Trump, Intending Harm, Doing Harm

IT IS THE EVIDENT INTENT of Donald Trump, with the apparent full support of not only the incoming Republican majority Congress, but the Republican party generally, to make cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicade, probably not for current recipients, but for future ones, people are are currently workng and paying into the fund, but not yet eligible to receive benefits. It is difficult to imagine the American electorate, especially that portion of it currently under the age of sixty five, having anything other than an unfavorable response to this. People currently between the ages of eighteen and sixty five are well aware that the Social Security trust fund is predicted to run out of funds within the next fifteen years, and are expressing doubts as to whether they, after having paid into into it their entire working lives, will ever reap any benefits of their hard work and sacrifice. A few simple solutions would remedy the problem, solutions such as raising the minimum retirement age. Delaying the start of Social Security and Medicare are not likely to inspire much support from current workers who see the number of years of their own retirement dwindling away, while their parents and grand parents enjoy relatively longer "golden years" of post career leisure. Trump's threat to slash the size of the federal government by ridding the bureauracy of hundreds of thousands of emplyees and slashing government services will prove to be unpopular among the people in general, not only among those losing their jobs and careers, but among those losing the services they provide. Over the previous decades, as the population of the United States has grown, so has the size of the federal government, so have the variety of services provided to a population in need of them, and paying taxes to receive them. Trump's stated objective to replace thousands of federal workers, among those remaining, with new people, based not on their qualifications for the positions they inherit but based only on their sworn loyalty to Donald Trump, seems destined to fruther reduce the competance and efficiency with whith those government services are produced and delivered. It has been said that the conservative aproach is to reduce or eliminate services to a hundred recipients in the fear that among them there might be one who does not deserve or qualify for them, while the progressive approach is to be willing to provide such services to a hundred people who do not qualify for them, to guard against the possiblity that by so doing one person might be prevented from "falling through the cracks", falling into poverty or going hungry. The number of people paying taxes to support the social welfare system is much greater than the number of recipients of the services provided, but the number of recipients is still quite large, and Trump's plans will affect them all. Taxes for middle and workng class Americans will not be cut; only the wealthy, according to Trump's plan, will get tax breaks, tax breaks they arguably simply do not need. The wealthy are greatlly outnumbered in the U.S. by people of modest means. As of now, numbers of voters and voting blocks and demographics still matter. It is not difficult to see that the number of people who will benefit by Trump's domestic agenda, which basically includes only the very wealthy, is far exceeded by the number of people who will by harmed by it. Despite the current euphoria and smug optimism of Trump's newly empowered MAGA minions, and despite the palpable despairing attitude current among those who oppose Trump, the numbers add up to an inevitable growing national discontent with the second Trump administration, a discontent of such proportions that it will be reflected in the opinion polls, and, ultimately, in the behavior of the electorate, and above all else, of elected politicians.

Making Music

MY OLDER SISTER, a retired professional musician who remains active in music among other civic activities, recently decided to become a dulcimer player. Her main instrument in the military band was the flute, and she still takes lessons, keeping her skills sharp. She has a fine piano in her living room,but doesn't play it. She says she lacks the ability to use her feet and hands simultaneously, a rationale which eludes me, since foot work on any piano is minimal. But now, the dulcimer. She acquired a copy of the string instrument, and away she has gone, into the world of quaint instrumental folklore culture. Whether she intends to sing while playing remains a mystery. I sing. Maybe we'll end up dueting, a latter day Simon and Garfunkel on dulcimer. Ever the dutiful little bro, I have been contacting local dulcimer players in my small town rural Arkansas local community, giving them my sister's phone number with her prior permission, and imploring them to reach out, and give the kid a break. A nice lady and forty year veteran of dulcimerism has consented to contact her, and to provide a presumed pep talk. So I started thinking about stringed musical instruments generally. I recall inventing one as a child, a thing made of cardboard and rubber bands, which never went viral,strangely. In theory the number of potential stringed musical instruments is equal to the number of hydrogen atoms in the known universe. All over the world, in every culture in every continent in both hemispheres, string instruments have been being invented since antiquity. And yes, the fiddle and the violin are the same thing, one from the British Isles, the other from Italy, played in different styles. One of my heroes, David (Davy) Crockett, played the fiddle, the other, Albert Einstein, played the violen. Both played well, in my estimation, despite critiques to the contrary by upscale, self important critics. Both were self taught, and both did it just for fun, which is the best possible reason to do anything. Einstein often joined in sting quartets, and played his Mozart part passably. He once overheard a neighbor lady playing alone, invited himself over, and joined her in a duet. On another occasion, he forget to bring his lecture notes to a scheduled lecture on relativity, but he gladly informed the audience that he had not forgotten his violin, and the scheduled leture morphed into a violin concert, of Einsteinian proportions, a thing of genius, to be sure. Legend has it that nobody demanded their money back. The King of the Wild Frontier took up the fiddle to alleviate the tedium and bordeom of sitting for hours in Congress listening to speeches, waiting for his time to stand and speak his immortal words into the congressional record. "Congressman, that don't make good sense. Hell, that don't even make good nonsense." Up and dwon Pennsylvania Avenue strode he in buckskins and a coonskin cap, fulfilling expectations, fiddlin', to the delight of the inevitable mob of teenagers following him from tavern to tavern. He got in, they didn't, usually. Davy died a heroe's death at the Alamo, fiddling for his trapped brothers until the very end. I hardly expect anything so dramatic from my sister and her new dulcimer. But given enough time, I have no doubt that she'll become a passably good dulcimer player. After all, she is a pro. And, after all the investment in time and energy I have made towards her fledgling new found musical career, the least I should exect is a dulcimer concert free of charge, later, if not sooner.

