Dealing With China, Somehow

CHINA HAS LONG BEEN a force with which to be reckoned, but never so much as now, and the force can only grow, and the cost of reckoning increase. During the communist era, and for centuries before, China, despite its size and potential for economic and military strength, remained essentially isolated from the world, by choice. Considering the world, and its attitude towards and designs on China, it can hardly be blamed. The mysterious kingdom behind walls and water remained for centuries a source of legend, and Europeans who knew little to nothing about Chinese civilization filled in the blanks with rumors, legends, and distortions of epic proportions. The Chinese, it was widely believed, practiced cultish religions of the most esoteric sort, involving gruesome ritual sacrifices, even the consumption of their own offspring. They ate bizarre foods, wore little or no clothing, wore their hair in pony tails or shaved their heads, and spoke an utterly inscrutable language, but only spoke when they chose to reveal some small aspect of their utterly inscrutable minds. Europeans have always been good at filling in blanks. Explorers like Marco Polo who made dents in the walls were regarded as pioneers of the most intrepid caliber, for even daring to make inroads into solving the mystery of China, and to open its resources to the civilized world. The British under Queen Victoria in the nineteenth century made the deepest inroad, when British ingenuity and naval power implemented a diabolical scheme to grow opium in India, then transport and sell it in China, reducing as much of the ancient kingdom as possible to abject drug addiction, thus allowing the English to have their merry economic way in old Cathay. Finally, in sheer greed and frustration, Europe and the United States in 1900 began an unmitigated feeding frenzy, with Japan eventually joining the fun. Outsiders had never wanted anything from China except to exploit it, and this they now began in earnest, dividing up the huge country into zones of economic intercourse, giving each foreign power its very own little fiefdom of exploitation and profit. The United States gave this imperialist gluttony an innocuous, palatable sounding name: the "Open Door policy". Americans have a special knack for renaming their own barbaric behavior to sound pleasant and helpful to others. Now, however, things have changed. This time China is coming out of its self imposed shell of its own accord, seeing missed opportunities for greatly enhanced prosperity, opportunities to elevate its billions of impoverished masses to the middle class through participation in global commerce. State controlled communism has been supplanted by state controlled capitalism, mercantilism in modern guise. The industrialized world is, as always, more than happy to accommodate, but the old goals of exploitation has never been abandoned. And that is precisely what motivates American policy towards china, economic and military, then and now, from Roosevelt the first through Obama and now Trump; the unbridled intent to exploit. Only this time, its different. This time, The United States is as dependent on China, if not more so, than China is on America. Financing its staggering and ever growing national debt, the United States has sold over a trillion dollars of government bonds in China, whose purchasers are perfectly willing to hold the debt and simply wait, for the time being, as the value of the investment grows, and United States dependence on China grows. American billionaires and multi-billion dollar corporations rely on Chinese labor for cheap consumer goods for importation back to the states, to be sold to a consumer public which eagerly laps them up, and begins to take low priced Chinese goods for granted. A huge percentage of American manufactured exports go to Chinese markets. The American arrogance of believing that it can enact tariffs on Chinese products to gain better trade concessions is typically misguided, intended not to gain fair and equal trade arrangements, but, as always, to exploit. This time, the United Stats had better deal with China very, very carefully. This time, America has a tiger by the tail.

