Beelzebub bowed down to the Don. “What an easy mark he is,” thought the Devil. “Just a little bit of flattery and he’s eating out of my hand.”
The Donald looked around him. They were alone, so no one else could see this remarkable exchange taking place. He had finally arrived! Someone the Donald looked up to was paying homage to him. “Go on, get up. No need for formality here.”
Beelzebub took advantage of the proffered familiarity, and slunk over to the Donald’s side, taking his arm. “You already have just about anything I can offer. The best women money can buy, the camaraderie of those leaders you like to pal around with, sycophants who thought they held power in this nation until they came up against you. What more do you desire?”
The Donald thought for a brief moment. “I want to make it certain I get elected, then I want to never have to have an election after that.”
Beelzebub pondered on how best to make this bargain. He had already received the Donald’s soul wrapped up in a bow. The only thing left was the submission of the foreclosure notice. Then he knew. He knew what he could do that would provide the ultimate takedown for this preposterous charlatan so looked up to by his admirers. “You know that thing you said about shooting someone on 5th Avenue and not losing a supporter? Well, we can make that happen, and once it does, no one will ever challenge you again.” Beelzebub looked around, making certain no one else could overhear them. “I’ll get you Alvin Bragg out there on 5th Avenue. You can’t ask for anything more.”
The Donald appeared gleeful. “That’s wonderful. I’ve always wanted to take down that stuffed shirt. How he ever got elected, I’ll never know. One of those affirmative action hires for sure. Probably has immigrant blood in him.”
Beelzebub stroked his goatee. This was going better than he had any reason to expect. Not only was the mark accepting the bargain, he was pushing the bounds by asking for more.
Since Beelzebub was nearly omnipotent, the Donald instantly found himself outside of his namesake tower, holding a semi-automatic rifle just like the images he would see festooned on banners his followers liked to display. Only those banners had muscular definition that the Donald sorely lacked, though no one dared to mention it to the Donald. Sure enough, walking across the street the Donald could pick out the form of Alvin Bragg. The Donald raised the rifle, and pulled the trigger. Since this was still under the control of Beelzebub, the Donald found that the rifle he held was fully automatic. The rapid firing did bring down the Manhattan DA, but also brought down dozens of other denizens of Manhattan as collateral damage.
The Donald yelled excitedly. “Got him. I got him.”
Swiftly the Donald’s Secret Service escorts came up and grabbed the offending weapon from his hands. One of his escorts put his finger on the trigger, and it fired wildly across 5th Avenue. That unlucky agent was instantly gunned down by the others in the patrol. The agents huddled, and soon came up with the story that it was only a rogue agent who was responsible for the carnage. The Donald was totally innocent.
His legend grew. Those who were hesitant at giving their total allegiance, now could barely stand the wait in line to give their own obeisance to the Donald. Those who had spoken up previously somehow mysteriously lost their voices. It was strange to see the leading subject matter on networks like MSNBC, now disappearing into the cable void. They had to find new topics to take the time. Did you know that Anthony Fauci is now employed by pharmaceutical companies? I didn’t until the topic of the Donald disappeared from view. So what that his employment is truly with academia, we all know who’s really paying the bill.
The campaign flew past in a blur. Those who had talked about the interminable length of the upcoming campaign, had to swallow their words as the news cycle swung around to the unbearable lightness of the Donald’s being, as each pronouncement became more favorable for the Donald. Election day was upon the US, and the outcome was a foregone conclusion. Not only was it possible for the Donald to shoot someone on 5th Avenue, and not lose support, but somehow the actual act of shooting folks on 5th became part of the allure of the Donald. Why vote for steady competence when you could vote for the nation’s latest superhero! The Donald, with his photo shopped abs, holding an AK! The voters of this nation spoke with almost one voice, selecting the obese one to lead the country. Soon it would be inauguration day.
Beelzebub rubbed his hands together in glee. Time to foreclose.
In the rest of the northern hemisphere, Spring is inexorably coming. The daffodils have burst forth, and the Lenten roses are blooming. In the isolated world of politics, winter is coming. We face a reprise of the 2020 election in the US, with two flawed candidates leading their respective party tickets. Meanwhile, the legislature in the state of West Virginia has fitfully drawn to a close, with extended debate over culture war touchpoints, and not much else. It seems that the faults inherent in the original constitution have finally manifested themselves in our current political climate. We have the reality of the supreme body of the judicial branch, which is suffering from the lowest approval ranking of its long duration, and it also suffers from the sclerosis of its longest tenured members thinking they have all the answers, therefore they have inherent rights most of us can only dream about.