Denying...Reality

WE RESIST THE TRUTH, said Goethe, only because we fear that we would perish if we accepted it. We all, or certainly nearly all of us do this at point or other in our heavily fear based lives. Rare indeeed is the noble soul who accepts reality without reluctance. Modern psychology, a rather new science, has improved little upon Goethe's basic understanding of this human tendency and the reason for it, other than to confirm and verify it. I can recall the events of my early life that I might rather have pretended hadn't happened. The outcome of the 1964 World Series. My father's drinking, his womanizing, and his regular departures from home, as he returned to the mental hospital in which he was confined, but given frequent home visits from. My mother's emotional pain,my older sister's bullying. We suffer,and deny our suffering. I once had a lady friend who, at nineteen, was obviously pregnant, but who seemed unwilling to acknowledge the fact, at least to anyone else. All turned out well, however. She gave birth, and raised a wonderful daughter. All in all, I have done well, I think, at accepting and adjusting to reality. But the temptation to deny those unpleasant things has always lurked within me, as it lurks within...everyone. Conversely, whether entrenched deeply in denial or reality, humans derive confort from their beliefs, whether real or not. As Goethe said: "Habit is our sole comfort. We dislike doing without even those unpleasant things to which we have become accustomed". Psychologically, sociologically, mass denial, denial by large numbers of people, even whole socieities, presents an equally interesting phenomenon. Countires in the throes of catastrophic military defeat sometimes seem to deny the reality of their desperate situation. Even as foreign armies and navies surrounded and ammassed near their borders, preparing to invade, the civilian populations of Germany and Japan in World War Two remained persuaded by their delusional leaders that victory was within their grasp. Hitler, supposedly, late in the war, issued commands to military units and armies which no longer existed. The cult - and it is a cult - of Trump has obvious denial "issues" as we like to call difficulties these days. Despite Trump's return to power, its members still have difficulty grasping the reality of his election defeat in twenty twenty, so painful was it for them, seeing their great leader going down to defeat. Now they continue to deny his blatant, pervasive criminality and immorality. The forms of denial they manifest and display for us to see as the second Trump administration proceeds chaotically along will be a fascinating study in human psychology, if it doesn't get us all killed. The most popular, and perhaps destructive manifestation of denial today - and, be asssured, all denial of reality has consequences, often harmful - is denial of human made climate change. There are three basic stages of climate change denial. First, the denier insists that climate change is a hoax. A fabrication, perpetrated by the left leaning media, the "deep state", the Chinese, whomever. Whomever it takes. Anybody will do. Then, grudgingly,as reality is forced upon them and they dimly, slowly begin to accept it, the deniers admit that, yes, indeed the climate is changing, but deny that human activity is the cause. In this false paradigm, stage two, the climate is always changing, without human intervention, and humans are too weak and puny to have any impact on it, case closed. Climate change is being caused by changes in solar activity, in the Earth's orbit, or..something...again, anything will do. In stage three thirty billion tons of carbon injected into the atmosphere each year may be, may... be... partly responsible, but since India and China, the main culprits, are not cooperating with initiatives to mitigate the problem, there is little or nothing that we in the industrialized west can do for now. The religious add: and, in any event, the imminent return of the lord makes it all irrelevant and all the concern needless. We twist and contort ourselves intointellectual pretzels in our ceaseless resistance to uncomfortable, inconvenient realities. We protect and defend our ideologies of choice unto death. Ourhope, however,rests in the observaboe process, ongoing now, in which people, confronted with overwhelming, irresistable reality,begin to slowly accept it,as their minds gradually adopt and heal an begin to deal with the truth. We resist the truth only because we fear that we would perish if we accepted it.

Juxtapositioning, Conservatively

THE LIST is nearly too long, but not quite, and it could probably be longer. 1) Belief without proof. No doubt.One word: religion, the Christian kind.2) Loyality without truth: aka "Blind loyalty; Trump.3) Wealth without sharing. Say "TEA party". 4) Religion without caring. Jesus, and capitalism don't mix. 5) Women without voices. Pro life = forced birth. 6) Freedom without choices. Conservative conformimity of the cultural kind.7) Knowledge without learning. Again,faith and dogma over science and free inquiry. 8) Pride without earning. Proud to be an American. 9) Honor without service. Emphasis on social status based on wealth. 10) Order without justice. Mass incarceration. 11) Praise without critics. the MAGA cult. 12) Power without limits. Trump, first, and last............ This list of twelve juxtaposed concepts describes the conservative state of mind. Conservative minded peopple are far more likely to be religious than those of a liberal, or what we now call "progressive" mindset. Progressives are less religious, and more prone to seek answers and solutions in science, and to require scientific proof. Religious faith is a conservative, traditional vallue. Blind, unquestioning loyalty is also a tendency among conservative thinkers, to place trust in a religious text,religious figure, or political leader or demagogue. The MAGA movement clearly illustrates this. Capitalism,the economic system preferred by conservatives, emphasizes competition for and the accumlation fo personal wealth. Progressives are more inclined to embrace socialsim, in which wealth is shared, confiscated by taxation and gevernment mandated redistribution of wealth. By marrying the Christian religionto the capitalist system, conservatives manage of remove the socialistic component of the message of Jesus (render unto Caesar, give unto the poor) from their faith. The conservative "pro life" position takes power away from women, and gives it to the government. "Freedom without choices" can be applied to either ideology, conservative or progressive, but most aptly applies to conservatism in matters of social ideology and cultural matters. Conservative are far less tolerant of cultural diversity, for example, and much more intolerant of gay and transgender people, for instance. Knowledge is readily confined to dogma in conservative thinking, free thinking and inquiry is not as much emphasized. The phrase "proud to be an Amerian: bstindicates the idea of unearned pride. Patriotism is inherent in both right and left wing thinking, but more emphasized in conservative ideology, blind loyalty to one's country,regardless of the country's behavior. Honor and public esteem through personal achievement, rather than through selfless public service is more apparent in conservative thinking. Punishment as a means to achieve a crime free civil society, rather than rehabilitation, is a conservative hallmark. Sometimes, punishment can be too extreme,and self defeating, and opportunities for rehabilitation overlooked and ignored. Praise without critics and power without limits are of the same ilk,and go hand in hand. Both are apparent in the cult like manner in which MAGA Trump supporters regard their iconic leader,despite his many serious moral and legal shortcomings,and his obvious lust for unbridled personal wealth, fame, adoration,and power. The mere fact that Donald Trump is the current flag bearer for the conservative movement in America speaks volumes about the current state of American conservatism.

