Trump, Seizing the Capitol

THIS WHOLE BUSINESS of Trump putting the Washington D.C. police force under his direct control and calling out the National Guard is merely the latest episode in his cementing his fascst regime incrementally, and putting up yet another distraction to keep us from thinking about the Epstein files. Two birds with one stone, so to speak, all carefully thought out and orchestrated by Trump himself. Alarmingly, each new power grab and distraction is more extreme,dangerous, and harmful than the previous,andyou being to wonder, my God,what will he do next? Bear in mind that Trump has the power to start a nuclear war, for example. The nation's capitol is safer, with lower crime rates than in decades. Will Hegseth have the army marching up and down teh Main Streets of America? Trump has already hinted at his power to so order. One wonders what MAGA thinks about this. Those liberty loving, small government Republicans, so gung ho about individual liberty and constitutional rights. How would they have reacted if Obama or Clinton or Biden had done this? That is a fair, relevant, question and a revealing answer. See the hypocrisy? Ivankatrump testified in Congress, under oath, that two weeks before the 2020 election, her father told her: "No matter what happens in this election, we'll just say that we won. Eff it". And the rest, they say, is history. Now, let's get something straight. On the night Biden defeated Trump, before the votes had even been counted, Trump claimed victory, and claimed that the election was being stolen from him. Tens of millions of people heard him say this, and every single person who heard Trump's big election lie knew immediately that it was a lie. Immediately. Everybody. At that precise moment, everybody had a decision, a choice to make. Whether to embrace the lie, or to call it a lie. There would be no time wasted on thinking about it and deciding. And once the choice was made, there was to be no changing it later. The choice was immediate, and everybody made it. Our moral character is formed and revealed by the choices we make. The same people who made the wrong choice supported Trump's coup and insurrection, predictably. They support it to this day. And now teh best guess is that they will probably fully support Trump's take over of the nation's capitol, primarily because it was Trump who ordered it, instigated it. That's the way a cult works. Would they support national martial law if Trump ordered it? Trump says that he wants to end homelessness in Washington D.C.. The fly in the ointment is that he wants to end it not by providing homes to the homeless, or "unhoused" as we say today, but rather, by rounding up all of the homeless people, burning the cardboard boxes they sleep in, and then totally clean up and wipe away homeless communites in he district, and send the unhoused to places like alligator Alcatraz and Spwday Slammer, with many more such facilities on the way, destined to be built under Trump. Its charming and rather cute, the way homeless people often form little communities, miniature cardboard cities, like stray cats snuggling in winter. You acn alost see teh MAGA right wing religious fanatics cheering our American fuhher gleefully on, as his army of destruction and purification moves inexorably on, from American city to city, purging our cities and our souls of compassion, in the name of God, country, and Christ.

Waging War Over Water, Or Whatever

MANY YEARS AGO, in the midst of what must surely have been an engrossing meeting of intellects, a good friend of mine stated his opinion that future wars would be, for the most part, fought over water. This meshed with what one of my professors in graduate school had once said, that all wars ever fought, past, present, and future, are fought over mineral resoures, of which water is one, and land and all that lies beneath it, another. Lebensraum! I can recall, in the midst of our intellectual discourse,trying to think of wars past, any wars present, which were demonstrably fought fought over something, anything else. I quickly realized that all specualtion concerning motives for the bahavior of large numbers of human beings is vague at best, and becomes bogged down in disparity of opinion, and interpretation of facts. Its just damned hard to say. History, as they say, is one damned thing after another. Regarding the precise causes of wars, as they say, the jury is, mazingly, still out. We're still studying the matter. All wars are different, that much we know. Human natuer is...complex? I also recall that at the time I was somewhat skeptical of my friend's wars over water theory, and though I could see his central point, his overall argument seemd a bit hyperbolic to me, melodramatic, overstated. Now, all these years later, I'm not so sure. In fact, it now begins to seem as if my fiend's predction was spot on, as we like to say, almost prophetic, and that the signs of it are even now among us, and beginning to be apparent. I'm pretty sure that my friend made his prediction a bit before climate change became the universally agreed upon and blatantly obvious reality that it is now, but, maybe not. I can't recall for sure. Indisputably, the world has become and is increasingly hotter and drier. The water wars have begun. A documentary on educationl television provided an overview of the world's growing water problem; too little fresh water to be divided up among too many people. Many of the mega huge cities in India ad throughout Asias now regularly maintain less thana thrity day supply of water, not by choice, in their urban water systems. That is belowe mergency level. All Americasn knwo about the Colorado River, and how it has been and isbeing drained to a dry gulch by the millions of people who rely on it all teh way to El A. Obtaining enough water to fuel a growing agriculture industry to feed a grwoing world population is increasingly difficult and insufficient. The great states of Florida and Gerogia in the land of plenty have waged a decades long legal battle over water which both can use but both claim entirely to own. The two feuding confederate states have reached a tenuous, fragile arrangement, which a good drought could disrupt in a few short weeks. We humans have treated water as we have treated air for far, far too long; as if it were a renewable resource which is readily available to us in unlimited supply. Both, we are belatedly beginning to learn, are neither. We have polluted almost beyond reclaimation nearly every source of fresh water in the world, using lakes, oceans, and rivers as trash dumps. Now, at long last, we are starting to pay the price for our centuries of wasteful folly. I have long favored desalination, even though evidently it costs a billion dollars to build a desalination facility that provides enough fresh water for three hundred thousand people. That would be about thirty billion to adequately supply Los Angeles. You have to pay the piper, as they say, and sometimes the price is high.

