One more time responding to the 'flat earthers'...

    In my last post I iterated the pointlessness of words when discussing politics and Mr. Trump in particular, but the below article was later posted in the local newspaper ( people are Republican by a 2 to 1 ratio in Warren County) and I had to respond rather than be complicit in my silence. I am encouraged by the fact that Science magazine-the premier American journal for science and the scientific search for Truth-and Scientific American-another science magazine catering more to the layperson-have both resolved to become more political in their defense of reality.  After Mr. Trumps deliberate lies about co-vid ( ... the latest among many) were revealed in Bob Woodwards book 'Rage', both institutions decided they had to become more vocal about defending facts against the distorted Facebook and Trump worldview. So here are scans of both the original article and my response, printed a week later: ...you may have to click on the images to read them properly...

POSTSCRIPT:  This is another local letter to editor which exemplifies the distorted moral arguments of some religious people-as if this guy would defend Trump if he murdered people because "God"s plan would support an arrogant, low character leader through some sort of dysfunctional association with Christianity. Whatever happened to the 10 commandments and simple human decency and compassion? This is the kind of simplistic, inconsistent thinking that really concerns me... ( ...my copying software corrupted the punctuation and capital letters etc, but the words are exactly as printed )

Dear Editor: 

Donald Trump is a fighter! He fights"tooth and nail," sometimes not even waiting for his opponent to finish speaking. That is what I like about him! Our nation is being lured by the left toward socialism and we are in a desperate battle to continue with Christian principles and freedom of religion.We do not need a "Mr. Nice Guyl" We need a fighter! I admire Mr. Trump for his savvy, strength and courage to stand up against our enemies, at home and abroad.: Mr. Trump is not perfect; not able to judge what will happen in the future.Will you who are perfect step forward and "cast the first stone ..." "With the media against him and their constant broadcasting of mostly the negative and omitting much of the good, I arn amazed at his strength and will-power to continue. In both the Old and New Testament, we're told about many strong leaders who were very imperfect people. Moses committed murder, King David committed adultery and murder, Saul,, before he became Paul,was like a "religious gangster," Peter and the other disciples lived beside Jesus,heard his teaching and saw Him perform miracles, and yet when He needed their support and prayers, they failed Him. But look how God later used these as leaders.God seems to delight in using very imperfect people to do His work. Many church-goers in England at first did not look with favor at Winston Churchill, perhaps because of his bull-dog look and fondness for certain liquid refreshment. Some preachers today have come under the shadow of political correctness, that they are afraid to talk from the pulpit about anything political for fear it may offend someone and they will no longer attend their church to put their money into the offering plates ..."doesn't sound like Nathan the prophet who risked his head when he stood before king David and courageously said, "Thou art the man l" God can use even imperfect rnen like Mr. Trump. May we Americans be wise enough to look beyond his faults and give him the support he needs to lead us away from socialism. I have lived in a socialistic country for 14 years! I have seen it first hand. Socialism does notwork well at all, except for those of the government who are in control. It sounds good, but it does not encourage people to work. Why work when the government will do everything for you?" is a temptation too many cannot resist, But, someone said, "Hunger is a good motivator. " On the Internet, I watched a political advertisement in favor of Joe Biden. I heard the man talk about looking at his face and knowing he was a "good dude." Heaven help us if we judge people by their face, soft manner and smooth talk, Most politicians are attractive people and able to talk perfectly and look you right in the eye while they lie to You. May we be wise enough to judge our leaders by what they have done and not the smooth clever way they talk and promise. We need someone who has opposed the murder of precious unborn babies, who has greatly helped our economy and has supported Israel better than any American leader in a very long while.We need a fighter who can stand toe to toe against China's Xu Jinping, Russia's Vladimir Putin and North Korea's KimJong-un and not be deceived by lran's false promises. At the present it appears that the only candidate who can begin to do this is Mr. Trump. For the sake of my children and grand-children, I beg You, America, wake up! One last note. What a precious privilege to have the freedom and opportunity to write our feelings and opinions and have them published in a newspaper. This newspaper contributes greatly to our political and religious freedom. I express my sincere thanks and admiration.Stephen Rieder,Warren, PA

Trump....again

 

      As some people who know me know, I have been thinking about writing this Trump blog for a month, but whenever I start to write I think of the pointlessness of more words; four years into his administration there is nothing I can write that can further illuminate Mr. Trumps psychological constitution. What you see is what you get, and peoples minds are made up. In his inaugural address he lied about the size of the assembled crowd despite photographic evidence, and over his term has continually labeled the press the “enemy of the people. Now he is falsely claiming mail in ballots will cause election fraud despite evidence to the contrary, and despite that he himself uses them. It seems as though the average person who supports Mr. Trump does not much care about his moral or ethical character nor his dismissal of science, nor do they analyze how a born millionaire who has not had to work a day in his life can possibly understand their blue collar problems. Religious conservatives seem to totally disregard his infidelities and other character lapses in defense of anti-abortion and pro-Israel policies. That is, they support him because he claims to be a Republican (he has changed party affiliation 5 times since 1987) rather than because he is a good man. So, according to consistent polls, 35% of the American public agree with the cult of Trump regardless of what he says or does.

