Vladimir the Sublime, Donald the Magnanimous, Perhaps

IT IS NOT ALWAYS NECESSARY to be negative, cynical, defensive. Even amid all our troubles there comes a time to be lighthearted. There comes a time to assume the best in people, to give others the benefit of the doubt. Out of the blue, Vladimir Putin appears to have ascended to a higher level of awareness, a higher level of being. In response to Obama's sanctions, Putin will do, nothing. No retaliation of any sort, contrary to what his advisers had strongly suggested. What kind of a trick is this? Is it simply a way of waiting for Trump? Or has Mr. Putin risen to a higher level of thought? has Vladimir the KGB man come to know the real Jesus ? And if so, wouldn't it be wonderful if the rest of us could do the same? Maybe Mr. Putin could show us how. Einstein once suggested that a good way to end warfare once and for all and to end militarism would be for everybody to refuse military service. Everybody in the world, refuse to serve in the military. That'd do the trick, all right. Or the United Nations could agree to establish a single, all purpose, United Nations military, in which all nations participate. But you just know that Putin's peaceful approach to Obama has some kind of hidden trick behind it, and that when Trump takes over in the U.S., Putin and Trump will get along splendidly at first, and it may even continue for awhile, but that, eventually, sooner or later, problems are going to start developing. Wouldn't it be wonderful if Trump the chump suddenly acquired the wisdom of Solomon, the love of Christ, and the genius of Einstein, and became known as the greatest leader of all time, bar none? Or maybe Trump will inform us that his comment about building more nukes was a joke. Instead, probably, problems are going to start developing, grow worse, and result in a complete angry break down in communication and relationship, between Putin and Trump, between Russia and the U.S., and between Trump and heaven only knows who else. Maybe Putin is evolving into an enlightened being, and maybe, somehow, miraculously, Trump will do likewise, and all will be well, but somehow, it just doesn't seem likely.

Obama Strong, Trump Weak

PRESIDENT OBAMA, in his continuing attempt to "Trump proof" the White House, finally punished the Russians for their perfidious and nefarious computer hacking during the election campaign. Actually, of course, the target is Putin and his ruling gang of thugs, not the Russian people proper, who are far different and better than their government, as it is in America too. What will Donald Trump do? He says he thinks we should just forget the thole thing, and move on. Is he going to reverse Obama's sanctions and other punitive measures? Congress, including republicans, agrees with Obama, and says that Obama's actions were long overdue. The republicans said further that the actions are necessary, only because of Russia's aggressive and bad behavior, and that this behavior never would have happened if Obama hadn't been weak and indecisive. So, you see, all bad Russian behavior is Obama's fault, or blame, or cause. As if Barack Hussein Obama is so powerful as to be able to turn Russia into an aggressive country. The American conservative community generates more insane conspiracy theories than all other wacky organizations combined. Who is really the weak one? When China stole an American drone, Obama got it back. Trump said he would have told the Chinese to keep it. The problem with blithely overlooking Russia's cyber attacks on American cyberspace and "moving on" is that it will provide perfect incentive for Putin and his gang to keep doing the same thing, and maybe more aggressive things. Obama keeps being strong in dealing with china, and Russia, Trump keeps talking like a weakling. We'll see how he behaves, when the chips are down.

Replacing Real Life With Screen Time

IN MOST PUBLIC PLACES in America, everyone is staring at their smart phone, tapping at it with both thumbs. Even I've noticed that, and I don't get out much. I go to the senior center everyday, where only about a fourth of the people are staring and tapping at small screens, which is probably the lowest percentage of any age group in the country. The millennials, I've noticed, are particularly attached to their phones. It may not be possible to tell children and force children to reduce their screen time, get out and exercise a little, live some real life, while we the adult population simultaneously walk around like zombies, staring and thumb tapping. On campus at the major university near me every student, yes, every student walking across campus is walking while staring, and tapping. And their walking pace is fast. Very fast. Even a steady jog for me is slower than the millennial's walking pace on college campus. Amazingly, nobody ever runs into anything. They never run into each other, amazingly, and they don't get hit by cars, or tun into telephone poles, water fountains, or trees. Its almost as if they have some sort of built in radar. Either that, or they've had a lot of practice. The average American spends an incredible amount of time in front of a screen, if you include smart phones, laptops, and television. Something like between seven and ten hours a day. So, anytime you're wondering what somebody, anybody, might be doing, there's a decent chance the answer involves a screen. One wonders how that all bodes for the future, our future. Will we all eventually have chips implanted just under the skin on our foreheads, through which we can see and use a virtual computer screen anytime we want? Why not? It would appear that there is no limit to the computer gadgets people want. That's the scary part, our apparent willingness and even desire to replace real life with screen time.

