Ominously Mixing Politics and Religion

THE FIRST QUARTER of the twenty first century has been a rocky road, replete with ominous trends. Climate change is bearing full force down upon us, making itself felt, no longer deniably, its terrible portent for both the near and far future evincing terifying scenarios. All the ancient curses, war, famine, disease,far from being conquered by human progress and civilization, seem poised to assert themselves more impactfully than ever before. Culturally, there are patterns and trends emerging into our awareness which are no less foreboding. Perhaps the most troubling trend of all in American society, aside from a sickening tendency to ignore science, pandemics, climate change, and reality, and to replace them with fantasy, is the marriage between the far right wing politically conservative community and fundamentalist, evangelical Christianity, its forging into a mainstream socio-political force with the potential to take over and dominate American society. Actualized by the republican party, extreme religion and extreme politcs have joined forces in an aggressive, full bore attack on America, to utterly transform our liberal democray into a dark, repressive theocracy, intended to turn badk the clock of progress, and to retreat into a mythical past. Ironcially, perhaps surprisigly, two American cultural giants whom one might expect to fully support this circumstance actually opposed it with a vigor one might think more appropriate in a left wing secular liberal. They are Barry Goldwater, arguably the godfather of modern conservatism within the Republican party, and Billy Graham, the very role model of evangelical Christianity. For indeed, both these cultural giants, a paramount political leader and perhaps the greatest preacher of all time, strongly feared and opposed any marriage between right wing politics and the Christian evangelical faith. Both men, in fact, as early as the nineteen fifties and sixties, seem to have seen the marriage coming, long before its actual consumation in the late twentieth and early twenty first centuries. Goldwater seems to have feared the pollution of politics by religious fanatacism, and made statements to the effect that it would be a sad day in America if ever the political parties were taken over by "the preachers". Billy Graham was of the old school; politics and religion were seperate realms, with seperate aims, going in different directions, and the two should not be mixed. The reverend Graham, who alone of all the famous big time mass audience ministers of the American pahtheon was never even suspected of corruption of any sort, financial or other, feared that mixing religious devotion with politics would sully the purity of not only the message of Christ, but also, the hearts, minds, and souls of those who purport to love, follow, and worship Him. And, sure enough, both men were right on the mark. Both of their darkest forebodings came to pass, in the worst, most profound way. In retrospect, looking back on forty years of interbreeding, we can now plainly see that religion has polluted politics, and politics has polluted religion in America. Barry Goldwater was a super hard core right wing political ideologue. Billy Graham had a one track mind: Jesus Christ. You would never have expected either man to harbor an open minded, progressive approach to the mixing of politics and religion. But both men had the courage and character to put their own beliefs and interests in second place to the imortance of a free, healthy society, unconstrained by hard, inflexible stifling culture, We shoud all learn from their example, put aside our hyper partisan hateful politics, and come together for reasonable solutions to real problems. Whether we are capable of this remains to be determined..... Politcal ads and admonishments are routinely delivered from the pulput, all across America's fruited plain, to congregations segregated by race and political ideology, further fragmenting the one true faith. Relgious fanatics are seekig high political office, gaining it, and poisoning America with a theocratic agenda utterly adverse to the intent of the founders, and entirely harmful to our secular, democratic society. To an extent, they have already succeeded. They must be stopped, prevented from doing even further damage to America. Whether there is any remedy for this abhorrant situation is unknowable. If there isn't, we, and our society, are doomed to return to the dark ages, which in a sense, we and it already have.

Kamala, Landsliding

I SAID THIS to several people, and have decided to say it to everybody. I predict that Kamala is going to win in a landslide. Please remember where you heard it. If I am wrong, I have no hesitation about owning up to it. I won't be humiliated, shy about acknowledging my error in predicting. Obviously,I could be wrong. Evidently, the Trend was for Trump to beat Biden, which was partly why Biden was encouraged by everybody, his staff, advisors, Obama, the Clintons, to drop out. I had gotten the imppression that Biden could beat Trump, but that it would be close. Perhaps I was wrong. Thus I had mixed eotions about his leaving, but was and am mostly glad about it. For me, and perhaps for many Americans, Biden is now entering the rarified realm of true hero status, a great one term prisident who stopped the bleeding, put the fires out, and set the ship erect and back on course, then stepped graciously aside, voluntarily relenquishing power, a true rarity, and turning over the reigns of government to a new generation, kind of, as we the operators of the great American democratic experiment plough straight ahead, saving democracy, and opposing fascist tyranny, aka, Donald Trump and MAGA. The moment Harris replaced Biden, the momentum, which was not necessarily against Biden totally, changed, and began to favor Harris, which it still does, more than ever. Women are going to elect Kamala Harris. Arguably, it is inexplicable why any women would vote for Trump, and indeed a majority of them will not this November. And yet, the very thought that a decent percentage of American women still support Trump is nearly beyond mind boggling. The eighteen to thirty year old female demographic has, essentially, dropped out, gone to the sidelines in this election between two old men. Now, their interest newly aroused, they are returning to the voter ranks by registering, as statistics clearly indicate. More than a million newly registered young women, so far, with many more to come. A fired up new voting block for Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris has already come from being slightly behind in all the swing states, to being slightly ahead in all of them, and her lead will widen and solidify, as the days and weeks proceed towards election day. Meanwhile, Trump will keep stumping and spewing anger, hatred, and lies, with which the American people, at least to a degree, are growing tired. Calling Kamala Harris "a bum", arguably, was a mistake. Kamala has,and Trump continues to hand her, a considerable quantity of usable amuntion to fire back at him, and Kamals has shoen a willingnes ot fire away. Her rsponse to Trump's false acustaion that she is soft on the border she responded to by pointing out that she and the Biden administration and a rare bipartisan Congress had a solution reday to go, and that Trump destroyed it. That is a strong argument, and should silence Trump, sooner or later, on the topic. Democrats can look forward to direct intellectual combat between the two candidates, watching Harris repeatedly defeat Trump intellectually. Trump was and is reluctant and afraid to debate her for very good reason. He knows he cant hang with her, and probably understands that trying to bully her might backfire in many different ways. She might bow up, stand up to him, confront him and put him in his place, and, we the American people might not like it, might not appreciate him treating a women that way. That in itself could seal the election for her, which, I again assert, is already effectively sealed.

