Trump, Militarizing America

THE ELECTION OF 1876 was one of those weird ones in which nobody won, without some extra help. An arguably corrupt bargain was struck, when the northern presidential candidate, Hayes, was awarded the election over Tilden, in exchange for the north removing its post civil war army of occupation from the south, ending "reconstruction". A smart move by both sides, mutually beneficial, really. The Art of the Deal. As they say, whatever works. As part of that weird arrangement a law was passed stipulating that the United States government may never again use the United States military to police the American people. That's why Trump sending the National Guard to LosAngeles a few weeks back was illegal, a federal judge ruled yesterday. Nowever,the rulingonly applies to the judge'sjuridiction, not the wntire nation, since the Supreme Court recently overturned the American legal process by limiting by lmiting, for the first time, the effect of all federal judge rulings to their specific area of jurisdiction. Nonetheless,sendingin teh National Guard to anywhere in the United States, Washington D.C., Chicago, or wherever, is obviously llegal because of the same law, for the same reason. However, it goes without saying that fear of violating the law has never been a deterrent to anything Donald Trump has ever done,as president or otherwise. No emergency exists in the nation's capitol, and none exists in Chicago, which is evidently doomed and destined to be the next target of Trump's fascist agenda. Trump's "emergencies" are always trumped up, obviously. There is too much crime in the nation's big cities which are governed by democrats, and the feds must stop it, says Trump. Even though the crime rate has been going down considerably in recent years, there is still just plain too much of it, says the fascist....All this, presumably with the full approval of MAGA nation, which doesn't seem to be comlaining about the fascism, but rather, supporting it. Those freedom and liberty loving small government limited government conservative Republicans, Siccing the army on the American people. Who would have thought...The people who swear to God that owning a firearm is a God given inaienable right of all Americans, sending in the military to try to reduce the number of people who get killed or wounded by gun fire in America. You might almost think that a better, more direct, simpler way to solve the problem of gun violence in America, instead of letting it run constantly out of control, accepting the costs, and cleaning up the mess, might be to simply take the guns, the guns intended only for killing people, off the streets, if such a thing is even remotely conceivable in the United States of Attrition. The guard comes to town, and makes a strong presence in the streets, and the violent crime rate plummets, but only for as long as the uniformed well armed soldiers are patroling the streets. Then, when the army leaves town, the violent crime rate, the gun shootings, quickly returns to normal. After all, the military can't stay everywhere at once, in every big city in America, indefinitely. The expense would be prohibitive, and, after all, how long, really, can we freedom loving Americans tolerate living under martial law? It didn't take the good folksin L.A. very long to take to the streets in protest and anger. You somehow sense, based upon what you know about the average attitudes toward personal freedom of the average American, that, no, it wouldn't take very long for an American city, any American city, to get sick and tired of seeing their streets swarming with infantry and armor. Neither the extreme right wing nor the extreme left wing will want this for very long. We Americans generally won't. The courts will at least slow down Trump's militarization of America, and we must hope, and can probably trust, that we the American people will put an end to it,once and for all.

Trump, Testing His Limits

WITH TYPICAL ARROGANCE and disregard for the law, Trump signed an executive order requiring that everybody who votes in the United States must present a photo I.D. when casting his or her ballot. Precisely how this will work with mail in voting has not been explained in detail. Trump, of course, is also opposed to mail in voting, and it almost seems surprising that his executive order didn't outlaw that as well. Perhaps his next one will. The United States constitution specifically states that the several states shall be responsible for and in charge of voting procedures within their own states, including all laws pertaining to voting within their borders. Trump's order pertains, probably, only to national elections, whether or not he knows it, and is, nonetheless, most likely unconstitutional, according to a veritable bevy of the usual legal experts. No probably abut it, actually; its illegal as hell, like nearly all of Trump's authoritarian style executive orders. Trump and the Republicans, seemingly unable to come to terms with the reality that the progressive agenda is more popular throughout the land of liberty than their own, which is according to polls, quite unpopular, have over the past few years, invented and perpetuated the fantasy that there exixts rampant fraud and corruption throughout the electoral system in America, all of which benefits the Democrats, who are, accordingly, the culprits. Accordingly, the election of 2020 was stolen from Trump, by, presumably, the Democrats. That utterly false Republican religious conviction adheres today, as everyone knows. Millions of fake votes entering the system through the snail mail, and stealing elections for Democrats, according to this insane, nonsensical, paranoid but widespread (among conservatives) delusion. All the fake votes are for Democrats, none for Republicans, the story goes. Really? Trump and conservatives generally would much prefer that mail in voting be illegal, unless the voter is bed ridden. Republicans generally don't like expanded opportunities to vote early, as witnessed by the fact that they tend to vote in person on electoin day, while Democrats are far more likely to vote early or by mail. The object is to suppress voting, to keep vote totals down, because in any election in which voters vote in large numbers, Democrats have the advantage. Republicans don't mind if poor folks and minorities stay home on election day, and don't vote at all, early or not. Nurturing democracy means making it as easy as possible to vote, to get more people to vote. Making it difficult to vote is an attack on democracy, by people who have abandoned it. Perhaps if the Republicans can somehow limit the franchise to white middle and upper middle class straight Christian white men, all will be well in right wing America. A white Christian plutocracy with Trump at the top, issuing executive orders at an unprecedented rate, in effect ruling by decree, without the slightest resistance and presumed approval with Congressional Republicans. Trump, for instance, simply must pick another city into which to send the National Guard, just to prove that he can, and will. Testing his limits. So far,the judicial system is heroically doing its duty, striking down Trump's criminal actions, including his entire illegal tariff policies. The Supreme Court, however, seemingly utterly corrupt, might keep bailing him out. For more than three more years, Trump will test his limits with increasing frequency with blatantly illegal power grabbing behavior, paritularly between now and the midterms in twenty six. Trump knows that his executive orders are illegal the moment he signs them, if not before. Surely someone has told him. If not, the situaiton is even worse than imagined. He is purposely issuing illegal commands, asserting his authoritarian right to do so, expanding his power. Congressional Republicans and tens of millions of MAGA members will enable this with active support or tacit passivity. It will be up to the federal courts and us, the new moral anti-Trump majority, to put a stop to it.

