Going All In For Trump

THE NEW SPEAKER of the House is a die hard, total Trumper, an election denier and an insurrectionist who from the git go echoed Trump's false election lie, and refuses to renounce it and rehabilitate himeslf. On several occasions reporters have asked him about it as they jogged alongside him as he briskly strode through the Capitol, but he refuses to answer. Evidently, the Speaker will duck questions about his loyalty to Trump, past and present, from here on. Obviously, he doesn't want to talk about it, and you can't blame him. The longer politicians embrace Trump's 2020 election lie, the larger the albatross around their necks. Republican political leaders are just barely starting to mention the idea of forgetting about the twenty twenty election and all the fraud and theft accusations, and moving on. They are starting to figure out that this is not a winning issue, never has been, and is becoming increasingly uproductive to harp on it. But they are too late. The election denial movement refuses to die...The new House Speaker is trapped by his own election denying insurrectionist past, like Trump, and like all the Trump-cult memebers who cling to it. With the presidential election now only one year away, and Trump getting closer and closer to the Republican presidential nommination, Trump's trials for stealing secret documents and for inciting an insurrection to overthrow the American government, will directly collide with the election denier mythology, with Trump's run for the White House, and with Republican political aspirations for twenty twenty four. The Republican party will be faced with the daunting task of convincing tens of millions of undecided American voters that the best possible option for our next president is a man currently under indictment for no fewer than ninety one felonies, and saddled with several civil lawsuits from women claiming sexual misbehavior by Mr.Trump. Choosing a rock solid Trump cult member as the new House Speaker clearly reinforces what we already knew; that Donald Trump is still the undisputed leader of the Republican party, its icon and champion and spokesperson. And that he enjoys the total support of a large majority of its members. Up and down the ballot, the election of twenty twenty four will be about Donald Trump. I keep tellng people that I no longer need to criticize Trump, that each time he speaks in public he reveals himself, who he really is, much more clerly than I ever could. I keep telling people that, for the most part, pretty much whoever you are, if you are a decent person or even a halfway decent person, you are too good for Donald Trump, too good to support him, he is beneath you, beneath your decency and dignitiy to support him, for verily, he is not a decent person. And I remind people that there are many other conservative poiticians other than Trump seeking to be leaders, that Trump, on balance, isn't even a real conservative anyway, that unless you are filthy rich Trump has no interest in you and your interests. I can't think of a single instance in which someone has really listened to me, much less given my arguments consideration, or, heaven forbid, agreed with them. People are deeply entrenched. They dig in, and stay dug in. Nevertheless, I will continue to make these arguments, because I know that they are quite correct, and worth making. As Trump's various trials proceed next year, the facts will be presented, it will become increasingly, glaringly obvious that Trump is a serious, hard core criminal, even more obvious than it is already, and this blatant, glaring criminality will collide with and impede Republican campaigns, up and down the ballot. And the results will be precisely what they, and indeed the whole country, deserve.

Politicking

POLITICAL ADVERTISING, thank god, tends to be limited, has traditionaly been limited to election campaign season, but that, heaven forid, could, amd perhaps already has, changed. Recently I have seen several times a television commercial made by the state Republican party, attacking the Biden administration and all things Democrat, and heaping lavish praise upon a Repbulican governor who has been in office less that a year, and has done nothing other than promote the usual, twisted, sick, conservative political agenda. Book bans, anto-LGBTQ laws, erasing slavery history, etc.The blatant dishonesty of the thirty second ad is breath taking, much like the shocking dishonesty of the Republican conservative communitiy generally is, in this era of Donald Trump. Trump's pathological dishonesty has, to an extent, trickled down and infected his entire following which, incredibly, remains substantial. This television commerical starts with horrifying, dramatic, chocking images from teh Russian-Ukraine war, then from teh Hamas Israeli war, scenes of violence, explosions, and despair. Then, a somber, serious, sonorous voice bemoans the horrible state of affairs in the world, and the country, what with inflation and all, and then comes right out and proclaims: "The Biden administration is a disaster". Oh yeah, right. Putin's War on Ukrain and Hamas are the responsibility of the Biden administration. Give me a break. Regarding inflation, two facts stand out; One; the world wide inflation of teh past three years ie entirely caused by the pandemic, not by the Biden administration. Two, during and under the Biden administration, inflation in the United States has been coming down steadily, and continues to do so, under Biden's leadership, because of Biden's economic policies. That's not a disaster, That's a success story. The Republican aprty, an the evangelical conservative Republican Trump movement in general are trapped, in a corner, in trouble, for several reasons. First, their agenda is not popular with a majorit of Americans - the progressive agenda is. Secondly, Republicans, for better or for worse, are now, and have long been, indivisably married to Donald J.Trump, who, at this writing, remains by far the frontrunner for the Republican twenty twenty four presidential nomination. Conservative America married Donald Trump, an by golly, they are stuck with him, ninety one felony raps and all. In fact, the Amerian economy is doing just fine, humming along strongly. Biden can claim credit for this. The Republians are left with only their lies about a failing aconomy, and by desperatly trying to tie the Biden administration to the two major wars currently ongoing. This lame approach will not work. As the next presidential election approaches, it willb einteresting to listen to Trump supporters support Trump, as Trump spends more and more time in court, on elevision, defending himself against ever more serious crimes, like trying to overthrow the American government, which, by the way, he is guilty of. Th stolen classified documents is serious, the financial, as we are seeing now, is serious, and so is the elecdtion tampering in Georgia. But this election lie/subversion and insurrection rap is deadly serious, and will be front and center for Trump as he runs for president. Regarding supporting and defending Donald Trump; good luck with that.