Trump, Back At It, Ranting

TRUMP is in full rant mode, unsurprisingly, as the election approaches. Its reasonable to assume that he will continue to turn up the heat,as Novemeber approaches. The MAGA rant fest rallies are happing more often now, same old people, same old song and dance. Trump's two main messages seem to be that Harris is an incompetant idtito, and that if entrusted with power will ruin the United States, utterly destroy it. Also, that she is a left wing radical extremest, who will destroy the United Staes with her radical left wing policies. All this, of course, is a complete lie, sheer nonsense, pathological material of Trump, getting worse, as his apparent mental illness does, partly through cognitive decline of senility, and partly the other aspects of his criminal insanty, such as pathological narcissism. Harris is not the extremist radical. Trump is. What Trump calls radical liberalism is actually sound, sane, intelligent policy, such as taxing the wealthy, fully funding social support system and infrastructure, gain control of and organize the border, fight climate change, strengthen our alliances overseas. Trump wants to dig up and burn all oil and coal under U.S. soil, which would make Aemrica richer, but would have the inconvenient and unfortunate side effect of destroying the environment, and bringing to extinction all life on Earth. Also, complete, unregulated corporate economic freedom. Strategies for national and global suicide. Trump would go along with a total end to gun control, no government regulation at all on guns, and a natiinnal ban on abortion, criminalizing reproductive choice. Again, a complete recipe for total disaster. We the American people want reasonable gun regulation, which means quite a lot of it. Also, a majority of the American people support women's reproductive rights, repropuctive freedom. We want equal rights and justice under law for all LGBTQ people, and pathways to citizenship for all undocumented aliens living on U.S. soil. America first, yells Trump, to hell with America's allies. No help for Ukraine. Blank check for more Russian aggression from Trump's master, Putin. And, according to this monstrosity of a roadmap for the future, "Project 2025", the federal bureaucracy underTrump would be disbanded, and a new government would be built all from Trump supporters, party members, sycophants, and so forth. The Deep State, dismantled, finally. And don't think for a moment that Turmp wouldn't be entirely amenable to the entire extreme fundamentalist conservative Christian agenda; Christian Nationalism, which means a complete merging, combining, of fare right political agenda,and fundamentalist, evangelical Christianity. Although Donald Trump is the farthest thing away from Christianity conceivable, he loves to play the Christian part, and would smilingly, like a great Godly benefactor, grant permission for the taking over of the country by the Christian right. Cristianity, the official, formal state religion of these United States of America. The great dream of the evengalical right. Terrifying. LGBTQ people, crimiinalized, arrrested,rounded up, convicted, executed. Mass apprehension, imprisonment in concentration camps, and deportation of all dark skinned immigrants. Covid 19, only a little flu. Trump claims to support state by state deciding their own laws about abortion, which means that it would be voted legal by the electorate, in all nifty fifty. The RNC will force Trump to backtrack on that one. The entire conservative Trump Republican agenda, platform, is harmful, horrible, and must be opposed and defeated. I predict that Harris will landslide Trump. But it wont happen automatically. Get up, get out, vote blue.

Keeping My Insects Safe, For Now

THE DOORBELL rang, and as usual it startled me, because its loud and because it doesn't ring very often. I answered it, after prying apart the mini blind slats to take a quick preview peek, which revealed nothing. I opened the door, and there stood a pleasant looking young man, about twenty. We stared at each other, like two animals, scoping each other out. On his youthful face was a faint trace of a smile, which I assumed was a reflection of my own. I was mildly annoyed, as I always am when a stranger rings the door bell, interrupting something. I expected him to speak first; he knew I was there, and had opened the door. I don't like formalities or amenities, such as "hello", especially when I am mildly annoyed. Still the silence. Finally, I said, "please say something". His smile broadened almost imperceptibly, and he said seomthing about being with a company, and then it dawned on me; he was an insect exterminator,wanting to sell me insect elimination, inside and out, home and yard. Several times previously they had come calling, always a young man riding one of those motorized side to side skateboards, which look like fun. I told him that I was aware of the service that he was offering, had been offered it before, and that, as always, thanks, but no thanks. I explained why. I had to explain why. I don't like the chemicals, the poison, which, if lethal to insects, is harmful to humans, cats, and other animals. Also, I have nothing against the bugs, inside my house, or particuarly in my yard, where they belong. Never content to leave well enough alone, on I pressed. Did you know that insects, I said to the young man now taken aback, world wide, are becoming extinct? That in Europe, insect population of all species have diminished by seventy five percent, and that it has declined by a similar amount in North America? Insects, like frogs, butterflies, bees, and numerous other species, are heading towards extinction. They, especially pollinators, are vital to our own existence. He said he had no idea, that he didn't do much social media, was just working a summer job while in college, had a new wife, and wanted to start a family. That triggered me. I sequed smoothly into climate change. With that, I can go on forever. Everything I told him, horrifying that it was and is, was and is true. He acted like he was hearing a synopsis of a science fiction thriller, which pertained to him not at all. I unloaded all my strange, terrifying but true ammunition. I remember wehn October was a cold weather month. Now it is a summer month, eighty five degress every day. Halloween used to be freesing, now it is hot. Within my lifetime, at my age, 69, there will come a summer when the temperature hits one hundred on June first, and is still one hundred on Labor Day. I talked about him and his forthcoming children. By the time he is my age, in another fifty years, the planet will be unbearable, unless drastic action is taken, now, and it is not being taken now. His own children, yet unborn, will never have a chance. One trillion tons of carbon in the atmosphere which wasn't there a hundred years ago. I pointed to all teh treees cluttering my yard, my small forest of a yard, and proudly proclaimed that I had planted them all, when I built the house, my meager gift against climate change. We agreed that when I die, the next owner will likely cut them all down, and make a normal suburban lawn. By now he was on board, into it. He got on his powered skateboard and prepared to leave. We had shared a connection, had become friends. We discussed college basketball and football briefly, with smiles and happy laughter. He left more warmly than he had arrived, my new young friend. I will never see him again, and will be dead before his future children are grownn. I hope he lives a long, happy life, on a planet not gone climate crazy, but I have no idea how. I hope his children are cute, healthy,and happy, but he will live until close to the beginning of the the next century, and they will live until the end of the next century, although I do not know how.