Trump Supporting Israel, Really?

THE FACT THAT JEWS EXIST is good evidence that there is something to the Old Testament, although we really don't know if Moses existed, or whether Jehovah did away with fifty thousand and seventy Philistines as punishment for someone taking a peak inside a sacred wooden box. Nor do we even know whether the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948 was such a good idea, considering the number of non Jewish people who were already living there at the time, and the sheer number of wars and acts of violence the establishment of Israel engendered, compared to pre Israeli statehood. Its questionable. Opinions vary. But here it sits, and is another in a long list of questions over which the United States disagrees with most of the world. The U.S., which is a great military power, tends to pick and choose which United Nations resolutions, actions, and organizations it approves of and supports, and whether and when and how much to contribute. If every nation behaved like the U.S. in U.N. matters, there would be no U.N..Right at the end of his second and final term, Obama grows a backbone, and tries to Trump proof the future, to the extent that he can. He declares huge new protected wilderness areas, destroys lists of Muslims, preserves scientific research concerning global warming, and takes one final parting shot at Israel. Obama wanted to withhold support for Israel one more time, for old time sake. Thus, the United States condescends to allow the United Nations to condemn Israel's community construction activities, its notorious and infamous building of new settlements on disputed land. Or maybe the Israelis are simply being kind enough to build cities and towns for the incoming Palestinians. But somehow you have to doubt it. Now comes Trump, already talking as if he is going to be the savior of the entire situation. No matter how much hot air Trump blows out avidly supporting Israel, the rest of the world does not seem to agree, and there may just be a limit to how much Trump and the United States can continue to impose its will beyond its own borders........PLEASE TELL OTHERS ABOUT THIS WEBSITE. THANKS!

Drawing the Line At Stupidity

I LIVE IN A very small town in a very small state in a very large country, the United States. Unless there is a progressive neighborhood around my house that I don't know about, I am one of the few people in my town who believes in evolution, climate change, and I am one of the few if not the only person in town who does not believe that the Bible is the Word of God. So, it gets lonely. I cannot accept people who do not believe in evolution or climate change as my intellectual equals, I cannot take them seriously, I cannot respect their opinions. Evolution and climate change are not matters of opinion, they are not opinions, they are clearly demonstrated fact, like calculus, relativity, or nuclear physics, and to not believe in them is worse than ridiculous, no matter where you live. Evolution is not a bad guess, as Anthony Scalia said, it is proven fact. Climate change is not a hoax, as half of all American conservatives insist, it is right in front of our faces. If you can't accept that, sorry, but I can't hang out with you because no matter what you have to offer me, great as it may be, I cannot accept people who cannot accept simple, obvious reality and truth. You have to draw the line somewhere, and the survival of life on earth seems as good a place as any. And, by the same token, I simply cannot understand how anybody could have paid attention to the recent election campaign for over a year, and listened to what the candidates said - and then voted for Trump. I can't respect the mentality or the thought process of anyone who did that, sorry. It became obvious t me very early what a horrible candidate trump was, even though at first I supported him. It should have become obvious to everyone, later if not sooner. Now, its too late, and we are doomed. There's going to be a nuclear war, and the earth's environment is going to become unsuitable for life. All because of a few thousand votes in a couple of swing states.