Steel, And We, Going Green

"GREEN STEEL", the term, evokes images, it almost seems, of cannibus fiber, tightly wound into rope or bundles, replacing the metals of which steel is traditionally made. What are they? Nickel,copper, aluminum, iron? Well, whichever. Previously steel sturctures, even skyscrapers, made of cannibus, if I aint mistaken, is something being considered. Cannibus has a amillion uses, other than smoking, and is, it almost seems, a wonder plant, which can save the world, and which we can wear as clothing, replacing cootton, which depletes the soil, with cannibus, which nourishes and enriches it. But no, green steel, apparently, refers to the manufacture of steel by obtaining the necessary energy from hydrogen fusion, or some form of hydrogen processing, rather than from coal fired plants, as has traditionally been the case. Whether that energy source can also replace the fossil fuel consumption needed to extract the various and sundry metals from beneath surface of the Earth to make steel was not detailed in the sources I consulted. But the whole point is innovation, substitution, replacement of primtive, harmful manufacturing processes with safe, efficient, environmentally harmless ones. The possibilities are amazing, and seemingly endless. Cannibus for paper,clothing, and heaven only knows what else. Wind and solar energy replacing coal, oil, and natural gas. Hydrogen fusion replacing nuclear fisson, nuclear fission being deadly dangerous on account of the radiation released which must be strictly controlled and contained, and on account of the spent nuclear waste, which must be disposed of safely somehow, somehow better than merely burying it beneath a barren mountain in New Mexico. People, called "downwinders", are still getting cancer left over from the above ground atom bomb testing which went on during and after World War Two in that aprt of the country. Predictably, the U.S. federal governemnt is reluctant to make due compensation, and is dragging its feet, as it has for decades, denying, defending, and deposing, or something like that. One might easily imagine advanced beings from worlds far away, invisible in orbit above the Earth, their spaceships and bodies made of light,fascinated by us, looking, observing, wondering and asking, why on Earth are these primitive but potential laden creatures below seemimgly deliberatley destroying their planet's ecosystem and thus themselves through their use of primitive, inefficient manufacturing processes, when, not only are much better, cleaner methods available to them, but, when they seem to not only be talking about these better processes among themselves, and they actually seem to have the ability to switch to them? And really, that's a good question, if a rather lengthy one. There are other good questions, unanswered. Precisely why on Earth have we not long since changed form fossil fuels to sustainable energy sources? Why is the United States, at this very moment, drilling for and pumping out of the gorund more oil than any country ever, including iself, at any time in human history at precisely the time when climate change is becoming worse by the day, and threatnes to overwhelm us within a few short years? We are, to put it crudely, eating and defacating in the same place, which, as any intelligent animal, such as as your cat, knows, is a very bad idea. The answer, dear reader, is "conservatism". Conservative thinking resists change and innovation, and respects and supports entrenched, traditional holders of power, and institutions such as large corporations, which posssess and wield to their economic advantage wealth, power, and privilege. And the answer, of course, is revolution, change on a revolutionary scale. For as Goethe truthfully said: "The world advances only because of those who oppose it."

Denying, Defending, Deposing

THE THREE WORDS have alliterative value, attractive to tyrants and their sycophantic subjects alike. It may be surmised that Brian Thompson, United Health, Inc. CEO, was so attracted to them, but only very privately, only within the sequestered confines of the giant conglomerate health insurance provider and denier in...where..midtown Manhattan? (where else?). Thompson, a regular looking guy with a very regular sounding name, met his end in a very irregular but melodramatic manner, gunned down outside a Manhattan hotel in broad daylilght by a hooded figure, after the fashion of a mafia crime family boss, which, many might assert, he in effect was. (Gambino family mafia Don Paul Castellano was gunned down outside a steak house in New YOrk in 1985. John Gotti allegdly ordered the hit, and later died in prsionfor ohter crimes). Now, this... The three infamous "D" words were found, printed or imprinted, on the bullet casings of those ejected after leaving their chamber and finding their destination. Neither the weapon nor the shooter has been found, but will be. The police know for certain the precise weapon still being carried, maybe, by the man or woman seeking martydom, perhaps not without some degree of justification, notwithstanding the poor choice of method. (Martyr murderers always have a reason, and a cause). Perhaps the gun person or somebody beloved of same had indeed been tripled D'd. Martydom could have been achieved merely by going without the necessary treatment or medication, but delayed. But where would the melodrama be, and the point made, in that? Justice delayed, and all that. First, find a reason, any reason will do, as long as it sounds even remotely defendable, then defend it, and support the defense by obtaining from the victim of denial a deposition, substantiating the corporate viewpoint by asking only questions to which their high powered corporate lawyers damned well know the answers, in advance. Similarliy denied and outraged people started posting their stories on Facebook, and they sounded convincing. At twelve year old daughter denied admittance to a hosptical, three Dee'd. A mother of three who died on the operating table, her claim processed too late, languishing, denied. On, and tragically on. The comments started coming in, many in favor of the murder. Then, of course, the moralistic backlash. I posted: "My complaints are with the fundamental structure and inherent for profit nature of the corporate health insurance industry, which, like nearly all major industries in the United States, is a virtual monopoly, the inadequacies of which must be addrssed and rectified, but which cannot be accomplished through murder of violence of any kind." As usual, I took pride in my eloquence, and nobility of purpose. The feedback which I got on social media was to me surprsingly sparse and disappointing, lacking in intensity and volume; I would not get my fifteen minutes of fame, not for this. People remained more interested in the murder itself, and in expressing their moral outrage, some against the violence, others in favor of the complaints precipitating it. Actual complaints against corporate greed and perfidy, I must presume, will be forthcoming, in a later episode. The complaints will not be sufficient to motivate us, our corparate masters, and their puppet politicans to do the right thing, not in this era of Trump and right wing Republican suzzerainty: socialize all industries which provide necessary goods and services, like food, water, and decent health care. We already have a good deal of socialized economics, and always have; we simply need somewhat more, a more healthy balance between capitalism,and socialism. But Until Bernie Sanders and the Democratic socialists come to power in these United States of Avarice, we'll have to wait at least a bit longer for economic and health care justice, and, as always, it will be, Deny, Defend, and Depose.