Saying It Again About Guns

THE MAYOR OF MNNEAPOLIS, Jake Frey I think his sname is, distinguished himself during the unrest in his city associated with the Black Lives Matter movement in the summer of twenty one, with his calm, confident, positive leadership. At a press conference folloing the recent mass murder in Minneapolis, he stood up and stood out once again, by asking a single,simple, but extremely relevant question. "Should anyone be able to fire thirty rounds or more before having to reload?" A very reasonable question indeed. Also, should you have the option of firing them from a fully automatic weapon, with a single pull and squeeze of the trigger sending forth a raging hellish hail storm of bullets? Semi automatic fire seems deadly enough; fully automatic, catastrophic. Of the nearly six thousand essays which have appeared on this website, surely at least a couple hundred, or several dozen at the very least, have been concerned with the topic of mass shootings in America. You get to the point where there is nothing new to say about it, so you say the same things repeately. Mayor Frey, asking this rhetorical question, passionately, on camera, was impressive. On the news cast, after showing the mayor, the camera showed a long line of high school students, dressed for school, carrying backpacks and books, lined up for what seemed like blocks at the front door of their school, walking,supervised by teachers, one at a time through a metal detector on their way into the building. Every student of every public school in the state of Tennessee now is required to pass through a metal detector every day as he or she enters his or her respetive school building. This is in response to the proliferation of mass shootings in American schools, and in particular to one which took place in a Tennessee school some time ago. The reason for it is obvious, and its hard to argue that it isn't a good idea. It might be inevitable that every public school or building in America eventually have metal detectors for all. But also, on an entirely different level, its sad. Its sad that we live in a country and society in which this horrible mass shooting nightmare goes on, endlessly. Especially sad, because, it seems so perfectly obvious that this situation does not have to exist, that it only exists because we as a country and society allow it to, and that we could greatly reduce to the point of essentially eliminating it by taking a simple step which has demonstrably worked well in all other countries; strict gun control and a drastic reduction of the number of guns in the average American home. Maybe its too late; the cow, so to speak, is out of the proverbial barn. This modern interpretation of the second amendment according to which the founders intended all Americans to have the freedom to own any weapon they choose should, quite obviously, be reconsidered. How could the founders possibly, for example, have intended automatic weapons to be legal? Australia and Great Britain got rid of guns, and their murder rates fell considerably. However, those countries were not quite as inundated in and awash in guns and gun culture as we here in the land of liberty and freedom. And as long as most Americans consider gun ownership to be a sacred god given right along with life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, it isn't likely that America's perpetual epidemic of gun violence will end, nor even abate significantly. Freedom comes at a high price, and we gun slinging Americans proudly pay it.

Applying To Be A MAGA American

ALMOST EVERYTHING that Donald Trump says and does seems crazy and horrible to his detractors, and thus extremely entertaining, if insane. But if you look at it from his point of view, all his actions are consistent, reasonable, and perfectly in keeping with his basic, ovarall agenda, which, mainly, consists of accumulating as much power for himself as he humanly possibly can. Recent examples include an apparant covert American operation in Greenland, intended to waaken the relationship between that coveted island and its "overseer", Denmark. Believe it or not. As is quite well known, Trump has wanted Greenland to become part of the United States for a long time. The Greenlandians, however, overwhelmingly, do not want that glorious dubious situation. Turn up the propaganda machine and start applying political and economic pressure. Domestically, many government agencies, agencies like FEMA, for instance, having been gutted by Trump, are fully aware that they have been so severely damaged by depleted numbers and unqualified leadership as to be wholly ineffective and unprepared to carry out their functions, and hundreds of employees have signed letters stating precisely that and sent them to Trump, who responds by suspending or firing the letter signers. Criticize your boss, dare to tell the truth about the organization you work within,lose your job. That's pure fascism, not if it happens in private business, but its a fascist way of operating the government. That African-American lady on the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve Bank isn't having it, and is fighting back. Fighting back might be precisely what the majority of the American people who oppose Trump should, perhaps, consider doing more of. If Trump calls out the National Guard into the streets of every big city in America dominated by Democrats, perhaps we the American people will finally have had enough of fascism, and Trump. Nothing that Trump has done recently is quite as white nationalistic fascist as his new policy regarding applicants from immigrants to the United States. Beginning presuming immediately, anyoe who applies for immigration to America will be screened for "un-American" or "anti-American" tendencies, attitudes, beliefs, or whatever. Precisely what is meant by "screened", has not been explained, at least to the public. It could mean nearly anything. will they have to write essays explaining exactly why they want to become citizens of the United States, and be asked to explain exactly what it is about America which attracts them to her? If you want to find out how people entering the United States actually feel about the U.S., you have to do more than merely read and listen to what they offer you in terms of information. Hatred and resentment and harmful intent can be hidden, so you have to try to expose it with questions. There are many definitions of "un-American", "anti-American". Accordign to Trump and his MAGA cult, anyone who opposes Trump, acknowledges American racism, supports gay rights, hates America. Anyone who believes in and supports "DEI" is un-american. Hell, it could easily,by increments, get to the point where millions of unwashed brown skinned people, desperately fleeing gangs and poverty, arrive at asylum ports of entry wearing "Make American Great Again" Trump ball caps,knowing that love of and loyalty to Trump are required to be considered worthy of admittance into God's glory land. Everything Trump says and does makes perfect sense, to Trump, if not to decent Americans.