We have a legislative branch which has twisted itself into knots, bringing Shakespeare’s line to mind. Merely a sound and fury, signifying nothing. At the same time, the effectiveness of the executive branch of government is greatly hamperedt, with many in one party doubting the legitimacy of the current leader based only upon the repeated bleating of the past leader and his minions.
You can go back a long time and never come up with a time when all three branches of government were viewed with as much disdain as is found today. Always there was at least one branch of the three-headed creature called the US Federal Government which would fulfill its purpose as spelled out in the Constitution. Now? It seems like we continue to have crises in confidence streaming out hourly through social and commercial media. No longer is it necessary to hide your hypocrisy or your racism. In fact, if you don’t manifest it daily, you will be outed as a “gasp” liberal or RINO, since you obviously are not a true believer.
We don’t have to believe in nasty facts anymore. We do not need a common understanding of any situation. Just sit back and let the languid tones of your political superiors wash over you like a full-body massage. After all, you never need to really understand the implications of our political choices. If you say often enough that one candidate is enfeebled due to advanced age, then it entitles you to a free pass for all of your own gaffes, and allows you to claim execution of “sarcasm” as a reason for your misstatements.
What I really dislike is the tendency of people to assume problems that have built up over a 50-year period are owned strictly by the party currently in charge of the Executive branch of government. Memory does not extend back to the abhorrent acts of the previous administration. Well, for those who wish to understand why so many folks in the US are unhappy, it would be good to review the income distribution for the US. The last data I’ve seen was from 2019, so it does not cover the pandemic and subsequent recovery. That data shows 30% of families across the US earn $40,000 or less. For a full-time employee, that is less than $20 / hour. I would maintain that this amount is not sufficient to live on and support a family in any metropolitan area within the US. Even in my depressed area of West Virginia, that level of income would not allow you to live unless you already owned your house outright. And even then, the mandatory bills keep increasing. Utility bills in this state are soon to eclipse housing cost, as this state holds onto coal-based electricity, and inefficient water and gas utilities. A base level of utility service is approaching $500/month. For those who are retired, with inflexible incomes, these increases in utility costs are causing real hardship.
Yet our taxation and other governmental policies seem to indicate a lack of concern for these folks. Every program aimed at assisting these people who are working hard, is viewed as yet another handout for the undeserving. Indeed, there is a supposition of moral superiority for those who do not need any governmental assistance. Why do you think there is such a preference for unearned income (capital gains, dividends) in the Federal tax system vs. earned income (wages). Since taxation represents a moral judgement, the tax system at a Federal level reveals a strong preference for not working but merely using money to make more money.
There are so many cases where the moneyed class decry any assistance to the working class, on the stated belief that those who labor for a living do not deserve to receive governmental largesse, but giving taxation relief to the moneyed classes is morally required, since all taxation is viewed as illegal taking (thanks Ayn Rand). Now this group has its sights set on the WV income tax, and is slowly reducing the taxation stream to the state, even though the income tax is 40% of state revenues. This is something that affects me personally. My taxes will be reduced, while a world of need exists throughout the state.
We have lost the ability to share a burden as a nation. We cannot comprehend that we need a viable service class, which means paying them a living wage. When prices go up (as has happened with fast food), we scream for succor. How many problems could be solved if people accepted increasing the revenue side for the government, instead of focusing solely on the “excess spending”. We will never solve the problems of this nation or state if we insist upon continuing the path begun under Ronald Reagan. Taxation is not an unreasonable taking, it is part of the cost associated with living inside of a society that is not tearing itself into pieces. Those who are insisting upon nouveau isolationism will find out sooner or later the truth of the old advertising adage – you can pay me now, or pay me later. And the cost of later payment will likely be much much higher than the costs associated with paying now.
I luxuriated in the feel of the February sunshine as I sat on a bench next to the Tidal Basin. It always felt good to enjoy the pre-spring warmth, tempered by the air cooled by the water nearby. Soon the trees would be wreathed in blossom, and this walk would be overwhelmed with tourists intent on capturing the perfect Instagram picture of the cherry trees. But for now, I had the entire basin nearly to myself.
