Trump, Winning California With Jesus

JUST WHEN YOU THINK Donald Trump couldn't possibly say anything stupider than the stupid things he has already said, (and he has said many stupid things over teh years), he outdoes himself, and says something ever stupider. In a recent interview with Dr. Phil, Trump clearly, indisputably said that if Jesus wer to come back,he, Trump, would win the state of California in this November's presidential election. I happened to hear him make this incredibly stupid comment, and wa so amazed at first that anybody would actually say something like this that I listened to it again,just to make sure. He said it, alright. It is tempting to assume that Trup, in saying this, was trying to firm up his support among conservative evangelical Christian political extremist religious fanatics, which is one of Trump's strongest support bases, amazingly. By now Trump may have figured out that he isn't going to attract any new supporters; anyone on Trump's side is already there, there will be no more, no reinforcements. Trump is left to make do with what he has, and best serves himself by trying as best he can to fortify existing support. presumably Trump wouldn't expect Chrits to return as second for the purpose of committing massive election fraud by using divine powers to rig the election, to steal it for the Don. Presumablyw hat Trump means is that he really will get more votes in California this November than Kamala Harris, and will be the legitimate winner, but that, without a divine invervention by the Lord Jesus Christ, the election will be stolen by Harris and the Democrats, presumably in the precise manner that it was rigged and stolen from Trump in twenty twenty; however that might have possibly been. No one seems to know. No one seems to know exactly how the presidential election was stolen in twenty twenty, and nobody can explain how California and presumably mnay oher states, will be stolen from Trump again, later this year. Trumpis asserting that in he event of Jesus's return, he would see to it that there was no election fraud, and would perhaps take over the vote counting process himself, and count every vote accurately, which accoring to Trump would result in a majority vote fo rhim, in a state in which Democrats in recent years have enjoyed a sixty percent majority. Hilarious though Trump's comment is, it is also, like so many of his other hilarious comments, crazy, alarming, and delusional. So far, no reaction to it from his constituents, none is expected. If anybody has long become inured to Trump's escapades, surely it is they. This is yet another alarming aspect to Trump's political career; the deree and extent to which his supporters are willing to suspend belief in sanity, and to either ignore, or actually passively accept all Trump's utterances, no matter how unhinged, as truth, if not goepel. In the previous essay, "Fighting Democracy", the statement is made that if Trump is elected president in November, 2024, Democracy will have failed. The argument could be made that if Trump is indeed elected president again, that not only will democracy have succeeded in electing Trump, that it will have done so democratically, according to the rules. But in every functioning democacy, there should be safeguards against the electorate electing an incompetant, mentally or physically unift person to any position of political power, as the founders intended. If no such safeguard prevents a man of Trump's obvious diminished mental health from becoming president of the United States, democracy, quite obviously, has failed to do its job completely, or effectively.