Explaining Trump, Emotionally

ARLIE RUSSELL HOCHSCHILD is an eighty four year old sociology professor at U.C. Berkeley who, rather then retiring, continues her reaearch into and writing about the part which emotions,rather than reason and intellect, play in people's behavior,especially in the public arena, and especially, in her recent book, in voting for presidential candidates in the United States. A fascinating lecturer and excellent writer, she is the author of several such best selling monograpshs, and her latest: "Stolen Pride: Loss, Shame, and the Rise of the Right", joins a long line of attempts by people, which seems to include nearly all of us, attempting to answer by asking the question of the ages: precisely why and how in hell did we the American people elect a career criminal and reprobate, one Donald J. Trump, to the highest office in the land, not once, but twice, as if the first Trump experience were not sufficient to deter us from making the same mistake twice? She begins by asserting that both sides, the left and the right, are in denial about one thing of their choosing. Fair enough. By writing off Trump supporters as mereley stupid, wicked, racist, and poorly educated, anti - Trumpers deny that MAGA folk have a very real and to them very valid reason for their support of a New york City billionaire as the self proclaimed champion of the common man, of the forgotten man. Again, fair enough. Although it can be argued that there is plenty of room in the Trump explanation tent for all theories, great and small, it cannot be denied that there is more in Denmark than merely the rotten eggs Democrats seem to see smeared across MAGA call caps. And, abviously, white blue collar America has long been and still is looking for something, whatever it is, that they seem to think the progressive socialist Democrats have promised to provide them, but haven't. What the Republicans seem to be denying is that Trump is a criminal reprobate, which, one must admit, is a rather large white elephant, so to speak. For this book Dr. Hochschild spent time in appalachia, ground zero of white blue collar anger, in a Kentucky coal county, in the second poorest county in the country, where coal has dried up, and unemployment and crystal meth infest the wooded hills and hollers like maggots on a pile of cow dung. Proud people, with once stable middle class incomes and families, reduced to poverty and shame, at the loss of their livelihoods and self respect. So along comes Trump, blowing hot, exhorting us to "bring back coal". Sounds mighty fine to country and small town folks who care not a whit about climate change, but simply want their jobs and houses back. All well and good, but what the author fails to address is, notwithstanding the fact that all this grievance and anger is quite legit, is how they, or anyone else, can possibly believe that a pathological liar with big city money bags and weird overdone hair can possibly help or has any interest in actually helping them, which he most assuredly, demonstrably does not. But they don't care about that; the blatant immorality, criminality, and verbal idiocy. What they care about is simply that Trump is "different" than the rest of them, and that he talks straight to them, in simplistic terms, using one syllable words they can understand. And, he seems as angry and confused as they are. And, well, who else is there? Well, there is Bernie Sanders, there is taxing the billionaires, there is reistributing the wealth, but, the problem with that is that all that has a name which Trump can easily use to deflate it all, and that word is the one word in the English language other than "landlord" which sends good capitalistic freedom lovin' Christian country folk into paroxysms of whiskey rage. That one word is the one word which big city corporate billionaires have managed to equate sucessfully with the devil himself; socialism.

Calling Genocide Genocide

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL, crown jewel in the progressive treasure chest and bane of hard ass conservative white supremicist Christian nationalists, has finally, after exhaustive in country documentation and research, finally, at long last, belatedly, deigned to call a spade a spade,as it were. Genocide is now genocide in Gaza. I, and presumably millions of other less than percipient televised news watchers, probably could have told them that, oh, months ago. You wonder what Hamas was thinking. You always did. You know what Israel is thinking, and always was. It is this: Now, we have the pretext we have long sought; a pretext for the elimination of arch enemy Hamas, and the horses they rode in on, namely, the Palestinian people. Hamas was and is willing to precipitate the extermination of the people over whom it allegedly governs and whom it laughably claims to protect, all for its own glorification and martyrdom. The butcher of Tel Aviv, Benjamin Netanyahu, is quite willing to oblige, believing, like any normal right wing ideologue-demagogue, that he can justify the unjustifiable with platitudes and bombs, predictably. The United States, Biden or no Biden, is content to assist in the Israeli genocidal project, and to issue lame press releases of meek condemnation and threats of fewer gift bombs and bullets for use by the murderers. In other words, to stand by, stand back, and do...nothing.. There is, as the astute like to say, more than enough blame to go around. Blame lord Balfour. Blame the British. Blame the failure of the Hebrews and the Christians to unite in the fommation of a single, unified religion, dedicated to the glorification and love of the monotheistic deity. Truman Capote, the great gay writer whose seminal 1966 novel "In Cold Blood" detailed the true story of the vicious, senseless murder of the Clutter family in rural Kansas, wrote the novel to make a point. Its not the point that many think it is, that killing is bad, that many misread, and keep misreading. The point is not that brutal murders of a livng wholesome family is a bad thing. After all, we all, including Truman Capote, already knew that. The point is that we are all, as a species, as a supposedly civilized intelligent group of beings, participatants in all that we create, and all that we bestow upon the world. No, this in no way abrogates our individual responsibility for or individual actions. We act, and we experience the consequences thereof. The point is that we are all complicit, we are all a part, whether great or small, of the enormous panorama we call "the human experience", to wit, of the societies we create in which love, hope, despair, and gratuitous violence all play a part. Every single one of us is directly responsible for every murder which ever takes place, and for every noble act of the heart and soul nobly enacted by every loving human entity who ever walked across the face of the Earth. Truman capote said this, straight to Johnny's face, straight to all our faces, live and in livng color on the Tonight Show, starring Johnny Carson. We all killed the Clutter family, all of us, together, as a unit. Carson sat and looked straight into the eyes of Truman capote, and neither winked, nodded, nor offered a smart ass hilarious dry witted rejoinder. Johnny Carson was transfixed, impressed, duly. So was I, if also a bit bemused, for I was only a teenager at the time. So it turns out that genocide is still genocide, and that we are all responsible for it, anywhere and every where it happens. Truman Caopte, I think, had a point. So did Bertolt Brechet, perhaps, when he wrote in a poem "There shall remain of our cities but the wind that blew through them"... All that remains for us is to hope and pray that Bertolt Brecht was wrong, and that we, with our weak and transitory powers of action, can finally make it so.

