Stephen Altschuler

thoughts on environment, politics, health, life issues

democracy

Our Age of Disinformation

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This age of disinformation certainly hasn’t started with Trump and the Republican Party, although they’ve done yeoman’s work to perpetuate it. When Jesus was crucified, his followers had to blame someone so they first took it out on Judas Iscariot, then extended it to all Jews. Only thing was that Jesus himself was Jewish, as was Judas, and, with the exception of Romans, so was everyone else in Jerusalem at the time. I’m puzzled why the Romans aren’t now blamed for the death of Jesus, since, well, they tried, sentenced, and put him to death on the cross. Then came the Middle Ages and the Crusades, when word was that Jews along the route were killing Christian babies and drinking their blood. This of course was not true, but, the Crusaders believed it and murdered as many Jews along the way to the Holy Land as they could find. So far, those two myths, along with the Aryan crap advanced by Hitler and his Nazis, persist today with the help of Neo Nazis and, well, many Republican white nationalists. Then in the mid 19th century, white slaveholders in the American South contended that people were unequal with the White race entitled to enslave the Black race and do with “their property”, i.e. their slaves, (including breeding them as they would with any animal!), as they wished. They even fought a Civil War over this disinformation and sacrificed the lives of over 800,000 people over it. We, i.e. the Republican Party, are still, in effect, fighting that war, with disinformation today whitewashed and scrubbed as something other than the racist tropes of 1861.

All was relatively quiet on this Western Front until Donald Trump took power in 2016 when the engines of disinformation really got going via social media and particularly Twitter. QAnon, White Supremacist groups, and other fringe far right radio and TV networks, all got the go-aheads they were looking for in a president that openly supported such disinformation, and gladly retweeted it and even cooked up quite a bit of his own brazen lies, culminating in his biggest whopper that the election of 2020 was stolen from him via election fraud. Of course when you think about it, how could there have been fraud when he was defeated but many Republicans down ballot were elected in the disputed battleground states. Of course, cult members don’t think for themselves so they wholeheartedly swallowed the lies, culminating in the the most virulent attack on democracy since the Civil War: the attack on our very way of government on January 6, 2021 by Trump supporters who even carried Confederate flags into the breached Capitol building with the entire roster of Congressional officeholders present at the time gathered to verify the election of the legitimate elected president, Joseph R. Biden.

Now, after a year and a half of Trump continuing to peddle his rubbish, he is threatening to run again in 2024, something that is looking like a continuation of the coup he started on 1/6/21. Remember, Hitler was jailed after his failed putsch, only to come back in a few years to assume the chancellorship of Germany. As with Hitler (and now Putin, I might add), Trump never ceased spewing his vile and incendiary oratory to a duped and dispirited populace with the intent of casting aside democracy in favor of autocracy and the Fascism that usually follows. He just can’t resist himself, as his father’s voice echos in his head like a blast of tankfire. Of course he also has the support of Fox “News” with their chief morons Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham leading a battalion of conservative disinformationalists, all in line behind their chief marketer of greed, Rupert Murdock; and the leadership and frontline of the Republican Party speaking in lockstep with their “dear Leader”, as they do in North Korea.

In that regard, it’s not much different here as it is in Russia right now with Putin duping his people into believing in his inhumane massacre in Ukraine. Thankfully we do have a sane leader in Joe Biden to help unify the world against the lies of Putin, and encourage the material and moral support of Zalensky and his Ukraine. Biden is the world’s champion of liberal Democracy while Putin and China’s Xi are its foe.

Am I too harsh? Am I just a rabble-rouser, a fearmonger, a liberal, a proud democratic Democrat, or some hysterical bigmouth? I will not defend against any label you wish to put upon me. I am who I am: an American citizen who is alarmed to see our nation slip into the jaws of fascism.

What about you? Where do you stand? What do you think?

***

BTW: Happy Spring, and may peace come soon to Ukraine, restoring its esteemed position among the democratic countries of the world.