Trying, In Vain, To Come to Terms With Trump

WE HAVE LONG SINCE BECOME ACCUSTOMED TO, and outraged by President Trump's shocking and appalling preference for prevarication. People who have known him for decades might attest to Trump's viciousness, dishonesty, and pathological narcissism and belief in his own immunity from the consequences of his actions, the constraints imposed on us all by our system of justice, and fundamental universal moral imperatives. Many of us had harbored some faint hope that his vicious assaults of good people, which began during the presidential campaign, and his incessant pattern of dismissively uttering outrageous, demonstrably false statements, would mellow into better behavior once he entered office, got his feet wet, and began getting some good advice. Such hopes have long since been dashed into dust. I have long since fulfilled my inauguration day promise to give him a fair chance. he has run out of chances, and i cannot respect or support this president, or respect the judgment and moral integrity of anyone who voted for him or still supports him. Now, for some relevant specific facts. Donald Trump clearly guaranteed that Mexico wold pay for the wall, at the very beginning of his campaign for president. Tens of millions of American heard him say this; it is well documented. If he would now simply concede this point, and honestly admit to having altered his payment plan, he would earn some measure of my respect, and that of others. His current assertion that he in fact never made the Mexican payment promise defied belief, destroys credibility, and proves, yet again, his pathology. In front of millions, in the oval office with Schumer and Pelosi, Trump clearly took full responsibility for the impending government shutdown. Now, as we all know, he blames the Democrats. President Trump actually had the audacity to tell us that the federal employees who have been laid off and nave not been paid since the shutdown began are glad to forego their paychecks, due to their unflagging commitment to the wall, at any cost. To make this ludicrous claim is beyond immoral. Tens of thousands of hard working Americans are late on their mortgage payments, late on their rent, and unable to pay utility bills or feed their children because of Trump's pathological stubborn resistance to any sort of reasonable compromise, compromise which could easily be achieved with a single phone call. it would be the simplest of solutions to simply separate government funding from the wall debate, and restart the government while sensible people sensibly decide on a sensible solution to border security, which everyone wants and understands to be necessary. the final straw was Trump's recent televised speech in which he attempted to proved an argument in favor of his ridiculous wall, hoping to gain the support of a majority of Americans. Predictably, the speech contained numerous outright lies, lies which can and have been clearly, and irrefutably exposed an debunked, lies which he has told repeatedly, as if so doing would make them true, as if the fact that he uttered them might make them true. And that has bee Trump's tendency since he began running for president; his obvious inability or refusal to understand that his incessant lies are easily exposed, and easily repudiated. The sheer audacity with which he evidently believes his lies will be accepted is not only evidence, but proof of mental pathology, pathology which warrants medical attention, and clearly reveals Trump to be a person badly in need of psychological counseling and therapy, who belongs in a doctor's office, but certainly not the White House.

Hitler, Tweeting

SELDOM TO NEVER does anyone, friend or foe, provide me an idea for a good essay, wittingly. Oh, they provide, all right, but I have to be stealthy about it, and steal the ideas without the victim ever knowing they've been embezzled. But miracles happen, and a fellow progressive mentioned to me an op ed in the L.A. Times in which someone asserted that Adolph Hitler would have loved social media. That caught my fancy. he suggested I read the piece, and I immediately retorted "hell no, I won't go" (left over from my Viet Nan war days0. What I had already decided to do is to write my own version, then read the imposter. Or maybe its the other way around. I'll rush right through this essay, than go read the role model, who's only role modeling adhered in the title, and the concept. Hitler, in point of fact, was among the most personable, charming people who ever lived. This was attested by hundreds of people who met him, and hundreds more who knew him well. Like all good politicians and CEO, Hitler had a warm, enticing, alluring personality, as opposed to Winston Churchill, who was an irascible old crank. that's how he won his followers, that's how he got elected, that's how he came to power' the power of personality. It aint the latest thing, as the rolling Stones would say; its been happening for millennia; in this world, you succeed largely through your personality, even more than by knowing who you know, or by being talented in some way. the very thought of Hitler having had the power of tour social media to use at his disposal is beyond mind boggling. and the issue isn't whether he would have love Facebook, Twitter, and all the others; we can safely assume that he would have, the issue is what diabolical evils, beyond those he actually enacted, would he have brought into the world by influencing the behavior of millions of other people on the internet, as he did in actual history, off the internet. Twitter in particular comes to mind. Hitler, the master of the clever short, cliched, sound byte sounding few words strung together craftily, would have been the greatest tweeter in the history of birds Trump has, what, thirty million or so "followers?" Aren't they called. A "follower" is merely a sycophant, or rather a person who regularly reads the tweets, posts, and utterances of a particular person on social media, correct? In most instances, presumably, people who follow someone do so because they like an admire, rather than dislike and despise the twitter tweeter. Hitler's personality, and his ability to use words clever and manipulatively to motivate people to do his bidding made Trump look like chump change, a rank amateur, trust me. For diabolical charm, Trump aint half bad, but he don't hold a candle to uncle Adolph. Ask any historian. From the eagle's nest high in the Bavarian Alps, or from the Fuhrer bunker buried deep beneath Berlin, the Leader, ensconced in n easy chair with but a smart phone and avocado sandwich in hand (he was a vegetarian), could have turned the German population into mindless, sycophantic zombies far more readily than he actually die by merely utilizing his voice and passionately exhorting the great master race to greatness from the pulpit, voice rising and falling, fist clenching and unclenching, verbs rising to crescendos at the end of every melodramatic sentence. Hitler on social media is a thought to frightful to barely bear. Even more frighteningly is the thought that somewhere in the world today there might be, and probably is, someone with even a modicum of Hitler's talent for charm and verbal persuasion lurking, ready to type, point, click, and manipulate the sluggish masses, bringing them to life, and to mass destruction and death. Even more frightening is the thought that this person may be the president of the United States.