Trump, Still Skating

NOW, SUDDENLY, TRUMP wants to conduct national census in the middle of the decade, unconstitutionally, five years early. He'll order it done, and it will get done, unless the courts stop him, because nobody else will. SCOTUS might back him up, as usual. Does anyone actually think that his motive is to make America better somehow? He wants to use the accumulated data to further rig next year's mid term elections, possibly as a prelude to his remaining in power until he mercifully dies. Everything Trump says and does is intended to accomplish this end; encroaching fascism, with Trump at the top of a one party system, supported by MAGA against all opposition. Imagine Trump, with a free hand, unimpeded by Congress or the courts, free to fully implement his malignant agenda, with the assistance of slightly less than forty percent of the American people. Its painful. That percentage is decreasing, gradually. Will it decrease fast enough, soon enough to matter? Nearly sixty percent of all Americans either don't support, actively oppose, or virulantly despise Trump, and you would think that would be sufficient to remove and incarcerate the criminal by due process, as indeed it should be, but alas, is not, at least yet. Madison et al set the country up to be governed by an elite, conservative minority, a wealthy "better sort" of citizen as he put it, and so it is, and here we are, stuck with the founder's archaic plutocratic system of government. At this point only a powerful mass movement consisting of tens of millions of disenchanted Americans can defeat Trump and MAGA and preserve some semblance of democracy in America. MAGA will eventually wither away, flaking off one disgruntled former Trumper at a time, until the final rotten core can be blown up, tossed into the garbage bin of history, and the remaining mess cleaned up. Its already happening, but too slowly at the moment. No matter how our great gerrymandering war finally ends, anti-Trump can outvote pro Trump, if only voters turn out in adequate numbers. Even a heavily gerrymandered Republican redistricted electoral map can overthrow the fascist regime, given sufficient anger among the electorate. "The tree of liberty will, from time to time, require the nourishment of the blood of patriots and tyrants," Jefferson adroitly observed, with tyical eloquence. Trump is the primary impediment to liberty in America today, with his cult backing him up. Blood can be spilled symbolically, at the ballot box, each vote representing a drop of blood, sweat, toil, and sacrifice. In this metaphor, those opposed to Trump's authoritarian rule must be prepared to shed a great deal of blood, at the ballot box, or elsewhere, in the streets, or wherever. We have no choice at this point but to plug everything is, and find out what fais, like a giant organic computer or machine. This is because Trump's agenda has been enacted, seemingly irreversibly. Everything that Trump does is bound to fail. Rising inflation and general economic recession should be enough to defeat Trump, but still might not be. The teflon Don is still skating, avoiding his proper, just fate, but for how much longer? Perhaps until he dies, and beyond. Most frightening of all is that, no matter how catastrophic Trump's policies and their outcome, his cult followers are likely to glorify and cherish him to the end, singing his praises as his administration either fades away in ignomony or comes crahsing down in flaming failure and defeat.

Thinking of Egotism

"THINK OF THE EGOTISM", said an astute Robert Ingersoll,"of a man who believes that an infinite being wants his praise". Good point, eh? Think of it indeed. To which one might add: Think of the arrogance and insecurity of an all powerful anthropomorphic being who wants, needs, or even cares about being worshipped and praised by lesser beings. Ingersoll was a prominent nineteenth century (1833-1899) thinker, writer, lawyer and speaker from a religious background who provided fascinating, eloquent persuavive arguments in defense of agnosticism. Both above remarks provoke thought, and make good, logical sense, but both can easily be refuted by any run of the mill Christian apologist. So can any intelligent argument agsinst the Christian faith. Its very simple, and it goes like this: "That's your point of view, not God's". Good luck trying to win an intellectual debate with a devout Christian, a debate in which said devout Christian accepts reason and admits that you have a compelling point of view. As we say, it aint happenin'...I am still perfectly free to harbor and expess my opinion that the Biblical anthropomorphic love starved attention craving deity is pure fiction, an invention of human fear, ignorance, longing for understanding, and conceit. An all powerful being, all too human, super human. Really? There is an abundance of unflattering and unpleasant human thought, imagination, and analysis underpinning not only Christianity but all organized religion. The always poplular expression among Christians "God fearing" is sufficient unto itself to push me away from the faith. I prefer loving to fearing God, and I would think most folks would. Again, the standard Christian admonition, "your preferences are not God's" rears its shallow head. The idea that an infinitely superior spirit that created the entire universe, requiring praise and worship from creatures of its own creation, and sitting in judgment of them, seems, seems supremely arrogant, naive, even laughable. How many intelligent species of life in the universe await or have received salvation through the shed blood of Christ the Lamb of God, washing away their sins in blood? Or are we the only ones? Both possibilies are equally frightening. One or the other must be true. With the advance of science and human understanding religion becomes less relevant and seems primitive and barbaric. Maybe it will fade out of human culture. The human species, abandoning its childish reliance on imaginary gods, and taking full responsibility for its own existence, problems, and destiny. Religion is mostly bad, but not entirely. All religion is imaginary, mental,emotional, psychological. It helps inspire and comforts us, andmeetsmany of our emotional and psychological needs. It helps binda society together,and gives millions of people a greater sense of community. Religion, however misguided, is an expression of the human quest for truth and understanding. What we must do, what we are impelled to do, is to find ever better ways of expressing our virtuous curiosity, our love of our creator and each other, and our reverence and yearning for connectedness to the vast and infinitely amazing universe in which we are so fortunate to live. Human religions of the future, or human philosophies, are bound to be an improvement on what we have always had, and have today. Perhaps creatures superior to ourselves will eventually give us guidance in this. For now, we are engaged in a life and death struggle, with ourselves only, a strugle we can only win if we somehow learn to stop destroying ourselves and the planet we inhabit. Perhaps this struggle will be the seed for future, more advanced religion. If nothing else, it should be enough to keep us busy, off the streets, and out of trouble.