Making America Great Again

THERE IS A PATTERN HERE. Western military powers dominate the middle east and Africa for decades, through colonialism, for the purpose of exploiting resources, such as oil, and, instead of helping developing countries, destabilize them, impoverish them, destroy them. Then a flood of refugees issues forth from the devastated countries, much of it directed at the very imperial powers which facilitated the misery which precipitated the refugee crisis. Inundated by a flood of refugees, people with dark skin and the wrong religion, anti-immigration, anti-free trade, pro nationalistic political movements emerge throughout Europe and the United States, advocating for closed borders, reduction in public welfare programs, nationalism, and racial and ethnic inequality. Its ugly, and its here, in America, with the election of Trump and the republicans. Block out Mexico with a wall. Keep out the Muslims. Build more nuclear weapons. Do not take any action to protect the environment if it slows the growth of corporate capitalism. Anger. Aggression. Astute academicians are beginning to recognize that the conservative movement in America, and particularly the republican party, is the most dangerous organization in world history, because it advocates for policies which will lead to the extinction of the human species. Extreme right wing political ideology is currently gaining popularity, and we can only hope and assume that it will run its course soon, and return to the abyss whence it came. We do not need another nuclear arms race, or a trade war, or a fortress America with no cultural exchange. Nor do we need the high security police state we have been building since nine one one, and, with right wing encouragement, continue to build today. This is a military-industrial monstrosity in which the corporate oligarchy knows everything about everybody, mainly by merely keeping track of Facebook, and the government uses its powers under the Patriot Act to surveille us all. Your best bet to stay safe is to end each and every phone conversation, email, or tweet with a hearty "God bless the NSA!"

Overthrowing Our Masters and Reversing Sick Societal Trends, Online

ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO, in the middle of World War One, people were predicting the end of western civilization, for what appeared to be good reason. Read "The Wasteland" by T.S. Eliot. Two hundred years ago, in the aftermath of the devastation of the Napoleonic wars, people were doing the same thing. It may well be that you could go back a hundred years in history, over and over again, and keep finding dire warnings of the end of civilization, of the end of the world, of time itself. Now we come to 2017, and this time it may be true. If you keep predicting something long enough, eventually, it comes true. All across Europe there is a right wing, nationalistic, call it a political movement, although it has social and economic features as well, and it has now, horror of all horrors, spread across the Atlantic and is even now infecting the United States of America. Many people are noticing this, and also noticing how alarmingly remindful this movement is to what happened in the nineteen thirties, leading to World War Two. Two of the most prominent symptoms are, of course, Brexit and Trump. A reactionary, backward looking, anti-foreign nationalistic response to globalism and perhaps general cultural diffusion as enhanced by the internet. The world is changing, and people sometimes respond to change by resisting it in anger and fear. Enhanced global communication is here to stay, we might all agree, and we'll have to learn to live with it. Fundamental human equality is a global value which, with mass support, will and must increase economic, political, international, gender, ethnic and racial equality. Both ends of the political spectrum claim to hate autocrats and plutocrats; the conflict may boil down to the rich and powerful versus the poor and excluded. The internet can create billions of pen pals. Imagine the teeming unwashed masses, online, overthrowing their masters, reversing this sick backward looking conservative brand of "populism" which leads to tyranny.(hint: a good place to start might be the overthrow of our modern versions of Napoleon, Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin)

Tweeting To Save the World

NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO (NPR) is a great alternative to television. It has great programming twenty four seven, and costs nothing. It does not so much embody a liberal slant as it avoids echoing the conservative viewpoint found so pervasively throughout much of mainstream American media. For this reason conservatives tend to despise national public radio, great treasure that it is. One clever conservative called NPR "National Panhandler Radio", a reference to the on the air fund raisers used to support the network. As usual, a conservative got it wrong. A panhandler begs for money without offering anything in return. NPR inundates people with what it gives in return. NPR, the commentators who speak on it, don't seem too fond of either Trump or Putin, and yet, at least one commentator expressed a hopeful, optimistic attitude towards the forthcoming relationship between the two large egos with strong power bases. They point to the fact that both men seem to want to have a reset, to begin Russian - American relations anew, to have good relations, and, perhaps even friendship. Trump has for months openly admired Putin, and Putin appears to like Trump. Indeed, Putin appears to have rigged the election in the U.S. to ensure Trump's election. Friends help friends get elected. Regrettably, it will take much more than exploratory desire by Trump and Putin to make the wonderful dream of American-Russian friendship come true. It will take people, many people, other than Trump and Putin; namely, new, saner political leaders, and hundreds of millions of good hearted people, ready to build bridges. The latter exists, and is in fact already in place, latent, but full of promise. We the people are getting stronger, better educated, and more aware of each other and the need for a sustainable world. The leaders, regrettably, are all wrong. A pair of angry, paranoid, aggressive ego maniacs will not do the trick. If anything, Putin and Trump will end up at each other's throats, and take the rest of us with them, to destruction. We the masses in Russia and America must take control of the situation, before its too late. as you log on to twitter today, compose a clever one hundred and forty letter message urging the world to rid itself of nukes, climate change, and the nightmarish leadership of Putin and Trump together. Since everyone in the world logs on to twitter, this might be a tweet filled day. And don't forget national Public Radio. Its better than television.