Resorting To Violence

TWENTY THREE PERCENT of the American people believe that it could possibly become necessary to use violence to save the United States, according to surverys, studies, and assiduous research. The exact question was worded something like: "If the United States were in danger or trouble, and you see violence as the only way to save the country, would you be in favor of it?" Obviously, this is somewhat of a loaded question. The way its phrased, it makes it almost impossible to say "no". By saying no, you are, according to the loaded question, dooming the United States to extinction, a hideous fate which can only be avoided by your personal choice to utilize violence in her (USA) defense. Under such circumstances, who wouldn't be willing to engage in violence? If a foreign army were shooting at me, yes, I would shoot back. We can assume for the sake of simplicity that we are referring to violence enacted by Americans against other Americans. But even when the proposition is put in a less leading manner, a more neutral, logical wording, about the same proportion of the population indicates a willingness to not only choose, but to instigate violence in defense of the imaginary America they believe in and love. Tellingly, but perhaps not surprisinglu, the most of the twenty three of Americans willing to descend into violence are conservative Republicans, indeed, conservative evangelical Republicans. About one in three Republicans answers "yes" to the violence question, but only about thirteen percent of Democrats do. If this seems strange or misleading or possibly even rigged, consider this: More than twelve hundred people have been convicted of federal crimes because of their participation in the January 2021 Capitol insurrection, and all of them, every single one, maintains to this day that they did it for Trump, and only for Trump, only because the president told them to. To this day, a large majority of American conservative evangelical Republicans still claim that the election was stolen from Trump, and that the insurrection was, basically, necessary and appropriate. Those are conservative evangalical Republicans, not left wing liberal secular Democrats. Not only that, but many Republicans, showing their true character,falsely blame the insurrection on Democrats, ludicrously. Well, shame on them. Precisely who the more violent people are in American society becomes obvious. Overwhelmingly, instances of political violence in America in our modern society are perpetrated by far right wingers, not liberals. That, as they say, is just the fact. The FBI would be happy to confirm it. The gun ownership fanatics are sll on the far right, as are most of the violent people. This is a dangerous, volatile combination, the sort of people who attended Trump's insurrection rally, then carried out the violent insurrection which killed at least seven people and maimed for life dozens more. The percentage of Americans willing to resort to political violence had been steadily growing since Mr.Trump entered politics in 2015 with his angry, hostile, aggressive rhetoric. The new apostles of violence, almost to a man, are devout Trumpers. Conservatives, always eager to change the subject, like to point to the imaginary organization "Antifa" as a left wing example of violent organizations. The problem with this is that Antifa, as mentioned above, does not actually exist, it is merely an ideal, the ideal being "anti-fascism", which in America means anti Trumpist right wing populism.

Commiting Suicide

IN FIFTH GRADE we made maps of Latin America,and learned the names of all the countries and their capitol cities. In seventh grade, we spent one semester of social studies studying Latin America, but, for some reason, I never learned much about Guyana, other than it is a very small country with a poplation of less than one million. It si not a particularly wealthy, with few resources available to ship and trade around the world for sundry consumer commodities. That, however, is about to change. Over the years, it has become increasingly obvious that if you dig deep enough, no matter where you dig, you will eventually strike oil, because basically, there is oil underground under nearly all the ground on Earth. The big fuel companies - I believe that Chevron and Exxon are both involved - have convinced the tiny country that it an greatly increase its national wealth by allowing them, (the big fuel companies) to set up off shore oil drilling facilities, evidently, in sufficient quantity to make a ton of money. (Why bother to even do it otherwise? The plan will probably work, Probably, billions of dollars of oil will be pumped, and the bit fuel compannies will make billions, and Guyana will also. Whether this financial bonanza will be distributed widely among the poor people of Guyana or horded by the already wealthy powerful few is anyone's guess, but, based on what we know about human nature,we can probalby make an educated guess...Weather conditions are such in and around Guyana that the tiny country could just as well set up a massive off shore and on shore solar and wind energy facility, and perhaps eventually make much more money, and help preserve the environment in the bargain. Instead, they are choosing to enhance global warming and facilitate climate change by jumping into the global game of fossil fuel consumption. We the consumers snap it up for our car addiction, and the billionaires sell it to us gleefully, climate change be damned. And because of this irrational attitude and behavior, the atmosphere is in dire jeopardy of becoming an unrecognizable cauldron of super hot poisonous gases, like the plant Venus. Just about all of us are guilty of aiding and abetting, participating in this suicide of the species, in one way or another. Unless I am dreaming, both Exxon and chevron, and in fact jsut about all the huge oil companiesin teh world, have solemnly pledged to begin to fight global warming and climate change, and to transition to cleaner, sustainable forms of energy, especially wind and solar. Meanwhile, what theya re actually doing is trying to push the world to use more fossil fuels, in a last frenzy of consumption and corporate profit before the curtain falls, and the darkness begins. The fossil fuel billionaires are, in general, older. Money has been their entire life, and there is no reason for them to change now. They know full well that the nightmarish environmental conditions their actions and leadership are bringing into being they themselves will not be alive to experience, they will not directly suffer from their own folly. But their children and grandchildren will. Solar and wind energy are growing rapidly, and fossil fuel use is beginning to level off. But not fast enough. We are starting to take action too little and too late. The climate has already drastically changed, for the worse, and will change much more, very soon. We must act now.