Slouching Towards Fascism

I WAS SHOCKED AND HORRIFIED when I found out, by watching "Face the Nation" that over the past four years, the Democratic party has lost about two million members, and the Republican party has gained approximately that many. Even worse, much of this loss and gain has happened is the so called "swing states", increasing its impact. What does this mean? That fascism is popular, and is winning? I had, for some reason, assumed pretty much the opposite; that people are fleeing the Republican party, and that Trump's popularity maxxed out long ago, that it would never go any higher than now, because at this stage of the game, Donald Trump is simply not going to attrract any new supporters? Is this all wrong too,heaven forbid? Isit possible that Trump's behavior over the past six months, or four years, has actually attracted new supporters for him? How can that be? Suppose that the Epstein files are actually released to the public, and that they haven't been edited,and that Trump's name is all over them, along with pictures and names of under aged girls. Trump, busted, finally. What would happen to his approval rating then? would it skyrocket, the nation proud to have verified pedophile as president? The same news program gave Trump's current approval rating as forty four percent, with fifty three percent opposed. That's low for a president at this stage, but not as low as you somehow think it should be, what with Trump rolling out all his fascism, and such. Trump opponents are evidently conronted with the unpleasant but undeniable reality that a large portion of we the American electorate views Trump's authoritarian behavior, the tariffs, the national guard, the deportations, all that, as positive developments, necessary to making America great, again. People tend to like a strong man, people tend to like fascism. Somehow, it makes people feel secure, comfortable, protected. Our great leader will take care of us. Trump, the man who gets things done, rather than sitting around waiting for congress and all the and media talking heads talk about every little detail in every policy proposal, debating, talking, endlessly. So what if he sidesteps a few regulations and breaks a few little laws and usurps a little congressional authority in so doing? My father once said to me that the best form of government is probably a benevolent dictatorship, heavy on the "benevolent" part. Almost everybody who participates seriously in the democratic process becomes, at one time or another, frustrated at the cumbersome, plodding inefficiency of it all. The elephant in this idyllic room is that human beings by nature, when they acquire dictatorial powers, even if they begin as basically benevolent individiuals, tend not to remain benevolent, because, alas, Lord Acton was right, power corrupts, power does not make benevolent. The National Guard has now been patrolling the streets in Washington D.C. for more than two weeks. Indeed, there has been and still is a negative response to this from the public, but, perhaps, not negative enough. Already, it almost seems as if we are all somehow starting to get used to it. Perhaps we will watch the fuhrer clean up every American city, one at a time, by force, then praise him as he tells us another ludicrous big lie; that crime in America has finally been totally eliminated. Prisoners often end up liking prison, and adoring their captors, living their lives in chains, not knowing they have the key.

Rewriting History

AMERICAN HISTORY, from the time it began being made and written about, has generally tended to be written from a very patriotic, pro-American point of view. This is called "hagiography", history which is written by someone who has a very favorable, biased, positive atttidue tuwards his subject matter,whether it be a person, a country, or an institution. Bias is a problem in historical research and writing, as it tends to be in most endeavors. Bias produces hagiography, which gives people a false history, and thus, false attitudes and beliefs about history. A passive, happy population, brainwashed on phony feel good history, is not a good thing. I was raised on American historical hagiography. So were every other American public school student from the nation's founding to, oh, say, the late twentieth century. Our blessed republic was painted as a proverbial shining city on a hill, the essence of human goodness and progress. Intellectual revolutions of one kind or another took place in all areas of research and academic endeavor in the middle to late twentieth century, including medicine, science, and the arts; why not in the writing of American history as well? Well, it did. And so it came to be that increasing numbers of baby boomer historians began seeking a better, more realistic, historically accurate and balanced description of the nation's past. Thus, what was once a glorious herioic westward expansion of the true civilization has been rewrirren and retold as genocide and territorial theft and conquest. Slavery, once presented as a "peculiar" institution with certain benefits and advantages for all involved in it, slaves included, suffered a diminished reputation when modern historians finally decided to "wie es eigentlich gewesen" (tell it as it was), and to stop the whitewashing of a cruel, brutal, tragic history and legacy. The reason why conservatives today want to eliminate all mantion of race and sexual orientation in public schools is because society, and thus schools, are more willing nowadays to teach truth, not hagiography. They (conservatives) also want to throw out all accurate honest hsitory as "anti-American", because it does not flatter the United States, and return to the good old days of simplistic, whitewashed hagiography of our parents, grandparents, and so forth, back through history. Conservatives are traditionalists, and they want to be proud, not ashamed of their nation's history and traditions. At the Smithsonian musuem of American history, for instance, American slavery is depicted is stark, blunt, honest, accurate terms. No sparing of anybody's feelings. All exhibits at the Smothsonian are genuine, not fake replicas. Extremly conservative, patriotic people, like, say, Donald Trump, along with evidently millions of other lovers of American hagiography, are offended that the nation's historical museum dares show and tell the truth about slavery, about its deep insinuation into American society and history, its horrible cruelty and brutality, its lingering endurance today. Trump, MAGA is going to remodel the Smithsonian, and bring back mythoogical American greatness. Make America look great again. Slavery will once again give comfort and pride to us, as good Americans, rather than horror, moral outrage, and disgust. By the time Herr Trump gets done with us, we the American people will be proud, proud as all hell, of our great country, past and present. Our American leader will do a better job of this than his role models and heroes, Hitler and Stalin.