Compromising, Perchance Reconciling?

EVERYONE SEEMS TO AGREE that the United States, we the American people are more divided than at any other point in our history since the Revolutionary War and the Civil War. It seems obvious. Compromise and reconcilation are the most often recommended remedies, other than an alien invasion, a swarm of high tech extraterrestrials attacking and uniting us from high above. A bit far fetched, perhaps. As things now stand, compromise in America requires MAGA and the rest of America, which is largely anti-Trump, coming together in broad agreement. Even farther fetched, perhaps. I have often asked myself whether I as an individual (I can't speak for anyone else) am capable of understanding and compromising with Trump and MAGA. I almost always arrive at the followig answer: probably not. Not without the other side compromisng far and away beyond anything they have heretofore shown any inclination or willingness to do,or desire or plan to do. I seriously question the current capability of us the American people to meet in the middle and make up, unless reconciliation is somehow an emergent quality. I seriously question mine. For example, do I really want to deal with people, try to compromise with people who believe that I am, as matters now stand, destened to suffer endless misery and torment in eternal damnation merely because my religious beliefs do not match theirs? People like that seem cruel to me. Or, can I ever truly respect and understand somebody who passionately believes that Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion are harmful and bad, and not only should not be publically promoted, but are actually harmful and bad and should be discouraged? To answer my own question; Most likely not. And how could I, or any reasonably intelligent person, ever want to or be able to find common ground with people who support the banning of books, any book? No book should ever be banned or burned or excluded or prohibited by anybody, anywhere, for any reason. Bad, trashy books must be allowed and will be weeded out naturally and quickly, in the great capitalist free market of ideals and intellectualism. Liberals tend to despise censorship, conservatives and religious folk tend to implement it. There is no compromise to be had here. All csnsorship and book banning is bad. Similarly People who hate the "woke" concept, who consider it to be a monstrously evil ideal, and want to eliminate it from the face of the Earth rather than promote it - utterly baffle me. What's to dislike about being intellectually, emotionally, spiritually awake, unless the word "woke", which means aware of systemic recism in America, is tainted with too much an ebonic overtone? Then too, either religion and government are interlinked, intertwined in America, or they are not. Its one, or the other, take your pick. The Constitution requires them to be seperate, which, in my opinion, is the way it should be. The Conservative evangalical community, Trump's base, begs to differ.They can keep begging, and using their perfidious methods to try to violate the constitution. They are dead wrong, and mustnot be allowed to win this dispute,or come to power to implement their new Christian nationalist constittuion. They must be defeated, and will be. Someone asked Madision why the word "God" does not appear in the constitution. Perhaps annoyed,he said: "We forgot". People who try to steal a presidential election, attemtpt to violently overthrow the American government, try to deport all non white Americans and seek to impose the Christian religion as the law of the land not only must not be offered compromise, they should not be allowed to walk the streets or partake in publlic life as American citizens.

Watching the News

SOME PEOPLE get so angry, frustrated, and depressed about the world that they refuse to watch the news, and I can understand that. But I wonder how or whether they stay informed. I often turn on the news with reluctance, but I turn it on. Yesterday I turned it on and was immediately assaulted by two stories which, like many news stories these days, made me questioon the health and future of our beloved U.S.A. A big bright yellow Penske freight truck was parked in a Home Depot parking lot, near a group of brown skinned gentlemen, assembled to apply for work. Suddenly the door on the back of the truck slides up,and out jump a group of black clad uber-armed I.C.E. stormtroopers, who immediately sread out and began hassling the guys looking for work. Ironic. I didn't pay enough attention to the story to find out what exactlly happend, how many Latinos were rounded up and arrested, incarcarcrated at "Alligator Alcatraz" or whatever,and deported. didn't need to. I knew what was going on, the News cast made that very clear. Without even one commercial, amazingly, the pretty news lady turned to the next story; a gerrymandering redistricting has broken out in the United States, and has spread from Texas to every state in the union whose geopraphical shape even remotely allows for potential gerrymandering. A nationwide civil war, red versus blue, progressive versus conservative, to own the House of Representatives now and forevermore by stealing it by cheating. It disgusted me watching the television report about it. It disgusts and angers me to think about it, and to write about it.Its a close call as to which of the two news stories, network television exposes about major current trends in Today's America, is the more disgusting, the more worthy of rage and despair. Our modern American Gestapo, nothing less, Trump's SS Stormtroopers, ravaging and pillaging American society at the behest of the usurping fascist tyrant and his devout cult followers. The I.C.E. police roughing and rounding up, incarcerating, and deporting good hard workers,from an America which desperately, and I mean desperately needs them and the work they offer. Suicide right on stage, as Mick Jagger sang. America, self harming. Fifteen illegals rounded up in an ICE raid, eleven or twelve million more to go. Trump can spend his entire presidency, three and a half more long, nightmarish years, celebrating and bragging about his macho "immigration policy". No matter how many several thousand human beings are arrested, locked up,and kicked out of the country without the slightest trace of due process, the number remaing here, of good, hard working undocumented people, will remain approximately unchanged. You can count on it. Misery and chaos for its own cruel sake, thanks be to MAGA and Trump. The gerrymandering was will, we must hope, burn itself out in rage and fatigue, and from its ashes a new and effecive system and process will emerge to replace gerrymandering with good, fair redistricting. But lord, why are we putting ourselves through this? Have we as a people, a society, really decayed morally this much? A new federal law, an unbiased non partisan redistricting committee and process, would be good for all. Now Trump wants a sudden census to count only white citizens, or whomever. Fascism, encroaching. America wants a pathway to citizenship for gainfully employed undocumented workers and their families. Simply document them, and put 'em back to work. So simple, so easy, so obvious, so prosperous and profitable for the nation. The problem with big problems is that the solutions to them are often so obvious, simple and logical that their instigators, those in power who created the problems in the first place, tend to profit from our big problems, and tend to be people who, in any event, are not even close to having either the intelligence or morality to implement any solutions, good, orotherwise.