The Church Lady and I, Talking Climate Change

THE SKIN RASH appeared suddenly, on both forearms and both thighs, just above the knees. It wasn't spreading, but it looked angry, and it itched like hell. I scratched it, which of course only made it worse. I applied moisturing lotion, vasoline, and steroid cream, which made it better, but only temporarily. I first suspected poison ivey, then repeated perspiraing. I am an exercise junkie. Finally I dropped by to see my buddy at the pharmacy, showed it to him, and he stared at it, but didn't say much. I suggested that I keep driving, and drop in unannounced to see my doctor. He agreed. The receptionist at the doctor's office told me that doc was booked up, which I assumed he would be, but made me an appointment with his physician's assistant. Good enough. Pleased, I sat waiting in the waiting room, near a pleasnt looking older couple. A nurse summoned the gentleman, and as he stood up to follow, muttered to his wife; "I guess I'm more important than you". She looked at me, and informed me of plans to withhold his supper. I agreed, and we both laughed. Thus began a wonderful conversation. She was seventy eight, she said, and had four grown children, scattered around the country. We agreed that in her situation, cell phones and Facebook come in handy. I mentioned my ongoing experience with Sandra Bullock, told her the whoole story (see previous post on Sandra Bullock), which she seemed to find vaguely amusing. As always, the talk turned to the weather, and how hot it is. As always, I mentioned climate change. I can't seem to stop mentioning climate change during normal, pleasnt, innocuos conversations about the weather. This, because climate change to me is the most important thing to talk about, the most pressing concern for everybody, and, more so each year, it is obvious to me that the situation is dire, as I notice climate change more and more, in both my front and back yard. I espressed sincere concern for her grand children, and indeed her middle aged children. Again, quite sincere. I now believe that I'm going to live to see disastrous climate collapse. Then, amid all my apocolyptic discourse, she turned religious on me. This often happens too. Perhpas a respite and retreat from the horror I bring to the table. She said that God tells us all about the future in HIS Word. Oh boy, here comes Revelation again, which Thomas Jefferson accurately desribes as "the rantings of a lunatic". I jumped right in, as always,with my quote from Confucous, (only fool predicts the future). And Goethe (It is beyond me how anyone can believe that God speaks to us in books and stories...). The Bible, as ancient literature, but not the Word of God. And, as always, she wasn't having any of it.They, the religiously indoctrinated, never do. We parted company on cordial terms, I apologized, needlessly, if I semed "difficult",and told her, "God bless you". She seemd placated. But I am becoming increasingly alarmed,increasingly frustrated, when the religious devout turn discussions of climate change into discussions of biblical prophecy. Firstly, the two have nothing to do with each other. Secondly, and most importantly, I see them retreating from urgent scientific reality, into their comfort zone of dogmatic, superstitious, unreal religious fantasy. And that, I assert, is the worst possible pathway to take. We must all stand and look the monstrous reality of climate change straight in the eye, and figure out what to do, and take immediate action. Hiding behind the Bible simply aint gonna cut it. Far right wing evangelical Christianity, coupled with political conservatism is like pouring gas on wildfire, then hiding in the barn, beneath the hay stack. Like climate change itself, it will only consume us in flames, while we clutch our bibles to our beating breasts, and await entry into the mythical kingdom of heaven. The physician's assistant was a very nice young lady, attractive, who gave me prednizone for my skin rash, and I went home happy.

A Prevaricating Pair of Reprobates (Trump and Vance)