It’s Time to Stop Putin, Cold!

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I’ve just seen the bodies of four members of a Ukrainian family, a father, a mother, and their two children, who were bombed into eternity as they attempted to flee their city which is under siege by Russian forces directed by their president Vladimir Putin. This was a deliberate attack by barbarians who target civilians indiscriminately and without cause as they were evacuating. This entire operation against a country that did not provoke such an invasion is an abomination against all decent, peace-loving people in this fragile world of ours. Barbarians in earlier centuries waged such war, ravaging and razing cities while murdering people just to acquire more territory and wealth and, yes, slaves. I thought we were done with such warring nations. But we obviously are not.

Putin must be stopped and stopped cold as he attempts to destroy a country, its people, and its culture. Ukraine’s President Zalensky calls on the West to establish a no-fly zone to challenge Russian war planes from bombing civilian targets. That is a good first step. But it is not enough. This is the time to directly challenge Putin and put an end to his warmongering. We failed to do this with Hitler, and we all know what followed: one of the worst genocides in history and a World War that destroyed the lives and cities of millions. I know the threat and even the possiblity of nuclear confrontation is real, making this different from war in the 1940s.

But, I’m sorry to say, it must be done. Nuclear bombs and missiles have been a deterence to world war up to now, and, I believe, will continue to deter competing nations from using them. Putin is mentally off the rails, but I don’t think he is that insane. His talk of putting his nuclear forces on high alert is a strategic ruse, and only that. I wrote a post a short while ago advocating for a Democracy Doctrine, and this seems to be an ideal time to put that doctrine into action. Why not! Russia is in the process of decimating the Democratic country of Ukraine. To see innocents being slaughtered is intolerable.

The West has the will and the way and the means to stop it, and stop it cold. Yes, it will widen the war, not into a world war, I believe, for there is not enough support from other countries to come to Russia’s aid as allies. Tactical nuclear weapons may or may not be employed by Russia in an act of desperation. And that will be met with a reciprocal response from the West. But the advantages of such a confrontation far outweigh the dangers. For if we do not stop Putin now, we will have a much harder time stopping him in the future when he regains economic stability and gathers military allies.

I am just one small voice, without expert credentials or experience in foreign affairs or a university professorship or chairmanship of an influential government committee. But I know, as I’m sure you do, wanton barbarianism when I see it. And I know, though I am a pacifist by nature, that the only thing that will stop such atrocities is brute force and the courage of a Lincoln, or an FDR, or a Churchill, and, yes, a Zelensky, a fellow Jewish landsman of the country of my grandparents.

Long live Ukraine! Long live Democracy! Let’s do what needs to be done to rid the world of another Attila the Hun, of another Osama bin Laden, of another Stalin, of another Hitler. It’s as if we’re back in the year 800 when the invading hordes from the north ravaged a peaceful world. What now do we do? What now do we do? Sanctions alone? Or damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!

I say, Onward! Stop this son of a bitch!

Righting Wrongs

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Most of us learned how to read via simple books of Dick, Jane, and Spot. We take it for granted that our society values education right from the start and provides us with free public school. But there was a time in our history, which a majority of Republicans now want to hide, deny, and ignore, when Black slaves were shot, whipped, raped, even lynched if they were caught trying to learn to read. A basic education we now take for granted of reading, writing, and arithmetic was forbidden for a Black slave for generations while they labored for rich slaveholders in the South, North, East, and the West of the United States (that’s right: though on a spectrum of cruelty, the entire country).

Yes, things have changed for the better, but even though Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation freeing the slaves, and gave them the same rights bestowed upon any citizen of this nation, he wondered and even doubted whether freed Black folk would ever be able to live in harmony with Whites. I’m afraid he has been proven correct, for today, despite all the gains in civil rights, a majority of Whites remain distrustful and suspicious of Blacks, which still results in discrimination in housing, employment, health care, police protection, the legal system, and many other aspects of our society that Whites needn’t worry about or consider. White privilege is the rule not the exception. When a Black man enters a 7/11 throughout this country he is regarded with suspicion, as George Floyd was in Minneapolis that fateful day he was murdered by police.