Calling Trump A Pedophile

LIKE ALL GOOD DEMOCRATS, I have done preciesly that- I have called Trump a pedophile. But we all need to slow down a bit, and know that a true pedophile, by definiation, is any adult who is attracted to pre pubescent children. I think Donnie boy likes 'em a bit older than that, if not much. I also suspect that many others accused of it, including Mr. Epstein himself, are not true pedophiles either, at least, technically. Guys like that seem to go after girls in the thirteen to, say, eighteen age range, girls past puberty, if barely. This is still disgusting, but somewhat better than going after girls twelve and younger, perhaps.I suspect that Trump and Epstein, and most other perverts, like 'em young - but not too young. I taught high school, and I found the girls generally attractive, and easily replied on my basic decency and morality to prevent that from being any sort of problem for anyone. They approached too close, I backed up. Several times I mentioned this to friends, who I think may have misunderstood me. Sometimes they seem concerned, as if they think I Might be dealing with a moral crisis, or might,just might, oh horror,be a pedophile. I never bother to reassure them that I am, or am not. The word "pedophile", people seem to enjoy throwing around, and seeing whether it sticks anywhere. My attraction to high school girls had no impact me in terms of having sexual desires for them. The very thought disgusted me, as it always has. There is nothing wrong with a forty year old man believing that high school girls are attractive, or being attracted to them naturally, as nature obviously intends. The problem is basic, vital moralty based on reason and common sense, and who has it, and who does not. Having this keeps its possessor safe, and makes society more civilized. There is nothing wrong with being attracted to people, for any reason, but there is a problem with worryng about it or acting unreasonably or inappropriately because of it. If I ever started fantasizing about some seventeen year old girl I would feel disgusted and ashamed, because of my upbringing; I prefer my fantasies age appropriate, if you please. It may be that some guys not only enjoy such inappropriate fantasies, but are proud of them and want to share them. I think we msut be careful about turning ourselves into thought police, or in stigmatising perfectly natural and morally neutral processes and inherent inclinations such as sexual attraction and desire. In that sense, American culture is simultaneously the most pornographic and inappropriately sexual in the world, and the most repressed, stifled, puritanical, prudish culture on the planet. Seemingly, a strange incompatible combination. As they say, only in America. Maybe. But back to Trump. Trump is, in absolutely verified, indisputable fact, an abjudicated rapist, rendered so by due processinaduly authorized court of law in these United States. There are also seeimingly innumerable other proven indicting facts sbout Trump, too many to mention here. We who oppose Trump have so many facts at our disposal to boster our argument and oppostion, our only concern is hhow. to present them all. I'll call Trump a "pedophile" and use it against hime the very moment he is convicted of it in a court of law in a trial wich includes testimony from expert psychiatrists. Obviously, Trump is a sexual predator. Hell, he has openly admitted that, in his pussy grabbing speech. Is that not sufficient political fodder for the day? While pressing on with our unrelenting insistence that the Epstein affair be fully exposed, we should constantly attack Trump's evil moral character with facts. Premature,currently unsubstantiated accusations and insults can wait a bit longer.

Trump, Making History

DIFFICULT TO IMAGINE that it might now be, the time will come when Donald Trump is gone. That's when the historians take over. Although numerous book shave already been written about him by his close associates, family members, and journalists, many of them quite illuminating, the historical porfession proper has not yet begun to do its thing. Its too early. Trump is not yet history, per se. History requires hindsight, whic will only begin to kick in at the earliest early in the year twenty twenty nine. Anyone who reads history books, especially biographies of former American presidents, knows that, as they say, good historians don't play around. They do their homework, their research, and tell is as it is, or was, or "Wie es eigentlich gewesen", admonished the great German historian Leopold von Ranke. History, is nothing other than "one damned thing after another", anastute observation falsely attributed to many historians. Good historians call a spade a spade,aswe say. Biographies of American presidents by competent historians tend to be balanced, giving due credit, but also, highly critical of their subject, as most presidents merit. Latgely because of ths various presidents acquir various reputations over time, not alwasy favorable,although every president seems to be accorded a minimal modicum of good credit. All of them, Nixon, for example, have skeletons which ultimately get exposed. Jeffferson, Sally Hemmings, and so forth. Hisotrians do the exposing. Frankly, it is difficult if not nearly impossible to imagine any historian anywhere, at any future time, writing a book about Donald Trump which is favorable towards him, which is anything but harshly critical in its assessment of Trump. In fact, how can any historian, present or future, be expected to write anything other than books broadly condemning Trump's legendary criminality and authoritarian governance? Especially, considering his policies, which seem increasingly disastrous almost daily, what else can we expect? In a word, little. Trump's notorious, nfamous "big election lie" and his ensuing violent insurrection, which we already know he carefully conceived, planned in great detail, and orchestrated almost perfectly, will take center stage in forthcoming historiy books. Trump's two impeachments will be front and center. And then, there's all the rest. All the rest of the tens of thousands of outright lies uttered by Trump in his two terms aspresident, the seemingly innumerable violaton of the constitution and federal law, Trump's attacks on innocent people and respected institutions...all of it. Of the thousand so flawsuits, both for and against Trump, in which the uber litigous litigant is involved both in his private and public affairs, how many will be scrutinized as to their motive and their outcome? That will not contribute much flattering material to Trump's historical legacy. There would seem to be no way for the future historical profession to do other than to universally declare Donald Trump to have been the worst president in American history, by a country mile. Of course, far stranger things have happened. MAGA historians are not beyond the realms of possibility. That some wayward misguided future historian might dare praise Trump as a great president is certainly no more strange than the mere fact that tens of millions of ostensibly reasonably intelligent Americans not only supported him politically, but regarded him as an almost iconic figure worthy of adulation and veneration, even while he was alive.