DONALD TRUMP AND J.D. VANCE, two prevaricating peas in a pea brained pod, are out on the campaign trail, doing what they do best, telling whoppers, hurling insults, and making a mockery out of the noble concepts of honesty and decency. Trump seems obsessed with Kamala Harris's ethnicty, unsurprisng, for a confimred lifeling racist bigot. His false claim of the day is that Kamala Harris has only recently begun to self identify as "African-American", and that, heretofore, she has consistently emphazied her Asian Indian ancestry,and ingonred her African heritage. Independent fact checkers, as well as the thousands of people who have known Harris for decades, are confirming that indeed she has self identified as African-American her entire life. Hermother cae to America from India, an he ftehr camefrom Jamaica, both to study at Berkely, to obtain advanced degrees. They met, married, and started a family.You can bank on the fact that Trump will simply ignore this, as he ignores all facts which inconvenience him or expose his pathological dishonesty and criminality. He will most likely stop spewing this particular piece of garbage, but will also never reference the fact that his reacist accusation was, as usual, dead wrong. The same goes for his supporters, who, when confronted with factual correcctions to their icon's constant lies, simply ingore the corrections, and continue to repeat the lies, or, if that stops having the desired effect,simply turn to other lies. And like a proverbial chip off the old block, a rotten apple not falling far from a poisonous tree, J.D.Vance made the pilgramage hegira trek to the Mexican-American border, as all politicians seem to feel they must.He went to the North American Mecca of sanctimonious recriminatons and photo ops, the land of lame proclamations of solutions to a problem nobody can possibly solve, and spouted his bevy of lies. The lies from Vance begin the moment he opens is hirsute mouth, as do those from his master. You have to come here to see for yourself, lied he, just how disastrous the policies of Kamala Harris have been on the border, spewed the garbage man who lies about his own life history. Of ourse he was referring to the well known fact that, as always, desperately out of work impoverished Latin Americans are lined up and waiting to enter these United States, either legally or illegally, whatever works,to scratch out a better life where, in many cases,there is none to be found. Kamala Harris, suddenly the one and only reason why there is a problem with swarms of people, millions of people, desperately trying to leave a poor ountry and start a new life in a wealthy one. A fact check tells us that the problem began with one of our greatest imperialist presidents, James K. Polk, and his trumpted up war of aggression against Mexico in 1846 to steal half of Mexico from Mexico. Thus began the problem, and thus has the problem remained, under every American president since. In point of fact checking Kamala Harris was appointed by Biden to engage with the governments of all relevant Latin American countries, to use diplomacy to help find ways to stem the tide of illegal immigration. She has nothing to do, and has never had anything to do with actually guarding or defending the border, or with helping to build the mythological great ineffective symbolic wall of Trump. In point of fact checking, since Biden took office and Harris aseumed her role, illegal immigration accross the border has decreased dramatically, probably by sheer coincidence. And, for a final fact check, there is no single individual upen whom the problem can be pinned, but rather, blame must be placed on millions of us, we who have either directly formulated disastrous economic and foreign policies, or have passively acceded to them, choosing to complain and blame others, while doing nothing to actually remedy the never ending crisis.

Vance, Transforming

SOPHIA NELSON is a public defender in Michagan, and transgender. She could undoubtedly pursue more lucrative areas of the legal profession, but feels a sense of community and public service which larger paychecks could never replace. She is also a former friend of Vice Presidential candidate J.D. Vance, Trump clone and Trump running mate. They met at Yale law school less than twenty years ago, which highlights their relative youth amid their incipient fame. At Yale they became part of a group of like minded students gathered together to jointly endure the rigors of law school in the Ivy League, and to share world views views and good times. The fact that Vance and Nelson both came form the American midwest, he from Ohio and she from Michigan, solidified their friendhsip around the classic Buckeye Wolverine sports rivalry. They graduated, went on with their respective careers, and then, over time, something changed. He changed, according to her. He married, settled down, and strted a family. She transitioned into a trans woman. That in itself is a striking indication of the divergent paths of these two formerly moderately conservative law scholars on a generally progressive minded Ivy League campus. The current controversy became a controversy when she recently made public a series of emails between the two which they exchanged only about a decade ago, in which Vance was seemingly the same moderate, reasonbale person she had grown to know and love. His dramatic change, into a hard line far right wing extremist with extreme points of view has, evidently, taken place quite recently indeed, an utter transformation, the remaking of a nascent politician for what appear to be purely political reasons. In the Ohio politics of the second decade of the twenty first century, it seems that a hard right, pro Trump political stance is a better entry into political success than any middle of the road moderation. His election fo the United States Senate a mere two years ago would seem to bear that reality out. Vance, from one extreme to another. Trump has not only captured the American conservative community, the Republican party, and conservative Ohio politics, Trump has also captured the heart, mind, and soul of Senator J. D. Vance, the born again political animal. In 2016 he was an out and out never Trumper, who used every derogatory epithet in the book to describe a man he obviously considered unfit for political office, or for much of anything else. Regpugnant, in moral terms, a chameleon, ready on a whim to transform himself into whatever will enhance his popularity, a political commodity for sale to the highest bidder, was Trump, in the world according to Vance. Sophia Nelson make no bones about the fact that the J.D. Vance she once knew was tolerant of everybody's point of view, easy to get along with, amenable to listening to folks from all points along the political spectrum. Courteous, understanding, moderate, solidly conservative. It seems that Trump is not the only shape shifting demagogue in the right wing room. The old Vance would never have attacked people for merely having the audacity to remain single, says she. There never would have been any flat out weird comments about unmarried, childless cat ladies having less value in the elecorate than normal, married, child bearing, parental people. And indeed his remarks of that nature, currently so much in the news, are indeed weird, and are inspiring an entire industry predicated on ridiculing them and him, as they amply deserve. The man cave mutual love fest shared by Vance and Trump is no less weird, no less toxic. About the newly released emails, which reveal so much, he has little choice in his response. He does not deny his change of heart. He was wrong about Trump. Getting married and starting a family motivated a change of heart, made him see things differently, even thouhgh, ss he recently reminded us, he did not marry a white woman. That sort of generic blather, intended only to soothe and ameliorate newly aroused shock among supporters and detractors alike, only serves to enhance Vance's emerging reputation for weirdness. But J.D. Vance has done more than merely "change". He has become, like Trump himself, postively, undeniably weird, unhinged. Nobody doubts that marriage and family transforms a young man, grows him up, fast. We've all seen it happen, and it is a heart warming process to behold. But it need not and seldom does, thank the lord, turn a marginally reasonable person into a ranting lunatic. As this campaign proceeds, we'll hear much more from the strident, out of key and control voice of Mr.Vance, and, more likely than not, his unhinged path will continue to parallel Trump, as they spew their verbal garbage about Kamala's mixed race and failure to have her own children for the American voter to take into full consideration on their way to the November ballot box.