Nearly to myself. That is what I thought I had. But soon I became aware of another presence coming towards me from behind. I turned around on the bench, and saw my friend Slimey approach me. Now Slimey was the original DC swamp monster, in fact, I first saw him coming out of the Tidal Basin. He is an 8’ tall reptile, sporting rapier-like claws and teeth that could tear you from end to end. But as Slimey became more used to human life, he began to lose some of his ferocity. Of course, the tailored suit he wore helped a great deal. Why, except for his tail which his trousers failed to cover, he looked just like any lobbyist from K Street.
Slimey came up, and sat at the opposite end of the bench. He said, in his sibilant-accented voice, “Friend. I hoped to find you here. Would you have a minute or two to help me with my research?”
Now, I did have plenty of time. But it is always the best of discretion to do whatever Slimey requested. We had a good relationship, but the possibility of his tearing my head off was constantly in my mind, whenever Slimey and I shared a space. So I said, “Sure. How can I help?”
Slimey smiled, then began. “I’ve been appointed merchandising manager for the Donald J. Trump On-line Emporium. Because of the overwhelming success of the shoes, we are trying to come up with new products that will move the needle just a bit, and manage to knock off just a few mill of the penalties that the legal system has imposed. You.” And here he paused for a moment, to turn and look at me. Slimey’s head could not move independently of his body, so it took longer for him to look directly at me. He continued. “You are part of my focus group. Not everyone I meet is willing to overlook my appearance, but you always have. Thank-you for that, friend.”
Well, flattery will get you anywhere, and even if it is coming from an 8’ tall reptile, I felt warmth run through me that wasn’t induced from the sun. I said, “Go on. I’m dying to hear about the products you have come up with.”
Slimey took that in, and bobbed his head slightly. He began. “First, there’s the Donald J. Trump hot air balloon. Just an ordinary latex balloon, but covered in a pithy saying, and complete with an inflator that exposes the saying, while filling the balloon with hot air. Floats for just a while, then comes back down to earth.” He stopped, awaiting my reaction.
I had to say, this was an underwhelming offering. “I’d pass on that one.”
Slimey didn’t seem to take the rejection personally, just went on to the next product. “We’ve come up with a dual-use product. It is a tube of Donald J. Trump laxative and hemorrhoid cream. Put a little in your drink, and then a bit on your tuckus. A little dab will do you.”
I thought for a moment. “That has some promise. I can see that being useful for your key demographic groups.”
Slimey shook his head up and down in agreement. “Yes, I thought we had a winner with that one. Now just wait till you hear about this next offering. It’s Bigley Condoms. Each package guaranteed to fit even the most demanding customer.”
That one took me aback a bit. “Wouldn’t that product offend some of your key constituents? I know some of them hold to the belief that every sperm is sacred. A product aimed at recreational sex? Don’t think it will fly.”
Slimey looked a little sad. “I had high hopes for that product. Ah, well, this next one is sure to be a winner. It is toilet paper, but not ordinary toilet paper. It is paper with each square embossed with a T, outlined in 24k gold. This is aimed at our more discerning followers.”
Slimey had done it again. I could see this being a runaway success, especially if paired with the laxative. And this was the first product I could see with major cross-over appeal. Even those who oppose the Donald would jump at the chance to apply this to their bodies. “Slimey, you have a real winner here. I can see this one becoming a product for all Americans. This one could bring about true unity in our country.”
Slimey got up. He had received enough feedback to proceed. After he said his farewell, and disappeared beyond the Jefferson Memorial, I thought I would look forward to the opportunity to purchase some of this new product and give it the honor it deserved as it served its purpose.
You hear them before you feel them. The thundering herd of kittens chasing each other up the stairway. If you are lucky, you are not on the landing path of a cat. It is amazing how much like a trampoline you become on some of these jaunts. It is morning, the sky has lightened from full blackness, and the humans need to be awakened to share the day.
It is hard to remember that these cats were small enough to fit on a hand when they came to us in August. They have grown immeasurably since their debut, but still possess the properties of digital cats. When they are in the 1 state, they chase each other endlessly, often ending up in bouts of wrestling that would put the WWE to shame. Yet even though they seem to go after each other in violent battle, the claws are not normally out. Only when you share a morsel from the table do you get real hostility being expressed, mainly from Chessie, the calico. She is the one who is more motivated by food, and is faster to the food bowl when the automated feeder has paid off.