      Locally, I have heard supporters utter simplistic racist comments and believe that he is a great businessman despite his history of bankruptcies and money laundering for Russia and other corrupt regimes. Some would rather go down in a hail of bullets than give up their “right” to own an assault weapon. They resist wearing face masks because it is an infringement on their “rights” rather than empathizing that it is not their “right” to infect other people. To deflect from the true purpose of the Black Lives Matter protests, they focus on the looters and arsonists, who in fact are a minority- just as those cops who shoot blacks in the back are a minority. Both are criminals who must be disciplined. The difference is that the police monitor themselves. That is what the Black Lives Matter movement is struggling to change. Any closed institution- from a corporation to a police union to the Catholic Church, to the Washington bubble- is inherently self interested and needs outside oversight to function ethically. 

      From my perspective-and I am still struggling with the pointlessness of writing all these things- most people in the nation have chosen their own little tribe and many have been “grasping for opinion.” rather than facts and reality. The present demonizing of one another is a sure recipe for tension and discord and distrust. I have long ago learned that humility and compassion and compromise-and Truth- are the paths to peace, but there is little of that in the country right now... and too little genuine wisdom from the top on down.

    This is from a recent article/interview with Elizabeth Neumann:  

"Elizabeth Neumann left her position as assistant secretary of counterterrorism and threat prevention after three years at DHS. In an interview with NPR's Steve Inskeep, she offers a candid assessment of the counter-terrorism community's failure to address the threat posed by domestic extremism.

"He (Trump) uses rhetoric to scare people. This is a known psychological tactic that if you get people to fear, they tend to follow you to the solution of 'How are we going to save ourselves?' And his answer is, 'It's me. If you vote for me, I will save you,' " she says. "Well, for some people, the way that they think that they need to protect themselves, it's more than just a vote for a president. It's 'let me go kill people.' "

When Trump finally started using the term "domestic extremism" himself in the summer of 2020, it was in reference to the violence and looting that occurred during the protests across the country against police brutality targeting Black Americans, which the President attributed to "antifa." For Neumann, this was an obvious red herring. She says that the numbers don't bear out the idea that left-wing violence is as much of a problem as right-wing violence, and arrests during the summer's protests demonstrate that.

"If you look at the people that have been arrested for that, by and large, I mean, it's the boogaloo movement or it's an association with QAnon. It's the right side of the spectrum. It is not antifa." She's unequivocal about this "The threat of domestic terrorism is not from antifa. It is from these right-wing movements."...So... this lifelong Republican with an inside track will vote for Biden. Google it. Read the article. She witnessed it first hand. She knows the truth behind the BS.

POSTSCRIPT:   My sister and I disagree fundamentally about much of this, or at least, she is cynical about All people in power and thinks everything is corrupt and politicized and monetized. To her, nothing will separate the money from the politics and that Every bit of information-even the science- is skewed and biased and that 'her' side,( that is, the conservative, Christian voices), are deliberately and systematically being suppressed. It is a dark, pessimistic view of human nature, and I am not nearly as cynical as her, but we agree to disagree and an ability to talk is essential for peace in this nation and the world.

Racism Thoughts

 

 “Our new government is founded…upon the great truth that the Negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery…is his natural and moral condition.”- an excerpt from a speech by confederate Alexander Stephens, vice president to Jefferson Davis, at the beginning of the civil war. This quote is from the book “THESE TRUTHS” by historian Jill Lepore.      

   Unfortunately and depressingly, the founding of our nation is rooted in unconscionable moral depravity which is still alive and well in the hearts of many. While visiting the memorial park at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, sight of police brutality against civil rights protesters on March 7^th, 1965, I met one of the marchers who proudly showed me a scar on his forehead where he had been clubbed by a policeman all those years ago. He told me that the week before my visit someone had placed confederate flags all over the park. I told him that I felt like I had to apologize for the entire white race.

   Regardless of the wonderful progress that has been made in civil rights, it is clear that some persons would prefer that things remain as they were. Empathy and consideration for blacks is not at the forefront of their thoughts. Rather, tribalism and narrow beliefs overshadow any larger sense of unity. This fundamental division in people’s moral sense of right and wrong is the reason that families split apart and brother fought brother during the civil war, and it is the cause of so much bigotry today. Back then, martyr John Browns failure to start an uprising across the south during his attack on Harpers Ferry caused Robert E. Lee to label him a “fanatic or a madman.” At his trial before being hanged, Brown said “If it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice, and mingle my blood further with the blood of my children and the blood of millions in this slave country, whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel, and unjust enactments, I submit.”