Out of this embarrassing history of ours, has grown the cancer of white supremacy. The Donald Trumps, the Steve Bannons, the Marjorie Taylor Greenes, the Ron DeSantis’s, the Ron Johnsons, the Paul Gosarts, the McCarthys, the Bouberts, the Hawleys, the Manaforts, the Flynns, the McConnells, the Roger Stones, the Neo-Nazi Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, Patriot Prayers, the QAnons and a host of others are the tumors that have grown relatively unchecked and unrestrained by a public that has largely ignored these dark entities, extended them a visa into the mainstream, and even continually votes them in and back into office time after time. Trump brought the venom to the surface and the puss has leaked into other countries where authoritarians are challenging liberal democracies. I’m afraid the average American is so beaten down and burnt out by the pandemic, yes, but also by Trumpian lies and disinformation, he, she, or they are numb and apathetic, and simply just don’t care anymore. It saddens me greatly. It angers me even more–anger to the point of distress.

My father was an optimist who was always confident his ship was about to come into port. Some of that rubbed off on me so, in spite of our largely catatonic populace, I believe there is a glimmer of hope that we as a society will see the light and right the wrongs. People can be kind and helpful. I see that almost everyday. People can be friendly. I see that almost everyday. People can be trustworthy. I see that almost everyday. And people can be loving. I see that almost everyday, personally, and in the media. The reaction almost equally by Democrats and Republicans against the war crimes of Putin in Ukraine has been mostly unified (except for Trump and a few other radicals from the alt right) and in favor of more support for the brave democratic Ukrainian president Zelensky and more harsh sanctions against the dictator Putin and his cronies. Well Putin and Trump are practically blood brothers, so the cult followers of their “dear Leader” Trump, if they ever stop to think about it, may abandon their love of their crazed leader and his racist Republican Party and vote for Democrats in the next election. How’s that for optimism? Problem is Trump’s cult followers don’t think. Cult followers rarely do. They just keep drinking the proverbial Kool Aid until their brains are fully addled.

So now what? Last night during my evening walk, I was greeted cheerfully by others in my apartment complex. What if I was Black? Would their faces have been so welcoming and friendly? No, of course not. Their first thought would have been, Oh, no, trouble! Where can I retreat to before he robs or rapes me? He must be up to no good, this Black man. Or what if they knew I was Jewish? A Jew. What’s he doing here in our complex? Is he the one who owns the place and ups our rent every year? Damn Jews! Or a Muslim woman wearing a head scarf? What is she doing in this neighborhood? There’s nothing to blow up here. I wish she would just go away. Or Hispanic? How could he afford to live here? And that broken down car? Probably his. What’s he doing here? There’s no agriculture in this area.

We live in a country of stereotypes where just the color of one’s skin, or the slant of her eyes, or the head covering, or the crook of one’s nose triggers a hate-filled response from a racist. And then white Republican politicians use that to scare other Whites even more, hoping that fear steers another vote their way. And demagogue leaders like Trump take that fear to another level, drawing out the poison that has collected under the White veneer for decades, eras, even centuries, until they intoxicate a national cult of followers to their own private Guyana.

Last night in Biden’s state of the union speech, much was made of fascist Russia’s attack on democracy, and rightly so. But nothing was said of the fascists in our country, the white supremacists, the Trump cultists and enablers in the Republican Party, and Trump himself, and their internal attack on our democracy. Biden doesn’t see it because he doesn’t want to see and acknowledge such a domestic attack. Nor does he see the necessity of stopping Trump cold before he rises again. Biden is enamored in a politics of the past, unable to fathom the changes and responses needed now to face and put down an insurrection designed to transform this country into a right wing dictatorship in the style of Trump ally Putin. It’s probably too fantastic a notion for Joe Biden, and perhaps his closest advisors, to comprehend. It’s probably too fantastic for you, my readers, to accept and comprehend. This is America, afterall, “land of the free, home of the brave.” But as conservative commentator David Brooks so astutely pointed out a few days ago in his column, democracy cannot operate without the full cooperation and effort of its people. It takes hard work, he wrote, and he questioned whether we were up to the task. I too pose that question.