Melting, And Drying Up

THE GREAT SALT LAKE in Utah is drying up. In less than a decade, it has been reduced to about half its original size. I heard this on a report on National Public Radio, which is among the most reliable sources of information in the entire media universe. NPR said that part of the problem is that too many people are sucking water out of the lake, for use. That confused me. It still confuses me. How can people suck water out of the saltiest body of water on the planet, for use in anything? Agriculture? No. Human consumption? No, not unless the water is going to be used for toliets and sewage, or for industry, or for salt water swimming pools. Certainly not for human consumption, unless it is first desalinated. Problem is, desalination is so inefficient and expensive that it isn't worth it, correct? Then, precisely what is it being used for? As I recall, NPR did not say. It just mentioned that human use was the main reason for the incredibly rapid incredibly extreme shrinkage of the lake. Another factor is of course the prolonged, seemingly endless drought which has plagued the western United States over the past couple of decades, causing most bodies of water to shrink, as climate change increases, and becomes more and more evident. Apparently, the newly exposed dry lake bed is a huge problem, and emits a huge amount of heat capturing gases into the atmosphere, perhaps methane and other gases, along with the usual carbon dioxide. The dried out, newly exposed lake bed is evidently a monstrous source of climate change causing emitted gases all by itself, rather akin to the exposed Siberian tundra as the ice melts and exposes the soggy, mossy peat below,full of evaporating methane gas. Wouldn't you know it...Speaking of melting ice and thawing tundra, somebody on Facebook reported that today, the temperature in the Arctic is fifty degrees above normal. Of course, consider the source: Facebook. On Facbook, all things are possible,and anyting which can possibly happen happens. So, it may be a fake post, false information. But it really does not matter. Everyone knows, because it has been so widely reported in the media by so many reliable sources which cooberate each other, that indeed the polar ice caps are warming up much faster than the rest of the planet, as climate change hits especially hard at both poles. The Arctic ice cap now vanishes entirely each summer, having done so for the first time ever several years ago. Even in the middle of winter it is far smaller than before, and shrinking, bringing apparent inevitable doom to polar bears. And at the south pole, Antarctica, which actually has a land mass,a contiment beneath the ice, huge icebergs are melting off and breaking away from the main ice mass, and floating up and out into the ocean, where they slowly shrink and melt, helping the world's sea level rise. All this is well known, well documented. I remember several years ago several people, among them my sister, said that there is no way to know whether climate change is real, because there are so many people saying so many different things about it. True enough. But one must consider the source. Climate change scientists are better sources of information about climate change than corporations or evangelical Christian ministers. Not all information sources are created equal. And also, it matters not who tells the truth, but rather, what the truth actully is. Ultimately, each person is responsible for using his or her own faculties of reason to discern between charlatans and experts. I can see climate change with my own eyes, therefore I believe in it. These facts should be sufficient to cause fear and misgivings in everyone. But, as they say, its the only game in town.

Trump, Showing Stable Genius

DONALD TRUMP described himself as a "stable genius", amid a flurry of suggestions that he was neither. Legend has it that he made this comment after passing a test which confirmed that he indeed did not, as of then, suffer from dementia. Things change. Another urban legend is that when Trump was a teenager, hs crusty but perceptive mother warned that her son was an idiot, and that she hoped he never chose politics as a career. Be carfeul what you wish for. More commonly held views on the former and perhaps future president seem to trend in the other direction, away from stable genius; that he is not, as the saying goes, the most brilliant light on the Christmas tree, or however the saying goes. Precisely how intelligent is our former and perhaps future leader? There is a lack of verifiable measurement. Trump has never acceded to publicly release any of his adademic records, including formal intelligence tests, perhaps wisely. Anecdotal evidence, our only remaining source of evidence, does not yield auspicious indications. Eyebrows were reaised when, in the midst of his first and perhaps only term as president, he weighed in on the sustainable energy debate by asserting that there exists the possiblity that windmills cause cancer. Regarding the increasing severity of all weather patterns, including storms, Trump, who does not believe in climate change, or that if the climate has changed it will change back, asked why hurricanes can't be dispersed by dropping a nuclear bomb on them. Science might not be his best subject. The Covid 19 epidemic caught his attention, belatedly. When he finally started showing executive leadership during the height of the crises, he reminded us that the great influenza epidemic of 1917 had ended World War II. Revisionist history, if ever there were. There would be no Covid epidemic of two thousand and twenty, he asserted, if only we would stop testing people for it. When that suggetion failed to gain traction, the then president offfered advice on treatments; bleach injected into human lungs, the oral administration of medicine normally used to deworm horses, or, in extrems cases, both. The Donald was not done gving health related advice. Exercise is harmful to one's health, he clearly articulated, because it drains away energy from the human body which could be put to better purposes, presumably, metabolizing. History and politics do not escape his attention. During a Fourth of July speech in 2019, the then president praised George Washington and his continental army for having captured every airport in the thirteen colonies. While welcoming the president of Italy to the White house, President Trump bragged that friendship between italy and the United States dates all the way back to the time of Julius Caesar. The Italian president shuffled her feet, and looked at her shoes. Geo politically, India and China do not share a common border, America's top representative mentioned to Indian President Modi. And why, Mr. Trump once asked, perhpas rhetorically, can we not simply refer to Great Britain and the United Kingdom as "England"? Well, sir, we can...Ever transactional, Trump demonstrated his geographic savvy by asking whether it might be possible to trade Puerto Rico for Greenland. A further implied benefit would be a decline in the dark pigmentation of the average member of an American protectorate. The trading deadline passed, no deal was struck, America remained imperialistically a darker shade of brown. The same effect was achieved by Trump's assertion that famed abolitionist Frederick Douglas is still very much alive. Donald Trump was witnessed staring at the sun during a solar eclipse. Either he stared at it too long, or not long enough.