   As a white male I am well aware of my white privilege. I have been privy to some of the conversations in the boys club of men in power. They were talking about their favoring of men over women when considering corporate advancement, but I suspect that anyone who would so dismiss an entire gender for the sake of business would discriminate against blacks if given the choice. Still, I do not know how to change the hearts of men, and fear it is as trying to change human nature. Black people themselves sometimes judge one another by the darkness of their skin, although that may be an ingrained reaction against trying to survive in a white dominated world. If it is not skin color corrupting moral integrity, it is religion, or money, or some other manufactured reason humans discriminate against one another. In that regard human beings are a woefully immature species.

     I shall be on the streets if nothing changes, and I pray that wiser people than our present leaders will prevail and that genuine progress will arise from the present protests. When whites can recognize that it is not them who are being choked and shot in the back by police, and admit that the acquittal of O.J. Simpson by a mostly black jury was a predictable retribution by a victimized people, then we can move forward.  POSTSCRIPT: The book is a detailed explanation by a career law enforcement black man of how police and societal systems in this country are dysfunctional and why the 'Black Lives Matter' movement is so important. It was written in 2018 before George Floyd's murder in 2020 awakened white people to the decades long injustices.

   

May

  After snow and snow showers for much of April and May, with occasional warmer days in between, the coldest May on record  locally is finally breaking into a more seasonal pattern. Snow on the 9th has become 60*F with trillium blooming in the woods. That oil rig sits idle in the middle of nowhere on a mountain top, probably halted because of the drop in oil prices. I'm not sure what will become of fossil fuels, but I suspect that a lot of people are hungry to resume their wasteful ways, so I wouldn't write oil off just yet. At the very least countries like Saudi Arabia are going through some difficult times, and the entire Middle East needs to diversify its economy to avoid even more instability.
    The virus is beginning to test everyone's patience, so the economy is slowly reopening regardless of the pandemic. With a lag time of 2-3 weeks we shall see if the disease re-spikes by mid June. One of Mr. Trumps few wise utterances a month ago is that we have to be careful that the "cure" (shutting down) is not worse than the disease. It seems as though some people are reaching the point that they Need to work and Have to take their chances of getting sick. Regardless, the federal, state, and local governments cannot keep spending money without some genuine productivity.

Virus Thoughts

     While I was roaming around the south in February and heard about the corona virus, I dismissed the public reaction as overblown, assuming that it was essentially a flu like illness mostly dangerous to the elderly or those with compromised immune systems. That assessment is generally true, for apparently it is people with diabetes, heart, renal or lung problems, and those over 70years old who are most susceptible. Of course some younger people have died, and nationwide obesity has been a precursor of the above health conditions, so it has become a more serious disease than at first projected.

      In Colorado on March 13^th Beth and I first witnessed the panic buying of toilet paper, which confused us because the disease is primarily respiratory rather than intestinal, but we assumed that people were following some ignorant comment that they had read on Facebook or Twitter. Heading home we realized that such behavior was common nationwide as the pandemic had progressed, although more rational people have begun sewing masks and volunteering at food banks and doing other more positive things. 

       There is enough misinformation and disinformation and uncertainty regarding this pandemic that I do not believe anyone knows how it will all turn out, but I have no doubt that the country and the world will survive. With a 2% death rate, even if everyone in the world became infected there would remain some 6.4 billion people. Not much solace for those affected but definitely not the end of the human species. That assumes that the majorities of people would remain civil and turn to compassion rather than panic and selfishness. After seeing people fight over toilet paper I see that the mindset of the doomsday survivalists is based on hoarding guns and supplies to survive at any cost, not on generosity and compassion towards ones neighbors. When the Governor of Georgia, Brian Kemp, claimed that he did not know about the asymptomatic transmission of the virus despite widespread knowledge being disseminated for at least a month, it is clear that some people in power- Governors and religious leaders- continue to deny science and facts. By contrast, the leading virologist in South Korea recommended masks and testing and social isolation immediately after the disease emerged, and now that country has had a much less deadly outbreak, so reality and science Do matter more than political posturing and denial and procrastination.

        Governor Andrew Cuomo seems to be the most rational and productive leader in all this, and he is dealing with the most serious outbreak up to this date (April 5^th). It is dis- heartening but not surprising that he is being criticized by people like Sean Hannity, who want Cuomo to allow the use of hydroxychloroquine despite minimal evidence that it actually works for Covid 19, and that it has potentially serious side effects. Should sick people be allowed to choose? Perhaps, but once again, science and facts are our best defense and offense against any disease- not the ramblings of a former general contractor who has spread bogus conspiracy theories in the past.