France, Collapsing, the Enemy, Within

FRANCE, for the first time since 1962, has experienced a complete collapse of it parliamentary form of government. Now,a new government will have to be organized and mandated to govern. This will require compromise,no easy task in European countries nowadays, just as in the Unted States. In 1962 the issues involved the dispostion of France's far flung colonial empire in the post World War Two era of colony's demands for national sovereignty and independence from their long time European masters, as well as the governance of war hero Charles DeGaulle,among other conerns. This time, the issues involved are almost exclusively financial, as the French economy, again remindful of the American, sinks into ever deepening debt, with high interest payments neeeded to service it. In the ancient republic,once again as in these United States, a sharp national political polarization has left the nation with an extremist far right wing commumity, both in and out of the government, and a leftist democratic socialist movement, with its political leaders equally intransigent, unwielding. All too familiar to Americans. But in France, unlike in America, there is also a relatively strong moderate faction, a fact which, unlike in America, offers hope of reason and compromise. Problem is, all three factions unabashedly despise each other, and all three offer distinctly different and irreconcilable solutions to the nation's various looming financial crises, dimming all remaining hope of reconciliation and problem solving. This is nothing other than polarization, prouct of our narrowing minds, something about which we the American people know a thing or two, or should. Everybody goes to their side of the battle field, forms a protective bubble around themelves, isolated, in insular fashion, from all who dare disagree, a bubble of false contentment among sycophants and yes men. Nothing ventured,nothing gained, nothing accomplished, no problems solved, as we lay lurking in waiting, waiting for that one moment of opportunity, when we might sneak out from behind our barricaded sense of security, and, undetected, seek out and destroy the enemy. What is not desroyed, and what engendered the present set of circumstances and cannot be vanquished, is the most formidable enemy of all, the enemy within, the enemy within us all. We have gathered up our arms,and weaponized to our hearts content, have retreated behind our lines of battle, into our fortresses of safe despair. In his epic peoem "The Wasteland", written in 1922 by T.S. Eliot, who was born in St Louis but moved when young to England, Eliot captures perfectly, in five sections with 422 lines of intense,elegant poetry, the abject despair and hopelessness which festered in western civilization and culture following the senseless, useless destrucion of Word War One. The war to end all wars was caused by nothing, fought over nothing, produced nothing, ad ended nothing, other than hope and human happpiness, and gave us only destruction, death, and despair on a colossal scale. WE still feel the effects of it today. Today seems very much like the aftermath of the Great War, or perhaps like the prelude to another war to end all wars. A war of the spirit and the soul, fought with insults, venom, hatred, and lies. Our modern wars, said Goethe, make everyone miserable while they last, and noone happy when they are finally finished. WE inherent what we create, and our legacy is our foolish folly. Our fear, arrogance, and conceit are our enemies within ourelves. They create nothing, and they destroy everything, including ourselves. Utter deslolation, without even the faint hope of redemption. "This is the end, my beautiful friend", said Jim Morrison, dead at twenty seven, buried in France. Or, as Eliot said in "The Wasteland": "I will show you fear, in a handful of dust".

Wanting Trump Dead

WHEN DONALD TRUMP descended the golden escalator in Trump tower in the summer of 2015, slandered immigrants, and announced his bid for the presidency, I decided to give him a chance. Fresh blood, a new experience, business acumen. The chance lasted about two weeks. His ceaseless slandering, including calling Ted Cruz "lying Ted", alerted me to his negativity, dishonesty, and cruelty. I knew from the beginning that I would ultimately vote for and support Hillary Clinton, who I still consider the most qualified presidential candidate in American history, who would not only have been a great first woman president, but would have been a great president. Now, of course, we'll never know. "Thou shalt speak no ill of a fellow Republican" spoke the intellectually mediocre but nominally honorable Ronald Reagan. In retrospect, the arguably corrupt Reagan now seems like a saint, much as despised and still despise him, by comparison to you know who. When Trump won the election of 2016 I, like millions of people, was devasted. Somewhere deep down, I still am. Every day during his first administration that Trump remained in office, I grew to despise him more. His constant lies. His criminality. His stupidity. Then, the piece de resistance; the big election lie, the insurrection, and the widespread Republican support of it all. That was when I, a lifelong Democrat, turned my aversion to Trump to outright, abject, unmitigated hatred. That is when my aversion to conservatism and the Republican party turned into venemous, relentless hatred. Just the other day I posted, on an anti-Trump website: "I despise Trump more than John Wilkes Booth despised Abraham Lincoln".Then, after a moment's reflection, and wanting to avoid jail time, I added: "I do not kill". Gotta have that disclaimer. And yes, I meant every word, except perhaps for the no kill clause. The remark, as one might have expected,drew immediate attention,almost all positive, from this band of approximately thirty two thusand Trump haters. It also drew fire from the other side, the dark side. I received he usual death threats, mostly on this website, some in email, some via smart phone texts. Ho hum. Real killers tend not to issue death threats as warnings. I have no idea how these MAGA reprobates always get my ever changing telephone number, much less summon the intelligence necessary to form a complete sentence. On second thought, their death threatening sentences are never complete, nor grammatically correct. More like grade school blather. As we say; "go figure". But again, I mean every word. I want Donald Trump dead, deader than the proverbial door nail. In the long run, I want all of us dead, simply because God seems to, but Trump? Well, he's in a special category. The "man" is..what...seventy eight? Aint that long enough, long enough for who is arguably the most reprehensible piece of garbage of a human being I have ever beheld in my nearly seventy years of life on Earth? The answer, in a nutshell,, is yes. The average life span in these United States, post Covid, stands at seventy six. So, Don the Con has had a fair shot, two years beyond stanard issue. I want him dead, of natural causes, before he ever agin sullies the acred halls and walls of the White House with his ketchup and immoral stench, period. I speak German, at about a middle school level, for years I taught European history, and I plan to visit Germany, as early as next summer. Had I been alive and Germany in the nineteen thirties, I would, at some point, have wanted Hitler dead. I'm not sure when, quite possibly within a few hours of his election to German Chancellor in January of 1933. Definitely before Von Stauffenburg planted a bomb under Der Fuhrer's butt in the summer of forty four, far too late, and succeeded only in partially paralyzing the puritanical tea totaling fink. Assuming that Trump, horror of horrors, manages to serve out his second term, Grover Cleveland like, without putting a pistol to his mouth and pulling the trigger, oh happy thought, five'll get you ten that, like Hitler's cult zombies, the tattered remnants of the MAGA mob will keep their shrines to Trump and putrid red ball caps intact, unto their own ignominious demises. There are still "people" who insist that Hitler wasn't all that bad a guy, had some good ideas, and all that blather. Among them is, predicatably, Donald Trump. So it shall ever be with Trump, and MAGA. It is what it is, as we so insipidly like to say these days. No,I do not kill, which is a far cry from saying that I haven't thought about it, or that I don't want to. I never ever in my life had the faintest idea that I would come to hate anybody as much as I hate donald J. Trump. It doesn't feel good, and is contrary to my nature,but there's no point, at this point, in denying it. I want Donald Trump dead, by any means necessary, preferably by natural causes, preferably by God.