Proving Myself To Sandra Bullock

WHETHER IT WAS SANDRA BULLOCK I may never know, but it was most adamant in its claim that (he, she, it) was and is. Another friend request,(Annette Sandra Bullock), another automatic acceptance by me, and off to to Hollywood I went, in Facebook messenger. I say "yes" to all requests, because, after all, promoting this website is my reason for using Facebook, that, and opposing Trump and conservatism, and declining friend requests is counter productive to that end. So I said yes to Sandra Bullock. We had typed a few words to each other, and I still had not made the connection, to Hollywood movie star fame. I, once again, oblivious to blatant mainstream American culture. Go figure, as we say. She awakened my memory when she said: "How long have you been a fan of mine"? (those were her exact words). Dumbly, I asked: "You have fans?" Suddenly aware, I typed in the emotocon for shock, the one with the gaping mouth. Then I typed: "good heavens!". "I can understand how you feel", she, he or it typed, quite aware of her own fame. I typed: "logic tells me that it is at least possible that an imposter could claim to be Sandra Bullock". At that point she showed me her driver's license, which appeared to be in order. California, birthday July 27, 1964. The picture was a bad driver's license kind of Sandra Bullock. Fancy sounding Beverly Hills address. If it was a forgery, it was a very good one, one about which Sandra Bullock should be aware of and concerned. The problem, the argument began when she reciprocated by insisting that she needed to know to whom she was speaking, and demanded that I show her my identiy. There is no picture of me on my Facebook profile, but only on the user profile of this website, which often gets me into arguments. People often get angry at being told to log on to this website, for a picture they feel should be sent to them in messenger, like everyboy else does. Again, go figure. Also, unusually computer unsavvy, I have no idea how to show a copy of my driver's license in Facebook messenger, and told Sandra Bullock so. She was no less angry than any other un-famous everyday jane or john doe.. She finally did indeed visit this website, and sent me acopy of my pciture to me, which I recognized, and congratulated her on doing. I was duly flattered. Still, She wasn't convinced. Anybody can use a website in the act of being an imposter. I went nuts. "Why would a nobody pretend to be another nobody? Why would Bob Bond in Arkansas pretend to be Bob Bond in Arkansas? I am Bob Bond in Arkansas pretending to be Bob Bond in Arkansas?" I pleaded and cried. Still, no dice, although I sensed that Sandra, doubtless draped in a lavish clingy see through negligee sipping mint julips on her balcony in her Beverly Hills mansion, was starting to see the sense in what I was saying, starting to accept me as a nobody retired teacher in remote Arkansas. I told her I loved her face, and had probably seen several of her movies, but wasn't sure. She probably laughed at this. I invited her to visit Arkansas, offering to escort her to the local community theatre. I made a joke about walking in with Sandra Bullock on my arm, which I thought she would think funny, but she didn't show it. Great acting, maybe. The last thing she said was that she was going to block me, for having the audacity to suggest that she might be wasting her time talking to me, but she didn't. After she was gone I typed in another message, reminding her how much I love her face, apologizing for being inadequate, and expressing the hope that we will talk again. I hope we do.

Trump Attacking, Attacking Trump

DONALD TRUMP is on the attack, as expected. With each passing day, as the election approaches and he becomes more desperate as he falls behind Kamala Harris in the polls and his poltical career and fame approach their end, he can be expected to attack with greater and greater vigor and rancor. Still more than three months until the election, and in front of God and country, Trump called Kmala Harris "a bum". She may be many things, not all good, but a "bum" she is most certainly not. More properly, she was, according to Trump, a bum until three weeks ago. A former bum. Precisely how she managed to transform herself into something more than a mere bum, only a mind as deranged as that of Trump could possibly discern. This particular insult seems, to any decent person, gratuitous, absurd, and innapropriate. So goes Trump. One can only wonder how much lower he will descend in his future insults. We shall soon see. Other recent insulting lies issued by Trump are that she is an extremist radical liberal who will destroy the United states, as if that were within the capabilites of a single person. The thought comes to mind that Kamala Harris is qite well equipped to respond effectively to whatever lies and insults Trump chooses to hurl at her. Indeed, Trump is not only the exact sort of person Harris is accustomed to dealing with effetively in terms of articulating facts and accusations against, but also, the exact type of person she is well experienced in causing to be incarcerated, by using provable facts, in front of a judge and jury. She said it herelf; she knows Donald Trump's type. And this is preciesely the point. Haris must fight back, must attack Trump. The good news is that she has ample opportunity to do this. In fact,nothing could possibly be easier. She need only artiulate facts to effectively attack Trump, and needn't resort to lies or insults. Facts will suffice, as no gratuitous lie or insult ever could. This is exactly the technique I advise all who oppose and despise Trump to employ; merely articulate facts. When I see people talking about Trump's hair, or weight, or manner of dress, I cringe. This is gratuitous, trivial, insignificant. Here ar the seminal facts about Trump which, when simply enumerated, present such an honest but harmful and damaging portrayal of Trump that anyone who supports him or is considering supporting him must take pause, and reconsider. Trump was elected president with the assistance of a massive disinformation campaign on the internet by Russian operatives, whose help he happily accepted. An extenive investigation by a former FBI Chief clearly proved this, and the Russian operatives themslves confirmed it, and promised to do the same again. Donald Trump, while president, attempted to blackmail the presidnt of Ukraine, for harmful information against Joe Biden, a crime for which he was impeached. He tried to violently overthrow the American government, after falsely claiming that he had won an election that he in fact lost. He stole, concealed, and refused to return thousands of classifed documents from the American government. He tampered with the same election which he tried to subvert and steal, by trying to bully the Georgia Attorney General into fabricating votes for him. And these facts are only the "tip of the iccberg" of the long list of crimes commmitted by Trump. Donald Trump should have been tried, convicted, and incarcerated long ago, and arguably, should be facing the death penalty. He has already been convicted of thirty four felonies, and more than one civil charge of sexual misabehavior. These are facts, not opinions, lies, or insults. They may or may not be sufficient to defeat Trump in the forthcoming presidential election. It is amazing, considering all this, that he is even being allowed to run for president. That says more, much more, about the society which already elected him once, than any set of facts could ever say about him.