Rigging and Reducing the Vote

THE REPUBLICAN PLAN to take over the United States permanently, legally or otherwise, and to install, permanently, a right wing authoritarian Christian nationalist government, is a multi-faceted enterprise which is being manifested even as we speak out against it. Facet number one is to gerrymander the entire country so as to ensure the permanent ownership and control of the House of Representatives by the Republican party. The great state of Texas has already begun the process, having just yesterday successfully voted in a new redistricting map for the state, which provides Republican majorities is five more counties than before. The Democrats may end up with no more than a half dozen House members from Texas, thanks to the new map, which was explicity drawn for that precise purpose. The Texas Republicans are not motivated to make the United States a stronger,fairer democracy, but rather, to rig it for the conservative cause. Many of them openly acknowledge this corrupt motivation, choosing not to even bother to try to hide it. Others ridiculously claim that the redrawn maps are intended to "more fairly" represent the consrvative community, blah blah. In the great national gerrymandering war which is breaking out, Republcans, due to demographic circumstances, have a big advantage over Democrats. As of now, there are perhaps twenty or twenty five truly competative seats out of four hundred and thirty five. Soon, there may be none. An entire brand of the American government the so called "people's house", rigged, bought, stolen, the voters themselves utterly irrelevant and powerless. The second prong of the Republican attack on democracy is based upon their long standing but utterly false claim that mail in voting, at all levels, anywhere and everywhere, is inherently corrupt, fraudulant, Amazinaly, all the fraud and corruption seems to be within a single political party, not both. For several reasons, a big majority of mail in voters are Democrats. Democrats tend to mail in their votes much more than Republicans. This has been well known for years, and is the only reason why Trump and his fellow Republican mobsters want to criminalize mail in voting. Th elarger project is of course "voter suppression; according to which Republican election workers desperately try to find excuses for purging the voter registration roles with poor, disabled, or colored people, aka, Democrats. In the grand casue of making Amerian great again by making its electorate white and conservative again proceeds, by any means necessary or effective.Legality is merely a minor matter. Computers and voting machiens arealso on teh Republican chopping block, believe it or not. They want all voting to take place in person, on eh day of the election, with fewer voting places, longer lines, fewer people voting, lowr vote totals. The reasoning is that many more Democrat types will be weeded out than good white,Christian conservative Republicans. Again, the reasoning is valid, based on demographics and voter tendencies. If we're not careful, we shall have gone full circle, an be back to where our founding "fathers" wanted us and intended for us to remain; as a nation in which only wealthy land owning white males are allowed to vote.

Destroying Democracy, Deliberately

A PERFECT STORM of circumstances has conspired to produce what must be considered among the most bizarre stuations in recent American history. Trump's imaginary but massive crime wave and invasion of immigrants in Wasington D.C has resulted in the conversion of the nation's capitol into an armed camp by presidential declaration of emergency. Thousands of National Guards people from six different states, hundreds from each red state, are swelling the numbers and size of the roving bands of camoflouged young adults in the streets. Large groups of them spend much of their day hanging out in large groups, chatting with each, milling around, doing nothing, like high schoolers on a McDonald's parking lot on a Saturday night. What do they, what can they do all day, other than asemble in formation,march around awhle, and stand or sit around the rest of the time. Must get pretty boring. Also, very expensive, for the American tax payer. Like a metasticizing cancer, the perceived urgent necessity of fuly militarizing under martial law the Capitol City is spreading to every conservative state in America, which means, most states. The questions are; how big will it get, and how long will it last? Will it be permanent? Is this just another step forwared in establishing a military dictatorship in the United States, with Trump as the dictator for life? These questiosn are reasonable, because as of yet, there seems to be no, absolutely none, no resistance or negative feedback about all this among Stump's MAGA support base. Trump nation, seemingly, is good to go, down with it, as we say. Shocking. While militarizing Washington D.C.and turning it into Trump's personal fiefdom, the grand Republican project of gerrymandering every red state in America proceeds, full speed ahead. Texas is dead serious about it. The Republican Trump mob which controls the Texas government is now assigning law enforcement officers to follow, shadow, and monitor all Democrat members, and is locking up in the Capitol building any Democrat legslator who enters it. How much longer until the Lone Star State legislature passes a law criminalizing the Democratic party, and sending anyone who insists on belonging to it to Aligator Alcatraz? Florida would happily lock 'em up; the Republicans there are proceeding to gerrymander their state, practically forcing Democrats into political extinction. All too soon, every red state in America which aint square (and maybe even the square ones too) will be subject to gerrymandeirng by the Trump mob. By the time the 2026 elections arrive, the Republicans fully intend to make Republican domination of Congress automatic, inevitable, and perpetual, one red state at a time. Presumably a huge, overwhelming percentage of registered Republicans, including evangelical Christians, are perfectly happy with this destruction of American Democracy in exchange for one party authoritarian government. It goes without saying, or should, that this is not at all what the founders had in mind,or how American democacy is supposed to function, in which the party in power in every state changes and rigs the election system to favor their own party. When the other party is voted in, the whole thing starts over....and over. Create political social and political chaos, declare a national emergency, finish installing fascist, authoritarian government. As T.S. Eliot said: "So elegant, so intelligent". No, not really. Rather, evil, nightmarish. But whatever, a perfectly workable plan which is being implemented right before our eyes, with the apparent support and approval of much of America. We can only hope, not enough.

