Unless we soon hold them accountable for their damage to America and the Constitution in a way they will understand and take seriously, this will continue and get worse. If we fail, G-d help us.
The "they" whom we should hold most accountable, at this moment of greatest "Peril" (another Bob Woodward must-read), comes down, really, to just one little man: DONALD JOHN TRUMP. He is certainly not the only despicable bastard -- God, there are so many! -- who deserves the modern-day equivalent of the medieval pillory and public-square-humiliation "remedy" (within the law), but he is certainly the de facto figurehead and primary inspiration for the true enemies of America -- fanatical domestic fascists -- and it would be a significant and necessary blow not only to their perverse personal psychology but also to their perverse political ideology to hold him personally accountable.
The "moral arc of the universe bends toward justice" ...mostly by giving it a mighty shove now and then. Taking down the whitest and most sacred symbol of authoritarianism -- the man himself -- will go a long way in educating future generations of small-d democrats on the correct response to an insurrection. Think of the iconic Nazi emblem blown to pieces on the roof of the Reichstag. Don't worry about the usual refrain about making Trump, the sad-mad-crazy clown that he is, a martyr for their "lost cause" and the champion of their pathetic resistance; let them wallow in their defeat.
Our laws absolutely MUST spell out a bright red line that cannot EVER be crossed no matter the circumstance or perpetrator! Let democracy's detractors fume and spit all they want; let them show their true colors for all to witness. The ugly truth of the Republican Party must be fully recognized and confronted head-on -- no more wishful thinking and happy talk about some bygone world of bipartisanship that no longer exists.
We're in the middle of a new civil war started by one-party, evangelical, white-nationalist, REPUBLICAN insurgents -- i.e., "the base" (al-Qaeda in Arabic). It is way past the time for every single citizen in this dying democracy who cares about their children to wake up, face the truth, and act responsibly.
And it is also way past the time for our justice system to step up to the plate and act responsibly -- NOW! -- before the timing of the next election season once again makes going after a front-runner legally and politically unviable. Rinse-and-repeat, kicking-the-can never solves a damn thing. How many times must DC politicos prove that axiom to the American people, Charlie Brown?
The phenomenon described so well in this piece is what has become known as “The banality of Evil”, which most of the readers and viewers here will recognize as the book by Hanna Arendt who also examined how the German people were lulled, lured, and progressively guided into accepting the unacceptable.
In a spectacular speech on “Our Greatest Antidote to Evil” Joseph Brodsky said in 1987,
“What we regard as Evil is capable of a fairly ubiquitous presence if only because it tends to appear in the guise of good.”
That quote, along with a lengthy discussion are included in my book. I will copy a short section here:
Hannah Arendt wrote the book entitled, “The Banality of Evil” in which she describes the creeping and unobtrusive nature of inchoate, innocent appearing, and incubating evil. This was brought home by Dr. Edna Friedberg, a speaker on a recent C-SPAN panel on combatting the increasing rate of hate crimes in the US. (Edna S. Friedberg is a historian at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. I failed to record the date of the C-SPAN panel).
Dr. Friedberg stated that studies of the Germany prior to the Holocaust reveal that racial hatred was NOT the most prominent reason for the conditions which ultimately allowed the Nazi party to undermine social values and norms and to virtually obliterate all conscience and tolerance for cultural differences. Long before there were crimes against the people who were considered the out group, there were more subtle ‘crimes against nature’ within the social order. There was an unmistakable erosion of spirit and of connections to others in the larger group, for example, which inexorably weakened the moral fiber of the populace. Obsequiousness and blind obedience had been drilled into the students, workers, and military personnel for decades prior to the ultimate rise of fascism. (End of excerpt).
While I am not one to quibble over semantics and do not disagree with the premise of this rant, I would highly recommend, as I have previously, that ‘trickle-up authoritarianism’ is no less a part of this equation than trickle-down authoritarianism. The most efficient and effective way to predispose and precondition a society and a nation for either good or evil is to assemble youth into scheduled, organized, and ordained groups for “socialization”, “training”, “education”, “preparation”, or indoctrination.