          At the very least this virus has illuminated the deficiencies in our preparedness for such an outbreak despite years of warnings by Bill Gates and others. Besides ignoring warnings, politicians and businessmen have been sending the manufacture of critical supplies to Chins for decades. Fortunately, Mr. Gates has committed the resources of his foundation to accelerating vaccine production. Because the Chinese had already sequenced and publicized the genetic code of this coronovirus back in January, and because of previous work done on similar viruses, there are some human trials beginning among several companies. Will they all work? No, but assuring the efficacy and safety of vaccines ( or anti viral medications) takes time, so even 12-18 months is a very short time span as far as vaccine production goes. This is how science will prevail, and why facts and patience and compassion are so essential in the meantime.
       Science writer Sonia Shaw-who has written extensively about pandemics past and present-presently has an informative TED talk on video. Anyone wishing to be genuinely educated should watch it. She mentions many factors influencing our present situation, one of which is a research program headed by virologist Peter Dazsak ( the Eco Health Alliance) that  follows microbes emerging from the wild. Scientists literally study animal borne microbes to observe which ones are mutating, then take steps to help prevent the final mutation from jumping to humans. Mr. Dazsaks research has been fundamental in developing the drug Remdesivir that has shown to be effective against some coronoviruses. Mr. Trump reduced the funding to that program last year. Another truth Ms. Shaw mentions is that we are only a few years and prayers away from an antibiotic resistant bacterium causing a much more persistent and deadly pandemic than Covid 19. Will Americans heed the warning and be better prepared before the next outbreak?

POSTSCRIPT: In Spring 2020 Peter Dazsak and other scientists were fundamental in trying to suppress the 'lab-leak' theory and only in 2021 have the self preservation efforts of him and the state department and the administration to suppress the truth of the viruses origins been revealed. It turns out that the American government had funded the Eco Health Alliance for years which then sent some of that money to a Chinese lab which studies viruses. The  bio hazard precautions of that Chinese  lab were more lax than many American labs would have employed. This is normal in the ongoing way scientists around the world cooperate to advance knowledge on viruses and other things.But in 2012 miners shoveling bat guano in a cave in southern China became sick and a few died with a Covid 2 type disease. The Chinese government has suppressed the release of the full genomes of all the viruses from that time, but it is probable the Wuhan lab-in conjunction with the Chinese military- was involved in studying the coronavirus which killed the miners, as well as other viruses. So American taxpayer money was involved in the ongoing scientific study of the viruses in the Chinese lab, which is not uncommon, although the lack of transparency by the Chinese government has corrupted the investigation as to whether the virus was from the original bat guano or has been modified since 2012. It seems likely that the bat virus-or some modified version- infected some lab workers and quickly spread to the city of Wuhan, then the world.

Winter Van Trip

   Beth and I returned from our journey south a couple weeks ago, and the highlight of the sightseeing was Carlsbad Caverns in southern New Mexico and Great Sand Dunes National park in southern Colorado. I had been touring around the south east for a month before meeting Beth in Austin, after which we continued west. We were in this campground in New Mexico( Bottomless Lake State Park) on March 12th when the ranger came around and notified everyone that all state parks in N. M. were closing because of the corona virus. That altered our plans to meander so we headed north to Colorado and eventually had to head straight home when all parks and most businesses started closing. For anyone who has not seen the western landscape, it is thousands of miles of flat, open, dry scrub terrain filled with massive ranches in an even more massive wasteland. To some states credit, energy producers have utilized the open land for windmills and solar power farms, and Texas was notable for having solar, wind and oil/gas production side by side. Texas also has the best roads in the nation, although not the best signage; not everyone uses GPS so clear road signs would have been appreciated. Louisiana has the worst roads, a few of which, although macadam, were so rough that I refused to take the van on them lest I shake loose every bolt on the chassis. I had to have the front wheel bearings replaced in Oklahoma, but found an honest shop and mechanic in Hugo, Oklahoma who had me back on the road in less than 24 hours. Thanks Superior Wheel and Tire...
        To alleviate the cramped quarters Beth and I stayed in a motel a few times, but otherwise utilized campgrounds and Walmarts for sleeping. We toured Waco, TX and the Magnolia Silos soon after meeting up, and residents there told us that Chip and Joanna Gaines are as down to earth as their TV show indicates; the tourism that Fixer Upper has generated continues to revitalize the town. On reflection, we both marvel over this extremely diverse nation, and sometimes it is hard to remember that we are all one people, so varied are the cultures and landscapes. It truly is Americas genius that we share the same overriding Constitutional principles. Beth and I have many more places to visit-with the van or otherwise- such as Yellowstone, Glacier, and Rocky Mt National Parks, plus the hundreds of lesser known but just as remarkable places we seem to stumble upon each time we travel.