Gerrymandering

GERRYMANDERING is as old a time honored tradition as its namesake, Mr. Gerry Mander. aka Eldridge Gerry, an eigtheenth century politician who oversaw the reshaping of redrawn congressional districts so that they resembled a salamander, contorted, twisted beyond recognition, to suit the needs of the party in power. The Commonwealth of Massachussets comes to mind, a raggedly shaped state where the voter manipulators can and often have run wild. In a great big sqaure state, like, say Wyoming or Arkansas, gerrymandering is much harder, if not imposible; the natural shape of congressional districts sticks out like a sore voter, small squares of territory begging for formal recognition. An area of land marked by invisible lines, arbitrarily, selectively to include the intended people and exclude the unwanted voters by lines wandering haphazardly all over god's green Earth without logic has been gerrymandered, count on it.. It aint the latest thang, to quote MIck Jagger. Like MIck, the corrupt practice is as popular as ever nowadays, always and eternally in style in our corrput American brand of plutocratic "democracy" which permits and even encouraes it. There are two possible strategies. Congressional districts can can either be redrawn to scatter the unwatned party's voters as far and wide as humanly possible to to diminish their strength, called "cracking", or so that as many of the opposition's voters are packed into a single district as possible, called "packing" to concentrate all their voting power in a single district, leaving all the others for the offeding party to prey on. Both major American political parties are guitly of it, asall major American political parties have either done it, tried to do it, or wanted to do it. Its simply much too tempting a trick not to try. And, best or worst of all, its perfectly legal, technically, because it can always be disguised and described as virtue and justified by citing selective fact based circumstances. In theory its illegal, in practice, quite legal. Get your party elected to power in your state, with a perfet trifecta of control of both legislative houses and the governorship, stay in power by rigging the voting districts. If left unchecked, gerrmandering can kill a democracy, or, if not that, can mortally wound one. It has yet to kill the great American pseudo democratic experiment, but has gravely wounded it, to the point where it is virtually impossible to defeat an incumbant member of the United States House of Representatives running for reelection, and nearly all of the four hundred and thirty eight districts across the country are essentially owned by one party or the other, lock, stock, and ballot box. The current focus of the corruption is Texas. the U.S. constitution requires redistricdting every ten years; Texas, in its zeal to establish even greater Republican control fo the rigged Republic of Texas, is jumping teh gun by five year, looking ahead to next year's election, when the Democrats seemed poised to take the House. What's alarming is that, like many other forms of criminal corruption popular in our era of Trump, the promoters of gerreymandering are making no attempt to hde their nefarious intent. Why bother? It doesn't have to be this way, although we the American people seem to passively prefer it this way. Every state in our nifgy fifty has the capacity to rdistrict fairly and honorably by using nonpartisan people to do the job A national unbiased system could be established through legislation. will anything be done?Unlikely,in the near future. As Jefferson said: "If the people become inattentive to the affairs of government, the legislators and magistrates shall divide the people nto two classes; wolves, and sheep." We the people have long since become inattentive. When we awaken, we wil likely do so sluggishly and belatedly, as always. In Texas, the Democrats have fled the state, to regroup and stall for time. That won't work, but at least its a step in the right direction.

Not Attacking Religion

MONDAY MORNING GOSPEL SINGING went extremely well for me. There were a few folks missing, but that didn'tmatter. What does matter is that I sang better, imho, than I ever have before. After four years plus, I might, just...might...be....figuring out how to sing the rancid stuff, gospel. Heaven knows its taken long enough. Same old sycophantic bloody tunes, sure, but, all in all, fun. As they say, when in Rome. At one point the nice old long bearded gentleman next to me, perhpas in a moment of rare enlightenment or desperation, offered: "what we need, what the church needs, is a big revivel", or something like that. I believe we had just completed singing "Revive Me Again", or something like that. I thought about that as I took a bite from my chocolate chip cookie (the senior center generously provides snacks) and joined in as they began to sing my favorite "How Great Thou Art". When we finished, I turned to him and said: "Actually, membership in the church, in the Christian faith, ( I like to use the word "faith" rather than "religion" when dealing with the devout) is declining, in Europe and North America, as the culture increasingly secularizes". I was surprised when he understood and agreed with me. I was not surprised when he said something like; "Then too, it seems like the church is being attacked". Well, maybe I was a bit surprised, but not much. I never am. We sang another hymn, something gross about washing our sins away in blood, and donning a pure white robe.(or it is yellow?). I didn't say anything else to the nice old man, didn't need to, as if tacitly accepting his remark as factual. I am,however, considering saying something to him next Monday. I am tempted to tell him that there in fact is no attack on the Christian religion, organized or otherwise, by anybody, anywhere. Sure, there are people who don't like religion at all and would prefer that it vanish from this EArth, many such people. But there is no evidence of any concerted effort by anybody to "attack" religion, other than in the free market place of public opinion, the media, and print, where indiviiduals exercise their human given right of free epression and opinion. But there is no attack. What there is is an increasing trend towards the secularization of society. The modern concept of secular democratic government has and is takng hold. Then too,there is the rapid, sweeping inexorable advance of science, and an increasingly well educated public in all areas of science and technology. By claiming that free expression, diversity of opinion and religiosity, and a mass migration among humanity from religious belief is an "attack" of any sort is a blatant if unintentional attempt by resentful "believers" to victimize themselves in their seeming inability to rejuvinate their organized religions in the face of their rot from within, and is false. According to current trends, all religion seems destined to wither away in the future. It may take decades if not centuries to complete the process. Humanity may keep inventing new religions for thousands of years. They will flicker, grow, decline, and die, like all religions ever invented have. Less likely is that the Christian faith will revive, spread out unto and into all nations, and conquer the entire world, and install itself once and for all as the one true faith of planet Earth, and, by extension, the universe. And the fact that this is vanishingly unlikely might well be among the greatest gifts the good lord has ever bestowed upon His god fearing, adoring children. As I eagerly anticipate next week's gospel singing, I give thnks for this, not only to my god, but to the Christian one as well.