If our president neglects to bring up white supremacy, systemic racism, violence against Asian American women who have experienced an alarming increase in hate crimes and harassment, Pacific Island Americans, Jewish Americans, Hispanic Americans, Moslem Americans, Native Americans, Any People of Color Americans, or the burning of books or the mere mentioning of Critical Race Theory in schools or the suicide incidents among children who are bullied via social media and in person in schools, and, and, and, and, ad infinitum. If he neglects to mention any of these and other denigrations in our society, then his bully pulpit will be for naught and these stains on our culture will continue and spread like the cancer they are. Republicans don’t give a damn about any of the above and are determined to drag this country, kicking and screaming, back to a time when racism and injustice were the norm, sanctioned by top leaders and courts and cops on the beat and the apathy of the general public.

Blacks, of course, take the brunt of this abuse because since we dragged them over here in chains, with guns and bullwhips, and then subjected them to one of the worse genocides in history, we continue to isolate and dehumanize them as no others, labeling them not as victims but as the perpetrators of their lot. Is lynching next if Trump Republicans retake power? Lynchings and cross burnings and swastikas on synagogues and attacks on all the minorities mentioned above? Is that where we’re headed? Back to a country where racist whites can intimidate minorities with impunity and without restraint as was the case when Trump was president and the DOJ his lackey?

Sometime when the stain is too deep, you’ve got to throw away the garment and replace it with new threads. Perhaps we need to surrender like the alcoholic at his first AA meeting. Perhaps we need to admit that we have a serious problem and can’t solve it on our own. Perhaps we need to give up our will to a higher, and wiser, power. Perhaps, like the alcoholic or drug addict, we need to take a serious and sincere inventory and make amends where amends are warranted. Perhaps we need to stop fooling ourselves and understand how others are suffering due to our ignorance and self aggrandizement.

Where do we go from here, dear readers? Where do we go from here?

America’s Moral Compass

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Everyone’s got a moral compass, though everyone may not realize it. From the Christian evangelical to Ron Reagan’s atheism everyone adheres to a moral code in some way or another. Even the prisoners I used to counsel at Walpole Prison in Massachusetts had such a compass, though the glass broke from time to time. One even took meticulous care of all the stray cats in nearby Norfolk Prison. And the suspected Boston Strangler, Albert DeSalvo, whom I met, made jewelry which he sold in the prison store under the label Chokers by the Boston Stranger, revealing, I suppose, his own moral compass, tinged with a sense of humor (BTW, Albert was never convicted of being the Strangler, and to this day, to my knowledge, the case remains unsolved. He was murdered in prison in a drug deal gone wrong.).

Abraham Lincoln had a moral compass, and thank goodness he did, for it helped him win a Civil War that seemed hopeless at times. Lincoln got his bearings from the Declaration of Independence ironically written by Thomas Jefferson, a Founding Father and slaveholder from Virginia, one of the states that seceded from the Union. “All men are created equal,’ wrote Jefferson, “entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” It was a relatively new and revolutionary concept at the time and became the basis of a form of government, of, by, and for the people, called democracy. And to this day, until recently at least, it remains the basis of our country’s moral compass and the legacy of Jefferson and Lincoln.

Distressingly, this moral compass is now under serious attack by the likes of Donald Trump and his supporters. Thankfully, that attack is being resisted by those who uphold the sacrifices that Lincoln and millions of soldiers in many wars paid in defending democracy from authoritarian regimes over the decades. In our country the fight continues against the bloviated extremists on the far right who are intent to push their fascist and racist ideas onto the entire country and change our moral compass to an immoral one.