Fighting For Feminism

A YOUNG IRANIAN WOMAN lies in a Tehran hosptial, connected to all kinds of tubes in Intensive Care, as she has been for more than three weeks. Just yesterday her doctor formally declared her brain dead: presumably, the decision what to do will soon come from her family. She ended up this way because, horror of all horrors, she believes in gender equality in a country in which the very thought of gender equality is anathema, stricly forbidden. She protested gender inequality, the Iranian suppression of women, by leaving her home and going out in public without her head scarf. Either without it altogether, or wearing it improperly, one of the two, either one is serious trouble. All Iran all women wear a head scarf, called a "hijab", perhaps, in public, and they wear it properly. Over the past few months there has been an uprising of women in Iran, women out in and on the streets, organized protesting, demanding freedom from oppression, gender equality, fair treatment. The government, using the state police, have responded extremely harshly and violently to this peaceful, meaningful, appropriate movement. It is estimated that at least five hundred women have lost their lives in these feminine protests in Iranian cities, and that thousands, probably more than five thousand, have been arrested and incarcerated. This massive protest movement was ignited several months ago by the death of another young woman, a protestor for women's equality, at the hands of the police. Protesting the government by anyone, for anything in Iran is very dangerous, but for women in huge nembers, thousands aodn thousands of women, take to the streets, it is seen as a direct attack on the most traditional and sacred aspects of Iranian Islamic religious culture. Because of the murderous violence visited pon the protesting Iranian women by the state gestappo, the movement has largely gone online now, and is being seen by people all over the world; but not by Iranians. The government censored and banned it, not surprisingly. Historically, past and present, throughout most of the world, male dominance, patriarchal societies, have been the norm. Women, throughout history and in today's world, have been and remain oppressed, given second class status by male dominated cultures. Of all the horrible inequities in our world, racial, economic, just to name two of many, gender inequality is the most glaring, the most shocking, considering the numerical advantage of women in general, and the most worthy of destruction. Women are more free and powerful in the United States than in any other country in the world, basically. And yet, these United States still have much work to do to achieve actual, true, demonstrable, verifiable gender equality, economic, political, you name it. The rest of the world, generally speaking, has much more work to do, much fatehr to go to achieve gender equality. Africa, Asia, and Latin America all have ubiquitously much more conservative cultures than we in the United States, incredible as that might seem. On those continents, male dominance, patriarchy, is deeply entrenced, widely accepted, without much resistance to it at all. Still, throughout the world, awareness of the universal, historical and contemporary mistreatment and gross inequality of women is spreading and growing, as more people get educated. World wide women will eventually gain equality, although lord only knows when. Its amazing that it hasn't already happened, and that fact does not speak well for homo sapien sapiens.

Teaching Black History In Church

LEAVE IT TO FLORIDA. Or maybe Texas, the two bright red retro states, or rather, reprobate states. In Florida, it is illegal to teach accurate African-American history in public schools. I am not precisely conversant with the actul piece of legislation. Surely to gooendess it does not actually totally prohibit any mention or talk of African-Americans, or their history or culture in Florida publics schools; that might create some very awkward situations - but, evidently, to teach the real, brutal, horrible history of African-Americans is simply not allowed in Florida, because to do so would risk giving white students an inferiority comples, stress, anxiety, and guilt about the actions their ancestors took to harm Africans. Crazy as it sounds, that is exactly the usual justification of the law you will get from conservatives in Florida, or anywhere. I Florida schools, students are being tuaght that slavery was not all bad, that it afforded its participants many opportunites, and was there at least somewhat justfifiable, because ti brought people out of darnkess and poverty in Africa and gave them a chance for constructive work in America, an opportunity to learn new skills for future benefit, and bet of all, it gave the enslaved an opportunity to learn the one true religion, the Christian religion, and to be saved by Jesus Christ, just like white people. Children in Florida, and probably in Texas, (and how long iuntil all over the country?) are being taught this nonsense? We are soon going to have a generation of young adults who have no idea about American history, about the truth of the suffering of minorities, or probably any other kind of history. In Florida, as throughout these United States, churches tend to be racially segregated. In Florida's "black" churches, consideration is being given to the possibility of teaching the children, in church, the accurate version of African-American history which they need to know, but which they never will if left to the public schools. They need to learn, for instance, that there was nothing, absolutely nothing, good about slavery. A lady parishoner pointed out that in church, people, particularly children, are already taught many, many things. They are taught how to live their lives, how to treat other people. They are taught what's in the Bible, and a whole host of other things. Church is, at least in part, a place to learn, a place of education. So, why not make it more complete, by filling in the education which is now being withheld from people by the public schools, which have, tragically, been taken over and changed by America's far right wing religious fanatic conservatives? So far, only places like Florida and Texas have been so seriuosly infected, and may they be the last. When one conisders the book banning, the anti-LGBTQ attitudes of conservatives regarding education, and all the other regressive measures now being legislated and implemented by conservatives in communities all over America, one realizes that it is urgently necessary to resist and reverse this deplorable trend. We do not want to take America back to a time when gay people hid in closets, or went to prison, and black people were deprived of real education, and freedom of religion was almost nonexistant. And that is the kind of America the extreme far right, Trump movement included, wants to force upon us. We must not let them.