Taking theTennis Plunge

IT WAS MUCH ON MY MIND, and I was enjoying thinking about it. The newest self made crisis turning point in my ever lengthening life.Nother pleasantproblimeto sovle,which, in truth, I had already soved, except for the execution of my plan and my experiencing the consequences. I wanted to talk it, to "bounce it off a wall", so to apeak. And t didn't matter off whom. Nobody would really be interest in hearing about my dilemma, nobody but someone willing to just sit, listen, and offer bland cliche responses would do. Fortunately, that descrives almost anybody and everybody. I was on my way to the liquor store for the first time in months. Every now and again I like to cop a buzz by drinking three or four beers. That satisifies me for weeks, usually. I have alcoholic ancestors, am especially vulnerable to alcoholism ,but have always managed to drink without falling off the cliff, so to speak. I was looking forward to the eer and I realized that I was aobut to meet my victim; whoever handed me the beer through the drive thru windowwould hear my story. It wasa young lady, as usual. bi turnover, usually young country ladies. She handed me my beer, and I noticed there were no customers in line behind me. Usually there are, but on this day I sensed that there would be no drive thru beer buyers for at least the next couple of minutes. But, spoke fast, and said this: "I started playing tennis when I was a kid, got good at it, played my way through college, and went on the enjoy a decades long career as a top flight amateur tennis player. Then, I moved to a small town with no tenis courts, and instead of doing the necessary driving to continue playing (I hate to drive), I just sort of let it go, gradually, over the weeks, months, and years playing less and less, until, one day, I became a retired tennis player. Now, I am seventy, several of my old tennis friends want me to start playing agin, one of them told me, wisely, that you don't have to be young or good to have fun. That one iece of wisdom got me started. Now, i wantto play tennis, but I spent my entire life being so competitive, tournamnets, all that, that the urgent need to get better, at everything I do, tennis and everything else, tends to guide and dominate my thinking and attitude. Work hard. Improve. Never give up. All that. A lifetime of indoctrination, enbraced and reinforced within. Not that I knock it, but, well, it has its limits, especially now, when all that matters is fun and exercise. What i fear, I said to the young lady, is experiencing the harsh reality that at my age,and in my state of rust, that I will walk out onto the tennis court and make myself disappointed and miserable. For a few moments the yong lady seemsed a bit taken aback, and the older lady standing behind her had her mouth open, because I was telling the narrative passionately, with passion in my voice. Maybe she tought I was holding up the store. But the girl began to understand, and seemed to become actually somewhat vicariously involved in my "emotional plight". I told her that I felt the way Jefferson felt about being president of the United States. He called it "splendid misery". Yes, I was and am entranced with and attracted to the notion of starting tennis from scratch at the age of seventy, with a head start based on years of previous experience. However, I understood (understand) that trying to get good again will be grueling and protacted; that it will be far easier to just hit the court, hit the ball, and laugh about it. In short, I am afraid, uselessly. She agreed, suggested the latter path. "Just don't put too many expectations on yourself", was her best advice. I hope I take that advice. I plan to - as of now. She then mentioned her problem; that she can feel her body changes as she ages. I resisted the urge to tell her "wait till you're seventy". What I said as I drove away I think was brilliant: "I guess I just need to have fun playing tennis, and you jsut need to have fun growing old." As she greeted the customer behind me, she seemed to agree.