I have been over-zealous in this if the response is any indication. Therefore, I will take time to give some essential background. The truth is that this is all very personal for me for a variety of reasons. The most significant reason is outlined in my chapter on school phobia in the second book, and in the dedication of both of my books. (The following is an excerpt from page 97).
There is a hint of cruelty in the rush to push children who are clearly not emotionally prepared for immersion into this foreign environment. It is only because of attendance law that parents are forced to ignore or minimize the anxiety and dread these children face. The same dynamic is operating with students who have found the courage to go to school but who also have the bravery to signal that they want no part of the place.
For this author, this is a personal issue. I am ashamed to admit that I physically carried my son to the car in his underwear and drove him to the school parking lot where I made him get dressed and took him into the school. I was a single parent with a full-time job and classes and felt that I had no better choice. He had not been diagnosed as phobic, but after losing his mother at age four, he avoided school anytime he could and had refused to go or had skipped. Bradley was about nine at the time. I cannot apologize to him now. He died in a tragic accident on September 23, 1981, at the age of 13 after skipping school that day (exactly forty years ago tomorrow). This book is dedicated to his memory. (End of excerpt).
Fifty years ago, everyone told us, “Be positive. Don’t discourage the people working for change.” They said, “Forget about changing the laws and work within the system”. They warned, “Don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater”.
Yet the “system” is not in the least systematic and never has been. It is at best controlled chaos. Change did not come unless it was for the worse. The baby, referring to compulsory attendance laws, was stillborn. It was never a viable entity. And, not to be vulgar, but that was not bathwater.
Now. optimists in the field of “education”, otherwise known as Polly Annas, have adapted Malcolm Gladwell’s “Tipping Point” theory to their domain. It is tempting to apply it in politics, as well.
I confess that, while I have seen Gladwell speak many times and greatly admire him, and while I do not doubt that his theory has a high degree of relevance in various technological, economic, or even social realms, it definitely does not apply in education, and probably does not apply to politics, either. Critical mass cannot be reached when fully half of the citizenry still labors under the illusion that “original sin” or some variation on that cynical theme is somehow valid and that schoolwork is just bad tasting medicine that will effect a cure (of what? Native intelligence?).
Some of the most prominent critics of schooling and alternative education/school boosters have for a very long time blithely assumed that progressive and liberal ideas for school reform will become irresistible in their success and appeal because they are superior in every imaginable way. Great ideas and successful experimental programs inevitably inspire and are bound to spread like wildfire, ostensibly. Their “movement” has grown in certain places, and they have exciting networks, TED Talks, conferences, homeschooling, Unschooling, and De-schooling groups in the US and around the globe. Yet, the mirage is not turning into the oasis that they have so enthusiastically awaited. The clock ticks. Children sit in the same desks, languishing by the millions.
One will have to read my books to learn why the ground has not shifted, the waters have not parted, and the miracles are on hold for another century. The cliff notes version is, as I have so often stated, that attendance laws are an impermeable barrier to change. Deeply held beliefs and conceptions, much more unconscious than conscious are not amenable to change via word of mouth and popular opinion metrics. (The following items are also excerpted from my book).
Banality IS the Evil (Chapter heading)
The essence of totalitarian government, and perhaps the nature of every bureaucracy, is to make functionaries and mere cogs in the administrative machinery out of men, and thus to dehumanize them.
Hannah Arendt
…But the Prussian military style academies for children from the earlier German history are famous for their egregious abuses and an iron fist in disciplining and programming students from a very tender age.
Education is good, by definition, but it is ineffable. It is antithetical to force and duress. School has the potential to be a good as well, but it automatically devolves into banality and mediocrity when forced upon unwilling or unenthusiastic participants. (End of excerpts).
This is a hard pill to swallow for people who have believed so fervently in education. What must be understood, and soon, is that school not only is NOT education; it is often anti-intellectual and the exact opposite of education. The consequence is 70 million people following a fascist, authoritarian demagogue wherever he leads and believing they are doing god’s work.
