Jesus, Ruling the Universe

Editor's Note: All essays published in The Truthless Reconciler are rough drafts, and are published as they are written, one sentence at at a time, in their raw form, wthout revision or editing. The reader can literally watch them being written, and can view them at all stages of their composition. At times we omit proof reading, to ensure and maintain their complete originality.... I CAN"T RECALL the context of the Facebook post, but it struck me, as I'm sure it did many people, as rather fantastic, not in a flattering way. Facebook is alluring in that over time you can structure what they give you by merely expressing your preferences; they aim to please,and to manipulate, and exploit, and maybe a few other unsavory things. Rumors abound. I just try to stay above the fray, and stick to bashing conservatives, trying to bring down Trump, and promoting this website. Oh, and maybe a girl chase here and there, just for fun...but, I digress. I like to look at cats, big and small, scenic beauty,and astrophotography, and Facebook knows it. So, we're both happy. It must have been one of those gorgeous, awe inspiring astrophotographs, of the sort we see so many of, thanks to the Hubble and Webb telescopes. I gave up my favorite hobby of my youth, astronomy, partly because, even as early as the nineteen seventies, the big telescopes were putting me to shame, and making it easy for me just to grab a book, and admire from the comfort of my couch, instead of spending frigid winter nights and sweltering mosquito infested summer nights out under the stars, searching, straining my eyes, losing sleep. Now, I just grab a computer. These pictures all can inspire a sense of almost religious reverence, for creation, by whomever. So it was hardly surprising when a deeply religions person chimed in, a person who could with justification be called a "religious fanatic". What he typed in, obviously inspired but seemingly unprovoked, was: "Humanity's ultimate, unbelievable destiny is to rule the universe, not by man's (or woman's?) will, but by God's,through Jesus Christ. Anyone can reach the end of the universe who loves Christ." Full stop. Then he, made reference to somethng called "The Seven Missions of Jesus", as if it were a book, which perhaps it is. I had always thought the expression was simply a matter of theology, but maybe its a book now too.. As they say: "what do I know?". Very little, it would seem, compared to whomever wote this especially "intriguing" Facebook comment. If nothing else,he got one thing right:the part about "unbelievable". What he was trying to do was to find a way to reconcile (I love that word) his religion, with our actual modern, new and improved knowledge of the universe, the real one, not the one depicted in that quaint and curious collection of ancient manuscripts the Christians put so much undeserving stock in. The one which alternately describes stars as little glass trinkets hanging from the dome of heaven, which, at the end of days, will fall and smash to pieces on the flat Earth, as such glass trinkets are prone to do, and/or pin prick puncture holes in aforementioned heavenly dome, through which the glaring blazing light of heaven blindingly shines. That one. One would have to wear some serious sunglaees in heaven, it seems. The larger the real universe becomes, the smaller the Christian one becomes. Christians of the devout kind are and have forever been twisting their minds and theologies into veritable pretzels,using pretzel logic, as Steely Dan might say, to reconcile (again, that lovely word) their biblical but outdated version of reality with reality. Bless their dogmatic hearts. Knock themsevles out,as we say in boxing circles and acedemia. Why they don't just give up the epistomologically hopeless ghost and update their religion to suit modern reality - well, we all know why. They can't. They just can't. We cling to our illusions tenaciously, all of us. And, as Goethe said, we should let all of us do precisely that, stumble along in a perpetual voyage of discovery by trial and error, as we tend, at an early age, to do with children. And so, to our Christian brethren and sistern, Jesus Christ of Nazerath either goes from planet to planet, all across the universe, sacrificing himself over and over again for the sins of billions of species of extraterrestrial beings (one would get tired of that, one would think), doesn't give a hang for any intelligent species other than yours truly, very flattering to us but seemingly very unlikely. Or,most frightening of all, came to Earth only because only Earth harbors intelligent life. With Homosapines destined, htrough christ, to rule over the entire universe, we can safely wager which of these alternatives the writer of the Facebook embreaces. Butone quick question> If we the human species is inded all that the universe has to offer,heaven help teh unverse,why then, what need is their for us to reach out into it, and ultimately, unbelievably onquer it,in the name of Jesus Christ or anyone else? Don't w, in effect already onw and control it, sans resistence. Or rather, doesn't Jesus already own and control it? If not we through him,who else/

Changing the Climate, Despite Denials

CLIMATE SCIENCE, like meteorology, is rather complicated, which is why weather forecasting has always been and remains inexact,or, as some would say, unreliable. During my lifetime, however, the local weathermen and women have vastly improved their predictive capabilities, thanks to advances in science, including commputer modeling and satellite launching. The most recent studies,just released,indicate that the warming of the atmosphere is proceeding at a rate much higher than scientists previously believed, particularly in the polar regions, alarmingly. The scientific complexities of climate science might have something to do with why conservatives often reject it, why they reject science generally in preference to blind religious faith. Also, of course, since the stark reality of climate change necessitates great change in human politics and economics to eliminate it, conservatives, by nature opposed to change, clinging to comfortable tradition, are quite naturally resistant to accepting this reality. Science adances. We learn more. One of hte remaining, lingering questions about the impact of climate change has only recently been answered. Does the frequency, intensity, size, and severity of hurricanes and tropical storms increase because of it? The answer is "yes, they do". Because of climate change, what would otherwise have been a "Category One" hurricane in the absence of climate change is now a "Category Two". And a hurricane season which would normally have featured five named hurricanes now features six. The increase in the number of hurricanes has not been verified as conclusively as the increase in their severity. However, it has been established, to the satisfaction of climate scientists, if not evangelical Christian conservatives. NASA scientist James Hanson delivered the first formal, dire warning about human caused climate change to Congress in 1988. Einstein and others were aware of it before World War Two. Einstein even thought it might be a good idea,to increase agricultural output. Some scientists had figured out by 1900 that all the coal dust lingering above European cities in the late nineteenth century would ultimately, inevitably trap heat and cause global warming. European cities were generally inundated in, bathed in smog througout the nineteenth century. In a four day period in London in 1852, several thousand Londoners dropped dead on the streets as a massive cloud of coal smoke lingered over the city, and near total darkness was unbroken by sunlight. Although we can't say that we weren't warned and didn't know, many still do. One of the most prevelant and fatuous conservative claims in denial of climate change is that we used to say that carbon dioxide was the culprit; now we say that carbon is. We used to call it "global warming". Now we call it "climate change". It seems that these minor changes in terminoogy, intended only to offer clarity and greater simplicity to the ignorant deniers, are proof of a conspriacy among scientists, the liberal media, and perhaps the Russians and Chinese to create an artificial crisis, a "hoax", as a pretext for government control of every aspect of our otherwise ideal fossil fuel burning lives. The sheer idiocy of these "objections" is apparent, but typical of conservative thinking. Perhaps the most fatuous of all religious conservative denials of our impending doom is the one which says that since the Lord is going to return to Earth soon, climate change doesn't really matter, and is a "non issue". Most alarming of all is that, as the recent election establishes, these alarming benighted people are soon coming to power in the United States, which will undoubtedly bring to a halt, at least for four crucial years, all American particpation in efforts to solve clear and present danger, the current and encroaching climate crisis. As an ancient Greek philosopher said: "Against stupidity, the gods themselves contend in vain. Yesterday I moticed that iris shoots have sprung up above ground in my yard, in December. Go figure.

