Taking Communion, Again

UNLESS MY CALCULATIONS are incorrect, which is always possible, this next Sunday will be "Communion Sunday" at the church, which happens once a month. Its either the last Sunday in the month, or the first, my memory fails, again. Once again I will participate willingly, with little or no stress and anxiety this time. The first time, when I found out that the communion service would be conducted, I momentarily freaked, and firmly resolved to refrain abstain, as I have, (had) all my life. But when I realized that the communion was brought to all congregants in their seats, without anybody required to approach the alter and kneel, I relented, and took communion. the holy sacrament. I lived throught it, lived to tell about it, and frankly, felt, and still feel, unchanged. I cannot coneive of there ever coming a time when communion doesn't seem strange, weird, bizarre to me. For my taste, the symbolic consumming of the body and blood of Christ as a tangible albeit symbolic act of achieving total communion with not only Christ but also God - is, quite, simply, going a bit far, becoming a bit too zealous and fanatical about the particulars of doctrine and dogma, a bit too literal and preoccupied with expressing a spiritual connection in physical terms through ritual. Similarly, the notion of having my sins washed away in the blood of Christ does not appeal to me, for another rexample. The Christian religion did not emerge in a cultural or religious vacuum. Goethe said: "The Christian religion is an abortive political revolution which turned moral." By this he of course was referring to the Roman Empire, and its domination, colonial rule and governence of, the Jewish people in their homeland of Palestine, including Judea, whence Jesus, the Jesus story, originated. The Jews were not looking for a spiritual savoir who would grant them entrance into heaven after death. They had something much more tangible in mind; a champion, conquering, military style hero savior who would lead them to liberation from the oppressive Romans. Somehow Joshua ben Joseph (Jesus), not really the conquering hero warrior type, was able to disabuse them of this fantasy, and persuade a significant number of them to accept the spiritual salvation process instead. Jesus must have been a very good natural politician. Whether or not any of this actually happened, and indeed it seems as if it did, it was writen about, with many different versions, by enough ancient Greek writers that it became convincing. All this washng sins away with blood and achieving communion with the body and blood of Christ got added on over the centuries, as the cult grew into a formal, organized religion, and came to dominate much of human culture, especially in the western hemisphere. When I sing about the bloody stuff in gospel singing group, I just don't think about it. I'm never going to like it, so,why bother? The Christian religion still reminds me of an ancient fertility cult, complete with blood sacrifices of human virgins and animals, and I still think of the Bible as a fascinating collection of ancient manuscripts, a miniature library of ancient writings, a valuable insight into ancient culture, primitive, barbaric, obscene, bloody and violent, with, as Mark Twain said: "some noble poetry and clever fables, and a great quantity of obscnity". I'll never be a "Christian" per se, but I am a pantheist, not an atheist, happy to attend church every Sunday to commune with the universe and listen to good messages, in my own way, in concert with the ways of others.

Trump , Getting Desperate

DONALD TRUMP is obviously having great difficulties finding facts with which to attack Kamala harris. So desperate has he become that, almost unbelievably, at one of his recent MAGA gangster pep rallies, he reached perhaps a new low even for him, by claiming, loudly, that he is better looking than she, than Kamala Harris. A new low indeed, even for Trump. And, not only that, but quite possibly the most blatantly, outrageously dishonest lie he, Trump, has ever told, which for him is going some, as they say. Not that there's anything "wrong" with Trump's looks. A handsome fellow, if he would smile once in a blue moon, or do something about that iconic but ridiculous toupe which makes his hair look decades younger and less mature than he. There really aren't very many, if any at all, negative facts to be dug up about Tim Watz and Kamala Harris. They have both lived rather exemplary lives, filled with achievement. That silly business aobut Walz stealing volor by inadvertantly implying that he had carried his national guard weapon in war seems to have fizzeled out through lack of sensation, interest, or effectiveness, unless the low life Trump people try to resurrect it and use it again later. Don't put it past them, even though it would likely fall flat again. So, Trump is "reduced" to doing what he does best; name calling, slurs, slander, and insults, all fake, all lies. His advisors allegedly want him to stop the mud slinging and stick to the issues, as if anyone can change Trump for the better. There appears to be an emerging, if not already emerged consensus among the American people that in point of fact Kamala Harris is a lovely, beautiful woman. Certainly, she could do worse for a nearly sixty year old lady. She is trillions of times better looking than Trump, and any poll taker who wishes to waste his time proving the obvious could easily demonstrate that nearly everybody in America agrees on that particular point. Trump has already called Harris a "bum", and accused her of not being intelligent. Both of these accusations are ludicrous, ridiculous, and in fact, they are like most insults Trump hurls at others, true of Trump himeslf, and nobody else. Without even knowing it, every insult or accusation Trump hurls at other people are really all about himself. Trump is the ultimate projector. Trump is the bum, worse, a criminal, convicted. As anyone with a brain can easily discern, Trump is magnitudes less intelligent than Harris; she is far his intellectual superior, as will become strikingly evident when they debate. His advisors seem to think that Trump would be better off by talking about immigration, or inflation, the two issues which he appears to do his best with. The obvious response for Democrats and Harris is that we the American people would now have a strong, comprehensive, immigration law in effect, greatly strengthening the ability of the U.S. to monitor and control its southern border, starting to have positive results - If not for Trump, if Trump hadn't destroyed the bill before it ever got to Biden's desk. As of now, the only reason we still have an illegal immigration problem is Donald Trump. Every week, inflation seems to decrease, and is now nearly back at the level it was before the pandemic, almost back to an acceptable level, partly because of Biden's policies. Under Biden and Harris, inflation has plummeted, and the economy has flourished and propsered. It may be that, considering the nature of Trump's cult, Trump's best strategy is to forget policy arguments, and stick with the slanders, slurs, and personal insults. After all, its all he has left, and what he does best.