Jesus, Ruling the Universe

Editor's Note: All essays published in The Truthless Reconciler are rough drafts, and are published as they are written, one sentence at at a time, in their raw form, wthout revision or editing. The reader can literally watch them being written, and can view them at all stages of their composition. At times we omit proof reading, to ensure and maintain their complete originality.... I CAN"T RECALL the context of the Facebook post, but it struck me, as I'm sure it did many people, as rather fantastic, not in a flattering way. Facebook is alluring in that over time you can structure what they give you by merely expressing your preferences; they aim to please,and to manipulate, and exploit, and maybe a few other unsavory things. Rumors abound. I just try to stay above the fray, and stick to bashing conservatives, trying to bring down Trump, and promoting this website. Oh, and maybe a girl chase here and there, just for fun...but, I digress. I like to look at cats, big and small, scenic beauty,and astrophotography, and Facebook knows it. So, we're both happy. It must have been one of those gorgeous, awe inspiring astrophotographs, of the sort we see so many of, thanks to the Hubble and Webb telescopes. I gave up my favorite hobby of my youth, astronomy, partly because, even as early as the nineteen seventies, the big telescopes were putting me to shame, and making it easy for me just to grab a book, and admire from the comfort of my couch, instead of spending frigid winter nights and sweltering mosquito infested summer nights out under the stars, searching, straining my eyes, losing sleep. Now, I just grab a computer. These pictures all can inspire a sense of almost religious reverence, for creation, by whomever. So it was hardly surprising when a deeply religions person chimed in, a person who could with justification be called a "religious fanatic". What he typed in, obviously inspired but seemingly unprovoked, was: "Humanity's ultimate, unbelievable destiny is to rule the universe, not by man's (or woman's?) will, but by God's,through Jesus Christ. Anyone can reach the end of the universe who loves Christ." Full stop. Then he, made reference to somethng called "The Seven Missions of Jesus", as if it were a book, which perhaps it is. I had always thought the expression was simply a matter of theology, but maybe its a book now too.. As they say: "what do I know?". Very little, it would seem, compared to whomever wote this especially "intriguing" Facebook comment. If nothing else,he got one thing right:the part about "unbelievable". What he was trying to do was to find a way to reconcile (I love that word) his religion, with our actual modern, new and improved knowledge of the universe, the real one, not the one depicted in that quaint and curious collection of ancient manuscripts the Christians put so much undeserving stock in. The one which alternately describes stars as little glass trinkets hanging from the dome of heaven, which, at the end of days, will fall and smash to pieces on the flat Earth, as such glass trinkets are prone to do, and/or pin prick puncture holes in aforementioned heavenly dome, through which the glaring blazing light of heaven blindingly shines. That one. One would have to wear some serious sunglaees in heaven, it seems. The larger the real universe becomes, the smaller the Christian one becomes. Christians of the devout kind are and have forever been twisting their minds and theologies into veritable pretzels,using pretzel logic, as Steely Dan might say, to reconcile (again, that lovely word) their biblical but outdated version of reality with reality. Bless their dogmatic hearts. Knock themsevles out,as we say in boxing circles and acedemia. Why they don't just give up the epistomologically hopeless ghost and update their religion to suit modern reality - well, we all know why. They can't. They just can't. We cling to our illusions tenaciously, all of us. And, as Goethe said, we should let all of us do precisely that, stumble along in a perpetual voyage of discovery by trial and error, as we tend, at an early age, to do with children. And so, to our Christian brethren and sistern, Jesus Christ of Nazerath either goes from planet to planet, all across the universe, sacrificing himself over and over again for the sins of billions of species of extraterrestrial beings (one would get tired of that, one would think), doesn't give a hang for any intelligent species other than yours truly, very flattering to us but seemingly very unlikely. Or,most frightening of all, came to Earth only because only Earth harbors intelligent life. With Homosapines destined, htrough christ, to rule over the entire universe, we can safely wager which of these alternatives the writer of the Facebook embreaces. Butone quick question> If we the human species is inded all that the universe has to offer,heaven help teh unverse,why then, what need is their for us to reach out into it, and ultimately, unbelievably onquer it,in the name of Jesus Christ or anyone else? Don't w, in effect already onw and control it, sans resistence. Or rather, doesn't Jesus already own and control it? If not we through him,who else/