Being A Traitor, To Trump

I AM A TRAITOR to the United States in the same way that those who opposed Hitler in Germany were traitors to Germany. WE the American people got a good dose of Trump before, then a pleasant respite, and now we prepare to endure him, in all his reprehensible immoral criminality, yet again. When he left office the first time, amid a cloud of insurrection and impeachment, the thought that he would ever be backin power was unthinkable. At that time he seemed to be on his way to multi criminal convictions and probably incarceration, but, like some devilish Houdini, he worked the system, using delay and legal distratction tactics, to run out the clock, while his cult following remained loyal and entranced, perhaps by the sheer power of his spectacular evil, a reflection of their own. The Republican party became his cult, in the public,as well as in all three branches of government. Trump and Congress stacked the Supreme Court with their own kind, and they dutifully rewarded him by declaring him above the law. The American sytem of justice was thus, as it has been many times before, exposed as a sham, a system of the the rich and powerful, by the rich and powerful, made for them, built by them. In retrospect, it now seems likely that even had he not been reelected president, that he would have eluded justice. Just as the poor and the dark skinned are given less justice in the supposed land of the free, and always have been, so the rich, famous, and powerful accorded more. It eventuated that opposing Hitler was the patriotic course of action in Germany, not the treasonous traitorous. So it already seems regarding Trump,a failed insurrectionist traitor who, in Hitlerian, phoenix like fashion, has risen from apparent political death to political power. Just as the United States has always eschewed equal justice under law, making a mockery of it while proclaiming fidelity to it by engraving it on the Supreme Court buiding, so has it always brought shame upon iself, by founding itself in genocide and slave labor. As Thomas Jefferson said: "I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, and that his justice cannot sleep forever". We who oppose Trump opppose him and his MAGA cult in almost exactly the same way that the Germans who opposed Hitler and his NAZI party gang members resisted fascism. Now it is our turn to fight against encroaching fascism. There is one one major difference: in the United States, opposition to power and dissent are still recogized as legitimate forms of expression. In NAZI Germany they were criminal acts. Powerful men have tried to criminalize dissent and opposition to power in the United States before. John Adams made it illegal to critizice him while president, and Thomas Jefferson reversed this infamous un-american "Alien and Sedition Act". Abraham Lincoln became a tyrant, perhaps by perceived necessity, when he suspended the habeas corpus law, so foundational to a system of justice base on law. And then, of course, there was the notorious F.D. Roosevelt locking up of more than a hundred thosuand American ciizens, for the "crime" of being of Japanese descent. Just as it was in NAZI Germany, it is Trump who is the traitor, and his opponents who are the patriots. This will become evident to all soon enough, if it isn't already. We can expect Trump to follow in the footsteps of John Adams and Abraham Lincoln in attempting to silence dissent and punish his opponents. It is up to his opponents to stand firm against this forthcoming onslaught against their liberty, to prevail in their sacred mission to destroy Trump and his malignant MAGA minions,and, if it is the will of God, to preserve what freedom, liberty, and equal justice under law still exist or have ever existed in these United States.

Trump, Destroying the American Government

DONALD TRUMP is evidently determined to destroy the federal government, to which he has always been opposed. Like some teenaged internet junkie on crystal meth, he refers to some imaginary organization he and the other right wing extremists call "the deep state", by which he means nothing than the roughly two million federal bureaucratic employees who work diligently daily to provide the numerous services we the American people demand and expect. They make lower middle class money, and they go home to patriotic families, and for the most part they not only do not conspire to do anything to Trump, the don't even know each other. They are all improtant; their jobs exist for a reason, as stated above. Eliminate even a few thousand of them and the wheels of government turn more slowly and inefficiently; fire a significant portion fo them, the wheels come grinding to a halt, elimate all of them, and we the American people and our government are reduced to anarchy. Replace them with Trump loyalists, and the incompetance of the Trump lackies and lack of experience will have much the same effect. If Trump and his Republican sycophantic Congressional servants dare do this, and what they actually dare to do is considerably less than they arrogantly boast, thankfully, so many millions of Americans will suffer so severely that the blessed downfall of Trump is inevitable. So, for the good of America, maybe it needs to happen. Trump is systematically nominating for positions of power and responsibility people dedicated to the destruction of the agencies and departments for which they, if the Republican Congress approves their nominations as it appears it will, will be responsible. Trump's nominee for the Environmental Protection Agency head insists that there is nothing wrong with the environment, and intends to render impotent the all important E.P.A., and the environmental protections which have been so effective in cleaning up the environment and preventing further damage. His nominee for U.S. Attorney General is a person dedicated to using the Department of Justice not to represent the best interests of the United States, but rather, to attack and destroy the perceived enemies of Trump; in other words, people who have partiicpated in bringing the criminal president elect to justice. Trump's nominee for FBI director is dedicated to the desruction and elimination of the FBI, almost as if he seeks to work himself out of a job. Fully aware of this, what are the current thousands of FBI agents and employees thinking? Were I one of them, I would be thinking that at this point, its either Trump, or me, Trump, or my job, Trump or the law enforcement agency to which I have committed my life and energies. Much as Trump hates the FBI on a personal level, surely there are many within the vaunted Bureau who reciprocate. The greatest threat to American national security, according to the Department of Defense, human made climate change, will be ignored by the Trump administration, which will do nothing to mitigate, reverse, and eliminate it,but will actually foster it by reverting to a policy of encouraging and subsidizing the production and utilization of fossil fuels, oil and coal included. The incoming Trump adminstration is nothing less than a gang of fascist traitors to the United States, just as Trump himself is demonstrably a criminal traitor. The fact that Trump currently enjoys the support of nearly half of the American people changes nothing, it only makes our duty as patriotic Americans more burdensome, which is to remove from office and estroy Trump and his fascist MAGA movement, since Trump, like his role model Hitler, will enjoy some measure of popular support no matter how bad the situation becomes. And, do not doubt that it will become bad, much worse, before it becomes better.