Categorizing

THIS HAS BEEN MENTIONED BEFORE, but bears repeating. There are patterns to human nature and behavior. People can often be classified, with a fair degree of accuracy, into various groups, according to beliefs, preferences, and general behavior. One observable pattern of behavior, in which almost all people seem to participate, is the tendency to express highly questionable opinions and beliefs, despite any good supporting evidence, with absolute certainty, without so much as a trace of doubt, as if the issue has already long been settled,and it is time for everyone to agree and accept the false consensus. Climate change deniers are a perfect example. Rarely if ever do you hear anyone express the slightest uncertainty abut climate change.Either it is absolutely a proven fact, or, it is clearly, obviously a hoax. There seems to be no in between. Wouldn't you think and expect that out of millions of people, there would be at least a few of them who honestly admitted uncertainty, admitted to not knowing for sure whether climate change is real, or fabricated? How can everyone be so absolutely dead certain, when it took scientists so long to finally decide themselves? The people who do not believe in climate change often do not believe that vaccinations are effective,and generally tend to mistrust science. They are always absolutely certain that vaccinations will have some harmful effect,absolutely certain. No question about it. The veneer of absolute certainty is precisely that; a veneer, a facade to cover actual indecision, cognitive dissonance, and uncertainty, for to show uncertainty is a weakness, and to reveal weakness is to give a potential enemy an advantage. Pathetic little creatures, aren't we? Or so it sometimes seems...As Goethe said, "WE are united by sentiment, and sundered by opinion". And so we are. We all express the same, united , grieving feelings at the death of a beloved one, or the occurance of a national disaster, but when in normal times we exchange opinions about such matters, we cannot seem to agree, and we disolve in argument and dispute. I am categorically, unabashedly unwilling to even consider the possibility that climate change is some kind of hoax, a conspiracy, a rumor intended to give more power, somehow, to the government. I won't consider it because it seems flatly impossible. Yet, to others, it is not only possible, not only probable, but it is absolutely true, it is stark, naked reality. To me, that anyone could be so convinced of something so outrageous and stupid is utterly amazing. The climate change deniers tend to be the same people who deny the twenty twenty presidential election, the election deniers. Yes, they tend to be the same people, which makes it sensible to question their sanity. Nothing is more obvious than that Biden won the election, and Trump's claim of a stolen election was and remains a complete lie, a transparently obvious lie, a lie for which Mr.Trump may eventually pay a very high price. But the obvious craziness of the lie is lost on those who are believers, to whom the stolen election is a cold, hard, irrefutable, immutable fact. So uncomfortable are they in their denial of climate change and the election results, because deep down they know that they are dead wrong, that they cannot bear to express even the slightest sliver of uncertainty about their actual existence; they are dead set certain that they are both hoaxes. That's how sick these people are; very.

Encroaching

THERE IS A SUBTLE CONSERVATIVE MOVEMENT, a "vast right wing conspiracy" as Hillary Clinton might put it, to insidiously install a broad based conservative agenda in the United States, to literally impose a conservative Christian agenda on America,by whatever means are necessary, presumably including even violence. "Violence" because as we have seen, Trump supporters, who presumably included a fair number of conservative evangelical Christians, stormed, attacked, and invaded the U.S. Capitol building in an attempt to overthrow the American government by stealing the American presidency on behalf of Donald Trump, whom they presumably intended to install as president, or perchance, authoritarian autocrat. Many members of the far right have openly proclaimed a willingness to use violence to defeat the progressive movement. This "conservative populism" nonsense is nothing other than the imposition of a conservative agenda in America not by using expertise and careful planning, but rather, by acceding to the whimsical choices of a demagogue leader, like a Trump, a Hitler, or a Putin. In America, its Trump, and I'm not so sure we got the better part of the bargain. the primary tools the right wing is using to take over America, cultural values and all, are gerrymandering and court packing, both of which are well known to most Americans, most of whom are quite familiar with both. Both must be grought to an end. To design political voting districts to favor one party over another is the opposite of democracy, and every good American should rise up against it strenuously, vigorously, and vociferously. The federal government, congress, could do that with a single piece of legislation, but so far refuses to, largely becuase of Republican obstructionism. We must also stop allowing people to be appointed and elected judges merely because they are conservative politically. Public awareness is teh key here. Voters must become more knowledgable about potential court nominees, appointees, or elected judges, and oppose all those whose primarily credential is obviously, transparently, nothing other than being a far right wing evangaliceal Christian, for instance. Being a pro life anti-gay pro religion free market lawyer does not qualify anyone to be a state or federal judge. what qualitifes anyone and andeveryone to be any kind of a judge is the demonstrated ability and willingness to render from the bench equal justice under law, and that's it. Its that simple. NOthing else matters. but for man years now we the American people have sat idlly by; while far right wing extremist politicians have packed America's courts with far right wing religious fanatics whose bizarre decisions have already drastically altered American society, threaten to alter it much more, against the wishes of a large majority of Americans, and must therefore be stopped. This crazy conservative aganda; Christian conformity, anti-gay, anti-public sector, anti-expertise, book banning, anti-choice, isolationist, and all the rest, is not what most Americans want. Most Americans want a far more progressive set of policies, including freedom of and from religion, and a ban on book banning, and guaranteed reproductive rights for women. It will have to happen at the ballot box, to vote out all these state and federal far right politicians who are making a mess of America. The Trump movement still seems destined to crash and burn. We must hope that when it does, the far right agenda will go down with it.