Finding A Church

I'M ALMOST CERTAIN that my search is over, and that I have found what I'm looking for. Namely, a church for me. My search, a fun project, took a little over a year and involved visits to five different churches. By the time I was eight years old, I knew I would almost certainly never be religious in the normal traditional sense, and that I would definitely never be a Christian. The Christian Bible drove me away froom it. I would rather learn from my mistakes and be done with them than have my sins washed away in blood. I spent my youth as an unobservant atheist, and finally, when I was twenty years old, decided to believe in God, only because I wanted to. I could define "God" however I chose; I evolved into a pantheist. But I never stopped admiring the essential message of Jesus Christ, even though much of what he said is either a bit weird, or just plain mean. As reigious scholar Bart Ehrman points out, the Old Testament is harsh, God is harsh, to say the least, and the New Testament, with Jesue providing a covenant whcih does not refute the old law, nearly as harsh. Another word for is is barbaric, primitive, or even cruel. Not the religion for me. I visited a fundamentalist mega church, with loud brass praise music, a very dark room and well lighted stage, a GQ strutting minister, and bloody salvation. Definitely not for me. I attended two different Methodist churches, both very pleasant. I returned frequently to a tiny, rustic Presbyterian church, with a congregation of about ten people, all friends of mine who I see daily at the senior center. I want a bigger community than that, and I want to meet new people. Then, after much procrastination and many thoughts and delays, I drove the twenty miles to the nearby college town to the Universal Unitarian church. On my way there, I realized that I would have to fall in love with the place to be willing to drive forty miles, round trip, once a week to get there. When I arrived, I said precisely that to the people I met. They seemed to understand. My initial reaction to the building and the congregation and clergy was quite favorable, and only got more favorable. There were about eighty or a hundred people, the perfect size for me. Mostly older folks, many older than I.I almost thought that we needed more younger people, then, hell, it dawned on me that am seventy years old. Actually, its a pretty good balance, including some children, but not many. The service last almost exacty one hour, and I thorougly enjoyed every minute of it. The minister is a pleasant lady, cheeful, welcoming, who did not deliver a sermon, but merely mentioned what the Unitarian church is all about, which edified me, but might have seemed a bit repititious to the regulars. The hymns they sang inspired me to joy and comfort. They were utterly, beautfully transcendantly sublime. We sang two, I think, and I hope there is a hymnal full of them. I am assured that there indeed is.I want to memorize and sing them all. There wa a guest speaker, as I suspect there might usually be. Perhaps one every week. I hope so. A pleasant genteleman gave an illuminating twenty minute talk "What is Hinduism? I learned a lot. The folks were friendly; several inroduced themselves, with a brief chat. One lady's dog, a real sweetheart, put her head on my foot, and I gave her more love than she might have expected. She has more coming.I also enjoyed the discussion group downstairs before the service. I like it, and plan to come back for me. Jesus Christ was never mentioned. I have faith that he is enfolded deeply within their love. Whether I will return to this happy pleasant place is a question I find easy to answer.

Trump, Saving and Rebuilding Rome

PERHAPS THE GREATEST MYSTERY in human history, a mystery often discussed and analyzed nearly ad infinitum, is why Trump has any political supporters, let alone tens of millions. Also, its among histories most relevant, important questions, mysteries. Millions of people wrestle with this repeatedly, some, consantly, including myself. I'd like to understand the creation of the universe, and Donald Trump's support, not necssarily in that order. "I want to know God's thoughts, the rest are mere details", said Einstein. Of even greater value to me, at least for the time being, would be knowing MAGAt thoughts. The idea of a greatly benevolent person, a savior, is, quite obviously, as old as human culture, or nearly so. What's better is when said savior acually appears in the flesh, in human form,rather the remaining aloof and ensconced on Mt. Olympus, or Valhalla, Or somewho up in the sky, as described by holy scripture. There's just something extra special about a God taking human form, coming to Earth as one of us, walking and talking to us, healing the sick, or repairing teh fatherland country through total, complete, enlightened leadership. Julius Caser, when he entered Romewith his after conquering Gaul and suggested that it might be effacious for the citizens of Roem to accpet him as Imperitor, Emporer of Rome by divine right, all the instruments and organs of government bundled into a single bundle, a "fasci", in his holy hands. It was an offer they couldn't refuse. The Roman Senate, the courts, both tribunes and both consuls remained in existence, giving Rome executive and legislateve republican governance. They all still existed, in theory and in spirit, only, entirely embodied in and incorporated in the holy corpus of His Regal Majesty, Julius Caesar. The Magnificent Roman republic, gone with the wind in a whim. Thus was invented fassicm, in a bundle of sticks tied together. Concentraion of power. Twentieth century fascism evolved to fit modern times,and control of the media, suppression of the education system, the endless hyper patriotic our glorious leader propagnada drivel...all that ensuing. Hitler and MUssolini had the dutting egde technology radio;Trump has big screen TV and internet social media. So Trump is teh heri apparante to Caeser and Hitler, the divine savior warrior-king. I have always fantasized and I still do,about unimagineably, incredibly advanced and infinitely wise extraterrestrials descending from the sky like in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (one of my favorite movies), and fixing everything. I bring this fantasy alive within my burning breat...daily? Yes,I want my savior too. Its just that, in my case, when I look around, I don't see a stinking huan being on this Earth I would want for my savior. Call me "picky". Intergalactically "Hoity toity",perchance? Nay, none of the above; I simply have high standards...Just how in the hell the savior came to be Trump is the next great. mystery. I actually think all the criminality and debauchery helps. Remember,its a obout power, and wielding it. Just think about all the petty, theatrical dislays of barbaric cruely rendered unto humanity and members thereof by Yahweh, Jehovah, Elohim, in the wholly barbaric Holy Bible. Take your pick. Prove your loyalty and obedience to me, oh Abraham, by slicing your own son to death. I, your loving compassionate Almighty God, will take the sheep in the bush instead. So far Trump has done all the things a good fascist salvation figure does, with one exception. He has smitten his and thus his country's enemies, but, --and this is a big but-- he hasn't even begun demanding blood sacrifices from his worshippers.