Singing "Holly Holy"

I LOVE SINGING, alone,in the shower, at the computer, anywhere. I, like my sister, always have a tune in my head, which comes, by necessity, out of my mouth. We both sing well, so we are told. I love singing in the gospel group at the senior center,and I like singing at the church, although the hymnal at church, (Presbyterian) is utterly foreign to me, my having attended for only about six months. In the gospel group, I have long become familiar with the hymnal, which is of the Baptist breed if I aint mistaken, and since we sing essentially the same songs every Monday morning, I know them quite well, although I despise most of them. I despise most gospel songs because I consider religion in general to be nonsensical, and the Christian religion in particular nonsensical, primitive, barbaric, cruel, and bloody. Washing away my sins in the blood of Jesus, or anyone else, I find repulsive. For me, soap and water'll do. What I love are a few of the messages attributed to the probably fictional character Jesus Christ, aka Yeshua ben Joseph, the ones aboutlove, forgiveness, redemption, rendering unto, giving unto, casting not stones. That's all it takes to get me to church, to hear and celebrate the sublime messages with a few good folks. In a previous essay I detailed how I had approached the piano playin' lady at the senior center, had told her the there exists a gospel song I love even more than "How Great Thou Art", and that that gospel song to which I refer was written and sung by the great singer song writer Neil Diamond. The name of the song is "Holly Holy", and I challenge anyone to name or sing a gospel song that'll get you up on your feet and screaming the lyrics with pure joy any quicker. Google it, listen to it, rejoice. Neil Diamond, now eighty four, came out with this masterpiece in 1969, as he was several years into the height of his iconic decades long career, with more than a hundred fifty million Long Play vynal records sold. Neil Diamond was "born and raised' in the Jewish faith, as his name might vaguely imply, but, like millions of other people, his non Christian faith does not prevent him from loving Jesus, and singing about him. The Christian faith has no monopoly on either God or Jesus, and if any conservative evanlgelical Christian tries to tell you that it does, he or she is full of it, and it is your right to tell him or her so, politely, if possible. Since most of these types support Trump, we know damned well that they are full of it Politemess thus becomes optional.God ahd Jesus, I proclaim, are much larger and greater than any single primitive barbaric religious tradition. Well, now I've taken it a step further. Not only did I mention my love of Neil's iconic song to the most important person, the elderly lady piano player; I have begun mentioning it to other people, my sister included, and including other members of the gospel group. Stealthy as a wrathy painter (panther), as my hero David (Davy) Crockett might say, I am embarked on a mission to inculcate, to insinuate, my favorite gospel song of all time into the gospel group song canon. It might be a tough sell, especially among the three or four Pentecostal singers, and the piano lady, who is, of course, by virtue of her piano, of paramount importance. But, like David mighta said: "I'll stand up to my rack, fodder or no fodder, all holler, come hell or high water, and may the devil take the hindmost". Sooner, rather than later, we'll be singin' "Holl Holy", when the sheet music comes in.

Loving God, Guns, and Trump, All On the Same Hat.

IN THE DOLLAR GENERAL STORE, I was leaving when I saw the man with a red ball cap on which was emblazed, in big, bold letters, the words "God, Guns, and Trump"..But, no commas, and no and. Just: God Guns Trump. Maybe I should have left sooner, or later. I looked at him a bit longer than perhaps I should have, wanting to make sure I read it right, not wanting to get shot for being suspected of being a liberal. I read it right. In my small town in the American red state south, I should hardly have been surprised. And yet, somehow, I was. I suppose I've been surprised ever since the Access Hollywood tape came out, and nothing happened. What I was thinking, what I am still thinking, is: precisely how are those three things God...guns...and Trump... related to each other? Gore Vidal used to call them: the "Jesus, guns, and money" crowd. That particular trio seems even less compatible. The Prince of Peace, weapons of violence and war, and avarice. And no, guns to not keep the peace and prevent violence, people keep the peace and prevent violence. Shouldn't a Christian give unto the poor, unto personal poverty, the personal poverty of Jesus himself? The incredible combining of those three words, both sets, the blatant internal contradictions, can and is understood by everyone, except the minds of those who wear the red ball caps. If you are a conservative evangelical Trump loving Christian, they make perfect sense, all on the same ball cap. Jesus Christ was a proud American, with American values. Guns go together perfectly with the macho American Jesus, and, Trump? Well, he is the very embodiment of both, of guns and Jesus Christ, he, Trump, having been sent here, criminal convictions and all, to save America from those socialist render unto Caesar tax happy give unto the poor bleeding heart liberals. God,in mysteries ways, raises reprobates to positions of great imprtance. He did it in the bible, why not do it here and here? Trump certainly qualifies for the job, and so we the American people, doing God's will, elected the reprobate to high office. There's no use arguing about it. Really, there ever has been. Religion and gun ownership are two bedrock tradtions in the United States, and conservatism is, above all else, the embrace of tradition and resistance to change. A deliberate, modern misintrpretation of the second amendment, and the capitalism loving gospel of wealth, in which the righteous are rewarded financially for their righteousess. The second amendment was meant by the founders to ensure that a citizen militia was well enough armed to be abe to rapidly assemble and deploy and defend the new republic against foreign enemies,not to ensure that every American has the right to bear arms in public all the time. The second amendment was intended to prevent the formation by a potentially tyranical government of a permanently standing professional army. Jesue Christ did not tell people to get rich, he told them to make themselves poor by giving unto the poor. None of that matters. If you want to validate your personal beliefs badly enough, facts are easy to twist and misconstrue. Anything is better than changing one's beliefs to fit the facts. The esssential contradiction of christianity is that the biblical God is alternately a psychopathic genocidal maniac, and a tantrum throwing tempestuous toddler, demanding love, demanding blood scarifices. When "he" turns himself into his only begotten son, to sacrifice himself to himsllf to atone for the sins of creatures of his own creation, he becomes, in the pseudo half god half person person of Jesus christ, a pacifist, who cares about what people do with their money, but not whether they suffer on Earth, as long as they buy their entry into heaven by worshippping HIM. Christ, the American capitalist. Have faith that Almighty God knows all and controls all events, and will protect you, as long as you worhip him, but it doesn't hurt to bear an arm, as..an instrument of God's will?