Banning Books Is Bad

THE PROBLEM WITH BANNING BOOKS, (and banning books in generally is indeed a tremendous problem, which must be fought against, and solved), is that almost invariably the books that are banned are among the greatet works of American literature. Simply looking at any list of banned books in any school district in America quickly reveals this. Amazingly,far right wing evangelical conservative types sometimes, (albeit seldom) read books other than the Bible, which in fact they tend to only read bits and pieces of, cherry picking, as we say. By doing this, the most devoutly religious people in America often claim that passages and statements are in the Bible which in fact are not, an they often fail to mention or to be aware of very pertinent Biblical passages which are indeed there. Such is the way of sloppy, lazy scholarship and study. These folks show up at school board meetings, and when they have the floor, speak passionately about the deleterious influlence of certain works of fiction on the young, tender, fragile American student mind, works like "Huckleberry Finn", say, or "To Kill A Mockingbird", because of their alleged baleful influence on the tender young pure Christian mind.This excuse is a cover for the actual intent: to remake America in the image of evangelical conservatism.In thousands of school districts all across America's fruited plain, lists of books which shall hereby be removed forthwith from all local public school libaries never to be seen there again spring up and grow like weeds, and the lists lengthen, and begin to include books which are not only fit for reading by anybody, but are of such high quality that they should be required reading for everybody. It becomes and remains amazing, the high quality, intellectually, literarily, and in many ways, of the banned books. It would be one thing indeed if all the banned books were indeed complete, absolute trash, blatantly nasty pornograchy,gratuitous violence, or something of that sort. But seriously bad books are not even considered or mentioned. All the books which end up banned by America's conservative Republican Christians - and it is in fact that segment of the population which is overwhelmingly responsible for book banning in America - are not only of the highst quality, but are indeed among the best books ever written. Again, please feel free to google lists of banned books in various American school districts, especially in Florida and texas,and you'll be shocked, if you are well educated and are aware of what good literature is. The best books, ancient, or modern, lay bare society ills and evils, or, as one author said, they show us our own shame and immorality. In Steinbeck's masterful masterpiece "The Grapes of Wrath", there is by the author a rather hard hitting verbal indictment of American corporate capitalism as being partly responsible for the great depression. In places where this great novel s banned, it is banned because some right wing evangelical Christian simply cannot abide criticism of the vaunted American corporate economic system, capitalism, the system preferred by God, and Jesus, doubtless. In Richare Wright's masterpiece novel "Native Son", racism in America is laid bare for all to see; so therefore ban the book, so that our tender vulnerable white evangelical Christian Republican children won't be psychologically damaged by this horrible version or reality.