Glorifying the Vainglorious Trump

IT IS RUMORED, unurprisingly, that Donald Trump would be more than amenable to the renaming of rhe Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to, as you might have guessed, the Trump Center for the same. In all fairness, much of the momentum for this laughable relabeling derives,as one might have guessed, from within the ranks of Trump's moronic MAGA minions. Several months ago, the newly ensconced self congratulatory president toured the building, and found it wanting in amenities, and in disrepair. A spiritual Trump Tower twin. That may be where he hatched the scheme: a newly, beautifully renovated performing arts center, with his famous name topping it. Trump also expressed disapproval of the natue of the performing artists who have historically performed there. Far too many progressive minded violinists, perhaps, too many theatrical presentations with themes reflecting social ills, and the need to correct them. Heaven forbid that art should sinei the light of truth on American society and the human condition, and hint at a need for reform. This,after all, is the mindset of an American conservative movement which considers "To Kill A Mockingbird: and "The Grapes of Wrath" too liberal, too disrespectful of the powers that be status quo, too married to Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion; in a word, too "woke". The philistinic Trump, mirroring the artisitc sensitivies fo his sycophantic cult folowers, would no doubt prefer to attend a never ending parade of tawdry, pedestrian, smugly conventional musical and theatrical performances. A Star Spangled night of maudlin patriotic fodder for the medicore mind, featuring the Marine Corp band. (Nothing against the band, they rock). Hip hop Hamilton supplanted by the untold story of Donald Trump's noble, patriotic rise to the top of the political heap his ascension to glory, from humble Abrahamic Lincolnian log cabin beginnings. In other words, a steady stream of prosaic, pandering drivel. one can imagine the enthusiatic influx of MAGA mob members, bursting through the turnstyles, wearing the iconic red ball caps, grinning and drooling, armed to the teeth, without any intervention from metal detectors or security personnel, grinning and drooling idiotically, in anticipation of an evening of obsequious Trump worshipping nonsense. Conservative values on full display; hatred of gay people and people of color, shamelessly singing the praises of white Christian American nationalistic glory. Is that the blonde, pudgy Karoline Leavitt on Trump's arm, or someone much, much younger? The first lady, we are informed, has another engagement for the evening. What could be the next step beyond this, other than the additon of a chiseled head to the Mt.Rushmore foursome? Trump, sliding in neatly next to or between Roosevelt, Lincoln, Jefferson, and Washington, orange toupee sweeping across the rocks, casting shadows. If there is insufficient room among the rocks,one of the others can simply be chiseled back out of existence, and a new beginning made. Move over or begone with you, Jefferson and Lincoln, your progressive place in hisotry has no place here. Eliminating the equally forward thinking Teddy Roosevelt would leave more than enough room for outsized granite likenesses of Trump and Ronald Reagan to fill the void. Or maybe that bothersome trouble makng Crazy Horse, just down the road and around the corner, his statue incomplete, could be deep sixed, much like his people. Trump woould be even more appropriately located there, having conquered another of his hated minorities. Carving human heads into the previously majestic mountain is already an abomination, a crime against God and nature; why not compound the criminality? Pam Bondi, batting eyelashes at the rock hewed moribund torpid Reagan and Trump? 'Til human voies wake us, and we drown. (T.S.Eliot)

Making Too Much Ado, About Very Little

THE LAST TIME I saw my MAGA friend was Labor Day, 2021. Trump was out of office, and my buddy, all six foot eight of him, was, as Davy Crockett might've said, "a mite wrathy". His face was twisted into a contorted grimace. I was the object of his anger,not entirely without justification. He immediately started in on me, talking politics, and I made excuses, and quickly left. Earlier that year he had precipitously wagered me a case of imported beer that before year's end, Trump would, by some stroke of magical Supreme Court fate, or perhaps violent insurrection, be back in office. I think he realized he would lose the bet, and he did, and I made him pay up. That made things even worse between us, as if by claiming my deserved prize I was somehow humiliating him, which I was. The seminal fact about my friend is that before the advent of the political candidate Trump, he had shown absolutely no interest in politics. I have known him for forty years. Trump politicized my friend, as I suspect he did to latent conservatives the nation over. Trump, the progenitor of a whole new legion of right wing fanatics, turning potential into actuality. Maybe that's his "greatest" legacy. I became a political animal on November 22, 1963, when I was eight and a half. Politics, and baseball. I still love both, but as I have matured, mellowed and evolved, I realize that its just another ball game. Baseball, and poltics, just another ball game. Don't sweat the small stuff, its all small stuff, as we like to say. I accepted a half ounce of skunk bud in place of the beer, and as my friend walked away, he got in one last shot, reminding me that since I own and live in a nice house, I am a capitalist. Maybe he thought he was both elucidtaing and insulting me. He was neither. I reminded him that he too is both capitalist and socialist, which most of us are, in widely, wildly varying proportions. Like most baseball fans, politcally charged folks take politics way on yonder much, much too seriously. Baseball, for obvious reasons. It is, after all, just a game, a passionate game, full of sound and fury, signifying...nothing. Only in recent years have I even begun to take Yankees losses with a grain of equannimity. Its taken more than sixty years, a long haul. I had another friend whom I enticed into becoming a baseball fan by taking him to see a major league game. He was hooked, immediately. Within a few days he had momorized the batting avarage of every player in the big leagues, and he never let up, praise be to Abner Doubleday. I believe it is a well known phenonanon that the more recent the convert, the later in life one finds the true fatih, i politics, religion, or baseball, the more fervantly devoted the fan or votary. This, I think, applies almost equally to baseball, religion, and politics. When we became hooked on something late in life, we becoem hooked hard, line and sinker. I'll go on being passionate about baseball, and politics, not so much about religion, which I disdain. My MAGA friend is most likely on top of the world long about now, and shall doubtless remain so for the next three and a half years, assuming Trump remains in office that long, which is always questionable. During that time it is not likely that I will see him. When Trump leaves the political stage, so will, I suspect, my friend. But I'll go right on rooting for the Yankees, because, the way it looks now, they've a far better chance of winning than any political candidate or party I have the misfortune to support.