Fighting Democracy

INCREASINGLY, citizens, philosophers, and scholars are speaking and writing about the various threats to democracy in the United States. We are told, by people of the highest sincerity, integrity,and powers of observation, that liberal, secular democracy is indeed gravely threatened in America, and may not survive. The threat comes from teh far right wing of the conservative American political spectrum. It is embodied in the upsurge of right wing populism, with its authoritrian tendencies, and exemplified by the Trump movement. Since Donald J. Trump and his agenda clearly matches that of his MAGA members, but not a majority of American voters, democracy is simply not an effective way to get and keep Trump in power, and allow the implementation of his America-first anti-immigrant xenophobic socially regressive agenda. It must be installed by other means, means which can and may, according to pro -Trump advocates, include insurrection and violence. We have already seen examples of this, of course. Trump's supporters would seemingly glady accede to Trump's being installed as a virtual dictator, as long as he doesn't suddenly do an about face, and become a compassionate, progressive liberal, which seems quite unlikely. This threat to democracy is being much discussed and written about. Among the most recent and best scholarly works on this topic is "Where Tyranny Begins: The Justice Department, The FBI, and the War On Democracy", by Pulitzer Prize winning author David Rohde. Rohde uses new research to prove that during the Trump administration, bullying tactics by Trump, wrapped in conspiracy theories, threats, and lies, were used in intimidating high ranking officials in both the D.O.J. and the FBI, the two most powerful and largest law enforcement agencies in the United States, into becoming essentially instruments of President Trump's political will. Attorney Generals Jeff Sessions and William Barr both fell victim to this Trump plot to make both agenices dependant on him personally, rather than independent, as they were intended to be. The author recalls reforms passed by Congress in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal in the nineteen seventies which led to greater independence for both, and a strengthening of democracy, and strongly suggests that we have now entered another era in which reforms, which only Congress can provide, are once again desperately needed to rebuild democracy. Rohde reminds us of Bill Barr, newly the leader of the D.O;.J., meekly issuing a brief, misleading statement which totally understated the severity of the results of the Mueller investigation into Trump's relationship with Russian operatives in his election campaign 0f 2016. Barr was quite obviously working entirely at the behest of Donald Trump, not serving justice or the American people. He further reminds us that the Biden adminstration, in its attempt to restore the independence and democratic integrity of the Justice Department under Merrick Garland, that the D.O.J. failed, in their restored impartiality, to hold Trump accountable for his criminality in time for prevent him from once again running for president, and preventing the possibility of his actually becoming president again, from manifesting. If Donald Trump wins the 2024 presidential election, democracy in America will have failed. Basic justice and the democratic process should not allow someone who has previously attempted to illegally remain in political power by overthrowing the federal government and the results of a fair and free election to again become president. That it very will might do precisely that should be extremely alarming to all good Americans.

Alexa, Speaking Up

MY FRIEND picked me up for church, and when we arrived we sat and drank coffee in the cafeteria-lounge for a few minutes before the service. He laid his phone on the table, then played with it for a minute. I asked him about his week end trip. He said he had enjoyed it, and was glad he had Siri to help him get there. He pointed at the phone. I mentioned that I had heard a lot about somebody named "Alexa". My friend said that Alexa is another AI computer lady, who does the same job as Siri; gets people where they need to go. We sipped our coffee, relaxing, when suddenly a voice came from his smart phone on the table. It said, roughly; "French pronouns have a gender, but I do not". It was a female voice, Alexa, I thought, telling a blatant lie. My friends and i looked at each other, and I asked "Did that just happen?"..Yes it did, he said. From that point on, my memory becomes a bit of a blur, even though this strange but true incident happened only yesterday. As I vaguely recall, I tried to elicit an explanation from my friend, and I cannot remember what he said,so, it must not have impressed me. It was af if Alexa, or whoever lives in his phone, was listening to our conversation, heard her name mentioned, and decided to respond. The response, lacking any real context, was arbitrary,and non sequitor. The computer program simply did not know precisely how to respond, but only that its name had been mentioned. I do recall my friend saying something like: "they say that everything we say and do might be recorded by our digital devices". At that point, the possibility didn't really seem so fantastic to me. I started thinking about Artificial Intelligences and smart phones. I recalled many years ago, when it was standard knowledge that no computer in the world could beat a good chess player, but that computer people working on chess playing programs for computers, especially at IBM, which was talking aobut its new super computer, "Big Bue". By now I suppsoe that Big Blue is long since retired, perhaps gathering dust in some basement storage area at IBM heqdquartiers, gathering dust, probably less powerful, if reactivated, than your average smart phone. But finally computers got to the level where a good chess playing computer could beat a good human chess player, then, a computer could beat a chess grand master, and then, finally, the point was reached, not surprisignly, at which any old computer could beat the greatest chess players who ever lived, everytime. So I asked his friend whether his cell phone, whether anyone and everyone's cell phone, could beat the world chess champion, every time, now? He said that he didn't think so, didn't think the computer AI revolution was quite that far along...yet...My question now, and I think this question might well be on the minds of many people, is: precisely how far along are "we" now, Atificial Intelligence-wise? Do human beings, of any level of ability, ever beat computers in chess anymore? Will a human being ever beat a computer in chess, or anything else, again? I have a recurring thought of Artificial Intelligence, in the future, designing for themselves human-like bodies which resemble people so closely as to be indistinguishable from real people, multiplying, organizing, taking over the world, then asking themselves: "Is there any reason to keep these soft, squishy, breakable organic humans around any longer"? That's a terrifying thought, because we all know what the answer is.