Never Missing Church

TWO WEEKS AGO, on a bright, lovely Sunday morning, I noticed that my mattress was infested with bugs, so hastily I dragged the heavy thing out the front door and onto the front porch, to be further dealt with later. I tried to be careful, but at some point while I had the door open, my cat got out. I was waiting to be picked up to go to church, and when my ride arrived, my cat was still out, so I reluctantly canceled going to church. It turned out that my cat came back inside at six o'clock that evening, unhurt, so, I could have gone to church, but didn't realize it at the time. Other than that, I haven't missed a single Sunady in the last several months, ever since I started going, and, my attitude now is that I don't intend to miss church again in the foreseeable future. Thus I seem to have become something I never thought or remotely imagined I ever would; a regular church goer. Well, good for me. More power to me. Chalk one up for the power of open mindedness. For that is precisely why I am attending, despite my antipathy towards religion; open mindedness, my firm conviction and insistence that I can benefit from church, no matter my personal religious beliefs, or lack thereof. And indeed I benefited yet again today, August 18, 2024, by listening to a sermon based upon the story of the good Samaritan in the book of Luke. A truly great story, in my opinion. The Presbyterian church has something called a "lectionary" which I take to be a schedule of sermon topics for future Sundays to be given by all Presbyterian ministers everywhere. Not surprisingly, I had never heard the term before. My minister, a totally cool dude, told us that the scheduled sermon for this week was based on a scripture that was simply way too weird for him, so he decided to skip it, which he said he rarely does, and to improvise. The offending scripture evidently was a graphic depiction of communion, the body and blood of Christ, so, I'm glad he skipped it. Sounds pretty weird to me too. Once again I am confronted with the reality that ultimately everyone has his or her own religiosity, no matter how similar to somebody else's belifes yours may be, there is at least one particular fact or belief upon which you differ; we are all as unique spiritually as we are genetically, although in many ways closely related to other people. That obvious reality is yet another of the many reasons why it would be a horrible idea to try to instal the Christian religion as the official national religion of these United States of America. Which version of the one true faith would be elevated to official status? Catholicism? Or perhaps one of the many hundreds of Protestant denominations. Trying to render the official national religion into some generic, watered down version of Christianity would accomplish nothing but further dilluting the church. Equally interesting is the apparently well founded historical thesis that elevating a religion, any religion, to the status of state official status, tends, instead of strengthening the religion, rather, to weaken it. There is evidence that membership in officially established churches tends to decline or flatten out over time while in churches which remain outside the protection of the state, growth in membership is more robust. Almost as if the very act of mandating a certain institution motivates people to resist the mandate and the institution, like resisting taxation, military service, or burdensome government proclamations and regulations. Officially established religions smack of government control. Religions outside of government influence maintain their independence and freedom. People by nature prefer freedom to government control, in religion, and just about everything else.

Trumping the Working Class

IN AMERICA, we tout the vitrues of the middle class, and the working class. Sometimes we talk about them as if they are the same thing, which, in many cases, they are. We dont talk so much about the working poor class, or the poor class. Perhaps our hope, perhaps our dream is that eventuallly America will be one big, happy middle class family, with no trillion, billion, or millionaires, but rather a prosperous level of approximate economic equality for all, with freedom and capitalism for all. The blue collar working class is praised and courted by every politician. Every politican claims to be "a man (or woman) of the people". If memory serves. I have never heard any American politician verbally denigrate America's working class. I did not listen to the infamous interview-chat between Elon Musk and Donald Trump, the two people I most despise. I should have. Trump, presumably unintentionally, threw the working class under the bus during said interview, or, if nothing else, he threw the American labor union movement under the bus. Trump's advisors surely did not like this, and would advise him to avoid doing it, but, they also know that Trump is Trump, that Trump will be Trump, and that, after all, so far, it seems to have worked. Trump lavishly praised Musk for having summarily terminated a group of union workers who went on strike against him, as if Musk was a hero for standing up to the gnagster mob of workers, who had the audacity to oganize to negotiate with employers. Trump's voice dripped and oozed with sarcasm, cruelty, and macbre admiration for Elon Musk for having beaten the union. Both men laughed, derisively, as I recall. And yet, Trump wil be right back out on the campaign trial, and probably already is, ranting to his MAGSA crowd, many of whom are members of America's blue collar unionized working class, and claim to be the ultimate champion of the working class, their savor from the ravages of Kamals Harris, the Democratic party, and liberalism in general. Trump, the man of the people. He will do this by screaming a few vague, general, meaningless claims, such as he, Donald Trump, being able to raise the pay and working conditions of every working man and woman in America. Something outrageous, absurd, and ridiculous upon further thought. Trump claims to be able to bring down inflation all by himself, able to uplift the working class by himself, to save America, alone. The Super Trump. Trump is actually a backseat limo riding billionaire, and has been his whole life, who cares nothing about working people, or anything, except himself. This he has proven, and continues to prove, on a daily basis. Throughout his adult life Trump has treated workers unfairly. Trump's only intention with workers has been and still is to exploit them. He has hired illegal immigrants, deliberately, then failed to pay them, knowing they would have no recourse, among his other labor related crimes. All this is well documented in many of the books and articles people who know him well have written and testified to. It is utterly amazing that any working class people at all support Trump, just as it is utterly amazing that any working class people are members of the Republican party, and support Republican candidates. The Republican party is the white, Christian, corporate party of capitalism and social Darwinism. Trump's antipathy for organized labor is well known. Ditto the Republican party. So is his contmept for, and exploitation mentality regarding work, pay, and economics generally. Eliminating income tax on tips is not as good a way of helping the working class as raising the federal minimim wage, and assuring every tip earning worker a fair, pre tip basic wage. You won't find Trump, nor any Republican, standing outside the Capitol building with a sign advocating for rasing the federal minimum wage to, say, fifteen an hour. Why not?