Spending Thanksgiving Alone, By Choice

I SPENT THANKSGIVING ALONE, by choice, happily, with my cats. For dinner I went to a local bar, a little blue collar place in the small town where I live, and enjoyed perhaps the best Thanksgiving meal I have ever had. The works, turkey, dressing, cranberries, pumpkin pie, and the best green beans I have ever enjoyed. There were perhaps fifteen people there, cheerful, friendly. I had the honor of being chosen to say the prayer, and I came through magnificently, as I always do when leading a public group prayer. I know how to pray to God, by god. Everybody seemed to love it. The bar owner thanked me. I ate an amazing amount of food, which I usually do, on account of the great amount of exercise I get on a daily basis. The bar owner, a friend of mine, invited me to take a plate of food to go, and she didn't have to ask me twice. This is the weekend to pig out, and I believe in tradition. As I chowed down on my second plate of Turkey, into the bar walked a deer, about the size of a small Great Dane, and growing fast, acccording to Mandi. Everybody kept drinking without missing a beat, evidently accustomed to a deer in the room... Twelve years ago I named my stray kitten, Mandi, after the business owner. Both Mandis are alive and doing well, with a new wrinkle or two here and there, just like the rest of us. I invited Mandi to come over to my house and see Mandi. She said she will. Mandi the lady takes in stray critters like I do. Only she goes a bit farther. One of Mandi's adopted cats has her own pet cow, out on the farm. "May Day" is, according to Mandi, a very attentive pet owner. Not long ago a yearling deer showed up near her house on her farm, looking too young to be without its mother, looking like he might need a bit of help. Mandi stuck a milk botttle in its mouth, and it sucked on it hard right behind the bar, on the high powered supplement. Mandi told me that the precious little thing follows her around, and once tried to climb into bed with ther, to snuggle. She didn't say whether she accepted the invitation. I assume she did, knowing Mandi. Mandi knows she will soon have to let him go, on her farm, where he'll have plenty of opportunity to live a long and healthy life, undisturbed by hunters or predators. If the future big buck is smart, Mandi will have a frequent visitor... Hardly a lonely Thanksgiving, and yet, I spent Thanksgiving alone, mostly, with my cats, computer and radio. After all, I was only at the bar for a couple of hours, and chose not to drink, a choice I make with increasing frequency as I approach my seventieth birthday. At home, on my computer, I kept up my campaign to drive Trump out of politics, by impeachment, or whatever. The expressions of skepticism are increasing in number, doubts about my ability to get rid of Trump proliferating, and that's a good sign. It means people are paying attention. I find it humorous, and a bit disgusting, as if these morons need to tell me that it is a nearly impossible project. Haven't they ever tried to do anything hard? Apparently not. I posted on an anti-Trump website that Trump's popularity has reached its peak, and can only decline. His opponents will continue to oppose him, and his supporters, as his policies begin to take effect and harm people, will dwindle in number. Trump's policies will do harm to is supporters as well as his opponents. Word is that some of them are now beginning to realize this, if only dimly. He will not gain support by deporting eleven million people, for instance, but he will lose it. As I explained in a previous essay, he will lose support whether he does or does not do his mass deporting. His policies promise to be so extreme that they will engender extreme reactions, causing loss of support. Trump is now at the zenith of his power and popularity. One of my Trumper friends told me that both he and Trump deliberately mispronounce Kamala Harris's name because they both have no respect for her. I told my friend I have no respect for people who support Trump, and indeed I don't. My next project is to ask him whether he respects Trump, and why. His answer will surely be fascinating, tangled, twisted, and garbled. If and when I get one, I intend to report it here, with analysis and commentary. Maybe he admires convicted criminals. Maybe he is an Al Capone fan. Or maybe his taste runs to Jesse James, or Bonnie & Clyde. Some Trump supporters prefer white collar criminals, others, I assume, lean more toward the blue collar working class villain. It becomes twice as easy and desirable to spend holidays alone when one realizes that half the people in this country either are content to support criminal politicians, or are too stupid not to, or are of such low moral characer and limited intellectual capabiites that they simply dont know the difference. That half of the people in this country see themselves in Trump, seek to emulate Trump, see Trump as a person qualified to be president of the United States makes it twice as easy to stay home, on holidays, or any other day. As Churchill once said: "You can count on the American people to do what is right, afer exhausting all other possibilities. There will come a fine day when we the American people have finally exhausted all other possibilities, numerous though they are, and, regarding Trump and his malignant MAGA movment, will do the right thing. Until then it will remain twice as easy to stay home. When it does finally happen, it will become twice as easy to get out and hang out with people. Until then, as we say, stay safe.