Marrying Strangely

I LIVE IN THE BIBLE BELT, and the left end of my F.M. radio is loaded with Christian stations, stacked up on the low numbers like kindling in the corner of the barn. You wouldn't think there'd be a market for that many, but, there must be. They seem redundant to me, indistinguishable from each other. I also live in a booming area in terms of population growth, so, there's pretty much a market for anything and everything, including a religion in decline, membership wise. In a way, I need to tune in more. In a way, I don't. Its basically all talk, although some of them play a lot of gospel and pop religious music. What they say amazes me, as predictable as it is, as many times as I have heard it. Most amazing to me is this rock solid committed marriage between fundamentalist evangelical Christianity in America and far right wing conservative extremist politics. Obvious though it is that the message of Jesus is good ole woke socialist LGBTQ liberalism, America's most devout Christians, quite incorrectly, have married their faith to the political far right. Some ole boy with hillbilly accent, doubtless a bible college professor, was warning us that if Donald Trump and the Republicans aren't elected in November, that the country will be doomed. Electing Harris and the Democrats will destroy the country, destroy everything built up over two hundred years with the blessings of the founders themselves. If you ask them how in God's name they can complain about Democrats lying and still support Trump, you know you'll get a bunch of convoluted malarky, such as Trump has his wild side but basically has the right ideas malarky. Trumpers can and have long since twisted, turned, rationalized Trump's constant, pathological lying and criminal behavior, minimalizing it, marginalizing it, ignoring it. These religious fanatics on the radio see Trump as super patriotic, a defender of America's basic values such as Christianity, patriarchy, white supremacy, neo-liberalsim, cultural conformity. To follow Jesus, they of course should become democratic socialistss and endorse Bernie Sanders, but are incapable of understanding this, due to self deluding. The evangelical conservative American electorate wants to elect these Trumpers, and imose their religious and social Darwinistic agenda on the nation, alarmingly. Unfettered free market capitalism, fundamentalist Christianity. Quite a mix. These radio preachers, and one senses the entire movement they represent, consider creeping proressive liberalism and secularism the greatest threats imaginable to the country, deadly enemies of civilization, decency, and the American way. Secular radical socialism liberalism is even now spreading across God's land and people, and has nearly taken over, like a plague, but must be stopped. Now is the final chance to stop it, and Trump is the final hope. Trump is the choice of God and Jesus.... This is the insanity with which I observe these mentally ill folks have been infected and afflicted. Listening to them can be alarming, as well as infuriating and confusing, which is perhpas why more discerning people who disagree with them should listen to them, and respond to them. It is a fact that the evangelical conservative community is shrinking, and will continue to shrink. Similarly, Trump's cult is getting no bigger,and is probably shrinking. There are no new Trump supporters. But there are old ones, leaving. WE are going to live in a future of freedom, tolerance, and diversity of religion, sexual orientation, race, and ethnicity, and gender equality, fighting climate change, despite what these right wing religious extremists say or do. They had better say it now, while they still can. We'll respond to them.