Taking From the Poor, Giving To the Rich

THE FIRST THING TRUMP DID when he took offic was sign an executive order eliminating funding for America's foreign assistance agency USAID.The food and medical care USAID has distributed all over the world over the years has been estimated to have saved the lives of millions of people. But now, because of Trump, it shall save no more lives, at least not until Trump is gone, if ever. He did this within mere moments after taking the oath of office. This was entirely appropriate; the new president getting right down to his highest priority, taking from the poor and giving to the wealthy, without needless delay. Since January 20, 2021, precisely how many children around the world have died from starvation or lack of medicine? Is anybody keepting track? How many more will die over the next few months and years, or until we the American people finally elect a decent human being, aka Democrat, as president of the United States, along with a Democratic congress? Trump's plan seems to be to cause as much chaos as possible, and to incite as much fear and anger throughout the population as possible. He also seems to have a marked proclivity for dispensing widespread misery. Trump's budget for this year, eagerly voted into law by his sycophantic, cult-like Republican congressional majority, gives the wealthiest Aemricans massive tax cuts, eliminates huminatarian spending, greatly increases military spending including weapons procurement, and plunges the country into ever deeper national debt. Its a budgetary disaster, but entirely aceptable to Trump's MAGA mob. And yet, there's more. As if the administration hadn't already done enough damage to the poorest of the poor, the Republican congress and Trump have promoted a bill to drastically cut funding for UNICEF, the United Nations organization founded shortly after World War Two which has, over many decades, saved an estimated one hundred and fifty million lives globally. Once again, lives saved will turn into lives lost, as countless numbers of impoverished people die due to lack of the assistance previously rendered by UNICEF. Unspeakably cruel. And again, make no mmsitake; this cruelty is not the idea of a single, malign, evil tyrant such as, say, Donald Trump. Far from it. This particular act, and the Trump tendency to attack humanitarian spending and to cut taxes for the wealthy is an agenda fully and wholly supported by the Republican Congressional majority, the Republican party, MAGA, and evangelical conservative America. Trump spokesperson Karoline Leavitt stood in front of cameras and proudly proclaimed that UNICEF is "crap". House SpeakerMike Johnson described the international agency and its work as "wasteful" and "harmful". Maybe some resources have been used inefficiently in UNICEF. Some of that happens in nearly all human organizations. There's always room to cut waste. Precisely what harm UNICEF does or has ever done the extreme right winger did not say. Trump's war on cooperation and compassion, like all his other harmful policies, will have to be endured during the remainder of his time in office, and reversed, and the damage done repaired, when he mercifully is gone. Within limits. We can only estimated the number of people lost instead of saved by the perversity and cruelty of American conservatism. But we know that there are many, will be many more, and that no amount of future damage control and repair can or will ever change this tragedy.