Now we are faced with yet another foreign leader also intent on attacking the basic values of democracy and the right of an independent country to choose its own way. Vladimir Putin of Russia is, as I write, waging an invasion of neighboring Ukraine for no valid reason except to protect Russia from unsubstantiated threats from this much smaller country. He knows he can act with relative impunity since Ukraine is not aligned to NATO and so has no treaty assurances that other democratic countries in Europe will come to their assistance militarily. And Putin continues to pummel innocent, peace-loving people with missiles, bombs, tanks, and about 190,000 soldiers in an effort to bring this country to its knees, “demilitarizing and denazificationing” it, as Putin puts it. But, like his ally Trump, it’s Putin who is displacing what is needed to himself onto others.

I propose the U.S., now under the leadership of Joe Biden, change its essentially non-interventionist policy, to one that is more in line with Lincoln’s moral compass, which was to protect the viability and sanctity of democracy wherever it may be. And precedents for this change are already in place. The U.S. is not sending troops into Ukraine because it is not a NATO nation. But the U.S. has and will defend other countries in the world not protected by treaty such as Taiwan, Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, and perhaps Finland and Sweden who are not in NATO, but could be attacked by a Hitler-infused Putin.

It’s too late to defend Ukraine militarily (although air support could still be considered, as they have requested of the EU), but perhaps Biden should consider a Democracy Doctrine where the U.S. will defend militarily any democratic country from attack by another expansionist-minded country. This would give potential invaders cause to reconsider their intentions and pull back. The Doctrine would of course contain operational and conditional details and would make it clear that actions, such as the present unwarranted invasion of Ukraine would well be met with military intervention by the United States and other willing allies. If such a doctrine had been in effect in 1939, Hitler’s invasion of Poland which started WWII could have been averted, possibly saving millions of lives.

Of course, my proposal will be opposed as the decision to fight Germany was opposed by ultra-conservatives in the U.S. Congress at that time. These were similar to the America Firsters around today–isolationists who wanted to keep America out of any foreign fights. But in this highly complicated and dangerous world of today, such a doctrine would be a strong deterrent against any potential Hitler, as Putin now represents. Ours is a world seeing an alarming rise of authoritarian leaders who have solidified their power through fear, intimidation, violence, and apathy. This includes Putin, of course, but also Xi, Un, Erdigan, Orban, Lukashenko, Castro, Bolsonaro, Duarte, the military junta in Myanmar, Palestinian Hamas, and the ayatollahs of Iran, among others in Africa and South and Central America.

Such a Democracy Doctrine, backed by the world’s most powerful military, would establish the United States as the unquestioned champion of Democracy, which we have been until the Republican Party turned into a bunch of racist, insurrectionist sycophants. Bipartisanship has been tried by Biden and, once again, rejected by, ironically, the former party of Lincoln. It’s time for President Biden to take a significant tack against the winds of authoritarianism both here and abroad.

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I’ve recently written and published three books (I’ve been productive during the pandemic’s sheltering in place!) which may be of interest to you. They are Into the Woods…and Beyond, The Valley Spirit: Living a Tao-inspired Life, and Golf 360: For Current Players and Those Considering the Game. You can read reviews of each at my website, stephenaltschuler.com. They are all available at online sources, including Amazon. Thanks.

Learning From Lincoln

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Joe Biden and Abraham Lincoln have a number of things in common. They both lost dear relatives, especially beloved sons. They both struggled to get their party’s nomination to run for president. They both won their bid for the presidency by winning a few key states. They both entered office with considerable opposition among the public. They both had huge crises on their plate the first day into the frey: Lincoln the Civil War; Biden the global pandemic, an insurrection, and a predecessor who wouldn’t concede the election’s results, wouldn’t comply with the standard peaceful transfer of power, and who even instigated the insurrection. Lincoln went on to free the slaves, helping him to win the war and protect the Union and its democracy from white supremacist insurrectionists. And Biden…well we don’t know yet how Biden will do to protect the Union and defend the country against its militias of white supremacists and Trump-infused Republicans.