America, Eutrophying

ALL ACROSS AMERICA'S FRUITED PLAIN, the prairie land, grasslands, what used to be called "The great American desert", is changing, all on its own, without human assistance. This story was reported recently on National Public Radio, which often airs facts and stories, especially concerning the environment and climate change, not found in the mainstream condervative American media. The prairie lands are trying to turn into forests. This is happening, evidently, in many different states, across an area of millions of acres, thousands of square miles. Land owners are visiting their properties and finding virgin forest of trees, bushes, and shrubs, sprouting up seemingly overnight, and growing fast. The evident reason is indeed climate change; the added carbon content of the atmosphere, in which we humans have, over the past one hundred years, doubled the atmospheric carbon content from about two hundred parts per million to well over four hundred, makes the asmosphere more conducive to growing trees, which are taking over. If left alone, the process, which seems to have begun in earnest within the past decade, (alhtough it probably began before), would, within a few years, utterly transform America's prairie land - grasslands into densely packed wooded forests, replete with underbrush, amazingly. It must not be allow to happen, however, because it would destroy America's cattle ranching beef industry, which, being a multi billion dollar industry in a nation in love with beef, is simply unthinkable. The cattle industry is situated all over and almost exclusively within prairie land. Strangely, ironically, if this "eutrophication" were allowed to happen, millions of acres of new forest allowed to grow and replace grass land, it would actually increase rather the derease climate change, a result which one finds counter intuitive. Tall thick brown grass, waving gently in the summer breeze, actually reflects a great deal of the sun's heat back out into space, whereas forests would absorb it, absorbing enough heat to offset any cooling effect due to trees absorbing carbon and giving off oxygen. Another irony of this situation is the demonstrable fact that in order to fight climate chagne and create a sustainable lifestyle for humanity, the cattle ranching beef industry must come to an end, and beef must be replaced by artificial, synthetic substitutes, which is already happeneing... All over eastern Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, and the rest of the great American desert, cattle ranchers are taking chainsaws into their wide open grassy fields, trying to catch up with the new rampant forest growth, and failing to do so. It appears inevitable that this natural phenomenon will force itself upon humanity and America, forcing us to let the land become whatever the land wants to become, without concern for human preferences or economics. There are certain actions humankind must take in the future to survive. Among these is collecting seawater, turing it into fresh water, and moving into the huge arid regions which will undoubtedly be drought stricken, soon. Carbon must be removed, somehow, from the atmosphere. Also, actions will have to be taken against sea level rise, such as sea walls, and the retreat of human civilization away from the oceans. But maybe we should let the Earth try to heal itself, and maybe turning prairies into forest is one way in which she is trying to do precisely that. But what do we know? In their little chat recently, Donald Trump and Elon Musk both agreed that there is plenty of oil still in the ground ready for drilling, and that rising sea levels will create more valuable shoreline. Neither gentleman seems to grasp basic geometry.

Trump, Inflating, Conflating

INFLATION, as everyone knows or should know, is endemic in human economics. Any stanardized, circulating currency is subject to inflation. Like my history professor said: "they all clipped coins". The horrible inflation of the past several years was caused entirely by the pandemic. The pandemic shut society down. People stayed home. Businesses closed. The production and distribution of goods and services plummeted drastically. And yet, demand remained the same. Hence, prices soared, and kept soaring; inflation. Only quite recently has the level of inflation decreased to anything remotely approaching an acceptable level. It is now at about two point nine percent. Two percent is what economists often cite as accepptable. Biden inherited a pandemic driven economic disaster, and dealt with it effectively, through legislation and time. As of now, the overall economy is doing well, and inflation is returning to acceptable levels. But Trump and the Republicans are desperate for ammunition to use against Kamala Harris, and are digging deep, looking for and fabricating it. In another of his patented blatant lies Trump describes the economy and infation as a complete disaster, and the Biden administration as a disaster which has destroyed America. Thus far, no evidence has emerged that America has in fact been destroyed. Nobody in the MAGA rally audience raises a hand or utters a peep when the cult leader rhetorically asks: "how many of you are better off today then when in I was president"? Trump, who saved the country before, and stands ready to render the same service, again. The same chaos, disfunction, and hatred. Inflation is out of control, screams the annointed one, and when I become president,he grimaces, it will totally decrease and totally go away, because I will make it happen. Precisely how, you ask? On the first day in ofice, swears Trump, he will instruct every member of the cabinet, every department head, to spare no expense, to leave no stone unturned in a relentless effort to find ways of bringing inflation down, and eliminating it. That's how. Donald Trump will whip inflation now merely by ordering other people to whip it now, however they can, as best as they can. Sounds like a plan to me. Basic economics says that the only way to reduce inflation is to either increase supply, reduce demand, or both. Neither ordering people to reduce inflation nor waving a magic Trump wand will work, but, it sounds good to his worshippers. The fact that not every media outlet in the country is reporting this inane babble, and ridculing it merciessly clearly demonstrates, That the news media in general is either pro Trump, or so accustomed to Trump's inane babbling they it doesn't consider it newsworthy. It is, however and unfortunately, newsworty, simply because Trump is running for president, and might get elected, heaven help us. It is noteworthy and extremely relevant that Trump constantly babbles inanely, spewing countless lies, hurling insults based on lies, and threatening and verbally attacking people. With all the talk about Biden's mental capacity, not enough attention is being paid to Trump's mental state, which is clearly severely compromised. His various mental illness are clearly centered on the narcissism aspect, which dominates his entire personality, and engenders the pathological lying. Clearly, the situation is getting worse, and will not get better. Close though the polls are, Harris appears on track to win. If Trump wins, his mental state could deteriorate tremendously while in office, and his behavior, statements, actions, and policies could reflect this. If he is defeated, he can be helped and dealt with appropriately. A clearly mentally ill presidential candidate is no small matter, and one with tens of millions of fervant supporters is a disaster in the making. It is up to us, the remaining sane, to prevent it.