Ah yes, the table. We try to make our kitchen table and counters off-limits, but we seldom are successful. Merry, the tabby cat, seems to regard these spaces as her inalienable property, and though we use a water sprayer in an attempt to extinguish this behavior, it only serves as a deterrent for a second. She will repeat her walk time after time, viewing the spraying as a mere inconvenience. Only when you spray her directly in the face will she get down, and sometimes her table transit is merely interrupted, as she returns almost immediately. I can be at the sink, and feel her jump onto my back, which meant she had to get on the table to take her flying leap. My shoulders are also off-limits while I am standing, but that does not seem to eliminate Merry’s desire to perch in a high spot.
Thank heavens we got them a fantastic cat tree at Christmas time. When they finally power down to a zero state, we can usually find them on the top two perches of this tree. They get to look down on us, which, to a cat, is the way it should be. They should be the most important beings around, with the only exception being seeking a lap for added warmth. The cat tree is also one of the prime spots for battle. If one is on the top perch, and the other decides it should belong to her, the battle takes place at a height that would be dizzying for me. To them, it is only an inconvenience if they cause the cat tree to shake and shimmy. Their sense of balance is so much better than humans, it is like they are from another planet.
My wife used to refer to our sons as the two boy destructo crew. That may have been an exaggeration, but it is no exaggeration to refer to these cats as the two cat destructo crew. We can be up in bed, and hear something fall downstairs, and we will hope that whatever it was, it didn’t break. Sometimes that is not the case, and it is amazing how much fun you can have with a piece of broken glass. It is hard, and makes noise as it scoots across the floor. In fact, you can turn anything into a toy if you wish. That is how you can tell these are still kittens, though they recently underwent the adult cat hysterectomy. We hope they stay kittens for a long time.
Have you ever had a retriever cat? Merry will pick up one of her toys, a fuzzy ball, or a ribbon bow, and deposit it on top of us. We are expected to take it and throw it. Merry then bounds off of us, and grabs it in her mouth, bringing it back to repeat the game. If we are in bed, and the toy happens to be a fuzzy ball, it is even better if it bounces down the stairs, since that is a longer way to run. Chessie will show interest in whatever we throw, but she never brings it back. For Merry though, this is one of her favorite games, and we can repeat the throw and retrieval many times before she tires.
These cats are one of the reasons I have not been active recently on this blog. It is hard to compose when cats are waling all over the keyboard, and chasing the mouse icon across the computer screen. Combine that with the disappearance of an earlier blog post about these kittens, and the general sense of malaise I’ve had recognizing we are running a rerun of the last presidential election, and soon I find it is nearly a month and a half since I’ve written a post. Suffice it to say I still plan to keep on writing posts, since it is now 7 years since I first wrote a post. Every so often, I see that someone has read a post from several years ago, and I am glad.
I just wish that this form of writing was more popular than is currently the case. I am convinced that we are undergoing a devolution in concentration spans. Very few have a desire to read something beyond what you may find on an Instagram post. Concentrating and thinking are becoming lost arts. And if we continue to devolve, human life span will continue to decrease, as it has in the US over the past several years. It is painful to think that it may take evolution to demonstrate that a reliance on science, with its medicines and prescriptions to avoid global calamity, confers a reproductive advantage. That is what appears to be happing in the US. Humanity seems to be engaged in a living trial where we see whether ignorance or comprehension is better for our species. Unfortunately, we are having to live through this period of idiocy where centuries of knowledge is cast away by those who have no belief in vaccines. And that is just one example of the growing influence of the deliberately ignorant.
It would be so easy to slip into an adoration mode. All I need to do is adopt racist attitudes and actions, and I would not react in an emetic fashion to his pronouncements. To think it could be that easy, to slip into a comatose state where all things emotional are provided by my master. Of course, we have to oppose any immigration, since only evil people want to come in over our borders. Of course, it is only white northern European stock that is capable of advancing society. Those primitive natives in shithole countries have never invented anything. It is only because of our beneficence that they have any semblance of civilization. To think of then coming into our country and poisoning our blood, why it is an appalling concept!
Or so one side of the debate would have you believe. More and more, you hear only of the evils of immigration, and unwillingness to accept the “other”. Makes you wonder whether these hypocrites remember their Bible stories, since they are so eager to impose their supposedly biblically-based morality on everyone else. Do they remember the parable of the Good Samaritan, who was the one who cared about an injured person and spent their own money making certain that the injured person could recover from their wounds? Even though the injured person was from a different human group than the Samaritan? Probably not, since so much of the hypocrite’s time and energy is spent on making certain they never come across anyone different than themselves.