Giving Trump A Chance (To Come To His Senses)

NOT LONG AFTER ELECTION DAY, I pledged to give Donald Trump a chance, like a good American. I have been doing that ever since. Meanwhile Trump has made one disastrous decision after another, and has put the country, and the world with it, squarely on the road to ruin. Now, a mere six weeks after his election, one month before he becomes president, "giving Trump a chance" means utilizing any and every possible means to convince him to change course, and reverse nearly every decision he has made since election day. Undoubtedly just about everyone realizes that there's a fat chance of that, although Trump has indeed displayed a flexible willingness to change his mind, to reverse his own decisions. So, we can, we must have hope. A case in point is his insane statement that he wants to increase the number of atomic bombs in the possession of the United States. alarming as that is, nearly as alarming is Newt Gingrich's agreement with it, and the likelihood that most of Trump's supporters and everyone in his administration will express agreement with and support of this horrible insanity. A little knowledge of America's conservative community is enough to tell you that. Perhaps there is the faint hope that some or all of the christian segment of the conservative community, which is mot of the conservative community, will oppose beating plowshares into swords. The time to add nukes is long since passed. We tried mutually assured destruction and arms racing decades ago, found it didn't work well enough, and moved on. For several decades now we have been slowly but steadily reducing the world's stockpiles of nuclear weapons, and we must at this point continue this reduction until there are none left. Thirty years ago Gorbachev made a proposal to Reagan to eliminate all nuclear weapons; Reagan turned him down. Now e must support Trump and give him a chance to come to his senses, and stop talking like some cold war monger from the nineteen fifties. Would somebody please post a tweet saying something like "no more nukes", and get two other people to do the same, then get those two people to get two other people each, until everybody in the world has so tweeted? Nothing short of a global twitter revolution will compel the world's leaders to behave responsibly.

Trusting In A Saner God

WE ALL WANT GOVERNMENT to be just big enough to have teh opportunity to do what we think best for ourselves and to impose our will on others. Any Christian conservative worth his or her salt morphs into a big government type at the mere mention of drugs, or crime, or abortion, or especially gun rights property rights and religious freedom, all of which are big government. Save the planet! Save the unborn! Save whatever I personally deem worthy of salvation, through whatever means necessary, including big government. Let's place limits on what a person can do with her own body, and her reproductive freedom. Get those drugs off the streets. Lock 'er up. Big government comes in very handy, at least once, in everyone's life. If abortion isn't murder, its too close for comfort. Do we want murder to be illegal? One way to legalize murder pro choice is to believe in God, devoutly. There is a decision to be made, since aborting a fetus is theoretically within the realm of possibility, like drinking or driving too fast. Abortion is a more important issue, the most important issue. Too important to be decided by humans. Let God decide. Leave it as a decision to be made by God, with the woman's agreement, and puny human government cast aside totally. God is perfect, therefore his creation is perfect, and his decisions, and since God makes all decisions by giving free will to humans, all outcomes are perfect. People who believe in the Christian version of God might wish to consider the possibility that their Judeo-Christian favors abortion, at least in some cases. On at least one occasion in the Bible, and in fact upon more than one, God orders people to dash out the brains of infants against boulders. One is loathe to imagine how many of the over forty million abortions that have taken place in the United States since 1973 were ordained by the Judeo-Christian God, and wept over by less powerful, saner ones. Some enlightened form of future humanity shall perhaps transcend the necessity of government. But not us.