IMPEACHING Trump Part III: Ridding The World of Trump

THE GRAND PROJECT to rid the world of Trump, engendreed here, proceeds apace, despite the expected, unsurprising arrival of skeptics. Do these people not comprehend the nobility of the pursuit of lost causes? Many years ago, my mother, who was so wise that she often told people the reason her son is not married is because he is smart, said to me: "You like causes, don't you?" Indeed, I do, the more imposible the better. As the gentleman said in the snti-Trump online group, I am "tilting at windmills". I agreed, and promptly invited him to join me. I haven't heard back. I have patience. Legalizing marijuana. Getting the U.S. the hell out of Viet Nam, are but two of the noble and correct causes for which I labored strenuously. They have in common that they ultimately succeeded, despite all odds. This one, to remove Trump from office by orchestrating a campaign of millions of Americans vociferously advocating for his impeachment, is also likely to succeed, despite all apprearenaces, despite all current self defeating skeptism. If everyone who has expressed skeptism to me would stop the negativity, and get on with the busines of communicating, informing, and recruiting, the great reprobate would face impeachment counts, for incitement to insurrection, among many other high crimes and misdemeanors, in a jiffy. The salient point is that not only will opposition to his presidency increase dramatically as his policies are implemented and their results begin to be felt by millions of Americans, but that his supporters will begin to suffer under them no less, which will cause many of them to abandom him, especially those who voted for him not because of any zealous MAGA mob loyaltiy to him, but because they just plain ole don't want a "colored" woman in the White House, or think they chose the "lesser of two evils". Or whatever. Whatever fatuous and vacuous reasoning motivated them to vote for an outright fascist, racist, psychpathic narcissist, criminal terrorist, Trump. Trump may not be impeached until after the twenty twenty six midterms. He may not be impeached at all. If impeached, he may not be removed from office, as happened twice in his last term. So what? The expression of mass disapproval of a cruel, tyranical unhinged demagogue, and the destruction of the misguided politcal movement which supports him, is paramount, notwithstanding the degree of its success. To simply say that "we tried that twice already,and it didn't work either time", is to completely miss the point, by a country mile. The point is that in a democracy, or in this case in an oligarchical plutocracy which aspires to be and which often describes itself as a "democracy", expressions of opposition to the powers that be, and especially when those powers that be are malignant and injurious to the best interests of the people and the country, are crucial. I have told many people that I will continue "Project Justice", help or no help, entirely alone if necessary, and I have told them that as long as I am alive, the grand project lives, and I mean it. As my hero "David (Davy) Crockett might say: "I'll stand up to my rack, fodder or no fodder, and may the devil take the hindmost". The skeptics are free to contiue their skepticism, and I am free to hold them in utter contempt and to go forth without them. But again I say, and will say intil hell freezes over: Donald J. Trump is a criminal, a reprobate, and a deranged fascist tyrant, and the nation and the world would be and will be much better off when he is gone from political leadership, and more than that, gone from the world. To this end I pledge my fortunes and sacred honor, to all who join with me in this noble endeavor, this impossible cause, or, if necessary, only to myself.

Deporting Prosperity

LETs NOT KID OURSELVES.. We've done enough of that alerady. As Goethe said: "We resist the truth only because we fear that we would perish if we accepted it." Hence, our tendencies toward denial, confirmation bias, and the lot. To the matter at hand.. Trump will either deport eleven million undocumented, illegally living in America "aliens", or he will not. If so, it will be with the complete support of and compliance of the Republican majority congress, and, of course, his multi million member insurrectionist MAGA mob. If not, it will be with the resistance of the Demoratic minority in congress, and the progressive community. Either way, Trump is toast, and here's why: The sheer logistics of identifying, locating, apprehending, and escorting to the border roughly eleven million people are, in and of themselves, staggering, overwhelming, the expenditure of resources, in terms of humanpower and money, impossible. By the time the process would be completed, eleven million more would have entered the country to repalce them. The undocumented immigrant population will outlive Trump, his supporters, and all the rest of us, mark it down. Trump's failure to deliver on his oft repeated promise, on the very keystone of his political career, to remove the murderers and rapists they are "sending" us, is inevitable. So is the strong disappointment and anger of his cult fan base, when they dimly, belatedly perceive the failure, and are unable to any longer credibly deny it nor avoid blaming Trump for it. Trump's approval rating drops, to the level of his intelligence, if that's possible. If the deportation is actually caried out, even to a partial degree, even if only a small percentage, say, two or three million people, are deported, the econcomy suffers serverely, for lack of workers to fill those jobs no white Christian conservative American wants to fill. If all eleven million of them go, so goes the economy. Crops are left in the ground, to rot. Food prices skyrocket. Houses go without roof replacement. Toilets go unscrubbed. The damage done to the economy, the severity of the resulting recession, will be directly proportional to the number of workers Trump kicks out. MAGA mobsters will suffer the economic consequences as much as decent people, and their ability to blame it on the Democrats,the Chinese, or the left wing communist mainstream media will evaporate. Lies and denial only go so far. The obvious solution, to provide a pathway to citizenship for all undocumented immigrants, and thus to keep the benefits of their labor, namely, national prosperity,in country, is unmentioned by Trump, who seems incapable of grasping it. Position the Big Red One along the order, secure it, and organize it. Those already here we allow, have allowed to be here, by leaving the bank vault unlocked. Why chop off our noses to spite our faces? And let's get one damned thing straight: this is not about illegality, justice, freedom, law, order, crime, the American way, nor anything remotely virtuous. This is about xenophobia and racism, pure and simple. This is about brown skinned people, poisoning American lilly white blood, as Trump put it. This is about dark skinned people arriving from, as Trump put it: "shit hole coutries". The darky Hispanic illegals are better citizens, more law abiding, more moral, than your average white conservative evangelical Christian, by a landslide. Statistics, which don't lie, prove that. Flood the country with good looking pale white Norwegians, just as Trump said he wanted, and you've got a happy camper white right wing Jesus loving community, a community of morally bankrupt, criminal terrorist MAGA Trump supporters, without whom the United States of America would be far better off. Deport them.