I wish we could adopt the same race consciousness that cats have. Differences in coat coloration do not matter in the least to a cat. Instead, they roll about in play not caring whether they cat they are playing with has a black, or tabby, or calico coat. We’ve adopted two kittens and they make no distinction about who they play with or any superficial differences between them.
It does seem that humanity is regressing, moving away from full integration of the flavors of humanity, and insisting on the superiority of a single strain of the population. This resistance to the future seems to be what is driving so much of our politics today. One side seems convinced we are in a zero-sum world, where advances by one group will result in diminished returns by all others. Since white, European people have been the dominant group in the US, challenges to that dominance are greeted with as much hostility as the aggrieved group can muster. When this fear is coupled with a political leader who explicitly gives permission to vent political incorrectness, we see an abandonment of supposedly long-established principles. It has long been said that the veneer of civilization is thin, and once it is removed, animal impulses come out. That is the explanation I see for the rank hypocrisy exhibited by what the Republican party has become. It is now a party of Archie Bunkers, full of rage against anything that would interrupt their stay in a recliner. What so many people fail to realize is how easy it is to fall from a high perch. If we resist coming change, it will overwhelm us and the dominant class will find out what it is like to live at the bottom of the ladder. If we don’t bend with the applied pressure, we will break. I for one do not wish to live in a society which is broken. If the party of regression somehow wins the next election, I’m afraid it will confirm a break. Such a result will make me think long and hard as to what my response will be.
Photo credit: Matt Barnard/Tulsa World Via AP. Photo of Tulsa rally 2020.
He viewed the slope going up to the microphone. Damn it, they forgot his explicit instructions that he was never to walk up or down an inclined plane. “Bring me my golf cart”.
One of his flunkies retrieved the golf cart from the hold of his plane, and drove up to him. He threw his 320- pound frame into the empty seat, and the cart took care of the hard work of the 1-10º slope right away. He swiveled his legs to the side, and gestured for the driver to go back behind the crowd until he was needed to go down at the end of his diatribe.
Once he assumed his place behind the teleprompters, he felt at ease. He stiffly raised his arm above his head, then did a little jig as the speakers blared out YMCA. Totally out of time with the music, he seemed to be a parody of himself. Still, his crowd ate it up, roaring a cry of “4 more years!” as he basked in the adulation he was receiving. It mattered little that the crowd only filled half of the available space, and the empty chairs stretched well beyond the section of the hanger allotted for the press.
He started with one of his sure-fire lines for success. “See all of the fake news out there. Probably waiting till I make some comment about poisoned blood so they can compare me to Hitler. Well, let me tell you now. Hitler had nothing on me. I’m going to be the greatest of all time. Folks will remember me before they remember that Hitler fellow. I’m going to start by executing all of these peddlers of fake news. Then maybe I’ll start to get some better coverage by what’s left of the fake news.”
His crowd ate this up. They began a chant of “Dead Fake News! Dead Fake News!” He listened for a while, then began again.
“I don’t know why these folks are so upset about a few words that I say. Just wait till I can use my powers again. Powers that should never have been taken away from me. Everyone knows I won that election. Those Democrats stole it from me. I had 7 million more votes than in ’16. They’ve never seen someone gain that many votes over a term. We should have stopped counting votes that first night on election day. Each day that went on, we lost more and more ground. I want to change the Constitution so that only votes cast and counted on Election Day count. No more of this voting till it turns out like the Deep State wants. I’ve had enough of that. Have you had enough of that?”
“Enough! Enough! Enough!” The crowd, although somewhat small, still made an impressive sound as they yelled in unison.
He smiled back at the crowd beatifically. He let the shouts decay, then began again before they had totally died away. “Of course, I still have to deal with all of these fake indictments against me. That totally evil man, Jack Smith. How I hate him! Did you know his wife hates me even more that Jack does? Those are two really evil people.”
A yell began to emerge from the crowd spontaneously. “Hang Jack Smith! Hang Jack Smith!”