Forgetting How To Communicate

THOSE OF US who have circulated in American society for the past two and a half decades, and especially the last decade, have probably noticed that the art of coherent conversation is dying a slow by steady demise. It actually began even earlier. First came air conditioning, luring neighbors off the front porch and into the cool living room, immersed in the fuzzy screen, inert. Will Rogers condemned air conditioning, for allowing congress to remain in session continuously, an indisputably valid complaint. Personal computers were at once the greatest facilitators and destroyers of quality communication. They facilitated global networking, but lured us deeper into the den, into deep cyberspace, immersed yet again, far from the family, neighborless in real time. Then came the smart phone, the kill shot. We have all grown accustomed to the ubiquitous smart phone, suspended in space, obscuring the human face, its servant oblivious to all else, in a worshipful trance, far away from reality. On the campus of my local university, twenty seven thousand students stride purposefully across campus, and none of them are aware of their surroundings. They all, literally all, hold their rectangular masters in front of them, many massaging the tiny plastic god with loving thumbs. Amazingly, they never run into trees, cars, fountains, buildings, or each other; they have, in less than a single generation, evolved some sort of radar. Ours is a culture desperately in search of ways to escape. And we've all had the seam experiences in conversation. We have all seen the lowered heads, the averted gazes, as our conversation partner searches for anything, anything other than our presence. We talk at each other, around each other, past each other, but seldom to or with each other. Our words collide in midair as we both speak at the same time, without concern. You try to tell a story about something that happened to you. Without the slightest acknowledgement of what you just said, the person to whom you're speaking offers a rejoinder; she had a similar experience, years ago. Must we all always and only talk about ourselves? We must, for we are all self absorbed, to the exclusion of all else. Every conversation turns into two conversations; yours, and the other person's. You're doing the talking; the person to whom you're talking is thinking of what to say next, and ignoring you. You do the same thing when the other person begins to speak. Once upon a time, it is rumored, people took turns speaking, and listened to each other. They had no choice; electronic screens had not yet been invented. Once upon a time it was considered rude to interrupt the speaker. Now, it is taken for granted. The quickest to speak, the loudest to speak dominates the conversation. Communication experts all give us rules for effective conversation making, and they all consist of the same common sense. Listen to the other person. Whatever she says, acknowledge it, and do not change the subject. Don't interrupt. Listening is more important than speaking. You somehow sense that we will begin to follow these rules only when we run out of coal, and the lights go out, and with them, our sacred screens.

Pompeo, Volcanically Spewing Forth Trump

MIKE POMPEO, the ultra conservative former House of Representative member from Kansas, and now serving, at least for the moment, as President Donald J. Trump's thirty fourth Secretary of State, did something at once bizarre, funny, crazy ,and idiotic today, and to top it all off, he did it in Egypt. What better place to give a clear and present demonstration of the renowned American penchant for the peculiar? Pompeo's very name evinces images of unrestricted volcanic spew and, like all good Trump-ettes, he spewed forth violently, doing justice to his moniker. First, in front of an Egyptian university audience, near where Barack Obama eight years ago gave an eloquent, conciliatory, peace loving speech intended to help unite the Islamic and non Islamic worlds, the great prevaricating volcano spewed forth great invective against Obama's middle east policy of peace and cooperation, and Obama's policy of telling the truth about past American mistakes, by spewing that "the era of self inflicted American shame is over". As if honestly admitting American mistakes is indulging in self inflicted shame. For people of wisdom and integrity, none of whom happen to serve in the Trump administration, self inflicted shame is the best kind. These United States of Arrogance could use a touch of shame and humility, for atrocities past and present, as the integrity gifted understand, but, alas, Trump's administration prefers arrogance and bombast to class. To petty tyrants like trump and those who support him, demonstrations of high character, such as Obama consistently provided, are weakness, blow hard arrogance is strength, chaos is fun, and incessant dishonesty is the norm. Pompeo went totally crazy when he asserted that henceforth, America would proceed fro ma position of strength, and would work to ensure that all "Iranian boots" as he cleverly put it, are eventually evicted from Syria, even as Trump plans, or so he said, to remove all American armed forces from that beleaguered country. Precisely how the United States plans to controls matters in Syria and assert its will in the middle est while removing troops therefrom was not explained, probably because it can't be. the truly funny part of Pompeo's spew was his insistence that under Trump, American foreign policy is back on track, that bullies, tyrants and enemies are finally being conftonted, and that America's friends are being respected. Actually, quite the opposite is true. Trump cowers before an appeases people like Vladimir Putin, and people like the dictator of North Korea, while alienating America's traditional allies, such as NATO, by removing the U.s. from treaties such as the one prohibiting Iran from having nuclear bombs, and the one in Paris intended to fight climate change. Like all bullies and thugs, Trump verbally attacks friends, fearing no reprisal, and bows to the enemies he so fears. Of course, he has every reason to fear Putin, considering all the help the Russians seem to have provided Trump in getting the great prevaricator elected in the first place. Putin and the Russians have much leverage over Trump, but that's another story, one which will be told, in due time, by Robert Mueller.