Killing the Ill

THE NEWS that more than five hundred people had been killed by a big explosion at a hospital in Gaza is beyond tragic. It sounds like a nightmare from a melodramatic science fiction or futuristic war novel or movie. The preliminary, "official" explanation seems to be that the hospital was hit by a stray, misfired rocket or missile from a small Palestinian terrorist organization, not Hamas, from within Gaza itself. Why it is being specified that it was probably not fired by Hamas seems strange, and makes the whole story somewhat questionable. Why would it not be Hamas? Why the "Islamic Jihad", whose very existence is somewhat in doubt? The power and accuracy of the rocket which completely flattened the hospital has more the earmarks of Israeli weaponry,more than that of a rogue terrorist group like Hamas, albeit one currently in charge of the Palestinian settlements If only the two state solution had been implenented at the founding of Israel; an Israeli homeland, and a Palestinian state, the land divided as equally and fairly as possible, though of course that remains a very difficult component of any possible future two state solution; the lack of a reasonalbe amount of good land for each new nation to receive. Perhaps, after all is said and done, the best solution in 1948 would have been to leave well enough alone, to leave a quasi-Palestinian state to remain intact, with substantial settlement by Jewish refugees. Most modern historians and journalists seem to agree that in those days, the populations got elaong relatively well, certainly much better than since, or now. President Biden made some remarks about the war. He made it perfectly clear that we the United States are behind Israel one hundred percent, that we "have Israel's back" as we like to say,and that we will help end their days of darkness, and so on, and so forth. Mr.Biden did not call for a cease fire in his remarks, nor did he insist nor even suggest that an immediate end to the war would be desirable. It may well be that Mr. Biden, deep down, wants Israel to win a big victory, to strengthen its existence ad position in the world. Mmore importantly, we the human species must find a way to end violence among ourselves, and, for that mattter, towards all other species. This would of course require a huge leap foreard evolutionarily, a huge leap of faith, so to speak, for the human race to suddenly and truly renounce and cease to engage in violence of any sort, individually, or collectively, between gangs and nations. Einstein once expressed the viewpoint that as long as there are people, there will be war. That is how deeply ingrained he believed violent behavior is within the human mind. He doubtless had a point, but probably was well aware that he was failing to mention other human traits, such as compassion and love, as possible anecdotes to a human future filled with violence and warfare. Einstein seems to have believed that no matter how strong those virtuous traits might be, they would never be sufficiently strong to totally eliminate greed and anger in the world. He insisted, also, that if future generations of human beings did not turn out to be more kind, loving, compassionate, and generous than his generation, that the devil might as well take them. I hope we still have time.

Exhorting, Apostolically

APOSTOLIC EXHORTATIONS are the third most important document a pope can write and distribute, exceeded in importance only by Apostolic Constitutions and Apostolic Encyclicals. Such "exhortations", as the name implies, are usually intended to encourage the faithful to engage in a certain type of behavior, or to embrace certain virtues. Whether the Pope uses a ghost writer or merely an editor,probably varies; suffice to say that all Papal utterances, proclamations, and writings are considered to be wholly of the pope, and by the pope, and are thus termed "magesterial". Just recently Pope Francis issued such an apostolic exhortation, in reality a bundle of several, perahps a dozen, different essays urging all good Catholics to adopt, embrace, or enhance certain attitudes and virtues. Pope Francis urges all people to be kinder, more compassionate, more devoted to the actual teachings of Christ, and so forth. His essay/letter about climate change is titled "To All People Of Good Faith On the Climate Crisis". By this he not only means good devout Christians, but, more importantly, intelligent, reasonably well educated people who are honest and open minded enough to give all points of view a fair chance, including the viewpoint that climate change is real, really is caused by human activity, and that we absolutely must do something about it, in order for our descendenats to exist and survive. People of "goodwill" are people who are willing to listen, and to arrive at honest, accurate conclusions. The Pope's essay is perhaps the best writing ever published assuring everyone that climate change is indeed very real, is caused by people, and can and must be stopped by people. He deals with climate change deniers straight up, very effectively, and very carefully, very convincingly shows them where they have gone wrong in their thinking, and how to change it. All reasonably intelligent climate change deniers should be encouraged to read the Pope's writing. Unless I am hallucinating, I have a strong memory of the fact that Pope Francis comes from an educated background, and that his education is centered upon chemistry. I seem to recall that he actually has an advanced degree in chemistry, which is certainly enough education to undertand precisely how and why climate change, also called "global warming", is very real. It has often occured to me that all that is needed for anyone to understand that climate change is real, and why, is to have taken a high school chemistry class. Even a junior high school class would probably suffice. The chemistry is blatantly simple. There is a patttern to climate change denial, ad it is education, specifically, a lack thereof. Almost invariably, those who deny the reality of human made clmate change have not taken a chemistry class, nor studied it on their own. If only they would. Ronald Reagan once famously said that if the Earth were threatened by invasion from an extrterrestrial species, humanity would unite to resist the invader. And so we surely would. It was a metaphor the former president was fond of making. The idea of a great, inexorable, external enemy, threatening all humankind, being the perfect impetus to unite the human race in a common enterprise, the idea being that perhaps we could similarly unite for many worthy enterprises, like feeding everybody. Climate change should have the same effect as an alien invasion. It would, if we would but allow it.