Trump, Declining

ON THAT INFAMOUS DAY when Trump incited an insurrection, then watched it and rooted for it on television in the White House, he never called out the National Guard because, as he said, he lacked the authority to do so. That, of course was a lie, and he knew it at tht eime.He didn't want the National Guard, the police,or the military, nor anyone else to get in the way of his attempt to overthrow the government, after all. Flash forward to the other day, and compare his newly discovered powers aggressively employed, calling out the National Guard in Washington D.C., even though there was absolutely no reason to do so, other than Trump's desire to give the world a dramatic display of his power. His threat to activate the guard in other major American cities makes the situation even more alarming. It meshes perfectly with Trump's growing simmilarities to Hitler and Mussolini. The streets of Washington have been full of uniforms for days now, and still, there seems to be no hesitation on the part of MAGA-nation to placidly accept it. Opponents of Trump, which is now a majority of Americans, don't seem to be terribly upset about it either, at least not to the point of taking to the streets in mass protests. Still, overall, its not a popular tactic by Trump, and one wnders what the public reaction will be if and when our demented leader decides to extend his militarization of America all across the fruited plain. Somehow, you sense that the willingness of we the American people to tolerate very much of this idiocy is quite, quite limited. Trump's choice of when to mobilize the military and when not to is demonstrably insane, ass backwards, a clear threat to democracy and the American government. The fact that Trump returned from Alaska with nothing to show for ti other than his willingness to be manipulated by Putin does not help his approval ratings, and the determined desperation with which the Republicans are determined to rig the congressional districts in Texas clearly indicate an obsessive, urgent desire to keep Trump in office, and to keep his policies in effect,long after he is gone. Trump's taking the side of Putin, as he certainly seeems to be doing, will further harm his job approval rankings. It cannot be emphasizedenough that not only are Trump's policies and Trump himself despised by a clear majority of Americans, but so are the policies and agenda of the Rebpublican party and the Christian conservative movement generally. For that reason, there ahs never been a better time than now to attack the MAGA movement with an avalanche of facts, and great persistence in calling out their lies. It is difficult to imagaine, at this point,Trump and MAGA gaining many if any new supporters. It is not so dfficult at this point to imagine Trump and MAGA losing popularity, as members gradually jump ship, fleeing from Trump's ongoing disastrous administration. It seems almost a certainty that over the next few weeks and months,inflation will g et worse. Trump'll have a hardtime convincing people thatitis notreal, ornot his fault. Presidents get blamed for the economy, always. Trump is already starting to try to sell the American people the nonsense that inflation is somehow good for America. Good luck with that. Even if his hard core MAGA cult members are willing to so drastically suspend their meager powers of discernment as to drink this koolaid, the vast majority of Americans, being reasonably intelligent, are almost certainly not. Or so we must hope....

Nourishing the Soul, Cleansing With Blood

THIS COMING SUNDAY, 8/17/25, the 239th birthday of Davy Crockett, I shall go happily to church, and to the discussion group which precedes it. Afterwards, a bit of seventy year old tennis in ninety five degree heat. Wish me luck. That, surely, is sufficient excitement for nearly anyone on a hot August Sunday... Monday, its up and attem for ten o'clock gospel singing at the senior center, but only after a coupla cups of coffee after feeding the cats, which comes first. Bottom line, I enjoy every single one of these activities and responsibilities,and am inclined to compare and contrast them; The Unitarian Universalist Fellowship service on Sunday, and the gospel singing group using Baptist hymnals on Monday morn. So far, I have attended only two of the UU services, and have participated in singing four of their hymns. I loved every moment of it, and fully intend to go back for more, to become a regular. I find their hymns to be beautiful, sublime, enlightened. I noticed that they have a big, thick hyman book;I am eager to learn as many of these lovely songs as possible, and to sing them with gusto. I have participated in Monday morning gospel for nearly four and a half years,and I know a great deal more about the Baptist hymnal. To me the more mainstream Baptist hymns tend to be simplistic, childish, obsequious, barbaric, and bloody. I love the song "How Great Thous Art", the rest of them, you can have. I remain in the singing group because I like to sing, I am told I am good at it, and that I contribute to the group, and, well, in any event, when in Rome, correct? Anyone who chooses to believe that our sins are forgiven by our accepting as our lord and savior the son of God, by his being tortured to death and shedding blood wihch washes away our sins, is welcome to it. To me, all this crucifixion theology is primitive, cruel, barbaric. The washing away of sins with the blood of Christ, whether meant as a symbolic metaphor or a factual, accurate description fo reality, is to me beyond disgusting. Bad enough to accept or even give any consideration to this ridiculous human fantasy, much worse to rejoice in it, to be joyful that someone else has bled and died for your sins. Shouldn't we who embrace this nonsense instead feel ashamed, cowardly, and irresponsible? Perhaps we would, if we really believed in it, rather than merely pretending to, in self deceit. The bloody metaphor is disgusting enough, but becomes even worse when the overly zealous revel in it, magnify it, describing the blood letting of Christ on the cross as a "cascading flow" or "torrential river" as they all too often do. Shouldn't this event be mourned, and not celebrated? Even stranger is wen the devout attempt to do both,simultaneously. "Living In the Shadow of the Cross", as the hymn goes. In other words, hiding. Your spotless white robe, formerly stained with sin, was cleansed in the blood. Anyone who believes that never tried to get the blood stain out of a white T shirt after a sand lot football game. You can always tell where it was. I am glad that I am open minded and tolerant enough to take part in activities which do not necessariy reflect my personal beliefs. It makes life more interesting. And besides, thirty minutes after singing the prasies of standing next to the cross and getting drenched by cleansing blood for an hour, the senior center serves a damn good lunch.