Fighting Christian Nationalism

THOSE WHO EMBRACE Christian Nationalism generally do so fervantly, enthusiastically, strongly. Therefore it is encumbant upon those who oppose it to do so with equal vigor, in our great chaotic "democracy" where often the loudest voice drowns out the sensible, sane voice. And indeed, opponents of Christian Nationalism tend to be highly motivated. They should be, becaue their cause is urgent, and just. If by some bizarre chance and Republican congress is elected in November, do not doubt that the Christian Nationalist movement will attempt to legislate Christian Nationalism into law, and that there will be conisderable support for it in Congress, and, quite likely, most importantly, the always ready to please Donald Trump will happily go along with the idea, pledge his support for it, and reap the rewards of enhanced support from conservative evangelical Christians, a group which already strongly supports Trump. The Christian religion would become official in the United States, which would formally be declared a 'Christian" nation. America, at long last, a theocracy. Many if not most American Christians already assert that the United States is and always has been a Christian nation, founded unon Christina values and principles. Perhaps Christians should ask themslves how they would react if the United States adopted a religion other than Christianity as official. The United States of Islamic America? Or pantheism or deism? The great clockmaker god, stepping back and out of the way of his creation. The sentient scientist god. one can perhaps begin to see the problem in establishing any religion, even one dominate and embrace by a majority of the citizens, as "official". To elevate any one religion above all others is to diminish the equality of all religions, and their acceptance, and tolerance, in a nation of religious freedom and tolerance. Those who insist that America is a Christian country founded upon Christian values are perhpas thinking about the pilgrams landings in Massachussets in 1620 and 1630, and the very definate religious centered beginnings of European civilization in North America. The same is true, to a lesser extant, in Virginia beginning in 1607. But things change. By 1776, the spirit of revoultion and independence has seized America, and the leaders of the independence movement were, for the most part, a bookish bunch of intellectuals, independent thinkers who tended to question authority and tradition, and to dream big. They understood the importance of religious freedom, tolerance, and equality, especially in the midst of a culture dominated by Christianity, with the inherited tradition of a strong, dominant ahurch, and a church deeply embedded within the political power structure of all European countries. The revolutionary founders of the constututional republic of 1787 wanted a stong, indisputable seperation of church and state, above nearly all else. We have generally done a good job of maintaining this desirable and sacred state of affairs, and we must never relax our determination to maintain it and, if neessary, to fight to defend it. We have a very acceptable religious situation in the United Staes, in which thousand of religions thrive without threat, and yet, the Christian religion maintains its preeminent place, due to its being a majoritiy religion. Nobody is trying to destroy or thereaten the Chrsitian faith, contray by excessvie claims to the contrary. But all good Americans should staunchly and persistently resist any attempt on the part of any religion to become dominant, legally, by becoming officially established by government.

Getting, Keeping Christian Nationalist Republicans Out

THE SHEER NUMBER OF REASONS, and the urgency of those reasons, to vote the Republicans out of power, and to keep them out, merits enumeration and analysis. As discussed in "Climate Change: An Overriding Concern" (see essay below) it is urgent to remove Republicans from power simply to save the planet, from climate change, which they will demonstrably not only do nothing about, but refuse acknowledge its existence. Perhaps only slightly less dangerous and harmful to America is the malignant ideology, rooted deeply in the Republican party, "Christian Nationalism", the belief that the Christian religion should be the officiel religion of the United States, and that American law, culture, and everything should be based upon the Christian religion, and the Bible. This is a powerful and apparently growing movement within the Republican party; there is little or no evidence of any Crhistian Nationalism in the Democratic party. A sizeable percentage, upwards of fifty percent of Republicans embrace this pernicious doctrine, making it a main segment of the G.O.P..LIke the G.O.P. itself, the Christian nationalist movement is predominantly white middle class. There is in fact a significant intersection between Christian Nationalism and the white supremacist movement, which also has its roots solidly in the far right conservative end of the Republican party. Obviously, Christian Nationalism and white supremacy are not the samt thing. However, many of the same people who embrace one, embrace the other. Indeed, religious fervor, hyper patriotism, and racism are fundemental conservative American values. zealously religious people are often zealously patriotic, and the mix can be a volatile, powerful force. The founder's intentions is not even a question, or shouldn't be. We ae all aware of the massive number of letters and documents between people like John Adams and Thomas Jefferson citing the utter necessity of an impermeable wall between church and state. You can fill libraries with these documents.. The founder's intent for religious freedom, tolerance, and diversity is quite clear. And yes, they used the words "wall", and "seperation". The first amendment was their expression, in law, of their intent. According to many Christian naionalists, this secular viewpoint is sheer rubbish, fake history, and the United States was in fact established as a "Christian" nation by its founders. Revisionist reconstructed history is almost always a propanganda tool of extremist, radical movements, such as Christian nationalism, who, like most such radical groups, spare no effort in fabricating history and innumerable lies to justify their beliefs. Fortunately, these dangerous people are being closely monitored, observed, documented, and analyzed by scholars and researchers. New studies are emerging seemingly daily. Scholar and researcher Katherine Stewart's "The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism" warns that Christian Nationalism is strong, growing, filled with enthusiastic members, and must be dealt with directly in order to avoid the forced implementation of its malignant agenda on America. It has already nearly captured the Republican party, like Trump. It has long disguised itself as a social movement, concerned with Chrsitian moral values, including opposition to abortion and same sex marriage. However, Christian nationalist politicians, all within the Republican party, are getting elected to high political office, as the movement sweeps into government at all levels, banning books, prohibiting mention or fracism or gay people in pubblic schools, forcing the Bible and Ten Commandments into schols by legislation, turning the Republcan party into a grotesque charicature of its former self, an extremist, un-American, anti - democratic, fascst organization, with the criminal Donald Trump as the iconic leader. That fact in iteslf should tell you all you need to know about the true character, moral standards, and intellectual quality of these extremest, radical fascist Chrstian Nationalists.