Protesting

ACCORDING TO NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO, normally reliable, all across America's fruited plain, at college campuses all over the country, protests are being held in opposition to the impending Israeli invasion of Palestine, and objecting in general to the harsh treatment of the Palestinians by not only the Israeli nation but by the rest of the world over the past seventy five years. Like most protestors, these young people have a point. And, like all protestors, so do those who disagree with them. NPR didn't specifically specify which college campuses have been the scene of these anti-war anti-Israeli aggressive policy protests, whether any of the are especially large or vociferous, or how many campuses did not host such events. Also, on the campuses with pro-Palestinian protests, presumably there have been pro-Israeli demonstrations as well, although this was neither confirmed nor denied on NPR. I vividly recall the anti Viet Nam War protests in the nineteen sixties and early nineteen seventies, and how strongly I supported them, although I was too young to either participate nor express my support of them to my parents, nor anyone else. My conservative, patriotic parents most likely would not have approved of my opposition to the Viet Nam War. During teh short war against Saddam Hussein I myself became an anti-war protestor for the first and only time, and was happy to have the opportunity, an opportunity I had secretly, quietly longed for most of my young life. It is simply impossible to closely analysize the Isralei-Palestinian problem thorougly without taking into consideration the horrible, unfair, miserable manner in which the Isralei nation was formally founded, for that remains the root of the current problem, and shall so remain, until remedied. Precisely how to remedy it is an altogether different matter. Perhaps Lebonon ould share in taking in Palestine refugees and contributing land to the establishment of a formal palestinian nation-state. It doesn't seem likely, of course. and even if a Palestinian "homeland", aka a separate, individual nation-state formally recognized by the wprld - if such an entity were to spring into existence on the ostensibly available land, what of it? What good would it do, if any? The population density of thea part of the world, the area of current Israeli and the Gaza strip, even including some part of Lebonon, would still be extreme, and poverty would still be widespread, especially among Gaza Palestinians. Much like Latin America, or certain parts of it, the eastern end of the Mediterranean is populated by a densely packed population, with much poverty. And, it goes without saying, the problem of human poverty, injustice, and inefficient allocation of available resources extends all across the globe, and is not confined to Palestine and Israel. It may be that eight billion beings are too many for peace and widespread equality and prosperity to adhere among the dominant species. To simply continue economic growth will solve nothing, without proper, reasonable, efficient systems of allocation and distribution. What seems to be required is what is considered pure anathema to mainstream, neo-liberal free market capitalists; planning and cooperation, individually, and internationally, heaven forbid.

Brutalizing

THE MOST OBVIOUS, shocking characteristic of the Hamas attack on Iarael was the brutality of it, the sheer savage barbarity. Randomly slaughtering human beings, innocent civilians, women, children, families, butchering them like cattle. Reduced to desperate brutality by their lack of modern military technology or weaponry, Hamas undoubtedly considered its methods as well as its actions justifiable. Violent people almost always find ways to justify their violence. The same characteristic generally applies,in all honesty, with the inception, establishment, and existence of the nation of Israel. throughout its entire history, from the very beginning, to the present moment, the consistent thread is an unbroken litany of brutality, and barbaric, easily justified violence. On one of the many hundreds of television network channels available to the average cable or satellite customer who pays more than one hundred dollars per month for the privilege, there is a program called "The Young Turks". It should be recommmended for everyone, especially discerning, thoughtful, educated people, of both extant political persuasions; extreme progressive, and extreme conservative. On this "Young Turks" program, several young journalistic intellectuals, all very liberal seemingly, take turns holding forth for several minutes apiece on various topics, topics usually having to do with current world events. Most recently they were discussing, as one might have guessed, the war between Hamas and Israel. The essential point they all were making, supporting each other's claims with logic and evidence, was that the attack on Israel by Hamas was entirely unjustified, and unacceptable, but that this does not alter the basic fact that from the very moment of its inception and subsequent establishment, the Israeli nation was founded upon the misery and suffering of many other people, Palestinians namely, inevitably, all brought about by the implemetation of the Israli national existence. This suffering, from the very beginning, was the basis of Palestinian resentment of Israel as a country, and their hatred of its behavior, over time, behavior which remains in effect today. The resentment and hatred also, understandably, remain in effect. The Young Turks, evidently to substantiate and fortify their point, allowed a young very Jewish American citizen to likewise hold forth, in a rather old video recording, giving a clear historical explanation and perspective, unbiased. He mentioned the tremendous enthusiaism with which he and all oterh Jews regarded the possible establishment of a national Jewish homeland in the late nineteen forties, and how the actual event was met with pure joy, him included. It was only sometime afterward, when Israel has existed for a number of years, that he began to realize that Israel only came into existence through the misery and suffering of a good many people, and that without this suffering and unfair treatment, Israel would not have been conceivable, much less possible. His rendering of the actual historic facts, bolstered by this central theme, soon becomes irrefutable to most listeners. It is difficult to even imagine how anyone, American, Israeli, Jew, gentile, liberal, or conservative, could possibly listen to all this young man had to say, and not be convinced of the fundamental accuracy and truth of his message. His point is that the Palestinians began suffering at the hands of Israel in 1948, at the very beginning os Israel's existence, because of Israel's existence, and that the suffering has never been interrupted nor abated, and remains today as great, or even greater, than ever. Two point three million people, half of whom are children, crammed into an impoverished tiny piece of land, what is in essence an open aired prison, enforced apartheid, the prisoners leading desperate lives of poverty, deprivation, but with perfectly reasonable, but unfulfilled hopes and dreams for merely a reasonably decent standard of life. If only everybody in the world could listen to what this young man has to say.