Sleeping, Without A Mattress

THE OLD MATTRESS has sat on my front porch for about three months, awaiting removal and disposal. When I discovered, too late, that it was infested with bugs, out it had to go. I like sleeping on the floor, always have. I recall that as a teenager, in 1971, when my family moved into my grandmother's house, vacated by her death, that I chose to sleep on the hardwood floor, some nights, in front of one of those little purring space heaters. The pleasnt purring, glowing warmth still allures me, desite the high cost of electricity. Now, though, they are more efficient. Nice on a cold winter's night. So, I'm back to doing that, this time, on carpet, which seems to itself have become infested with bugs. I have a skin rash. I'm on Prednizone. The rash is clearing up. I snuggle with my cat on the couch. I bought an air mattress, but can't figure out how to blow it up. Neither can anybody else. Soon, at the cost of about four thousand dollars, my carpet will be removed and replaced by hardwood floors similar to the ones in my grandmmother's old house, only this time the wood is some syhthetic substance, not the true wood of the nineteenth century. Still, good enough to sleep on, without the bugs. Over to the senior center I go each day, for lunch, and ready as always to volunteer to wash dishes, fry catfish, or whatever. For many years I did those chores on a daily basis, as a volunteer. Thousands of hours total, about twenty per week, four per day. Half of the people there, it seems, drive pick up trucks. I only need(ed) one, one nice person with a pick up truck to help me haul my old mattress to the dump, a journey of about ten minutes, a project of short duration, easy. I lost count of the number of my fellow seniors who told me "no problem, we'll gt it done". My neighbors across the street said something similar, that they would be glad to help me, the next time they have a complete load, ready to go. Heaven only knows when that will be. About half the people in this country, and in this small country town drive pick up trucks, it seems, almost everyone but me. All I need is just one, for twenty minutes...Well, it never got done, or hasn't. But now, finally, I think I have it solved. The nice gentleman whose small local company is going to install my new flooring has a pick up truck, a couple of healthy kids, and he has promised me that they will come and take my mattress. To say the least, I cannot wait, or barely can. Three months with an old mattress on my front porch, since the scorching heat of August, until now, Thanksgiving. I feel like giving thanks, and will, if all goes well. I mean, I am paying this guy a little more than four thousand dollars, so, the removal of an old mattress I take as a bonus, a bonus he can readily provide. I am gratfeul to him, and be doubtless be more grateful still when I behold my shiny new carpet free bug free wooden floors. As for the senior center and the good folks who go there, I like them generally, even the religious fanatics and the Trump supporters. The food is great, the conversation often illuminating and pleasant. But still, after all the free labor I have given to it over the years, one might think that getting the help of borrowing a pick up truck for twenty minutes to haul away an old mattress would be somewhat simpler and less painful to arrange than, say, pulling teeth. In that regard, I am dealing with a four thousand dollar floor installer at an opportune time. Still and all, it seems a pretty hefty price to pay for the carrying away of an old worn out mattress, but, in the end, worth every penny.

Impeaching Trump, Part II

PROJECT JUSTICE, to impeach Trump, for incitement to insurrection, among other high crimes and misdemeanors, is well underway, attracting attention, gaining support. And also, drawing ridicule and expressions of futility, as the naysayers chime in. The Facebook group is called: "Trump Will Be The Death of America", or something of that hyperbolic nature. Ironic, that people who name their group something unrealistic, something impossible, dare to consider unrealistic the possibility that a former and future president who has already been impeached twice can be impeached again. It is far more likely that Trump will be impeached a third time, dear reader, than that he will literally be "the death of America". That's the whole point of organizing a movement to impeach him now; to prevent him from being the death of America. America, even MAGA Republicans, would sooner and will do away with Trump before allowing him to destroy America, because their vast financial fortunes and political careers were in existence before Trump, do not entirely depend on Trump, and, they will want to see to it that both still exsit as long as they live, Trump, or no Trump. The expressions of disbelief among Trump haters are humorous. One literate gentleman accused me of "tilting at windmills". Kudos for him for having read "Don Quixote", but my suggestion is that he put Cervantes back on his doubtless extensive library shelf, and get to work, helping impeach Trump. Even the most devout MAGA cultists will sooner dump Trump than risk his or her own good fortune. If Trunp sarts to sink in a roiling sea of his usual perfidy, his cult politician followers will bail, fast. They always do. They did last time, but when Trump survived, they returned, like rats returning to a ship which, after all, did not sink....As for the quitters: It didn't work last time. Congresss is controlled by MAGA mad men. It cannot be done. Blah, and blah.The whole litany of predicatble, stale negativity. Blather, wasting oxygen, with the obvious. As if I didn't already know all this. Actually, it did work last time. It worked twice. What didn't work is removing the criminal and terrorist Trump from office. First time, MAGA summoned sufficient support in the Senate to avoid doing justice. Trump should have been removed from office for trying to blackmail Zelensky and Ukraine. Second time, the clock ran out, and Trump was allowed to go scot free, unpunished for his attemptt overthrow the governement via a violent mob. The cult adheres,strong as ever. The task is daunting. Like I told one Trump hating naysayer, I love impossible dreams, lost causes. Like I told the Don Quixote fan, the project will work if enough people,especially political leaders,believe in and support it,and like I told the moron who claimed that the project does not exist because "I refuse to provide details": the project exists, even if I am alone in participating in it. Details? The details are that "Project justice" is gaining support, fast, as evidenced by the messages I receive on the internet,a veritable avalanche of them, and by the sudden, drastic increase in the number of visitors to and readers of this website. If you want names, phone umbers, and addresses, look elsewhere, do your own research. I have not been given permission to divulge that information. Trump should never have become president, never should become president again, should be in prison now. Arguably,he should be indicted, tried, convicted, by due process, and should receive the death penalty, for treasonous insurrection. Arguably he should never have been born. But two things are true, for damned sure. First; Trump will never be impeached and removed fromo ffice if nobody tries to do it. And, secondly, at least where I live,I need to stay busy to keep me off the streets and out of trouble, and I suspect most anti-Trumpers do as well. And, in any event, where I live, its jsut too damned windy to stack BB's.