Changing the Climate, Despite Denials

CLIMATE SCIENCE, like meteorology, is rather complicated, which is why weather forecasting has always been and remains inexact,or, as some would say, unreliable. During my lifetime, however, the local weathermen and women have vastly improved their predictive capabilities, thanks to advances in science, including commputer modeling and satellite launching. The most recent studies,just released,indicate that the warming of the atmosphere is proceeding at a rate much higher than scientists previously believed, particularly in the polar regions, alarmingly. The scientific complexities of climate science might have something to do with why conservatives often reject it, why they reject science generally in preference to blind religious faith. Also, of course, since the stark reality of climate change necessitates great change in human politics and economics to eliminate it, conservatives, by nature opposed to change, clinging to comfortable tradition, are quite naturally resistant to accepting this reality. Science adances. We learn more. One of hte remaining, lingering questions about the impact of climate change has only recently been answered. Does the frequency, intensity, size, and severity of hurricanes and tropical storms increase because of it? The answer is "yes, they do". Because of climate change, what would otherwise have been a "Category One" hurricane in the absence of climate change is now a "Category Two". And a hurricane season which would normally have featured five named hurricanes now features six. The increase in the number of hurricanes has not been verified as conclusively as the increase in their severity. However, it has been established, to the satisfaction of climate scientists, if not evangelical Christian conservatives. NASA scientist James Hanson delivered the first formal, dire warning about human caused climate change to Congress in 1988. Einstein and others were aware of it before World War Two. Einstein even thought it might be a good idea,to increase agricultural output. Some scientists had figured out by 1900 that all the coal dust lingering above European cities in the late nineteenth century would ultimately, inevitably trap heat and cause global warming. European cities were generally inundated in, bathed in smog througout the nineteenth century. In a four day period in London in 1852, several thousand Londoners dropped dead on the streets as a massive cloud of coal smoke lingered over the city, and near total darkness was unbroken by sunlight. Although we can't say that we weren't warned and didn't know, many still do. One of the most prevelant and fatuous conservative claims in denial of climate change is that we used to say that carbon dioxide was the culprit; now we say that carbon is. We used to call it "global warming". Now we call it "climate change". It seems that these minor changes in terminoogy, intended only to offer clarity and greater simplicity to the ignorant deniers, are proof of a conspriacy among scientists, the liberal media, and perhaps the Russians and Chinese to create an artificial crisis, a "hoax", as a pretext for government control of every aspect of our otherwise ideal fossil fuel burning lives. The sheer idiocy of these "objections" is apparent, but typical of conservative thinking. Perhaps the most fatuous of all religious conservative denials of our impending doom is the one which says that since the Lord is going to return to Earth soon, climate change doesn't really matter, and is a "non issue". Most alarming of all is that, as the recent election establishes, these alarming benighted people are soon coming to power in the United States, which will undoubtedly bring to a halt, at least for four crucial years, all American particpation in efforts to solve clear and present danger, the current and encroaching climate crisis. As an ancient Greek philosopher said: "Against stupidity, the gods themselves contend in vain. Yesterday I moticed that iris shoots have sprung up above ground in my yard, in December. Go figure.

Being A Traitor, To Trump

I AM A TRAITOR to the United States in the same way that those who opposed Hitler in Germany were traitors to Germany. WE the American people got a good dose of Trump before, then a pleasant respite, and now we prepare to endure him, in all his reprehensible immoral criminality, yet again. When he left office the first time, amid a cloud of insurrection and impeachment, the thought that he would ever be backin power was unthinkable. At that time he seemed to be on his way to multi criminal convictions and probably incarceration, but, like some devilish Houdini, he worked the system, using delay and legal distratction tactics, to run out the clock, while his cult following remained loyal and entranced, perhaps by the sheer power of his spectacular evil, a reflection of their own. The Republican party became his cult, in the public,as well as in all three branches of government. Trump and Congress stacked the Supreme Court with their own kind, and they dutifully rewarded him by declaring him above the law. The American sytem of justice was thus, as it has been many times before, exposed as a sham, a system of the the rich and powerful, by the rich and powerful, made for them, built by them. In retrospect, it now seems likely that even had he not been reelected president, that he would have eluded justice. Just as the poor and the dark skinned are given less justice in the supposed land of the free, and always have been, so the rich, famous, and powerful accorded more. It eventuated that opposing Hitler was the patriotic course of action in Germany, not the treasonous traitorous. So it already seems regarding Trump,a failed insurrectionist traitor who, in Hitlerian, phoenix like fashion, has risen from apparent political death to political power. Just as the United States has always eschewed equal justice under law, making a mockery of it while proclaiming fidelity to it by engraving it on the Supreme Court buiding, so has it always brought shame upon iself, by founding itself in genocide and slave labor. As Thomas Jefferson said: "I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, and that his justice cannot sleep forever". We who oppose Trump opppose him and his MAGA cult in almost exactly the same way that the Germans who opposed Hitler and his NAZI party gang members resisted fascism. Now it is our turn to fight against encroaching fascism. There is one one major difference: in the United States, opposition to power and dissent are still recogized as legitimate forms of expression. In NAZI Germany they were criminal acts. Powerful men have tried to criminalize dissent and opposition to power in the United States before. John Adams made it illegal to critizice him while president, and Thomas Jefferson reversed this infamous un-american "Alien and Sedition Act". Abraham Lincoln became a tyrant, perhaps by perceived necessity, when he suspended the habeas corpus law, so foundational to a system of justice base on law. And then, of course, there was the notorious F.D. Roosevelt locking up of more than a hundred thosuand American ciizens, for the "crime" of being of Japanese descent. Just as it was in NAZI Germany, it is Trump who is the traitor, and his opponents who are the patriots. This will become evident to all soon enough, if it isn't already. We can expect Trump to follow in the footsteps of John Adams and Abraham Lincoln in attempting to silence dissent and punish his opponents. It is up to his opponents to stand firm against this forthcoming onslaught against their liberty, to prevail in their sacred mission to destroy Trump and his malignant MAGA minions,and, if it is the will of God, to preserve what freedom, liberty, and equal justice under law still exist or have ever existed in these United States.