Moving On, Or Trying To

ON FACEBOOK, the primary contemporary go to source of all things drivel, a high school class mate of mine posted something to the effect that there is a wall around heaven, but that hell is an open border. Then she admonished all to "let that sink in". It sank in. Then, mercifully, it was digested, identified by the subconscious as waste material, and properly excreted. What she probably wanted to sink in was the internal consistency and profundity of her scriptural metaphor, as well as it applicability to current events. I complimented her on the metaphoric cleverness and consistency, but suggested that the veracity of its implied conclusion was arguable. That seemed fair. After all, there are to sides to every wall, Trump's included. She wasn't satisfied with my response. I wanted her to be, because in high school she was a very attractive blonde, and still probably tries to be, with some degree of success, forty five years removed. She intended to continue, she promptly stipulated, to express her faith, and anyone who didn't like it could just, well, move on. That seemed a bit aggressive to me, if not downright unfriendly. No one was attacking her faith, I reminded her, and I would be more than happy to move on, were it not for the fact that an annoying wall, evidently meaninglessly erected merely for spite, seemed to be blocking my way, if only momentarily. I thought I was clever for saying that. My very own little metaphor, intending to imply that the wall around heaven shouldn't be there, that there should instead be one around hell, and that there shouldn't be one built between Mexico and the United States, because it would be useless, and would only satisfy the spite of its admirers. I doubt that she gleaned all that, her not being an intellectual and all, but I had to try. Before I unfriend you, she said, let me ask you a question. I braced myself, forebodingly. When you leave your house, do you lock your doors? That seemed so simple a trap that I breathed a sigh of relief, and decided to go in for the kill. I was a mite wrathful by this time. I am suspicious of your motive for asking this question, I began, like a real smart ass, and would suggest that you select a target that you have not forewarned, or pursue a more honorable profession. I can only assume that she made good on her threat and unfriended me, which means that there is one less intellectually limited but attractive blonde in my life, menacing me with metaphorical walls.

Annointing Trump King

MEMES, whatever they may be, proliferate, flourish, and malinger on the internet, spreading like bacterial plagues, bad rumors, or, in the current vernacular, viruses. Among the politically conservative devoutly evangelical community, it has recently become meme-ified that Donald J. Trump has been anointed by almighty god to be the king of the United States of America. This, because in Isaiah 45 it says that Cyrus shall become king of Babylon, and shall free the Hebrew people. Get it? Forty fifth chapter, forty fifth president? What greater proof does one need? It may have been H.L. Mencken who said: "The fools would be humorous were they not in such deadly earnest". How deadly their earnest will forever remain a mystery, but what is known is that the highly charged Christian will go to enormous lengths to find ways of applying predictions made in ancient manuscripts to contemporary events. This, notwithstanding the inconvenient fact that no prophecy in the bible has ever been verifiably shown to have come true, and that many can be verifiably demonstrated to have failed to come true, including a remarkable one made by the savior himself, that he would return within the lifetimes of his disciples. Unless one or more of the original twelve is still among us, as evangelicals could and well might claim in defense of their savior's perspicacity, that particular promise, like all the rest, turned out to be a non starter, as we like to say. It is the mental contortions themselves which become head scratchingly amusing. The formula is simple. First, you decide that the authors of ancient, primitive documents inf act transcribed the word of god into those documents. then comes the round hole square peg part; that of twisting and turning to find a fit, ancient to modern. We needn't burden ourselves with the unthinkable image of Donald trump being president for one more dreadful, chaotic, disastrous year, let alone king for the remainder of his life, limited though that con only be, since he is past seventy. What is most alarming is that the most patriotic among us are the most religiously fanatic, that they do not evidently see the constitutional incompatibility of the secular state and their personal religious beliefs, that they willingly would dispense with our cherished democracy if favor of a monarchy, and also that they would elevate to the monacrhy someone like Donald J. Trump.