Having Children, For God

RECENTLY, the number of attractive youg ladies on Facebook expresssing undying love of sixty nine year old men and asking for gas money to come visit me has drastically diminshed. What, have I used them all up? Has the United States of Acquisition exhausted its supply, spewed tham all out upon my hapless computer screen and aching heart? Surely not. This is a big country, with hundreds of millions of people, including our fair share of attractive young ladies on the make, lord love 'em. For one thing, I started clicking "accept" on new friend requests with less zeal and frequency, and for another, its been fun, but the game gets old; I seek new amusements, like taking target practice at Trump posters. My salvation is perhaps that I only spent a few thousand dollars, and, I swear, I learned my lesson. Then came Mable, young, attractive, blonde, well turned out, toothy smiley, that clean cut Christian churchy look. She asked all the usual questions, and I answered them. We never got to the gas money; we probably never would. Her intent might have been lasting relationships, or evangelical witnessing, not money. (who am I kidding...). She got stuck on the never married no kids part, which some of them do. In response to the usual question, why have I not gotten married, (yet), I offered my usual response: "According to my mother, its because I'm smart". The low rate at which they respond to that indicates that either they don't understand the words, cannot conceive of a mother who doesn't want grand children, are stunned, or are in bad marriages and just plain agree with me. Mabel responded. "God says that he wants you to be plentiful, fruitful, bountiful, etc., reproduce, and fill up the Earth with his people". Yes, she actuallly said something like that. Mabel is a great example of why I keep doing this. I already have enough material for several books, some of which might get written. "We've already done that" I retorted, quite accurately. "There are more than eight billion people in the world. What more could God possibly expect from us?". I think I said something about what I want to do being important to me, no disrespect to God, about my preference concerning kids mattering too. I quoted Goethe, as always. "It is beyond me how anyone can believe that God speaks to us in books and stories..If the world and our hearts do not directly reveal to us..." That quote. She laughed, which raised a red flag. How could God possibly speak other than in a book?! I went on some, for some god forsaken reason.The bible was written by people,as all books are. Of the seven thousand or so books I have read, the Bible is easily the most violent and obscene. I love God, and I love Jesus. but I despise the bible, as a "sacred scripture, but find it interesting, as an example of ancient, primitive culture...All that."You certainly have some strong opinions", she opined. I allowed as that was quite correct, thinking it very "white" of her to give credit where it is due. I asked her if she understood what Geothe was saying. "Yeah, sure". "Your response seems to indicate otherwise", I said. Then, the deal breaker. "you sound weird", she actually said. Goethe.. weird. Oh boy... There was no longer any doubt. I was communicating with a very young, attractive blonde,(I had her picture), churchy Christian lady, with a pedestrian education, a real air head. My suspicions confirmed, "We call people "weird" when they don't conform to our biased preconceived expectations of them", said I. "Its easier to call somebody weird that to take the time and expend the effort to understand their point of view". She agreed with that, and identifeid me as an "unbeliever". "I'm a believer", I said, Neil Diamond and the Monkeys crooning in my head. "Everybody has beliefs". "I didn't call you weird", she said. "I said that you 'sound' weird". Finally! The semantics thing! "Well, I think you "sound weird" telling me that God wants me to have children", I typed in. That was the last word. There was nothing more to say. There would be no online romance, and no gas money. "Ok I'm sorry bye". Mable was gone, out of my life forever, before our friendship had even begun. "No problem", I said. I will always wonder what our children would have been like...

Learning the Law, Or Not

THERE ARE THREE IVY LEAGUE universities which do not have law schools. They are Dartmouth, Brown, and Princeton. Princeton established a law school briefly in 1852, which lasted only until 1855. It was closed due to lack of funding. In 1935 another try was made to establish a school of law at the prestigious university, but failed again, when a suitable, qualified faculty was unable to be found and hired. It seems that places like Harvard and Yale, among many others, had already swept up all the available legal professorial talent, were paying them well, and weren't about to relenquish their high qualified, esteemed lecturers in the law to any upstart new law school. In 1974, the matter was once again brought up for consideration, but the decision was made to "table" the project, to indefinitely postpone it, and there the matter rests, fifty years later, on the table, or under it, gathering dust,while far lss prestigious institutions of higher education go merrily ahead with their long standing schols of law, supplying this nation's rather substantial litigation requirements. One third of all attorneys at law in the world are Americans, in what is beyond dispute the most litigious society on Earth. When I was a kid, in the nineteen sixties, I accepted without question the fact that women werent allowed to enroll in Ivy League universities, nor serve in the military in anything other than support roles,nor enroll in the service academies, and that African-American student athletes were, essentially, non existant. Discrimination against minorities and women was the norm. I believe it was 1971 when Harvard and Yale began admitting women. "Coeds" they were called, and at about that same time African-American football and basketball players were allowed to compete, for the first time, on varsity sports teams in the south. Ironic, that it was prestigious schools like Harvard and Yale which were the most belated in admitting female students. Not so surprising is that black athletes started taking the field in the south later than in the rest of the country. When in nineteen sixty six an all white University of Kentucky basketball team lost the national championship game to an all black Weatern Texas (UTEP now) team, heads turned. The 1964 national football champion Arkansas Razorbacks were lilly white, as were the runner up Alabama Crimson Tide. Also, college and professional teams in that era featured offensive and defensive linemen who weighed anyhere from just over two hundred pounds, to a whopping two fifty. Anybody heavier than that was considered a freak of nature. When a high school classmate of mine enrolled at the University of Arkansas, in 1973, the Razorback football team had a handful of black players. He came home on Christmas vacation calling the team the "Razorblacks". The "backwards" characteristics of society I took for granted, glady watching all white football games on television as a child. Had desegration never happened, I have no idea how long it would have taken me to see segregation and discrimination as a great evil, if ever. I do reacall that in 1965, when I was ten, my favorite football players were Jim Brown and Gale Sayers, and my favorite basketball player was Wilt Chamberlain, all black athletes. Perhaps I was at least a bit ahead of my peers in the deep south. I hope so. Things have changed, a lot, rather recently. And maybe we in the American south were late to the table in terms of racial equality, but we admitted female students to our universities far earlier than the vaunted Ivy league institutions, and, well, if nothing else, we have had law shools at nearly all of our universities in the south for decades. At the Uinversity of Arkansas, the first African-American law school student, Silas Hunt, was admitted in 1948, rather early, but was required to sit alone in a box in the corner of lecture halls. That too changed, when demanded by professors. Backwards though we might still be down here, at least we have law schools.