With Lincoln, it took tremendous courage, fortitude, and intelligence to accomplish what he did in the relative short amount of time he had before an assassin’s bullet put an end to his continued good and justice for “all men created equal.” As the Civil War dragged on, Lincoln was increasingly known for his focus and ability to see a solution through until he began to see the results he was looking for. He, like Biden, had members of his own party oppose him every inch of the way. But he had allies too, and he used those allies to help mold public opinion and bend the public to his way of thinking: mainly that slavery was an evil that must be stopped in its vile tracks.

I don’t see Biden using his domestic allies in quite the same way. Despite his economic successes and ability to put money in the hands of those who most need it, the public, thanks to Republican propaganda, gives him relatively low popularity ratings. He obviously doesn’t have the cognitive, oratory, and persuasive skills Lincoln had. Both men also retained key figures in their administration whom they trusted to take appropriate action in their departments. With Lincoln, it was Gen. McClellan who was agonizingly slow to attack when he had the opportunity. With Biden it is Attorney General Merrick Garland who has failed to act decisively to investigate the senior perpetrators and instigators of the January 6 insurrection–that stain on our country that almost brought down our democracy in one violent day.

Lincoln eventually replaced McClellan, after several other failures, with a more focused and effective Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. And that decision was key in finally winning that devastating war. Biden may not realize it but we are in a cold Civil War that requires the insight and courage of a Lincoln to assess the realities of the enemy and take the necessary action–though much different from the politics of yesterday–to put Trump and his surrogates down, and put them down hard.

The political atmosphere today is not that much different than during Lincoln’s time. Slavery, in the form of white supremacy and voter suppression laws, is still with us. Blacks are still denigrated and undermined and discriminated against. We’ve made some progress but not enough. There have been too many conservative operatives that have impeded social progress and civil rights. Every time we advanced several steps with Democrats–although not always perfect–unprincipled Republicans take us right back to the Jim Crow era.

Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, announced during the Civil War, was not popular among his cabinet members, the opposition party, and even members of his own party, but he was a man who acted on principles. He followed the dictates of the Declaration of Independence, the guiding set of moral laws on which our country is based. Our current Supreme Court could do just as well; as could the many state legislatures who voted in voter suppression laws; as could Republican members of Congress who continually kiss Trump’s ring and lean dangerously to a white supremacist platform that many in our country have followed since the end of the Civil War.

Our country is rife with racism, to put it bluntly. And with racism comes its offspring: authoritarianism. The crude and criminal Trump has extracted racist dogwhistles to the surface, and, yes, like Hitler, has carefully plotted his coup and takeover. The 14th Amendment, enacted after Lincoln’s murder, was aimed at Confederate leaders to prevent them ever holding public office again. But it was wisely inclusive of any and all insurrectionists for time immemorial. If Biden has the motivation, intent, courage, and wisdom he will push Merrick Garland to apply this Amendment to Donald Trump and prevent this bully from ever again holding any office from President to Animal Control Officer.

Jailing the rioters who invaded Congress on Jan. 6 is not enough. Garland, with Biden’s tacit support, must investigate and, if warranted, prosecute the big fish involved if our country and our democracy are to be protected and sustained.

***

The Midwest Review of Books has written an excellent review of my new book, The Valley Spirit: Living a Tao-inspired Life (Sacajawea Press, Vancouver WA, 2021). Check it out at stephenaltschuler.com.

How much more of Trump do we need to hear about before…we stop him cold!!

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Donald Trump is a con man supreme and those who follow and kiss his ring are just as bad. Most of us know that but still this joker still manages to get himself off the hook. Teflon Don I call him, much like we called Reagan Teflon Ron in the 80s. Part of the problem is that not enough key people are committed to going after him. These include Attorney General Merrick Garland, FBI Director and Trump appointee Christopher Wray, and head honcho Joe Biden, himself. For whatever reason, they have avoided investigation and prosecution of this obvious and chronic criminal, and in doing so, create the possibility of his running and winning reelection in 2024 as president or even as a backbencher Representative from his Florida district where he could be elected Majority leader or even Speaker of the House. It also creates the possibility and probability of the Republicans taking back majorities in the House and Senate in 2022, which in turn will hobble Biden’s presidency and further enable Trump (or one of his surrogates) to win in ’24.