He let the chant raise up to a deafening crescendo before he went on. “I need to get inside of that Justice Department and shred all of those folks who are trying to persecute me. They will never forget how I get my revenge on them. And you are going to help me, by voting for me, but more importantly, sending me money. I’ve begun a new thing. I need you to tithe to me as well as give to your church. Only if I have enough money can I bring down the evil doers who want to go after me.”
There was no unified response to this last statement. Just a sort of murmur that filled the arena with muffled sound.
“Of course, there’s evil we still need to face in this world. Can you believe they still want to waste money sending it to Ukraine? What I need is for people to let me get those countries to stand down. Why, I bet I can get Russia and Ukraine to stop fighting 6 hours after I get back in the White House. And why stop there? Can’t you just see it if we are friends with Putin, and Xi, and Kim Jong Un? We could tell all the rest of the world to follow us. We’d have all of the power then! These leaders are my friends. We can rule together!”
The crowd legitimately went crazy after that. Shouts rang out throughout the crowd, nearly drowning out the shots fired into the ceiling by some of the patriots who were packing. A part of the crowd broke away, seeking out the few news media still left in the hanger. “Kill them now! Kill them now!” You could make out a few people who were doing their best to bring about summary execution. Fortunately for the media, most managed to make it out of the doors. It was only a few who were set upon by the crowd and torn to pieces.
He was just about done now. Only a few more phrases to toss out to his ravenous hordes. “Just remember. They are coming after me only because I am protecting you. Without me, you would be at the mercy of those terrible, terrible people who want to tear down this country. If you want this country to be great, you must support me. I’m the only thing keeping them away from you.” And with that, he motioned for his cart to come around. It duly appeared, and he went down the treacherous slope with no hesitation. He rode in the golf cart all the way to his plane, because it would have been a hundred-yard walk. Nobody could expect him to make that kind of physical exertion. It might have caused his 6-pack to collapse. And we wouldn’t ever want to see that, would we?
Which portion of the US do you live in? (My apologies to those of you outside of the US.) Do you live in the portion nursing a grudge about your way of life slowly evaporating and your dreams of success seeming further and further away? Or do you live in the portion where it is still possible to achieve the American dream of a life better than what was available to previous generations?
More and more, it is the education you have achieved which determines what portion of the US you live in. It is less possible for people to have skills wanted by employers if you do not have academic credentials. There are many jobs, jobs that sustained small towns and cities in the past, where it was possible to earn a measure of success without academic credentials. But now, with the withdrawal of manufacturing from America’s heartland, the variety of jobs left are mainly associated with chain restaurants and big box retail stores. Few of these jobs provide a salary that enables a married couple to survive on a single wage. So it is necessary to cobble together a living by selling your labor and time to a large company, and deal with the uncertainty regarding hours and schedule these types of jobs provide. The stress of living like this leads many to wonder where things went wrong. They result in envy against the “elite” people who hold their education as a mark of superiority. And they elected Donald Trump in 2016.
So what has happened in the 7 years since that initial election? Well for several years, we managed to coast by on momentum alone. Tax reductions were the pinnacle of policy achievement during the past presidential administration, but a careful look at their effects leads one to realize that the gains from those tax cuts were illusory at best. In 2019 the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) concluded that “Investment did not boom and workers will not see the promised bump in pay. Instead, the federal government incurred massive deficits while wealth inequality increased to its highest level in three decades.” And then, in 2020, the COVID pandemic hit. An economy already running on the high-octane mix of lower taxes and higher corporate profits, was hit by the reality of an illness no one had seen, and no one was able to develop an effective strategy against the disease.
It took a while, but battle lines hardened over response to COVID. One side seized on initial inconsistencies by those who pleaded with others to follow the science. They insisted that the virus (if it indeed existed) was not justification alone for mandating a ceasing of economic activity. It infringed the ability of people to take risks on their own, which they did increasingly as the effects of the virus eventually weakened. So now we see the results. As the National Institute of Health reported in December 2022, a 10-percentage-point increase in vaccination was associated with an 18.1% decrease in mortality after 6 months (95%CI, 7.4–28.8%), Still you see “conservatives” claiming evil effects of vaccination, pointing to massive epidemics of heart ailments and cancer which were supposedly caused by vaccines. Funny how these epidemics have not been reported in any responsible media. I will admit I greatly misread the popular response when mRNA vaccines came along. I believed many who were anti-vax would take to these new vaccines which did not rely upon traditional vaccine techniques. I was not ready for the virulent opposition to any vaccine.