Beating A Dead Horse

THE FAMOUS International Panel On Climate Change (IPCC) is of course a United Nations organization which gathers massive amounts of data about the weather conditions all over the world every day of every year, organizes it into trends and patterns and comparative data, and from that arrives at an assessment of exactly how, and how much climate change the world experiences in any given year. The IPCC is the organization which has been telling us every year it seems, for the past few years, that the most recent year was the hottest on reord, in terms of global temperature averages. Every year, hotter than the previous. In 2023, for isntane, the average global temperature was approximately sixty two point seen five degrees, which, we are told, makes it the hottest year on record. Records date back about a hundred and fifty years, we are told, although we do have a fair amount of information about the climate in most parts of the world before then. We know, for isntance, that the period between roughly fifteen hundred and eighteen fifty was a miniature ice age. The frequetly used argument by climate change deniers, that the Earth's climate is constantly changing naturally, without any help from humans, is, of course, quite true. We can estimate big changes in the climate all over the world dating back thousands of years, partly by examining fossil evidence. What climate change deniers fail to take into account, refuse to take into account, is the simple but obvious fact that the mere fact that the climate changes naturally does not prevent humans from simultaneously changing it artifically. There are two kinds of climate change; natural, and human made, and both are in full operation, at the same time. The IPCC is not the only organization closely studying climate change and reporting the results. There are in fact many others, as humanity becomes increasingly aware of the importance of dealing, somehow, with this unfolding environmental cataclysm. There is an organization of climate scientists in at least sixty countries which issued its annual report earlier last week, and, much like the IPCC report, was not good. Results from every study in the world tend to verify each other, to confirm findings form all other slimate change studies, in accordance with the tried and true scientific method, according to which all experiments and research studies must be independently confirmed, repeatedly, redundnatly, to be accepted as fact. The scientific method, despite the disrespect some accord it, works like a veritable charm, every time. It is easy to measure the carbon content in the atmosphere, and it is easy to understend, that if an abundance of carbon is added to the atmosphere, much more of the sun's heat is absorbed, and the climate warms up. Any other outcome is impossible. You don't have to see a hammer hit the ground to know what happens when you drop it. And yet, we are already seeing and feling climate change, in our own lives, with our own eyes. More very year, we are seeing it, plainly, as the scientific results of measurments confirm it. Refusing to believe that climate chagne is real becomes more dificult, more ludicrous, crazier, every year. We have beaten the climate change horse to death, so often have we studied it, measured it, and continue to do so, redundantly. The only new thing we have learned lately is that the change is happening much more rapidly than we had previously believed, so repidly that we who are still living are already experiencing it, and will experience it much more before we die, and leave the nightmare to our descendants. Until then, shouldn't we do all we can to make things easier for them, such as find and implement solutions?

Turning the Tables

ACCORDING TO DONALD TRUMP, Kamala Harrris is an extremist left wing radical socialist communist who wants to open the border and let thousands of rapists and muderers in to do their thing. In other words, Donald Trump is doing his thing; lying pathologically, spewing verbal garbage, and getting worse. A Trump apologist allowed as that Donald engages in hyperbole, for effect, but that he also tells the truth a lot, a phenomenon only he has likely noticed. The notion that Donald Trump ever tells the truth, much less tells it often, is of course, laughable, delusional..... The best they can do in attacking Harris, it is becoming obvious, is to accuse her of being liberal - as if there were anything wrong with that. Conservatives succeeded in turning the word "liberal" into an insult, by repeating, loudly and often, the big lie that liberalism is a bad thing. What better time than now to "turn the tables", and hammer the word "conservative", like a thin sheet of fool's gold, into a new shape; of bad ideology, an epithet, an insult. For example: Which is "common sense",and which is "radical"? Kamala Harris, that Democrats, and liberals (progressives) want to maintain, sustain,and strengthen Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Trump, Republicans, conservatives want to cut them all, or eliminate them entirely. Which of these two starkly contrasting points of view is common sense, and which, pray tell, is radical? The answer seems apparent. Another example: Democrats, progressives in general are pushing the panic button about climate change, insisting that it is a deadly threat, and that we must take drastic action immeditaely in order for our descendants to live and survive. Conservatives, Republicans, a majority of them, insist that climate change is either a complete hoax, or that if it is happpening, it is happening only because of natural forces of nature beyond human control or influence. Science and scientists tell us in no uncertain terms that indeed climate change is real, and that it is, beyond all doubt, caused by human activity. They are ready, willing, and able to clearly prove it, to anyone willing to listen. Again, which of these two totally opposing points of view is common sense and which is radical? Trump recently referred to conservative agenda as "common snnse", and he constantly, repeatedly calls the progressive agenda "radical", thus, we us those terms here. Simply paying attention to the weather, over a period of months and years, in most locaations, is enough to convince observant people that the cliamte has indeed and is changing, dramatically, and fast. When every scientist in the wofld, esentially, tells us that indeed it is, and tells us exactly why, its common sense to believe it, and radical nonsense to deny it. For example: A quick look at this "Project 2025" craziness is sufficient to persuade most people that the far right wing agenda in America is nothing short of radical, crazy, lunacy. Establishing Christianity as oficial in America, persecuting LGBTQ people, treating undcumented immigrants like criminals and hostile invaders, turning the American president into an authoritarian ruler, dismantling and eliminating alll government regulation pertaining to the environment and economy - and many many more insane, idiotic ideas are included in the plans from the Heritage Foundation, Project 2025, right wing extremist America, Trump and his MAGA gangster cult. Policies and issues are the main reason why Trump and the Republicans must be defeated in November for the sake of America, Trump's huge criminality, various mental illnesses, including pathological narcissism and age related cognitive decline, while important, are actually of seconcdary importance. Lord have mercy on us.