Following the Lead of St. Francis

ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI,(1182-226), is among the most cherished saints in Catholicism. Known as the patron saint of animals, because of his reputed ability to tame wild animals by merely being in their presence and his love of all animals, his contributions also include teaching the young to cherish the natural world in general, and an attempt, ultimately futile, to bring and end to the crusades and make peace between Islam and Christianity, lessons we could well draw from today. His feast is on October 4, as good a day as any to stroke the back of a sleeping cat while it lay in your lap, or, if nothing else, take your dog for a pleasant walk and to give him or her a tasty treat and cool dish of water thereafter. For St. Francis, every day was a good day to do these things. The following quote attributed to him, justifiably so because it appears in his hand writing, should hang on the walls and adorn the litter boxes of every cat lover. "A cat purring on your lap is more healing than any drug in the world, as the vibrations you are receiving are of pure love and contentment." Millions of people, tens, hundreds of millions of people, right in your own neighborhood, could and would happily, eagerly attest to this. Modern scientific research confirms conclusively that the sound of a purring cat is among the most wonderful sounds in the universe, a fact with which billions would agree. In modern times, it is often said that one must never awaken a purring cat which lyeth upon thy lap. One must continue watching television, even if the television is tuned to a station which is selling Tupperware, and the remote control is barely out of the reach of one's hand, rather than awaken and discharge one's fuzzy kitten from one's warm lap. One must endure aching bowels, an exploding bladder, swollen ankles, bed sores, severe leg cramps, and even the beginnings of gangrene infection to ensure that the sleeping, purring kitten sleeping upon one's lap be not disturbed. The cat, who as we all know owns the human, shall arise and depart in due time. The decision belongs to the warm purring furry one, and is between cat and God. You, the sitting primate, a mere vehicle for feline comfort and safety, have no voice in the matter, nor should thee. This is not merely an ancient tradition, although it was observed in ancient Egypt and throughout the Islamic world today. This is incontrovertible modern American protocol in the land of the cat wise but otherwise asinine. The prophet Muhammad himself, like all enlightened persons, a lover of cats, reputedly severed the sleeve of his prayer garment upon which a cat lay asleep, rather than disturb the sleeping fuzzy one. Whether his religiosity is acceptable to you personally, this, dear friend, cat lover, and potential cat lover, is the essence of wisdom.

Comparing Apples and Oranges

THERE SHOULD BE, and quite possibly is, a website, floating in the vast wasteland of cyberspace, called the "Idiotic Facebook Post of the Day",(IFPD). Consider this one, which actually appeared: "If you can get arrested for fishing without without a license, but not for entering the country illegally, you are living in a country run by idiots." Fishing licenses, of course, are required partly to regulate and keep fishing organized, by ensuring that people don't abuse the privilege of fishing by over fishing and depleting available stocks, and also to raise revenue for valuable public services such as forest, wildlife, and wilderness management. Arresting people for fishing without a license is merely an expedient for maintaining the licensing requirement, not to ensure that fisherman are competent fishermen. Those arrested usually pay a small fine, and that's the end of it. Using the term "arrested" is a bit of an overstatement of this process, in that it cannotes a more dire outcome than is usually the case. A better comparison would be to receiving a traffic ticket for speeding, or following too closely. Illegal entrants into the country are actually arrested, and usually deported. During the Obama administration, two and a half million illegal aliens were deported, and, since World War two, many millions more have met the same fate. t The term "arrest" is a bit misleading here too, since those apprehended usually are sent back across the border without any of the procedures commonly associated with arrest for criminal activity; indictment, jury trial, conviction, monetary penalty, or incarceration for more than a short period of time, with the resulting criminal record. Violators of fishing license laws and immigration and naturalization laws are both subject to unpleasant consequences to be sure, but to say that people cannot be arrested for entering the country illegally ignore the reality that even for those who get by with it, life is made difficult by having to live with the constant fear of being eventually caught and deported. for thsoe who are apprehended and deported, this in itself is a devastating, life changing consequence, certainly far more devastating than receiving a ticket for fishing without a license. that said, there is one contention contained in this otherwise inane Facebook post which bears legitimate scrutiny and possible agreement; that we live in a country run by idiots. The sacred spirit of accountability, however, requires the qualification that this unfortunate state of affairs could not possibly exist without the country being, alas, inhabited by them.