Now we are actually seeing human evolution in action. Those who choose to believe science have a better survival rate than those who actively repudiate science. Let me be the first to state that science is not always straight forward. What people don’t understand is that science is aimed at providing the most accurate answers given the information available. As more information becomes available, scientific advice may change. The majority of the public does not understand this. Indeed, they do not understand statistics or confidence intervals at all. The statistic given above says that at a 95% confidence interval, the true value of mortality reduction is between 7.4 and 28.8%. The difference cannot be explained away by chance. So this pandemic has manifested itself in more science believers living, while more science deniers died. If this persisted for multiple generations, it would result in more people with higher education (and by proxy, higher IQ’s) surviving and reproducing.
Today we are seeing the last bastions of physical trait superiority trying to maintain their position atop the social pyramid. When US Senators challenge hearing witnesses to get it on, indeed, when mixed martial artists can get elected as US Senators, it shows how an appeal to brute force is trying mightily to hold on to power. There is no better example of that than the bully-in-chief we see trying to recapture the presidency. The antithesis of intellectual curiosity, somehow he has established dominance over his tribe of like-minded followers. And just like the alpha male chimpanzee, he maintains that dominance only until a bigger bully is able to defeat him.
Legislation recently approved has tried to re-establish manufacturing across this nation. Large battery factories are favoring the rural heartland. But now these plants are having difficulty in hiring, partially because fewer believe in manufacturing as a viable career, and partly because even an assembly-line position requires education beyond high school. Community colleges are trying to fill that void, but it may require several years before the work force needed for these new manufacturing jobs will enable these new plants to be the job magnets capable of sustaining rural communities. Some might say that the inhabitants of fly-over country have become weak, but I have confidence we will eventually meet the challenges of education in this country. It will require effort and sacrifice. What I fear is the devolution of the American peoples as someone pledges to make things better without pain or sacrifice.
Indeed, this country seems determined to prove that no central government is needed. As was stated, the purpose of an administration should be to shrink government so it can be dragged into the bathroom and drowned in the bathtub. The siren song of economic growth is equated with freedom. Well, sooner or later this 40+ year march to the bottom that began with Ronald Reagan must stop, and the trend must reverse, or else we will only find out how much our government has done for us through its absence.
So it’s time to wade into the poisoned, choppy waters surrounding Gaza. There are many shoals upon which other writers have foundered, with people on both sides of the issue stating that if you don’t agree with their position 150%, you are evil and sub-human. Almost vermin-like.
My thoughts are these. Three wrongs don’t make a right. The first wrong is the conditions Israel imposed upon the peoples of Gaza for decades. All materials sent into Gaza were viewed as being potentially diverted by Hamas to weaponry, therefore Israel must maintain a full blockade upon Gaza. This continuous isolation has led to generations of Palestinians being drained of hope for useful change.
The second wrong was the horrendous invasion of Israel on October 7. No matter the provocation, the acts of Hamas in slaughtering civilians and forcing captives into their enclave was wrong, morally and tactically. It stands as acts of barbarism without a hope for a peaceful solution.
Then comes the third wrong. Due to the interminable squabbling among Israeli political factions, the Prime Minister has had to tether himself to extreme factions in order to avoid ongoing prosecutions and imprisonment. Gee, wonder what nation that resembles? What it has led to is an intransigent government which is seeking to extend its control over others, includng the people of the West Bank. It is significant that members of the current coalition holding temporary power over the Israeli people now declare their intent to greatly extend settlements in the West Bank. All the time the fundamentalist fringe in Israel keeps growing, leading to a significant portion of the Jewish inhabitants of Israel withdrawing from society, studying only the sacred texts as their sole purpose in life.
There is no doubt that the problems of Gaza and the West Bank are inextricably linked with the existence of Israel. The Palestinians as a people were created by the dispossession of the inhabitants, in order to allow the remaining Jewish populations in Europe to have a place of their own. It was not viewed as a serious obstacle that the land already was possessed by many others. In a way, it was as if the dispossession of the indigenous people of the American west was compressed into a single episode. That act, and in the following conquests by the Israelis, have allowed the situation to fester for 75 years. Both sides in this struggle have had opportunities to withdraw from the conflict. But neither side saw an adequate solution to their distress, and their stubbornness has led to the intractable situation we now face. Israel is right, in that they cannot live next to a people whose representatives call for their complete annihilation. Since the fighters of Hamas have chosen to blend into the civilian population, any attempt to dislodge Hamas has resulted in mass civilian death and the despoiling of any semblance at civilization.