A Meeting of Mental Cases

PUTIN AND TRUMP are, in a real sense, "two peas in a pod". In terms of their positions of power, personalities, and current predicaments, they have much in common. Authoritatarian rulers with the requisite massive egos, both of them are career criminals who would and perhaps will be in deep legal trouble if they ever leave office alive. But, of course, they won't. The world might be a great deal better off if they get to Alaska, have a couple of drinks and a very good time, and decide, by mutual agreement, to resign, remain in Alaska, and to spend their remaining years in seclusion, hidden from the public, doing whatever they want, harming no one. The world should be so lucky... Trump's reason for attending the "summit" meeting, what he wants to get out of it, is obvious and has been for awhile. Trump wants to broker a cease fire and ultimately a peact treaty between Russia and Ukraine, and, above all else, he wants credit for it, the world's gratitude and adulation, a Nobel Peace Prize, the whole works. Just yesterday he was sitting in the Oval Office, with the camera pointed at him, just the way he likes it, talking about his incredible achievement of allegedly having stopped six wars within the past month..or did he say last week? Whatever it was, it was, of course, an outright lie. Evidently he has indeed been in contact, through his administration, with representatives of several countries where wars are ongoing, and discussed the possibility of peace between them, with them. Beyond this, nobody really knows precisely what, if anything, the self described stable genius has accomplished. Nor is it entirely clear precisly what role, if any, Trump has actually played in bringing about a cessation of hostilities, anywhere on Earth. Trump the American carnival barker wants to take our minds off the "Epstein files" (remember them?), and put our malleable, manipulatable little minds directly on his heroic feat of bringing peace to the entire world. Trump will happily endorse a peace plan which favors Russia and is acceptable to Putin, meaning, Don the Con will be more than happy to sign over Ukrainiian land to Russia. He and Putin will arrive at a cease fire proposal and perhaps a peae agreement perfectly acceptable to both of them - but not nearly as acceptable to a certain President Zelenskyy - remember him? Russia will accept no cease fire or treaty in which they don't get to retain possession of at least some small part of the Ukrainian territory currently under Russian conquest and control. We know that for certain. Putin will not go home empty handed. Similarly, President Zelenskyy will not sign a peace treaty unless Russia returns to Ukraine all the territory, every last square inch, that it took form them in the invasion and war. And for this attitude, who among us could possibly blame him? Putin and Trump will argue that this position is unrealistic, that Ukraine should be prepared to cede at least some territory to Russia, in the east, perhaps, where many Russians live, as the reasonable and expected price to pay for ending the war and having guaranteed peace forevermore.. Putin might be willing to keep less land in Ukraine than he currntly controls, but, how much less? Not much, of that we can be assured. Putin and Trump will accomplish nothing, and falsely, piously claim to have had a "productive" meeting. They will keep "gaslighting" Ukraine, as we like to say, with their ludicrous claim that Russia is not entirely responsible for the war. Just like nearly everything else that the twin titans of tyranny say, it will be a total and complete lie.

Trump, Pushing It

DONALD TRUMP'S two main gigs right now seem to be flexing his muscles by turning cities into police states, and rigging America's political future by forcing Republicans into power, unfairly. The two projects are in perfect harmony with each other, in consolodating and concentrating Trump's power, and stacking Congress with more than enough support to achieve this. There seems to be widespread agreement than filling the streets of the nation's capitol with police and military has nothing to do with fighting, reducing, or eliminating crime and homelessness, but rather, with Trump seizing and displaying raw, naked power. His supporters, who formerly were liberty, freedom, and small government conservatives, have now, through necessity, magically transformed into rank and file sycophantic supporters of authoritarian governance. Both of these illegal, unconstittional Trump initiatives will, it is to be hoped, either lose steam and fade away gradually, naturally, or engender such an outburst of popular protest that they are terminated by Congress, or the courts. No matter what, both militarization and gerrymandering seem to have the general support, tacit or otherwise, of MAGA, as all of Trump's crazy illegal policies tend to. Trump has already indicated his desire to do unto other major American cities that which he has already done to Washington D.C. He has mentioned Los Angeles, Baltimore, Chicago and New York as possible targets. In every city, crime, violent crime, and murder have all decreased significantly after an initial pandemic related spike. Generally, crime has been going down in the U.S. for thirty years, and it currently at a thirty year low. This sudden initiative to make America safe from crime is, experts attest, unnecessary, unprecedented, and unlawful. You could add "unwise", and "unsane". Nobody should make the mistake of thinking that Donald Trump is currently acting with the best interests of these United States in his warped mind. Every word he utters, every deed he undertakes, is intended to serve only one purpose,; his own welfare. Whoever doen't understand that by now, never will. Mass deportations and incarcerations of dark skinned immigrants fits in well with the rest of Trump's fascistic agenda; however, with regard to this, there are red flags rising, warnings being issued. Very rapidly, in a matter of mere weeks, the attitude of the American people has shifted dramatically on the issue of millions of undocumented immigrants living in the United States, and what to do about them. The American people,a majority thereof, have recently embraced a pro immigrant point of view, and pprefer that they be allowed to remain in the country, work, and be given a pathway to citizenship. Again, that is a sudden, dramatic shift, and it is probably fueld by media coverage, including shocking video,of people bieng harassed, biolently rounded up on teh strees, and being incarcerated in horrible places like "alligator Alcatraz", living in squalor and horrible living conditions, much publicized. Trump, his gestapo,and extreme right wing America have overplayed their hand in their "tough on immigration" policy, have gone way too far, and are now reapingtheir just tewards; the anger and indignation of we the common,mainstream, decent American people. At some point, sooner rather than later, if Trump keeps pushing his agenda of policing cities, rigging elections, and brutalizing people on the streets, he'll push it too far, and a large majority of America will let him know it, very bluntly. Its already starting to happen. Trump's numbers are tanking. Trump always tries to fly too high, crashes, and burns. For America's sake, he needs all the help he can get.