The Stripling, Aping the Sire, Falwell Style

THE REVEREND JERRY FALWELL Jr., presumptive heir to his late father's amorphous "moral majority" evangelical movement, which not only was, as the bumper sticker said, neither, and which in fact no longer exists, seems to want to outdo even daddy in audacity and highly questionable proclamations. Maybe there's something to the psychological theory that fathers and sons are natural enemies, that the son is the heir to and usurper of the father's power and prestige, and that the stripling often imitates the sire as an act of usurpation. As a Jeffersonian said of the Adams family,John and John Quincy: "damn the stripling, how it apes its sire!" Jerry junior has from the beginning of the Trump campaign been unflaggingly supportive of the prevaricating president, as has the student body at Liberty University, most evangelicals, and most conservative Christians. Television historical mini series documentary producer Ken burns dared ask: "what is it about Donald trump, exactly, which is remindful of Jesus Christ?" That's a good and fair question, perhaps even one of those questions for the ages, the kind that can never be answered, because there is no answer, like the distance to the end of the universe. After two years of chaos, lunacy, and a steady storm of executive branch disinformation, there is evidence that some elements within the holier than thou community have nearly had their fill, and are looking for a way out, without losing face, along with their presumably vanished self respect. Donald Trump simply is not a suitable candidate to carry the cross, which is manifestly apparent to anyone with even a passing knowledge of Trump, the teachings of Christ, and the fundamental precepts of the christian faith; hence the exodus of the rats from the sinking ship, metaphorically. But Falwell himself is in far too deep to jump ship now, and must either plug holes, sink, or swim. From all appearances, all of the above. Give him credit for creative crisis management. His latest tactless tact? That we do not choose presidents bases on whether they'r good people or not. That comes as news to those among us who have actual moral standards, rather than the mere pretense thereof, the sort revealed by conservative Christendom in support of Trump.

Seeking New Horizons

THE NEW HORIZONS space probe, launched on January 19, 2006, has not only flown past the late planet Pluto, but has now exited the solar system entirely, four billion miles from earth, becoming the fasted human made object to take its leave of the solar family. It began its quest for knowledge by swinging past Jupiter, and after snapping a few photos, using the giant planet's gravity to propel it ever faster towards eternity. "Gravitational assist", the process by which a space probe is aimed at a planet in such a manner as to encounter the planet's gravitational field at the proper angle so that the gravity actually sling shots the probe in a new direction with enhanced velocity, has been a standard technique of space probery since the late nineteen fifties, when the Russians used the moon to help a probe get to Venus faster. It works every time. A few more close up pictures of a large asteroid beyond the orbit of Pluto, and New Horizons will have done its duty to science, and will carry on, presumably forever, eventually outdistancing anything ever sent into space by humanity. But enough details. The most inspiring aspect of this endeavor is its contribution to mankind's most sublime undertaking; the pursuit of knowledge. Overwhelmingly, advances in human knowledge come from what has come to be known as 'science", aka "the study of nature". More accurately, the systematic study of everything in nature, from the tiniest particles to the entire universe itself, with rigorous standards of observation, theory formation, theory verification, fact checking and fact proving, what we have called, for four hundred years "the scientific method". In other words, science always ends up being right, no matter how long it takes, because science never stops questioning its own conclusions until its conclusions are proven correct, beyond the shadow of a doubt, by endlessly repetitive, redundant testing and retesting. Science, unlike religion or pseudo science, is self correcting, an therein lies the difference, that's why science produces results, and nothing else does. That's why we know that humans evolved from fish, and that man made climate change is real, and a clear and present danger, regardless of the misguided zealotry of the devoutly, superstitiously religious community which denies the existence anything not found in sacred scripture, which, in the case of Christians, is the Bible, that ancient miniature library of man made writings filled with fantasy, outright lies, and error. The three great enemies of scientific fact and progress are religion, pseudo science, and willful ignorance. Religion comforts and inspires those in need of such things, but at the cost of truth. Pseudo science, which regrettably has enjoyed great popularity in recent decades, entices people to believe nonsense, to specifically identify extraterrestrial beings who exist only in the imagination, and to create fantasy alternative paradigms and realities; for whatever reason, possibly personal fulfillment, or a peculiar unwillingness to study, understand, and appreciate the awesome wonder of nature for what it actually is. The sooner humanity rids itself of religion, pseudo science, and willful ignorance, the better. And the next grand exploration into the depths of the universe cannot be launched soon enough.