Biden and Garland are living in bubbles, unable to see the realities of the present political climate. I hate to say that because in some respects Biden has done a commendable job given all that he had on his plate when he assumed office. He’s a good man, a moral man, an ethical man, a man I’m happy to have replaced Trump, the opposite of the above traits. But he is wedded to the past way of doing things in Congress. Unlike it used to be, Republicans have created an atmosphere of contention and anti-cooperation with Democrats. And that seems to be their only policy statement: oppose everything Democrats propose regardless of how good those proposals may be for the country. Biden is invested in bipartisanship. Manchin and Sinema, whatever their true motives, also preach bipartisanship. And Merrick Garland? I just think he’s a bit of a wimp unwilling to take on Trump and his death-threatening cultists.

I say all this not to be a wiseguy, as Biden might call me, but to sound the alarm bell of danger if Trump is allowed to continue riding roughshod over our democracy. For if he returns to political office, in any form, our country will soon cease to be recognized as the fully democratic power that it is. It will quickly devolve into an autocracy in the mold of Putin, Xi, and Un–all Trump chums. So go ahead and try and convict him court, but his father taught him all the dodging tactics he needs to avoid that. I say a better bet would be to use the 14th Amendment and stop this insurrectionist cold!

In the meantime, what can we do to block this devolution towards destruction? Well, as I’ve said before, we, as voters, need to make a statement in the 2022 election. And that statement needs to read, “Dems Score Landslide Win in Midterms. Increase Majorities in Both Houses!”

As Danny Kaye once said, I believe in the Court Jester: “Get it? Got it! Good!

Another Civil War in America? Possibly but not Probably

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Civil War in America in the 2020s? Well…We’re not talking about a North versus South like war in the 1860s. There’s no chance of that, for sure. But we are talking about–and Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger has warned us about a current national emergency to that effect in his interview with CNNs Wolf Blitzer–a series of violent episodes in a number of cities instigated by certain conservative leaders and billionaires as a kind of race war to scare suburbanites into voting Republican in the next election so as to return Republican majorities to the House and Senate thereby paving the way for Trump to run again in 2024. These race riots are indeed possible but, I believe, not probable. Why? Because we are a consumer society, so dependent upon the ability to shop that we base our very existence–soulless as it may be–on buying things, whether they be necessities or luxuries. And the pandemic has made this even more so, which has led to union-less Amazon growing into one of the most profitable companies of all time. So imagine if political violence in our streets led to the suspension of Amazon vans making deliveries to our doorsteps. Imagine if FedEx were faced with the same delays. And the USPS was unable to meet daily deliveries of mail with its social security checks, IRS rebates, business licenses and such, days, weeks, even months behind schedule.

There would still be the same political polarities as now but violence in the streets would not be tolerated by any of us–Trumpsters or liberals, QAnon-ers or pro vaxers–if we were not able to consume the way we are used to consuming. Like babies at their mother’s breast, we are happily addicted to such consumption and will not allow civil war violence in the streets to obstruct the engines of consumption, Trump or no Trump, Biden or no Biden, Pence or no Pence, Pelosi or no Pelosi, Cheney or no Cheney. All of those folks become irrelevant in the face of collective consumption, the one aspect of our society that binds us all together, that solidifies our needs and desires, that makes us one United States. Black, white, red, yellow, Jew, Christian, Moslem, young, old, middle aged, rich, poor, middle class, yes, even white supremacists: We all to a person consume every day of our lives. We eat. We play. We rest. And…we buy. And none of us can do without buying. It’s too ingrained in our heritage, our history, our national psyche.