Online Banking

I DONT GET NEARLY AS MANY pop up messages on Facebook messenger as I used to, because I haven't been accepting, or dealing with in any way, friend requets. Unless I'm miscounting, there are now nearly two hundred waiting for my rapt attention, on hold. I may never get to them. Not long after I signed up for Facebook just to check it out, I realized that if I wanted to use the platform to promote this website, I would benefit by having as many "friends" as possible. In a few months I reached the five thousand limit, and as far as I can tell, I have assembled a fairly impressive group of left wing anti-Trump progressives, which is what I am. Go figure. Of the several hundred pop up messages I have received overall, they come in two types; men wanting to scam me, and women, wanting to scam me. The men, (women do this too) almost always ask me how I am doing, how my day is going, they tell me that they are either having a hard time or a good time, strongly, dramatically, for effect, then, they ask me whetehr I have ever heard of a federal grant program from such and such an agency, for which I could apply, and get free grant money. I used to talk briefly to them, and they always had a well rehearsed scam ready to exploit me with. Easy paperwork, big money, free. I got to the point where I just started them that I was recording our chat and would share it with law enforcement; that almost always shuts them up. They vanish, and never return. The woman are always young and atractive, according to the pictures they send, ans they always start asking me personal questions. They assure me that they are very attracted to me, then, they ask for money. This, from almost all of them, almost all young attractive women. Some of them include interesting conversations, and the reason I answer all pop up messges from everybody is, for one thing, courtesy, and, for another, curiosity. If nothing esle , I have accumulated a lot of material which I can use in essays, articles, or, maybe, a book. They, the young attractive ladies, almost always get mad at me when I tell them they have to visit this website to see my picture, and they nearly always get mad at me when I tell them that I absolutely do not, under any circumstances, send momey to anybody on the internet. I ry to reason with them that it would be better to borrow or be given money from somebody they already know, in person, which of course for them is impossible, since their plan is to receive money from a stranger on the internet from whom thay can get the money, then, disappear, or get more money later, as many times as possible, then, disappear. For these are scam artists. They all have a good story. Their grandmother died, again, or a parent, or there is a medical emergency for them or for their cat or dog. The most creative one? A young attractive lady recently asked me for a Cash App gift of thirty dollars - to purchase a sanitary napkin, or a Tampon, or a package of Tamons, or whatever. Seemingly her period approaches, and she has none. I deferred by usng the lame argument that she could undoubtedly get this item wherever she lives, because wherever it is, there are other people living there, including women. Also, I opined, it would be better to get help of this kind from another woman, somebody you already know in person, rather than from a virtual stranger on the internet. I am always surprised, for some reason, how ineffective arguments fo this kind are. They jsut keep arguing with me. and I tolerate it, taking notes all the while and getting good material for future essays. Well, if you can't help me, I guess I'll just have to starve to death. Wouldn't you just love to be told that? Or the one i got a week or so ago, from a woman a I hardly knew, but to whom I had expressed attraction for the picture of the person, perhaps herself, she had sent me. In all caps, she screamed: "Youre wicked and stingy!". Interesting, and rather demanding, set of moral values there; if somebody asks you for money on Facboook, and you decline, you are suddenly wicked, and stingy. That sets the bar so high even Jesus would have a hard time rising to that level. As I recall, she didnt want money for some life or death medical emergency, but rather, to pay her phone bill, or keep her internet conncected, or something...I find that overall I kinda pefer this seemingly more honest approach..But if you want a few dollars to use to buy more minutes for your smart phone, you're gonna have to come knock on my door to get it.