Senior Centers and Moral Hazardry

SENOR CENTERS were not common until a few decades ago, owing to the propensity of the American people to ignore older people, and to idolize youth. Traditionally, the elderly have been relegated to the rocking chair on the front porch, in front of the fireplace, in the back bedroom, or worse. Le them wash dishes or can vegetables if able, but above all else, get them our of the way, make sure tehy do not interfere with teh urgent matters of young parents and children and their active lifestyles. We do much the same now, except that we have transferred responsibility for stockpiling the elderly to corporate oversight, warehoused in cookie cutter assisted living facilities, where the help is poorly paid, the rents are exorbitant, and the billionaires owners wealthy beyond measure, sucking in a steady stream of enormous profit from their investment rackets. Yes, nursing homes are a racket in america. If for no other reason, the advent of the senior center is among the nation's greatest innovations. but they too come at a price. The price is that they get the senior out of the home, and into public, often at great peril to American culture. Senior citizenry is the realm of homespun wisdom and knowledge accumulated over a lifetime, to be sure. You don't have to explain cholesterol, colonoscopies to most seniors. They know the difference between baking and broiling, and that often, the best response is silence. The Achilles heel is the standard one: religion and politics. With age, religious dogma and political inanity tend to become ever more deeply entrenched, unnourished by new knowledge or thinking. On these, the most sacred of all realms of human endeavor, people tend to dig in and entrench, rather than expand, evolve, and elucidate. At my local small town southern senior center, the Director and I, both progressives, permit ourselves to discuss politics only before eight A.M., then, it must stop, by mutual agreement. Fifteen joyful minutes of disparaging Trump, then we're dong, and it on to coffee and donuts with the Republicans and Pentacostals. Recently I made the mistake of making a morning comment to her within earshot of one of the latter. "Keep an eye on Mitt Romney", i advised; "He's in the Senate now, a Republican A Mormon elected by Mormons, and loaded for bear, despising trump, and not afraid to show it." One of the fire and brimstone right wing octogenarian morons, of whom we have many, overheard, and intervened with" "Mormons lie about the Word of God". He didn't stop there, quite naturally, but you get the drift. The Director ran away, and I, left alone to deal with the mess, replied, innocuously I thought: "so do I". By that I merely meant to offer that the actual "Word of God" assumes an infinite variety of forms, and that we all lie about this, by making questionable or unverified assumptions about the nature of reality, if only accidentally, because no matter what one believes, there are other beliefs available, and one's beliefs will seem like a lie, or "wrong", inevitably, to many other people. Somehow, I knew it was useless, and he proved it when he later stuck a finger in my chest and spewed: "I hope you don't keep lying about the Word of God". No, I neither shot him nor responded, to my credit. I've learned how to deal with these people. I still think seniors centers are a good idea, despite the prevalence of Muslims don't believe in God, liberals are communists, Trump is a true Christian, climate change and evolution are hoaxes, Obama was a Muslim. among other manifestations of senior wisdom. Senior centers are a good idea, but barely, which can make an educated person long , on behalf of others, for the comfort of the rocking chair and fireplace.

Building Walls, Just For Fun

WALLS ARE GOING UP all over the world. Not just Trump's wall, but many, many others, like some kind of American teen aged fad, going "viral" as we like to cleverly say these days. Or maybe the populatiry of walls if, in reality rather than virtuality, "bacterial". Like hula hoops, Elvis, or big hair, walls are going up, fadishly, each one presumably trying to outdo the others for visual appeal, efficacy, and strength of message. Its the latest thing, the thing to do. In fact, the only wall which isn't going anywhere, isn't being built, is Trump's wall itself, ironically, since Trump and his sacred long promised wall, slated to be built hard against Mexico, with Mexican money, seems to be the prototype, the role model for right wing populist wall building paranoid, racist insanity. And yet, Trump's wall remains stalled in the House of Reps, where it shall, if God really exists and is just, forever remain and die of neglect. Climate change and idiotic economic policies, such as socialism for the wealthy and neo-liberalism for the poor, are killing crops and jobs and driving millions of the world's impoverished to seek new starts - anywhere. The natives are restless, tired of all these dark skinned newcomers threatening to inundate their pure culture, and are seeking to wall them off. Even allegedly sane nations, like Norway, are getting into the act, so it would appear that the Norwegians are sufficiently preoccupied playing with their large scale Lincoln logs and tinker toys to preclude their migrating en mass to America, thus making America white again and fulfilling Trump fantasy and wish list item number uno. Turkey has a wall up, a new several hundred mile long wall, to keep out starving Syrian refugees. The Hungarians are keeping out, or trying to keep out middle easterners with, you guessed it, a brand new Hungarian wall. the Norwegian wall is absolutely hilarious, because it site right nest to and parallels and existing one built by the Russians, and is thus redundant and useless. When it was pointed out to Norway by Russian that the Norwegians were actually building their wall five feet into Russian territory,, they had to tear it down, and rebuild it - five feet further west. The Nordic wall, which is for show in an attempt to appease the Norwegian right wing minority, is only some six hundred feet long, and easy to go around, by walking a few yards until one reaches its end. This amply exemplifies the fatal flaw and ultimate truth of all walls: they must come to an end, one way or another, somewhere. All walls can be outflanked, no matter where or who they end, by simply exercising patience and persistence. walls are like locks on doors; they merely serve to keep honest people honest, and have no impact on real criminals. And like locks, the best effect a wall can have is to sooth the fearful savage souls of those who most ardently insist on their erection, which fits the supporters of Trump's never to be realized wall, to a T.