The pandemic led to many jobs being lost. So why is it that we’ve set a new record for jobs gained? The reason is clear. People, all people, need money to buy things for their personal comfort, happiness, contentment, security, and survival. They may collect unemployment for a time but usually it’s not enough to fulfill our needs and wants. They may be making minimum wage for a time but often they decide they want and need more, so they get more schooling or training or self employment: anything to make more to get more. Buying a home or living in a nice apartment in a nice neighborhood? You can’t get those on unemployment or working at lousy wages with lousy benefits for a lousy boss who treats you like you know what.

So who’s going to tolerate or support rampant and indiscriminate violence breaking out in the streets, spawned by anti vax mandaters, or the Trump lie of a stolen election, or a mask mandate for school children? Trump Republicans? Progressives? Truckers in Canada? Youth? Aged? Blacks? Whites? Who? Such violence and what it will mean for ordinary citizens and their daily lives will hit home quickly as they see the economy grind to a halt, and all the delivery trucks come to a stop and brick and mortar companies close down.

Then perhaps the civil warriors will be exposed on the streets, like the king with no clothes, and rounded up, arrested, prosecuted, and jailed, along with those in authority who managed, encouraged, organized, and instigated them (as on January 6 in D.C.). Perhaps then some good might come from such civil disturbances, and we can finally wipe the slate clean of such destructive elements of our society, cleaning out the entire pipeline instead of just the muck in the drain.

The Story of Noah as it applies to our climate crisis today

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The writers of the Old Testament were wise men indeed, much wiser than many today who read the Bible literally. They think there really was a flood that covered the Earth as punishment for wayward human beings. Archeologists and geologists, of course, would have discovered evidence of this and they have not. Many people today think there really was a man called Noah who was commanded by God to build a giant ark where he would gather his followers and two of every species on Earth to weather the coming flood.

Well, I submit, it never happened. I submit that the story of Noah and the Ark was an allegory, a story to teach human beings to clean up their act and pay attention to how they treat each other along with the environment of their home planet. Noah and his followers, I believe, represent the potential of the human race. The ark is our planet. The flood represents God, a Higher Power, or Nature. The figurative consequences of the Great Flood are what will happen if we continue on our path of foolish destruction and disregard for mining and using fossil fuels. Falling levels of CO2 twice turned Earth into a snowball, completely covered with ice, and greenhouse gas emissions from volcanic activity warmed it up it again.
“Life is based largely on carbon,” explained paleontologist Andrew Knoll. “It’s a unique element that can give rise to the molecular complexity that characterizes life, but it’s also uniquely important to environmental history. The reason it’s getting warmer right now, is that we are moving a lot of CO2 into the atmosphere.”

Noah’s safe landing after the flood represents the salvation of people who follow the warning signs of environmental and social deterioration. The solution to our present climate crisis is in the hands of human beings who are the present dominant species on the planet. We are relative newcomers but we’ve risen very quickly to a place of such brain power and intention that we control and are married to the fate of the planet, for better or worse, till death do us part, as our marriage vows say.

We now have a small possibility of reversing our destructive tendencies since the start of the first oil wells on the planet were drilled in Russia in 1846 and the U.S. in Pennsylvania in 1859. We’ve obviously done a lot of damage in a very brief amount of time. And the figurative Biblical flood waters are rising quickly (quite literally with the rapid melting of glaciers worldwide).

Of course in order to accomplish that reversal there must be the political will to do so. And that’s the current rub. Trump Republicans, who are almost all of the Republicans, want nothing to do with climate change including nothing to do with counteracting it. Democrats, almost all of whom, are completely on board with acknowledging the human causes of climate change and the realities of converting to alternative fuels and lifestyle changes required of our citizens. The chasm between our political parties for this and other legislative changes is huge, and is literally a measure of life and death for our species and our planet. And ultimately our voters will decide whose side they want to rule the country and hence the fate of Earth.

Whose side are you on?