Trump, Faking

THE TRUTH about the presidential campaign is that Kamala Harris hit the ground running, and not only hasn't stopped, but hasn't slowed down. If anything she has gained momentum and speed, and still is. The day that Biden suddenly announced his withdrawal from the campaign, rejoiced, and am still rejoicing. I sense the same in other Democrats. Biden has been a good president, and history will record that, but for him, it was time to step aside. Biden would probably have been a better president several decades ago when he first started running; by the time he was actually elected, he was already too old, arguably. The moment Kamala entered the race, she was inundated by huge amounts of money by huge numbers of people, and still is. Her popularity is growing, as more and more people find out who she is, and learn more about her. Despite having been Vice President for four years, she remains a relative unknown, a relative newcomer to the national politial stage. America is liking what it sees. Advanced reservations for her events, her rallies with Tim Walz, are through the roof as is the attendance and demand for adamitance. It seems as if everyody in the country wants to see her and hear her. The reward is that she is not only beautiful, but dymanic, a dynamic speaker, highly educational and entertaining. Between now and the election less than three months away, she could probably schedule events nearly every day, draw huge crowds, and keep the positive spotlight on her. Trump is falling behind, and getting desperate. His lunatic rantings, lies, insults, accusations, the usual garbage, will almost certainly only increase as the days go on, he falls further and farther behind, and tries to capture some attention away from Harris and slow her momentum. It will not work. She is on her way to winning by a landslide, and litle or nothing can stop her. Trump's crowds are decreasing, as is his support base, and are much smaller and less enthusiastic than Kamala Harris's. Falsely, crazily, Trump claimed that her crowds were,are, "fake". Precisely what he meant by that he of coruse did not, and could not say. Is the Harris campaign paying people to attend her rallies, people who other wise would have no interest in attending, possibly even Trump supporters? Maybe her events are infected with trouble making Trump supporters. Are her crowds being enhanced in terms of size by computer generated images of people who appear to be there, but aren't? It is difficult, indeed impossible to imagine or design a system in which Kamala Harriss's crowds, as shown on television, are "fake". American women haven't even fully hopped on board the Harris campaign, but will. Voter registration of women in the eighteen to thirty five age group has become heavy all across America's fruited plain, as women who had previously checked out of the system, unhappy and unenthusiastic about two garrulous old men running for president, suddenly become motitaved and involved when a younger, more attractive, more dynamic women steps in. Trump's behavior over the next few weeks, and that of his MAGA mob, need to be closely monitored. He lies need to be identified, and he needs to be held accountable for them, and for his false accusations and insults. As Trump becomes more desperate, comes closer and closer to losing the election and facing justice in criminal court for his attempt to steal the last election a ovetthrow the government, he will be willing to ao anything to avoid his ultimate fate, long term incarceration. That might include more organized violence, of which his cult is certainly capable, as they have already demonstrated. It happened once. The rest of us, patriotic Americans, must make sure it never happens again.

Climate Change: An Overriding Concern

THERE ARE MANY REASONS not to vote for Republicans this November. Over the next few weeks, many of them will be discussed. The fact that a msjority of registered Republicans still insist that the election of 2020 was stolen from Trump, and that the insurrection of 1/6/21 was justified, you might think, is plenty reason unto itself. And indeed it is. Incredibly, however, even this overwhelming indictment of the Republican party is not the primary, most important reason to get it out and keep it out of power, preferrably, permanently. The overwhelingly urgent necessity of getting rid of the Republicans is their attitude and official platform position on the most improtant issue of the day, or of any day: climate change, human made. There is no other issue as important as, or close to being as important as, climate change. Compared to climate change, no other issue matters, because without solving climate change, we won't be around as a species to even worry about other issues and concerns and problems. In the current, official 2024 sixteeen page Republican party platform, there is no mention of climate change. Nothing. That is the offical position of the Repbulican party; ignore climate change. In other words, the Republican party platform officially, clearly advocates and endorses the suicide of the human species. There is no other way to describe it. It is absolutely incredible and terrifying that in this late year of twenty twenty four, any major ploitical party would make such an omisson. And, worse, it is a matter of confirmed fact, repeatedly confirmed by survey after survey, poll after poll, that a majority of registered Repbulicans say that climate change is a hoax, a scam, a lie, that it is not happening, or that if it is it is entirely because by natural forces, and human activity has little or nothing to do with it. An amazingly self delusional point of view. If Trump and a majority Republican Cnogress is elected this November, it will be disastrous for humanity. All efforts to fight, regulate, control climate change will cease to exist. The E.P.A., for instance, would be legislated out of existence. So would all government agencis, entities, and laws designed to limit carbon pollution and trend America's economy and the econom of the entire world towards sustainable forms of energy, while developing systems to repair the damage already done, such as carbon sequestration, removing carbon from the atmosphere. Under Trump and the Republicans, the United States would stop all efforts to fight climate change, and return to a coal burning, oil burning, fossil fuel based economy, and we would all be, will all be, doomed. If we elect Trump and the Republicans, we are doomed. And that is not an exaggeration. The MAGA government would so forcefully pursue their entire agenda, that nobody in America, no organized political force or popular movement, would be able to stand up to it, and stop it. Climate change denial is a desperate defensive effort to preserve conservatism, and, avoid the necessity for change. The progressive policies, such as conversion to a renewable, sustainable energy economy, and forcing the corporations and the wealthy powerful to cooperate with these progressive policies, brings to the conservative mind people like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, and frightens them. If conservatives would change their view on climate change, and accept reality, and take appropriate action, they could remain in power, and lead a market based, conservative conversion to a sustainable planet. But this they refuse to do, and thus, must be voted out and kept out of power, for their own sake, and everyone's.