Going To Church, Still: Part II (Draining)

AFTER CHURCH TODAY, I felt different, better, than before. Before, I sat in the pre church visitation room, a spartan place with an old fridge, oven, window Air Co unit, and a few tables and chairs. I, sleepy, from not having had enough. Had a donut and some pleasant conversation with the minister and about five friends, half the congregation. Pleasant enough, but nothing special. All the small accumulated burdens very much with me. The misunderstandings and minor resentments of relationships and friendships. Emotioanal baggage from the past week and from sixty nine years of life on Earth. Self inflicted in the form of prick wounds, gathered together in festering emotionl rot. Well, and then, after the service, it was all gone, as if it had never been. All of it. My realization of that amazed me, and as I left my pew to shake hands with my minister friend I told him that whereas John was my least favorite gospel, that he had presented the loquacious ramblinig unknown writer, who gives Jesus a totally different personality, a special sort of sanity and relevance. Anyone who makes John sane and relevant has my vote of confidence. That's when I first noticed it: the absence of emotional filth within me. Where had it gone? Preferring not to look too closely at a gift horse,I settled for the explanation that I had simply allowed it to melt and wash away. For, verily, it had. And it had nothing to do with the Christian religion,or the content of the sermon, which was, as usual, simple and predictable. We are all imperfect. We can do better. We are forgiven, by God, who loves us. We need only forgive ourselves, and renew our pledge to get up, get out, and get better. To expect nothing, blame nobody, and do something The same beautiful sermon, delivered by my friend, each Sunday. So maybe it was the sermon. Maybe it was a subtle but profound impact on me that I am not even aware of. I do not know. But I do know, that I have been through a time of changes, and that, changed, I am renewed in my quest to ascend to the top of the mountain,and to look down from above, and say: I have progressed, I have learned, I have grown. "Mind foreruns all conditions. Mind is chief. Mind made are they. If one speaks or acts with wicked mind, because of this, evil follows one, even as the wheel follows the hoof of the draft ox. He beat me, he abused me, he defeated me, he robbed me. The hatred of those who harbor such thoughts is never appeased. Mind foreruns all conditions. Mind is chief. Of mind are they made. If one speaks or acts with pure mind, because of this, happiness follows one, even as the shadow which never leaves. He beat me, he abused me, he defeated me, he robbed me. The hatred of those who do not harbor such thoughts is always appeased. And this is a law eternal". (The Dhammapada)... I will live another week of my life, and the hatred, the wickedness, the pettiness, the anger and pin prick resentments and the impurity of mind will return, gradually, like a stealthy shadow. By next Sunday, it will have once again accumulated, come back to burden me, my self inflicted burden. But for now I am pure, clean, happy, and content. We'll see what happens next Sunday. In his seminal science fiction novel,"A Time of Changes", Robert Silverberg's central cnaracter, Kinnall Darival, lives on a planet in which self abnegation is mandatory. The worst criminal offense is to use the pronoun "I". One is required by law to ignore one's own existence. To drain away the inevitable anxiety which accumulates from this unnatural cultural convention, a religious psychology is in place in which people, when their frustration reaches unbearable levels, as it inevitably does, go to a "drainer", a sort of confessor priest, and rids the self of all the built up emotional baggage. Finally, Darival starts a cultural revolution, which overthrows this insane, absurd culture and allows the self to emerge, fully in view. Perhaps that is what church and my minister are to me: drainers.

Going To Church, Still: Part I

I AWAKENED EARlY, and arose, never having slept well. I am part of the problem, the national epidemic of sleeplessness. There are befefits to that, but fewer benefits than detriments. Today I will attend church for what according to my calculations is at least the sixth consecutive week, a personal record by far. Never before have I attended two weeks in a row. I may continue the streak for awhile, because I am truly enjoying the experience. I think I could go to church at any Christian church in the world for a million weeks in a row and still despise the Christian religion, but still enjoy church, especially if I sang in the choir. Much, of course, would depend on the minister, and the nature of his or her sermons. My liberalism causes me to abhore fundamentalist hell fire versus salvation inerrant blblical literalist theology. Give me a liberal, new agey orientation, and I'm good to go. Love and peace. Imagine. Part of the reason I have been going is to get myself out in the community and to particpate in it. In that context I am tempted to try a bigger church, with a congregation of more than twelve. By attending a little way out in the country church I am, to an extant, defeating my own purpose. A mega church with hundreds or thousands of congregants would be tempting, would afford me a chance to meet women, which is tempting but not a priority. Never in my life have I been a regular church goer, and never in my life have I been fully committed to tracking down a woman and marrying her. I can appreciate the finer things in life from a distance, vicariously. I think i might be happy to become ensconced within any of the world's more than four thousd religions and their rituals and ceremonies, but again, as an outsider, as a perpetual visitor, not as a member. I don't like religion, and will never be religious, nor a devout votary of any religion, large or small. Any religion I might choose would have to include teaching, learning, lecturing, sermonizing. The ritual and ceremony I tolerate, but do not accept. I took communion for the first time a few weeks ago, and will probably accede to it again, not because I think it anything other than barbaric, symbolic cannibalism, but becasue it is, in a tangible sense, harmless, and, at my current church, it came to me, I did not have to go to it, kneel, genuflect, and have it shoved into my mouth. More than four thousand organized religions in the world, fifteen hundred in the United States, half christian sects, half other. And still, most religious people of the world, certainly the most devout ones, insist that theirs and only theirs is the one true faith. The idiocy of this nonsense is palpable, laughable. I depise people who think that way. Any religion, all religion, is simply the invention of the human mind, of primitve culture, an anachronism in today's world where science gives us the closest thing to truth. And just so you'll know, there is no anthropomorphic God up in the sky, looking down on us, anwwering prayers.And the Bible was written by people and only people, no more divinely inspired than Waldon Pond or Catcher in the Rye. I thank my pantheistic God that that primitive nonsense is not the reason I go to church, and never will be.