Evolving, Freely

BOTH OF MY GRANDMOTHERS were born around 1890, and were entirely 19th century Victorian women. They wore dresses to their ankles daily, and they both took their religion seriously. Interestingly, neither of them ever tried to instill religion within me. Nor did anyone else. I have a theory as to why. I can't prove it, but I have a hunch that both my parents instructed, warned their respective mothers to refrain from trying to influence my religious choices, or to try to indoctrinate me. Our son is smart enough to choose his own influencers, and he will form his own beliefs, over time. Besides, my parents would reason, he has the right, to choose hiw own beliefs, just like everyone else. I have always considered this the best thing my parents could possibly have done, and I have always been extremely grateful for it, even though I have no idea whether they actually did it. But I am convinced that both my grandmothers considered it extremely important for people to be Christians, saved by accepting Jesus Christ as their lord and savior, and that they would have been more than willing to help me along that particular path, if allowed. Maybe my grandmothers took one look at me, or many looks, and, estimating my intellect and intellectual independence, simply decided to back off. That hopeless little pagan, unsaved, with unsaved parents. I can only hope that neither of them spent too much time and energy worrying about my eternal soul. Nobody needs that kind of stress. Whatever, for my money my parent's strategy of non interference worked like a charm, so to speak, and I grew up free thinking and open minded, my mind unfetterd by dogma and indoctrination. I knew by the time I was eight years old that religious faith was not and might not ever be for me. I evolved into a pantheist,a "follower" of Spinoza and Einstein, which to my thinking has allowed me to perfectly harmonize spiritual reverence for creation with observable reality. I recall evolving from my youthful atheism to agnosticism, to pantheism,and then, much more recently,to my present day brand new involvement with Unitarian Universalism, my latest spiritual incarnation. The grand adventure continues, and,one might assume, never really ends. The UU ""Fellowship" as they call it, appeals to me on many levels, for many reasons. They never call their beliefs a "faith" or a "religion", or a "church", which appeals to me. The local Unitarian congregation, in a thriving college town, consists of about a hundred mostly older progressive well educated intellectuals, just my type. A lively, engaging bunch. I've been to two of their services, which last about an hour, and enjoyed every minute of it both times. I am very eager to go back for more. I have discovered that I really enjoy visiting churches and attending various services, because I think it educates me. In the past year I have visited several Protestant denominations and one very conservative fundamentalist type mega church, with thousands of congregants. I found them all satisfactory, to verying degrees. I would like to attend religious servies as a visitor of as many different relgiious traditions as possible. One can grow and evolve indifinitely. Another thing I like about the Unitarian "church" is that it is comprehensive, all encompassing, inclusive. Much like both Buddhism and Hinduism, Unitarianism believes that it embraces and encompasses all other systems of belief, merely by accepting them. For that, more power to them. I happen to feel exactly the same way about my own unique religiosity.

Singing Whale Songs No More

THE BLUE WHALE in the picture on the computer screen was huge and beautiful, floating underwater, bathed in deep blue beautiful water. He or she must've been many feet long, weighing tons. The photography was wonderul, useful in advertising or promotions. I nevereven bother to recall the name of the organization promoting the ad, because the message itself caught my attetion, and kept it. It said something like: "The songs of the blue whales are dying to a whisper, down forty percent". Then, in smaller print below, it explained that ocean scientists are very alarmed by this, and that it is undoubledly caused by a deterioration in the whale's environment, caused by all of the many and varied forms of pollution and abuse caused by, you guessed it, human activity. We humans are killing teh Earth, the atmosphere, and the ocean's. Whalesong, a precious, beautiful, so plaintive and adorable a combination of squeaks,moans, trumpets and other unique sounds, going silent, gradually, but, inexorably, the joy which probably inspires them vanishing, and gone. Fewer whales to communicate with each other their joy of living, and whatever else they are trying to say. I do a lot of shopping at th eDollar General two blocks away from my house. Each week I put into the garbage several of the plastic sacks they use, which all go, inevitably, to the local landfill, to remain, presumably, nearly permanently. I need to d something to change this. We humans need to do a lot of thigns to change a lot of things. Human activity is killing the Earth's oceans, atmosphere, and land. When you consider the amount of plastic which is evidently in our bodies, brains, and bloodstreams,and the amount polluting the Earth's water and land, the task of cleaning up our mess becomes daunting. Its almost as if we need to filter every molecule of our bodies, every molecule of water on Earth, and every molecule of top soil in the world thorough some hypothetical systme which thoroughly cleanses out the plastic. Currently we keep adding to the mess. About a week ago the United Nations agreed upon a treaty to fight global plastic pollution. Presumably it involves signatory nations agreeing to limit their production of plastic products and use of plastics generally, and to commit financial resources to cleaning up our minds, bodies, blood streams, as well as the planet as a whole. Precisel how we the people of planet Earth propse to do this is probably at this point anyone's guess, but, we, if nothing else, at least its a start. What is needed is massive effort and change of behavior on a global scale, with a focus on restoring our health and the health of planet Earth. For this, we the people need to stop wasting energy and resources on useless, destructive wars, among other idiotic human activities. The picture of the huge, beautiful whale,slowly going silent,filled me and still fills me with desperation, depression, and rage. I'm sure many other people feel the same way. I used to think we could end war by focusing on the threat of alien invasion from outer space, and uniting humanity agaisnt the extreaterrestrial threat. Perhaps instead we could end war and violence againit each other by uniting in a glorious, global crusade of all humanity, united against and committed to reversing our own past behavior and stupidity.