Trump, In Rare From, Speaking

DONALD TRUMP is back at it again, in rare form, as you might expect leading up to the big election. Trump is undoubtedly among the greatest in history at spouting absolutely incredibly hilariously idiotic remarks, up there in terms of raw talent with the likes of George Bush Sr., George Bush Jr., and Yogi Berra. Yogi Berra spoke wisdom,not lies and nonsense, but did it hilariously. The Republicans spew pathetic garbage. On the campaign trail the other day, at one of his rallies, Trump said that there is no way we can convert to using electric powered vehicles as a society, because we as a society do not have enough electricity. Yes, he really said that, incredible as it may seem. I actually heard him say it, and was, and still am, amazed. This one ranks right up there with the windmill cancer comment, George Washington's army capturing airports, and American friendship with Julius Caesar. What the former president does not seem to realize is that electricity is a renewable resource. There is an essentially unlimited amount of potential electricity in the world. We can make as much electricity as we choose, relatively cheaply and harmlessly. For Doanld Trump to not understand this, and to use this lack of understanding, aka ignorance, "stupidity" as the basie for a firmly held, strongly expressed funadmental policy opinion is, well, alarming, if not dangerous, catastrophic, and unacceptable. It is not surprising that as the election appraoches, Trump would be increasing the amount of whtever he does, and what he does is tell whoppingly huge blatant lies, hurls horrible slanders and insults, and makes inane, hilarious but pathetic remarks like the latest one about electricity ad electric cars. Nobody seems to be making much fuss about this, almost as if Trump has been doing this for so long and so often that it hardly merits attention anymore, so accustomed are we to it, and so normal it is. However, the thought of actually electing a person with this mentality, with thie cognitive disfucntion and level of mental illness back into the presidency should horrify every good, decent,intelligent citizen. Trump and the Republicans are indeed opposed to electric vehicles, and want to continue using fossil fuels, with the fossil fuel companies more profitable then ever, digging up as much coal and oil as possible, drill baby drill...in other words, national and planetary suicide. Trump and the Republicans do not believe in climate change, don't think we need to do anything about it, and do not intend to do anything about it, which is insane and suicidal. Trump, when president, was a disaster for the environment. The Biden administration repaired the damage done by Trump, and brought into existence the biggest, most comprehensive, best pro environment program to fight climate change so far. We must continue this, and keep doing more, to save ourselves, and our descendants. Electing Trump agian would be a complete and total disaster, for the country, and the world, simply because of climate change. That's why it is important to publicize all of Trump's idiotic misconceptions and false statements, to clearly demonstrate his cognitive incompetance. Considering how simple and easy to understand human caused climate change is,it is indeed frightening that not only do people refuse to understand it, hiding behind willful stupidity, but are actually willing to deny it, based on their stupidity. But anybody who thinks that the world is in danger of running out of electricity and can't possibly make enough of it is in a special category of stupid, dangerously stupid,and should never, ever, ever, under any circumstances, be allowed anywhere near the White House.

Purchasing Political Power, Perfidiously

ELON MUSK got a few people together, I don't know who or how many, for the purpose of getting Donald Trump elected. Billionaire white males, persumably, far right wing extremists like Musk, whose goal is to do whatever it take to return Donald Trump to the presidency this fall by defeating Kamala Harris. Presumaby they plan to do it with money, a large infusion thereof. Elon withdrew his forty five million per month pledge to Trump, maybe to design a more effective plan to purchase the presidency for the convicted criminal. Nobody knows how much money this Elon Musk group might raise or spend; currently it costs about a billion dollars, most of it advertising, to become president, but like everything else, that amount is inreasing, fast. Every presidential election is incredibly more expensive than the previous. It may be that this coming November Doanld Turmp is elected president with the assistance of ten billion dollars of campaign-advertising money. However, this is unlikely. Kamala Harris is even now building an unbeatable majority of broad based American support, and she will win. Our corrupt American political system, wherein teh presidency, and nearly all political power in this country, are bought and paid for by billionaires, has gotten out of control, far beyond acceptable limits. Our system is now utterly, entirely, corrupt. Pleased as I was with the overwhelming avalanche of money which came and keeps coming to Kamala Harris For President, I have sent nothing. It seems to me that if tens of millions of "little" people, people of limited modest financial means, gather together, become a powerful political force, and collectively send in small amounts of money from tens of millions of people, that the great grass roots movement, rather than helping or solving the corruption problem, has merely contributed to it by joining in it. Having said that, I must confess that I fervantly hope and pray that the Harris alz campai kgneeps raking in millions of donations and uses the immense amount of money to purchase advertising, and, the presidency. This only proves that I am also part of the problem, rather than the solution. Advertising is very expensive, and advertising is what sells, or wins political elections, especially the presidency. We the American people willingly submit to it, to propaganda and corporate hegemony, for some reason. The current system only strengthens and reinforces corproate ownership and control of not only the political system in the United States, but the nation as a whole.we the people must change that, and maybe, just mabye, in some way that I can't seem to see, this phenomenon of millions of people sending money to Harris - Walz to use fire to fight the economic fire of billionaires and corporate hegemoney and people like Elon Musk will result in the overthrow of coprorate power in the United states, and its replacement by a true, working class democracy and economic system. Maybe, but, somehow, I doubt it. A group of people, about a huandred I hear, got together for the purpose of opposing Elon Musk, especially hs management oof Twitter "X", bringing back right wing Trumpism is and other obscenity, and presumably opposing Musk's political endeavors as well. For this they organized, and started to pool resources. Then Elon filed a lawsut against the group, something about people organizing illegally to destroy his company and business. The group disbanded, realizing that it lacked the resources to oppose Musk in a prolonged, protracted court room battle. And that, in part, is exactly why I really don't think that the Democrats, with tens of millions of small donars, are overpowering or neutralizing our corporat hegemonic arrangement. I think we are merely enabling it,playing by its rules. We the people must change the rules, a process which will be arduous, and fraught with danger from corporate retaliation and retribution. That requires possessing political power. Donate to Harris today.