D.E.I. Hiring

DIVERSITY, EQUALITY, INCLUSION. D.E.I.. These are three good things, worth striving for, are they not? Acceptance of human differences of all kinds. Equal justice, opportunity, legal and social status. Accepting, including everybody, as much as possible.These are all desirable, within reasonable limits. Criminals, until redeemed, are not entitled to them. Equality and inclusion imply their own sort of uniformity, uniformity of treatment. Diversity too. These are ideals, aspirations, relative to circumstances, not immutably set in stone. Calling Kamala Haris a "D.E.I. hire" is an intended insult to her, and to the culture which expouses those values. As if her hiring as a presidential candidate is predicated only on those three principles, and not her personal qualifications and credentials. Did Obama become president because of, or in spite of his being half African-American? Probably both. The same would probably be true for Kamala Harris. Presidential candiate, and, if elected, president partly because of, and partly in spite of being a mixed race woman. Conservatives might assert that D.E.I is a needless, aritficial aspiration, because it limits people's choices and opposes discrimination by creating more discrimination, like affirmative action. But without mandated, artifically imposed D.E.I., society will naturally tend to discourage all three. Society naturally encourages cultural uniformity,conformity, creates inequality of status, and excludes people for various unfair reasons. Hiring Kamala Harris to be a presidential candidate can be seen as an insult to her and both a compliment and an insult to society, a socity seeking to mandate D.E.I., as if her credentials and qualificaitions are not a factor, which they most certainly are. This, depending on whether one beleives that society should support and encourage D.E.I..It is a definite insult to Kamala Harris, as intended. She is qualified, regardless of ethnicity and gender,and she knows it. The notion that her hiring was only the result of society's desire to encourage and support D.E.I. is doubtless an insult to her. The best strategy for the Democrats would be to constantly emphasize her personal qualifications and credentials, and that her hire, though based on both these and on D.E.I., was much more based on her professional accomplishments. There is no need for Democrats to deny that D.E.I. played a part, just as it played a part in hiring Obama. He too was eminently personally qualified, regardless of his race, by virtue of his intelligence, education, and professional experience, as is Harris. What should the Republicans do? They should probably adandon the whole "D.E.I. hire" insult strategy, but they likely won't, at least entirely. They are forced by their own assertion to argue that only D.E.I. considerations resulted in her hiring, and that her personal qualifications have nothing to do with it. Since the Democrats readily accede to the notion that D.E.I. was a factor, because D.E.I. is a good thing, the "D.E.I. hire" insult loses effectiveness, becomes less of an insult. Of course D.E.I. was a factor, an indication of positive societal evolution. That is a source of pride, not shame. At this point, the Republicans are forced to argue that Harris's credentials and qualifications had little or nothing to do with her hiring. That argument they will find very difficult to support with evidence.

Trump, Not Being Nice

IMMEDIATELY AFTER HAVNG HIS RIGHT EAR PIERCED,(guys usually do the left ear) Donald J Trump decided that it was time to unite America, to heal the huge chasm of our national great divide with a gigantic square national piece of verbal white gauze. That lasted about two sentences into his hastily rewritten screed to the ReTrumplican National Gangvention. He wants to be fuhrer for all of America, not half of America. Not a bad line, altogether, for half an ear and half a brain. Trump the Nice lasted no longer than it required to spew it. During his last pep rally with the gauze on, (or was it the first without it on?), the kid glove gauze came off, and he told the assembled snarling MAGA gangsters that he could not afford to be nice, and was going to stop being so, not that he ever truly started. Duly notified, the mob roared its approval, predictably. These are not nice people. No sooner said than done, in perfect timing with the advent of Kamala Harris, Trump reverted to form, his only true from, that of incoherent inchoate attack dog, lies, filth, attacks, and insults in full cascade. This, although he had no idea precisely whom to attack. Republican leadership had made it plain that slinging gender and race based insults at Kamala Harris would take them nowhere. They don't have Joe Biden to kick around anymore. Five'll get you ten that Don the Con won't be able to resist slinging the "N word". He's done it all his long demented life, as a confirmed racist. On to a Christian fascist (an elite class which denigrates outsiders as "enemies") congregation in Florida, goes Trump, the Christ of conservative American evangelicalism. He tells then that "Kamala Harris was a bum three weeks ago, A bum". The good Christian crowd of saved fascists does not seem to disapprove. "She does not like Jewish people" bleats the prevaricating criminal. Again, no disapproval from the racist evangelical mob. Not mentioned is that the Vice President and future president has been married to a Jewish man for ten years. They must vote this time, for him, he yells, and it will be the last time they ever need to vote for their fellow Christian. Dictators needn't run for reelction, you see. He will have fixed everything. What he has "fixed" thus far is the Supreme Court, fixed it good by packing it with corrupt far right wing pseudo justices, fixig it in perfet criminal corruption, it now being the perfect antithesis of the constutution it so sanctimoniously, falsely claims to read exactly as its authors did. Thus, the president is now above the law, a king, immune to prosecution. Because of a corrupt young federal judge who looks like a cheerleader coach appointed by Trump for her corruption, it is now illegal for a special prosecuter to charge a president with a crime when the president steals, hoards, conceals from, and refuses to return thousands of highly classified doecuments to the government. Trump has committed crimes for which the death penalty is appropriate, but will now, quite possibly, never be held accountable for them. Trump has almost single handedly orchestrated a situation in which not only is he likely to be elected president after having attemptd to overthrow the govenrment, but can become president with full immunity from prosecution for his past crimes, and his future crimes. One can scarcely imagine what future crimes he will commit if and when he is indeed elected. The incredible damage he has done to this country and to democracy he has done with the full approval and support of nearly half the American people. Assuming we soon live under tyray, we can take cold comfort in knowng that, like Hitler's tyranny, it, Trump's tyranny, was a tyranny of the minority.