Impeaching Trump

ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY MILLION AMERICANS, more or less, witnessed on live national television President Trump's attempt to overthrow the American government by violent insurrection on January sixth, 2021. His attempt to derail the electoral college confirmation process by interrupting it, by replacing legitimate electors with invalid ones, by ordering his violent mob to march on the Capitol and "fight like hell", by inciting a violent insurrection, was nothing other than an attempt to overthrow the American government, and he was impeached for it. Impeached, and tried, but never convicted, due to Republican bostruction and the fact that his term was ending. What is the statute of limitations on impeachment? There is none. What is the statute of limitations on impeaching and removing a president for incitement to insurretion in a previous administration? There is none. Impeachment is a political process, not a legal one, and any president can be impeached, tried, convicted, and removed from office at any time, for any reason, or for no reason. The Republicans spent the entire Biden administration attempting to do precisely that to Biden. Trump intends to nominate a person for Seretary of Denfense who has written in a book that he wishes to use the military to destroy progressives. he intends to dismantel all protections for theenvironment, and to curtail all efforts to fight climate change. Since more than wtenty years ago the Departent of Defense identified human made climate change as the single greatest threat to American national security, refusal by any American president fo acknowledge and fight it amounts to treason. No specific reason is neessary to impeach any president. Again, it is a political, not a legal process. However, The reasons for impeaching Trump, as soon as possible, are numerous. According to Ivanka Trump, in sworn testimony before Congress, Ivanka Trump testfied that two weeks before the 2020 election, her faher approacheeher,and said:"No matter what happens in the election, we'll jsut say that we won. Fuck it". In corroboraed testimony it emerged that the entire insurection proces, teh entire plan to keep Trump in power illegally, was carefully thought out, planned, and orchestrated by Trump and his supporters. On election night, 2020, while the votes were being counted, before they had been counted, Trump said, on national television: "actually, we won the election". At that time, nobody had any idea who was going to win the election. In thousands of cities and towns all across the United States, there are sizable anti-Trump communities. In each town and city, large and small, leaders must gather signatures on petitions and send them to Congress, to media outlets, and social media. There should be a brief, direct, standard petition which I am willing to write and post on this website. "WE THE UNDERSIGNED PEOPLE of the United States of America demand that Donald Trump be impeached, tried, convicted, and removed from office for the high crime of incitement to insurretion, among many other high crimes and misdemeanors, including: Conspiring with a foreign power to gain election to high office. Refusal to address climate change, mismanagement of a pandemic which resulted in more than a million American deaths, violation of the emolument clause, a peristent pattern of lying to the American people,threatening his political opponents, election tampering, and stealing and hoarding classified documents".

Trump, Selling Revised Bibles

IS TRUMP STILL HAWKING BIBLES? Still fifty nine and change? Are they selling well? By the time seventy five million evangelical Chrstians have added one, bound in leather, to their extensive collection, he should by now have exceeded all best selling author records, yet, strangely, nothing has been written or said about it in the mainstream conservative or Christian media. Do Christian conservatives generally feel that they already have enough bibles? Have they run out of space in their home libraries? Never! Or are they sluggushly, sheepishly gaining a new awareness of their barely disguised but deeply rooted heresy, abandoned Trump, and switched to democratic socialism? Doubtful, at best. YOu may recall that each Trump bible is adorned with an American flag on the leather, and includes a copy of the constitution within its covers. Here's a pertinant question. Since Trump has now been "outted" as not only having been aware of the notorious "Project 2025" all along, despite his repeated denials while on the campaign trail, he has also, in effect, come out of the closet,or his hole in the ground, as being fully supportive of it, in full agreement with it. Since this Hitlerian document would and will supplant the constitution, if for no other reason than by using the regular armed forces to round up undocumented immigrant workers and deport them, and to break up protests against Trump in the streets of the American empire, mustn't subsequent editions of the gospel according to Trump be adjusted to include copies of the formal document "Project 2025"? Out with Madison's document, in with Trump's. Secretary of Defense in waiting Pete Hegseth (isn't he a FAUX Entertainment Propaganda Network talking head, with litttle or no administrative experience?), when he takes off his brown shirt, shows an "Iron Cross" tatooed somewhere on his pallid torso, and has written in one of his five "books" that the progressive community must be defeated and exterminated, by any and all means necessary. Soon, all too soon, he'll have the means at his disposal. These people are deadly serious."The fools would be humorous, were they not in such deadly earnest", as H.L. Mencken adroitly said about somebody. They are serious enough for Trump to include "Project 2025 next to the constitution, if not replace it? A large majority of evangelical Christian conservatives have read neither the constitution, other than the second amendment, nor the bible, other than Mathew 3;16, or whatever. They have no idea of the vast quantity of obscenity, gratuitous violence, and genocidal rantings uttered and acted upon by their demonic deity. Nor are they aware of the extent to which Madison went to prevent us the people from exercising political power, or governing ourselves. Of course, they have abandoned democracy, in preference to fascism. Yes, we need a new constitution, but something far different from the one they seek to install and add to the existing one. They venerate an inadequate governing document, and a demonic religious one, to keep up appearances, which is the same reason Jefferson and Washington, both deists, went to church. Trump has now finished announcing his incoming cabinet, and it is astonishingly incompetent, sycophantic, and demonic. Will it seek to mandate the purchase and posssession of Trump bibles? Will we are br required, at gunpoint, under penalty of imprisonment, to embed a microchip with both the gosple according to Trump and the essential tenets of Project 2025 in our temples and on the walls of our public school classrooms? As they say, far crazier things have happened, just recently.