MAGATs, Defecting

A MAJORITY OF AMERICANS strongly dislike Donald Trump. That is evident in every poll, especially those concerning negative opinions about candidates. And at this point, after more than nine years of Trump in politics, anybody who is going to like and support Trump already does. Trump, at this point, is not gaining any new supporters, but rather, struggling to hold on to those he already has. Trump, at this point, is playing exclusively to his base, while trying to make some appeals to undecided voters by making ludicrous claims about how much better a president he was than Biden. Some Trump supporters have, at long last, had enough, and are defecting, are actually supporting Kamala Harris. All across America's fruited plain, small "Republicans for Harris" groups are sproutig up. In any city of any size whatsoever in the United States, there is most likely such a group. This, of course, does not bode well for Trump. Many of the leaders of this "dump Trump" movement are among his formerly closest supporters, assistants, associatses, and advisors, who finally heard enough, and had enough. At the Democratic National Convention, several of them are on the speaker's list, preparing to give unflattering speeches about Trump, enumerating the reasons why they decided to abandon Don the Con and work for Harris. At least one formerly close associate stated that in private, behind closed doors, Trump often makes fun of his followers, implying that they are mindless robots, easy for him to control.The most interesting aspect of this is that most of these MAGA defectors seem to indeed be actively supporting Kamala Harris, rather than, say, simply choosing another conservative Republican to support immediately. They are taking the pragmatic approach; they understand that Harris is the only current alternative to Trump. Quite naturally, predictably, the remaining MAGA cult instantly despises and casts out the defectors, calling them "whores". If anybody should know what a whore is, one might suppose, it would probably be a Trump supporter. Trump supporters, after all, certainly know how to sell their souls, and their moral integrity. These ex- MAGATs are evidently desperate to keep Trump from being elected president again. They all seem to have arrived at the conclusion, shared by most sane Americans, progressives and Democrats, that Trump winning the election in November would be the worst thing that could possibly happen to these United States of America. They must know something we don't know, such as, what kind of president Trump plans on being and would be, the second time around. The comments which have emerged and are emerging from these people are illuminating and a bit shocking, but, considering Trump, not necessarily surprising. Trump indeed does, according to sources, intend to be much more than a mere president in the event of his reelection. He intends, in accordance with the now infamous "Project 2025" to be an autoritarian leader, after the fashion of his apparent hero and role model, Hungary's authoritarian dictatorial president, Viktor Orban. Trump praises Orban incessantly, in obvious admiration and envy. Trump recently suggested that many Americans dislike Viktor Orban because he is "so strong", in typical Trumpian verbal distortion. Actually, many, most Americans dislike Orban because he is a far right wing extremist authoritarian dictator, that's why. Membership across the country in these nascent anti-Trump Republicans is likely to grow over the next few seeks, enough, one might hope, to hammer in the final nail of the coffin of Trump's nefarious political career. Kamala Harris, at the Democratic Convention, said that the best way to render true justice for Donald Trump is at the ballot box this November. That, to an extent, is true. Bt Kamala Harris is a good enough prosecuting attorney to understand that true justice for Trump requires much more than merely loosing an election. It requires indictment, trial, conviction, and incarceration for a wide variety of serious crimes, or, in the case of treasonous insurrection, a firing squad. The Capitol insurrection of January 6, 2021, was a preplanned, organized, armed insurrection with the intent of violently overthrowing the United States government. What, according to conservative constitutional "originalist" legal scholars, do the framers have to say about that?

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.