Trump, Destroying the American Government

DONALD TRUMP is evidently determined to destroy the federal government, to which he has always been opposed. Like some teenaged internet junkie on crystal meth, he refers to some imaginary organization he and the other right wing extremists call "the deep state", by which he means nothing than the roughly two million federal bureaucratic employees who work diligently daily to provide the numerous services we the American people demand and expect. They make lower middle class money, and they go home to patriotic families, and for the most part they not only do not conspire to do anything to Trump, the don't even know each other. They are all improtant; their jobs exist for a reason, as stated above. Eliminate even a few thousand of them and the wheels of government turn more slowly and inefficiently; fire a significant portion fo them, the wheels come grinding to a halt, elimate all of them, and we the American people and our government are reduced to anarchy. Replace them with Trump loyalists, and the incompetance of the Trump lackies and lack of experience will have much the same effect. If Trump and his Republican sycophantic Congressional servants dare do this, and what they actually dare to do is considerably less than they arrogantly boast, thankfully, so many millions of Americans will suffer so severely that the blessed downfall of Trump is inevitable. So, for the good of America, maybe it needs to happen. Trump is systematically nominating for positions of power and responsibility people dedicated to the destruction of the agencies and departments for which they, if the Republican Congress approves their nominations as it appears it will, will be responsible. Trump's nominee for the Environmental Protection Agency head insists that there is nothing wrong with the environment, and intends to render impotent the all important E.P.A., and the environmental protections which have been so effective in cleaning up the environment and preventing further damage. His nominee for U.S. Attorney General is a person dedicated to using the Department of Justice not to represent the best interests of the United States, but rather, to attack and destroy the perceived enemies of Trump; in other words, people who have partiicpated in bringing the criminal president elect to justice. Trump's nominee for FBI director is dedicated to the desruction and elimination of the FBI, almost as if he seeks to work himself out of a job. Fully aware of this, what are the current thousands of FBI agents and employees thinking? Were I one of them, I would be thinking that at this point, its either Trump, or me, Trump, or my job, Trump or the law enforcement agency to which I have committed my life and energies. Much as Trump hates the FBI on a personal level, surely there are many within the vaunted Bureau who reciprocate. The greatest threat to American national security, according to the Department of Defense, human made climate change, will be ignored by the Trump administration, which will do nothing to mitigate, reverse, and eliminate it,but will actually foster it by reverting to a policy of encouraging and subsidizing the production and utilization of fossil fuels, oil and coal included. The incoming Trump adminstration is nothing less than a gang of fascist traitors to the United States, just as Trump himself is demonstrably a criminal traitor. The fact that Trump currently enjoys the support of nearly half of the American people changes nothing, it only makes our duty as patriotic Americans more burdensome, which is to remove from office and estroy Trump and his fascist MAGA movement, since Trump, like his role model Hitler, will enjoy some measure of popular support no matter how bad the situation becomes. And, do not doubt that it will become bad, much worse, before it becomes better.

Singing "Holly Holy"

I LOVE SINGING, alone,in the shower, at the computer, anywhere. I, like my sister, always have a tune in my head, which comes, by necessity, out of my mouth. We both sing well, so we are told. I love singing in the gospel group at the senior center,and I like singing at the church, although the hymnal at church, (Presbyterian) is utterly foreign to me, my having attended for only about six months. In the gospel group, I have long become familiar with the hymnal, which is of the Baptist breed if I aint mistaken, and since we sing essentially the same songs every Monday morning, I know them quite well, although I despise most of them. I despise most gospel songs because I consider religion in general to be nonsensical, and the Christian religion in particular nonsensical, primitive, barbaric, cruel, and bloody. Washing away my sins in the blood of Jesus, or anyone else, I find repulsive. For me, soap and water'll do. What I love are a few of the messages attributed to the probably fictional character Jesus Christ, aka Yeshua ben Joseph, the ones aboutlove, forgiveness, redemption, rendering unto, giving unto, casting not stones. That's all it takes to get me to church, to hear and celebrate the sublime messages with a few good folks. In a previous essay I detailed how I had approached the piano playin' lady at the senior center, had told her the there exists a gospel song I love even more than "How Great Thou Art", and that that gospel song to which I refer was written and sung by the great singer song writer Neil Diamond. The name of the song is "Holly Holy", and I challenge anyone to name or sing a gospel song that'll get you up on your feet and screaming the lyrics with pure joy any quicker. Google it, listen to it, rejoice. Neil Diamond, now eighty four, came out with this masterpiece in 1969, as he was several years into the height of his iconic decades long career, with more than a hundred fifty million Long Play vynal records sold. Neil Diamond was "born and raised' in the Jewish faith, as his name might vaguely imply, but, like millions of other people, his non Christian faith does not prevent him from loving Jesus, and singing about him. The Christian faith has no monopoly on either God or Jesus, and if any conservative evanlgelical Christian tries to tell you that it does, he or she is full of it, and it is your right to tell him or her so, politely, if possible. Since most of these types support Trump, we know damned well that they are full of it Politemess thus becomes optional.God ahd Jesus, I proclaim, are much larger and greater than any single primitive barbaric religious tradition. Well, now I've taken it a step further. Not only did I mention my love of Neil's iconic song to the most important person, the elderly lady piano player; I have begun mentioning it to other people, my sister included, and including other members of the gospel group. Stealthy as a wrathy painter (panther), as my hero David (Davy) Crockett might say, I am embarked on a mission to inculcate, to insinuate, my favorite gospel song of all time into the gospel group song canon. It might be a tough sell, especially among the three or four Pentecostal singers, and the piano lady, who is, of course, by virtue of her piano, of paramount importance. But, like David mighta said: "I'll stand up to my rack, fodder or no fodder, all holler, come hell or high water, and may the devil take the hindmost". Sooner, rather than later, we'll be singin' "Holl Holy", when the sheet music comes in.