Knowing the Truth

I HAVE OFTEN WONDERED how any organized religions there are in the world, and have consulted numerous sources to discern the answer. Finally, unsatisfied, I settled for Google and Wikipedia,which tells me that the number is roughly four thousand two hundred. Fair enough. IN other words, nobody knows. No matter how assiduously the number is counted, there will doubtless be later found some obscure but thriving religious tradition in some remote corner of the four cornered world. How many of them are populated by votaries who are willing to swer on their scripture that there's and only there's is the one true religion, available and applicable to all? The answer is; the same number as the number of organized religions on Earth. All this profound thinking on my part was undertaken with renewed vigor with the most recent war between Islamic Palestine and Judaic Israel. I first became aware of the palestinina-Israeli problem in 1967, when I was twelve,and I believe it was Egypt an Syria,among others, who attacked Israel and, as always, were soundly defeated, with massive military support from the imperialistic west. That was only twenty years after the establishment of Israel as a nation state. since then, little has changed. It has been suggested by economic historians that all wars are fought over mineral resources; namely, land. Arguably true, but it cannot escape notice that in many cases the warring parties are divided by religion. It has often been said that science is nothing other than another form of religion, that is is as dependant on faith as any religion on Earth. Although that assertion is highly questionable, there is at least an element of truth to it. Science is founded on the faith that the world, the universe is knowable, that humans have the capacity to understand and know the universe through observation and reason, and that whenever new knowledge is discovered, once it is verified repeatedly and independently, it remains, and ecome beyond question. I would suggest that the opposite is true; that religion is a form of science, a very primitive form, but a form nonetheless. Every religion offers an explanation concerning how the world was made, and how it functions, how nature functions. Every religion has a unique explanation for the existence of human beings and the universe,, but most of thee have certain similarities. Every religio postulates the existence of an omnipotent, omniscient, supreme, superior being, the creator of the cosmos. Science emerged from religion as an attempt to explain human existence, and the existence of nature itself. Accepting the notion that science is nothing other than another form of religion, so be it; science is the most informative religion yet invented. It does a much better job of explaining the universe than any other religion, primarily because it contains one feature lacking in all other religions; it is self correcting, self improving, willing to change itself when confronted with new evidence and knowledge. This thus stipulated, perhaps we should consider the possibility that humanity has, after centuries of striving, finally invented, or "discovered" the one true religion: science. Science, like most religions, was invented thousands of years ago, perhaps by the ancient Greeks, perhaps by the ancient Mesopotamians, perhaps in ancient India or Arabia, when people first looked at the stars and wondered what they are. With the passage of time, as humanity plunges intrepidly into the heart of the twenty first century, it seems to be the religion of science which offers the most verifiably accurate version of reality. As science advances and continues to improve itself, all other forms of religion, all forty two hundred of them, are being left, as it were, in the dust.

Making More Land

A QUICK GlANCE at a map of the middle east quickly reveals the obvious; that the nation of Israel is tiny, squeezed into a few hundred square miles along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean. And,as they say, they aren't making any more land, except for the Chinese, who seem to be making more on floating platforms in the south China sea for the purpose of building military bases offshore with which to dominate the Asian Pacific. But Israel is stuck with what she has now; no matter how much her population grows, her land mass, presumably, will not. Her only option would be to seize even more Palestinian land, and Palestine has precious little now.Then consider the fact that the modern Israeli state came into existnce in 1948, it is a wonder that anyone was able to find any place to locate it at all. People who resent its existence sometimes suggest that it would have been appropriate to locate it within the borders of its primary creators and benefactors, Great Britain or the United States. By 1948 all the good, usable land in the world had been long spoken for. The land upon which Israel sits is no prize; mainly desert, desert which has been, over the decades, magically transformed into a virtual paradise by Israelii genius, inrepid hard work, and foreign assistance, combined with modern agricultural methods. But Israel was established on land which already was spoken for, a new nation, conceived and established on somebody else'national sovereign territory. And that, as Shakespeare said, is the rub. Another interesting fact emerges by looking at a map of Israel and Palestine at ten year intervals, starting in 1948, and continuing to today. At the birth of Israel, Palestine was already left with less than half of its original territory, whih was smalll to begin with. Then, at every ten year interval, you notice that the amount lf land owned and occupied by israel has increased, and the percentage of the land owned, controlled, and occupied by Palestine has decreased. Israel, over the decades, has been expanding, and Palestine has been shrinking. And this is true of the interior of Israel, where msot of Palestine is squeezed into, not just the Gaza strip. Israel has grown, Palestine has shrunk, drastically. Everytime violence breaks out between the two enemies, Israel seizes more territory, and never, or rarely returns it. A current map of the two nations reveals that as crowded as Israel is, Palestine is much more so. Several million people are stuffed together in a small area, making Palestine among the highest population density regions of the world, without the agriculture or industry to sustain the population. Thus, it is a nation in perpetual poverty. When modern Israel was invented, the accomodations accorded Palestin ewere wholly inadequate. There was really nothing to do. There was no acceptable solution as to how to accomodate Palestine, no way to create more land for Palestine; so, nothing was done. To this day, nothing has ever been done to help Palestine, whch has kept losing more and more of their land. The current war, like all the others, will prove to be drastically one sided. As always, hundreds of Palestinians will die for every Israeli citizen. Such is the beneift of having access to western military technology and weapons, and the support of the United states and Europe. The United States and Europe are, in a sense, trapped into supporting Israel; they are, after all, responsible for its existence. I recall once hearing a young conservative Hasidic rabbi express his opinion that the modern state of Israel should not exist, because the Hebrew faith,Judaism, is not a nation state, nor a military super power, but that it is a religion, and only a religion. That is worth thinking about.