Criticizing Trump For Free

RIGHT NOW, OBAMA could win an election against Trump. Trump's cabinet picks, and his statements since his election have enhanced buyers remorse, while Obama is leaving popular, mainly because he's been a good president who did a lot of good things for the country, including Obamacare. His only big foreign policy mistake might have been taking too many troops out of Iraq too soon, and allowing the Islamic State to fill the vacuum. Its possible that nothing would have worked, that Iraq was and is a lost cause. Obama's critics have to invent complaints against him, like accusing him of having been born in Kenya. All Trump's critics need do is quote Trump's words, which speak volumes in exposing Trump's clever sounding idiocy. Kellyanne Conway issued a threatening warning against Trump's critics, hinting that people who cross the line in criticizing Trump might face legal action, lawsuits, charges of libel and slander. What a joke. What a bimbo. Kellyanne Conway may be a genius, a genius who guided Donald J.Trump to a seemingly unlikely election victory, but she sounds like a bimbo when she speaks, which, as Trump's main spokesperson is often. But it'll take a room full of super computer geniuses to guide this reprobate Trump, who has an emotional intelligence of a third grader, through more than a few minutes of his sure to be sham of a presidency. Trump wants to change the libel laws in America to allow him to go after people who criticize him. Trump, himself a smear merchant who verbally attacks anyone he chooses with extreme viciousness, is whining that people should not be allowed to slander him. What a joke. Its all too funny, these stupid, narcissistic people who are so terribly sensitive and fearful of criticism. Trump hasn't even begun hearing criticism, and there isn't a damned thing he can do to stop it. It has already begun, and it is increasing every day, and will increase every day as long as Trump is president, if he ever become president, if nothing happens to him beforehand. Sometimes helicopters crash and burn. Every day Trump says or does something so stupid or so mean and vicious that millions of people have long since gotten tired of him, and are getting more tired of him daily. All criticism of Trump is valid, and he brings it on himself by his words and actions. Trump has a big mouth, and he can dish it out, but he cannot take it, like most bullies, and his inability to handle criticism is going to be his downfall.......THANKS FOR VISITING. PLEASE COME BACK!

Saving The World From Trump

AMONG THE MANY CREEPY THINGS Donald Trump and his transition gang are doing is survey questioning government employees to find out whether they believe in climate change, racial and gender equality, abortion, and whatever else the little darlings will soon conjure up. The purpose? To make sure that, after January 20, all undesirables are purged from government employment. Under Trump, nobody who wants to save the environment will be allowed to work at the Environmental Protection Agency, and nobody who is willing to fight for civil rights and racial equality shall set foot within the hallowed confines of the Department of Justice. Welcome to Trumps world, 2017. You could not make this up, and its better than any science fiction story. You'd better get used to it. When I mentioned to a friend that a nuclear war is coming, he shrugged and said that we'll just have to pick up the pieces afterward and build a better world. Now, that's resignation, if ever there were such. Either that, or extreme optimism. Nobody seems to care. Nobody seems to be worried. Am I the only bastard in this country who is not addicted to opioids? It is widely believed and feared that Trump will cut off all government funding for climate change research, and destroy the stockpile of government date so far accumulated, and gather no more. For real. California Governor Jerry Brown, old "moonbeam" himself, swears by god that if that happens, he and his great state will launch their own weather satellite and preserve and expand all American climate change science, and carry on the glorious fight to save the species and the ecosystem in spite of America's right wing lunacy. And just think. From the conservative point of view, Jerry Brown is the crazy one......PLEASE SHARE THIS SITE WITH OTHERS. GET INVOLVED. THANKS!

Dealing With Drugs

THE WORD "OPIOID" is new to me, but I have no problem with it. I always thought the word was "opiate", but I know better than to diss the latest word fad. All I know is that when I injured my hamstring about five years ago, hydrocodone came in handy, too handy, and I got away from it just in time. About three million other Americans didn't, according to the facts. Let the blame game begin. Who's to blame, doctors, patients, pharmaceutical firms, or all the above? We still haven't figured out to adequately deal with mind altering chemicals, which we so dearly adore. Societal responses to drugs range from sipping them at the kitchen table before going off to work, to using them with but only with a doctor's permission, to purchasing them at a drive by window, to scoring small amounts on the street, and sharing with a few select friends behind drawn shades. All that seems a little chaotic, a little inconsistent. Do we lock up all the doctors, corporate execs, and addicted patients? or do we let all the crack cocaine dealers and users out of prison? To be consistent and fair, it would be necessary to do one or the other. Fairness and consistency might not be our aims. We understand that people want to have a good time, want to escape, and will do so, one way or another. We also realize that drugs and drug research and development saves lives. It may well be that the concept of "punishment" might not have any place in dealing with all this, from a logical, scientific point of view. A whole new approach would appear to be called for.