What is the answer to this conflict? I have no answer other than to say it is obvious the path both sides are on is sure to end up in more and more bloodshed. Israel is probably right in its insistence that Hamas is using hospitals and schools to shelter their operations, since Hamas knows any destruction of these facilities will be viewed as war crimes by the rest of the world. It is damn difficult to extract fighters from a city’s population when you cannot tell who is a fighter and who is not. And though it is clear Hamas only had a plurality supporting them when elections were last held, who knows what percentage would support them today. Even though their resistance will ultimately be futile, they were driven to the horrible events of October 7 because of the hopelessness of the Palestinian case. When multiple generations of people live without hope, horrible things can happen. And in the case of Gaza, Hamas, and Israel, they have happened.
Our normal Thursday night church choir rehearsal was interrupted, by a visitor who clearly did not belong. Now our church is home to an AA meeting happening at 8, but this visitor was an hour early if their intent was to go to that meeting. He came in in slippers, which he left at the front of the sanctuary. He wore what appeared to be a hospital gown, and went back to the last section of the sanctuary. We asked if we could help, but he said he was just there to listen. I found my eyes wandering back to him repeatedly to give me a heads up should he behave even more erratically. Then later in the rehearsal, he got back up, retrieved his slippers, and disappeared.
On the next Sunday, as we were practicing before the service, someone came in and sat in the front row of pews. Again, we asked if we could help, and in a voice straight from an apocryphal movie he described how he wanted the word of God preached so as to stir up the emotions of the congregation, and he wanted to know if that was going to happen here. We let him know the service began in about 45 minutes, and he was free to go to the Adult Forum down the hall. This was a different person from the one who interrupted rehearsal the previous Thursday, but he exuded a stench of weirdness across the sanctuary. I half expected him to have LOVE and HATE tattooed on his knuckles, but fortunately never got close enough to confirm or deny this.
Why do I mention these two invasions? Because I am convinced it is only a matter of time before we are subject to someone who objects to our openness about LGBTQ topics. I mean, after all, we dedicated a plaque to Matthew Shepard that is now above the heads of one half of our choir. Someone will enter our sanctuary with a fully functional assault rifle, and decide to make their moral stand in favor of the vitriol of the old Testament, or the various sogynies that Paul espoused over his evangelistic career. Indeed, the Jesus who spoke the Beatitudes is foreign to most of these vindictive souls, who follow the letter of the word rather than the intent of Christianity as described by Jesus. I am so furious about the perversions of Christianity we see daily as followers of Trump conflate his actions with those of their supposed Lord and master.
We at St. John’s in Charleston are particularly vulnerable. We’ve been home to a ministry that feeds all comers, breakfast and dinner, since the mid-70’s. It was literally a godsend for the working poor who would participate. But somehow since the pandemic descended, things just haven’t been the same. Now this week there was an incident that affected the Catholic school across the street, and the immediate response is to stop the serving of meals at the church. For how long, we cannot say. This will help in reducing the number of potential intruders, but for the most part, it is not the mentally unstable who participate in this ministry that cause the most concern.
It seems the whole US society is subjecting itself to an uncontrolled experiment. Unabated access to firearms with no controls whatsoever. More and more guns flood the streets, and it is obvious guns are in the hands of people who are not stable enough to possess said weaponry. Yet many cry out for even more access. We should have the ability to purchase silencers with no limits. We should have bump stocks to convert a semi-automatic into a weapon almost like an automatic rifle. And if I am accused of an offense serious enough to trigger a domestic protective order? Since I am only accused, it will violate my constitutional rights to own a weapon if the order results in the removal of my weapon. It literally does not matter that your odds of becoming a gun victim go up if you own a weapon, the answer to all weapon offenses is let’s have more weapons.
So I will continue to sit in the choir pews awaiting the inevitable. It is not what I originally signed up for in becoming a choir member. I thought I was lending my voice as my gift to our worship services. Unfortunately in this day and age, in the country I live in, more and more we sit as potential victims to the next unstable person with access to weapons, who is convinced that the moral sin of mass murder is less odious than the horrendous sin of supporting the LGBTQ community. Odds are still in my favor for not having to face such a person. But I ask for how long?
Even A Broken Clock 