Continuing the Sandra Bullock Saga

SANDRA BULLOCK, or her surrogate, or her imposter, asked me for money. That, quite naturally, was a huge red flag. According to Wickipedia, Sandra is worth about a quarter billion dollars, one of the best paid Hollywood movie stars of the past generation, so when he, she, or it asked me to go to my local store and buy a game card for her two kids, my red flag, which had been raised from the beginning, was hoisted even higher. But it didn't end there. He, she, or it further told me that all her assets ahd been frozen by her manager, and that she had no access to her money. Then there was another request for help to get her phone activated, when she said she would call me. My previous position, that there was a high probability that I was talking to an imposter, was now firmly, I thought and think, established. You can see what's going on. The plan is to get as much money from as many men as possible, by tricking them out of it. You need a good way to attract men. Stealing a famous, glamorous identity accomplishes that,maybe. But it also creates a contradiction. By her vary nature, how likely is it that Sandra Bullock, (not that I know much about her, in fact I have never seen one of her movies), how likely is it that whe would ever need money, for anything, for any reason, from somebody on Facebook? That in iteslf kinda destroys what little credibility there was. Sandra Bullock is immensely wealthy, and donates millions to charities.The only rationale for her asking for small amounts of money online is "momentarily indisposed", and that doesn't last. It expires fast. A better strategy would probably have been to simply invent an entirely new personna, using a beautiful woman for the image, and go with that. Since I have no experience in scamming people online, nor anywhere else, I have no idea whether it is more difficult and more work to steal the identity of a famous person, and to become an imposter, or to simply create a new identity, or possibly, to steal the identity of a relatively unknown person? I have kept up my communication with this Sandra Bullock imposter long enough, certainly, to fully expsoe the person, whoever it it, and to give Facebook, law enforcement authoriteis, or whomever, plently of time, ceratainly to track the person down, take action, remove the ildentity, and proceddd with criminal charges. Sandra and I have repeatedly expressed our undying love for each other. Surely we can assume that it is indeed illegal to impersonate Sandra Bullock or anybody else on the internet. Surely we an assume that it happens all the time, and that eventually, it is taken care of, in every instance. It continues to amaze me the high percentage of people who message me on Facebook end up wasking me for money, or trying to trick me out of my money, either by posing as an oficial notifying me that I have been awarded a huge free government grant, or by telling me that she loves me, but needs financial help. The old love trap scheme. It almost seems as if, if a message pops up, and somebody says "hello", a scam attempt in about to happen. The first thing I said to the alleged Sandra Bullock is that anybody can claim to be Sandra Bullock on a computer screen. Immediately, the authentic looking driver's license popped up, Sandra Bullock, Beverly Hills, California. It was very impressive, to me, in terms of its professional appearance. Fake driver's licenses can indeed be produced, obviously with a little skill and practice. The person or people impersonating Sandra Bullock did their research. The names of the kids, the details generally, all seem to be in order. It isn't difficult to do that kind of research. I did my own fair share, enough to convince me that the real Sandra Bullock is indeed an amazing and wonderful person, eminently worthy of my having fallen in love. She shall henceforth and forever more be my special love, even though she'll never meet me nor even know of my existence. Being an imposter requires sufficient effort to make one wonder why anyone would actually do it. Too much time, not enough life, maybe. You also womder about the future of human civilization and culture, in a world of shifting, unreal identities. That is a matter for futurists and science fiction writers to examine. And, as they say, it'll all come out in the wash.