Deposing, Exposing, and Disposing Of Donald Trump

THE TRUMP FOUNDATION announced that its going to shut down, and since Trump doesn't seem to worry much about conflicts of interest, but does seem to care a great deal about avoiding indictments, criminal convictions, and jail time, the Trump Foundation is most likely trying to vanish before the law catches up with it. Problem is, the law has already caught up. The New York Attorney General announced that the foundation will not be allowed to close down until the state completes its investigation of it, which might take some time and appears quite serious. The Trump Foundation appears to be corrupt and criminal, like its namesake. It lacks transparency, and cannot show many if any actual charitable contributions made by it. Trump mumbled something about helping police officers and veterans. People do not need charitable assistance for being police officers and veterans. They need it for being jobless, poor, sick, hungry, and homeless. Instead it seems the Trump Foundation's funds, which come almost all from wealthy donors other than the Trump family, have been and are being used to purchase luxury items for Trump, and to pay his legal bills, which is a clear violation of law, and could well result in Trump himself being indicted on criminal charges. When you consider the indictments against Trump for racial discrimination in housing, the closing of Trump university amid charges of fraud which Trump paid heavily to settle, the many lawsuits against Trump for cheating workers, Donald Trump has an extremely corrupt and sordid history as a business person and as a human being. Don't forget the sexual assault charges, which are only now just beginning. His election is a real mess for the country, a disaster on so many levels, that we would be better off if he would resign before he is sworn in. How ironic. You will recall how Trump repeatedly accused the Clinton Foundation, which is entirely transparent, and saves millions of lives annually, of being corrupt. The great right wing attack machine tried in vain to connect Hillary Clinton with giving favors at the state department to her foundation's foreign donors. It was a full scale assault of lies against Hillary and her Foundation, and it failed miserably, having produced no evidence. Crooked Hillary doesn't exist. Crooked Trump is all too real, a real criminal, and must be prevented from ever taking to oath of office, by being impeached in advance if necessary. How does that work, anyway?

Protesting Pluto and Improving Our Planetary Paradigms

SOME YEARS AGO, maybe twenty, a group of the world's astronomical planetary scientists gathered together and decided by vote that the planet Pluto is no longer a planet, even though there were not enough people in the room to technically take such a binding vote. This action engendered immediate and vehement reaction. Most folks, it seemed, hated it, and believed that Pluto had been dealt with dirtily. Lay people got involved, by the googol. Petitions were written and circulated. Protests sprang up on America's street corners and around the world. In Flagstaff, Arizona, the home of Pluto's discovery in 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh, the street corner protesters held signs like: "Bring Back Pluto" and "Free Pluto" and even goofier ones. There were two sides to this story. The Plutonic pro-planetary eviction people held strong, with the strong argument that in Pluto's part of the solar system there are thousand of rocks as big as Pluto in similar orbits; if Pluto is a planet, so are thousands of other smallish orbiting planetoid rocks. Assigning planetary status to Pluto in the first place, and even naming it, has proven to have been a bit, shall we way, premature. Key here is the fact that the action taken by the International Astronomical Union triggered a backlash, when one might not have even been expected, including near revolutions in the streets, especially here in the land of superfluous revolutions, the U.S. of America. In this country not only do we argue about anything and everything, we'll fight over it and revolt against it, and that fact makes us beautiful, bigly, to quote Trump. Jesus himself brought a revolutionary approach, although he said he didn't want to rebel against any existing authority, but merely to add improvements to existing institutions. Then so be it. Let's do the same here and now. Let us revolt against the world the way it is, and start the process of building a better one. Out into the streets with us, or onto the internet, whichever works best and is more convenient, with our hand painted signs reading "No More War", "End Hunger", "Cure Disease", "End Poverty", "Equality Now", and all that kind of good stuff, even if nobody carries a sign defending the dignity of the late great planet Pluto.