Killing Ourselves In Cars No More

MANY YEARS AGO it occurred to me, as it must have occurred to millions of other people, that losing forty thousand American people every year in automotive wrecks is unacceptable, and that something should be done about it, if possible. The notion came to me that it would be a good idea for computers to drive cars, and that when computers drive cars, the number of auto fatalities will significantly decline, to near zero. It must have been about forty years ago, when all this came to my unusual mind. I recall making this remark to my mother, who was unimpressed. Her response? "We already have too many people on this planet." Whatever she meant by that, I'm not sure I wanted, or want, to know. She's dead now, anyway. Surely she didn't mean to imply, or outright proclaim, that she would prefer the continuation of a world in which one million people die in cars every year, over one hundred thousand in China, eighty thousand in India, and so on, and so forth. Not my mother. In most countries, people drive insanely, as if they are either immortal or possessed of a death wish, and among those countries is the United States. I believe I mentioned to her that, yes, population control and stability would be a good thing, sooner or later, preferably sooner, but that allowing the vehicular slaughter to continue into the far future simply was not the way to go about it. Did I say the right thing? I can't recall whether she agreed. I hope she did. She was a good person, believe it or not, and surely had she simply thought about it for a moment, she would have realized what she was saying. I just laughed it off, which was probably for the best. Now, of course, my prediction, the prediction of many people, has come true, here in the science fiction-sounding date of two thousand and nineteen, which to people of my age, sixty three, certainly sounds science fictiony. computers are test driving cars, and it can't be long before we all are, and the great automotive slaughter discontinues. The only problem is, people don't seem to like cars with nobody behind the wheel. In Arizona, one of several places where several corporations have computer driven cars on the roads, the cars are getting shot at, pelted with rocks, rammed with cars and other machines, and generally haarassed like hell, even though there is always a human sitting in the back seat, just in case? Why? Nobody knows. Targets of opportunity? Teen aged gang related activity? Pervasive cultural frustration, being acted upon? Yes, this is really happening, automatic automobiles being savagely attacked, merely for self identifying as "automatic autos". Its almost as if they were gay, black, of Hispanic, or female, or disabled, poor, and unemployed. Like much of the rest of human behavior, this does not speak well of the human condition, of human nature, to state the obvious.We can trust that the abnormal psychological profession will in the fullness of time accurately elucidate the reasons for this bizarre, but all too predictable behavior, and inform us of the actual motives behind it. All of the above, doubtless.

Living Life Sans Planning

THE YOUNG LADY gets pregnant at fifteen, and decides to fall in love, perhaps expediently, with the presumed father. They quit school, marry,and give birth, in no particular order that can be easily determined.Factory work pays decently these days, but barely decently enough.Another kid comes along. Eventually, inevitably, the marriage becomes a war, under severe economic stress. It has all the trimmings, which include multiple separations, passionate short lived reunions, affairs, rumors of affairs, accusations of affairs, with some sporadic gratuitous violence for good measure. At last, at long last, the salvation of divorce. The kids make the standard transition from weapons to boomerangs, including lawyers fees. Thank the dear lord for grandparents, caretakers and victims of domestic intranquility. A forever marriage or three later, the young lady approaches forty, separated from husband number something, with several children, no job prospects, ready to look for new love. One might suspect that she's actually looking for sexual gratification, to which she is long accustomed and somewhat addicted, and financial security, to which she isn't, but one mustn't be judgmental or presumptuous. True love can come later, again, if at all. There are more urgent desires. To her credit and benefit, her children are healthy, all seven of them cute, well mannered, and on successful career trajectories, early on. She is still beautiful, which is no accident, as she recently augmented her natural beauty with new style and color and make up, new alluring clothing, and care to stay slender. She'll have plenty of offers. If she's smart, which is tenuous since she has not shown it heretofore, she'll find someone a bit older, but not too much older than she, a gentle man with resources. Always the resources. The female of the species seeks the male with resources,which can include wealth, fame, social status, and rugged good looks, the male seeks youth and beauty, which is fertility. The cow watches the bull fight and preens, awaiting the winner. Endlessly we compete for mates, as nature intends. Why people put themselves through all this is a matter for better minds, explainable only by nature, which, among humans, can be contravened, somewhat. Strange that more folks don't at least try. maybe they think its worth it, It isn't, arguably, not economically, environmentally (over population), or in terms of personal health. (marriage improves health, bad marriage does not) I'm a baby boomer. My mother told me that she would never even consider doing it all over again, were she young again in this age of valueless dollars and culture. People used to ask here why her son, so handsome, smart, well educated and charming, never married. Because he's smart, she used to say. Most married people I've interviewed say they agree, but that they themselves are very happily married, and wouldn't change a thing. I choose to believe them.