community, suspicious of movements such as "Me Too", and "Black Lives Matter", and strongly opposed to immigration into the United Stats by brown and black skinned people which, according to Donald Trump, are "poisoning the blood" of America from, as he put it, coming from "shit hole" countries. Conservative Christian icons such as Ronald Reagan, Mel Gibson, the "Duck Dynasty" clan, stand at the forefront of the conservative Christian culture, with the duke hiself, Marion Morris, aka John Wayne, taking center stage. The author ties all this together, clearly showing how the new born again bad ass Jesus has corrupted and divided the Christian faith in America along ideological lines, and has similarly fractured the entire nation, primarily politically,along similar lines. The Republican party has bought in, and has become the white conservative Christian party, epitomized by Trump, its icon con in chief. It is now an organization which would be utterly unrecognizable to Billy Graham and Barry Goldwater, and indeed to Ronald Reagan himself. Lord willing and the creek don't rise, there will come a time, not soon emough, when it and the movement it embodies are utterly unrecognizable, indeed unkown, to the American people.