Keeping My Money, Staying Single on Facebook

AS PREVIOUSLY MENTIONED, I use Facebook to promote this website, and to distribute negative but factual information about Trump and conservatism. Both uses, I believe, have been, to a certain extent, effective. I have never tried to form a friendship with anyone on Facebook, nor to initiate any sort of contact with anyone. Often I comment on other people's posts, usually ones I agree with. My most oft used word on Facebook is "precisely". Also, I do a lot of sharing, mostly what I consider to be beautiful photographs and art; of cats, big and small, scenic vistas, other animals, etc. I really enjoy knowing that I am spreading good material to others. Not long after I joined Facebook seven or eight year ago, my list of "friends" started to grow, and grow fast. Many former students of mine found me, plus a lengthening list of fellow left wingers. People of similar political persuasion rapidly coalesce into groups and "bubbles" online, as is well known in our polarized society. I encourgaged my list of Facebook friends to grow, strongly. My reasoning was and remains that the more people I have on my friends lst, the more effective my twin projects, promoting this website, and spreading bad vibes about Trump, will be. There is evidence that there is a certain amount of truth to this. Possibly because of this I receive a great number of pop up messages on Facebook, which I can divide into two categories: men who want to scam me, and women who want to scam me. Sandra Bullock, as indicated in a previous article, got in touch with me, either Sandra herself or a clever imposter who showed me a very convincing copy of a California driver's license. She, or her imposter, still comes a around, although I suspect that the whole affair might be wearing a bit thin, from both ends. I still say it could go either way; impooster, or the real Sandra, with the odds favoring the imposter. Either way, it will provide good material for a while, and, after all, that's what I came for. Ninety nine percent of all the women who message me out of the blue on Facebook messenger eventually ask me for money, which, for some reason, still amazes me. Perhaps I underestimate the degree to which human females inherently are hard wired to leverage their sexual appeal for material gain and security. I almost wish I had kept track of all the requests for money I have gotten from young attractive women on Facebook. The total would be staggering, maybe in the millions of dollars. I could have bankrupted myself long ago, but can proudly and parsimoniously assert in all honesty that I have never sent anyone money on the internet, and never will. I may be stupid and gullible, but I sure as hell aint that stupid and gullible. When they dont get any money out of me, they lose interest. Oh well, my loss. You hope that all this is not an indication of the moral state of affairs throughout contemporary American society, although you suspect that it might well be. Or the level of desperation, poverty, health, and homelessness. I never in my life would have imagined that so many young, beautiful, American women were starving to death, being evicted from their homes, or dealing with serious illnesses to themselves or loved ones. I joined Facebook with an already negative, cynical attitude about meeting people and finding love on the internet, based on my experiences with AOL and chatrooms a quarter century ago. Those of a certain age might recall this. My coldness and indifference probably show through more than I think. That's probably just as well; I'm still single, but at least my bank account, such as it is, remains intact.

Progressing

THE BATTLE LINES have been drawn, not that both parties have their ticket in place. Kamala Harris made a good choice, even though Minnesota probably would vote for her no matter what, and Pennsylvania might not. Watz brings a good solid unabashedly progressive resume, and a go getting upbeat forceful personality to go with it, the type of intellegence and personality that can whip either of the Republican canddates. In terms of intelligence, quickness on feet, ability to argue, Harris and Watz, quite obviously, have it all over Trump and Vance. Harris and Watz both have dynamic, positive personalities, great personal records of service, and a boatload of great ideas which only need to be presented to the country, and compared with what Trump has to offer, to win over America, and win the election. Trump and Vance never laugh or smile. Trump and Vance are a pair of zombies, spouting prepackaged hatred and venomous lies. They both go off script and burst out with irrelevant insults, crazy conspiracy theories, and blatant lies. Vance got his childless adult cat woman notion in his head, and couldnt let go of it. It made no sense, solves nothing. It gets worse. Evidently, shockingly, J. D. Vance is one of these religious fanatics who actually tries to maintain biblical viewpoint about all things, including the family and marriage. Accordingly, all marriages must be preserved, no matter what. Women must remain in an abusive marriage, no matter how bad the abuse. And, it goes without saying, gay marriage, same sex marriage, is, in the twisted arahaic world of J.D. Vance, an abomination. This, of courrse, is pure insanity, but central to J.D. Vance's way of thinking. Amazing, that such a backwards person could even be considered as a candidate for vice president on a major party ticket. Welcome to American conservatism, and the Rpublican party, 2024 eidtion...Trump's rambling screeds at his rallies are inchoherent, spewing only pure raw anger and hatred, to the delight of his brain numbed sycophants. Trump is pretendng to be thrilled at the addition of Governor Watz; he'll change his mind soon enough, if not publicly. The one single argument which Trump plans to use against the Democrats is apparently that they are extremely liberal, much too liberal, and would therefore destroy the country. The very fact that Trump and the Republicans are choosing this approach clearly demonstrates that they have no effective opposition to provide. They are out of ideas, intelletually and morally bankrupt, thrashing about, looking desperately for a way to win, even as Harris pulls ahead of Trump in the polls, a litte bit more every day, getting a lead she will never relenquish. In truth, it is Trump and the Republicans who offer the extremist, radical agenda. An extremist far right wing conservative regresssive agenda of returning America to a less tolerant, more rigid, less diverse time. Racism is a core value of Donald Trump, a core value of American conservatism, a core value of the current Republican party, and, unfortunately, a traditional core value of America itself, much as we might like to pretend otherwise. By embracing minorities, including the LGBTQ community, the Democratic party has positioned themelves as the antithesis to racism, anti immigrant sentiment, and anti minority ideology. That's why Kamala Harris is the perfect candidate to run against Trump; she opposes perfectly his anti minority racist ideology. Economically, socially, in every possible way, the Trump Republican agenda is taylored for the wealthy white elite, for a Christian nationalist patriarchy, traditional values of a bygone era. "Progressive" means precisely that; progress. Moving away from the repressive social norms of the past, opening up opportunity to all, incluiding ethnic minorities and LGBTQ people. This "Project 2025" insanity, which conservative evangelical America embraces, advocates a strictly enforced heterosexual Christian culture with a government packed with conservative extremists, enforcing their reactionary agenda. When a large majority of the American people actually become aware of the differences in the two parties, the difference between progressive plans for the future and the right wing regression back to the past, the electorate will be shocked and horrified at the possibility of Trump winning, and will reject him strongly, once and for all. Do we fight climate change, or keep burning coal? Do we accept gay people, or lock them up? Do we embrace religious freedom and tolerance, or impose Christianity by law? Basic questions, important qustions, with starkly different answers indeed.