Trump, as the POTUS", and with AirForceOne as his backdrop, worked for four years cultivating the lies: Climate Change is a "hoax"; the Pandemic is a "hoax"; Look at the stock market as if it were the economy; It's going to be a "middle-Class" tax cut that won't help rich; You don't have a country if you don't have a southern border wall (voiced to a Nation that had been an Empire since the end of WWII); Other forces are taking your jobs and keeping you down; the world explained in terms of scapegoats.
Besides the consolidated, corporate-owned MSM, and global corporations who benefitted from the unsustainable & irresponsible, R tax cuts that promised to 1) Only benefit the "Middle-Class"(Americans who did everything right, saved their money, and expected to live off the interest of their savings until Obama ordered low-interest rates and extinguished their hopes and dreams), 2) Produce 6% annual growth, and 3) Eliminate the "worrisome" Fed Debt and Deficits in 8 years. As the economy slowed before the Pandemic in 2019, Trump saw his lies crumble and re-election less assured. From further violating the Constitution to starting a war with Iran, Trump looked at all his options until contesting the election and being an integral part of the planning, organizing, and inciting an Insurrection were all that remained from holding on to his authoritarian power. He also played an indispensable role in his attempted coup by allowing the Insurrection to continue for hours after the death, injuries, and property damage.
Now the same relatively few billionaires who helped to put Trump in office want to continue to build upon the authoritarian foundation of their dreams: A government only responsive to them:
Of note, none of these sponsors have ever expressed an interest in improving or securing America's most popular policies, benefitting "blue-collar" workers, or strengthening our democratic institutions. Their Republican Party is also steadfastly against raising the Fed minimum wage.
In the past, Nazi comparisons infuriated me, and I thought it disrespectful. My policy was, if you are going to talk Holocaust, talk about the real deal. Thom just did. Today's circumstances track as a kind of genocide: people dead due to prejudice, gun violence, and now covid. The numbers just keep growing.
I was stationed in Frankfurt, Germany in the mid-eighties, before the wall came down and the Cold War was in full swing. A bit of hot war too with terrorism and bombings. A fellow MP went to Dachau, and later she went on and on about how she "felt the presence" of the victims. I traveled there; that wasn't my experience. What hit me full in the face was how close the concentration camp was to Munich---18 miles (currently). That's exactly like the full awareness we have today.
Absolutely hold the perpetrators accountable. The world tried them then, and created the ICJ in The Hague because it never stops.
If you do not have time to read the book Thom mentioned, there is an excellent documentary called "FINAL ACCOUNT"; it's interviews with aged Germans. They fully explain how they were "groomed" by Hitler. I hope someone from the Hartmann Report watches it and posts it. You can get it on Netflix and Amazon Prime.
So much is labored in pursuit of our Potemkin villages. Maintaining vacant "forms" is paramount in lulling a society desperate for familiarity into identifying with something as solid as smoke.
It only takes a slight shift in the wind to clear the air and reveal an absence of actual conviction. And in this absence there emerge the prevalence of something far more substantial in its unforgiving consequence - truth.
They are willing to risk the lives of unvaccinated children in my County by fighting a Mask Mandate (for children) by the health Department. We are sliding back into mask mandates for all in Colorado as 2 counties recently re-mandated masks in all indoor locations.
The Covid facts that are not mentioned enough is Trumps scuttling all the labs and agencies here and overseas that Obama, and even Bush, set up to detect possible pandemic signs and act to prevent the next one. My brother, who was building schools, hospitals, health clinics, water systems, etc. in Vietnam, had a friend who was doing the actual building of many of these research/lookout installations in south east Asia. They were not a fantasy whose importance is now being ignored along with the Trump abolished white house pandemic prevention office. This alone should earn Trump a lifetime in Siberia breaking rock......
I am going to begin this comment by saying something that will sound like it is about myself, but in truth is about my relationship with the world and with people. At the age of 22, I was a naïve young man from Nebraska who was very confused about God and religion. I had never tried pot, let alone psychedelics, and had only heard the word Zen once. I had no idea what it was. Then after a long walk in the John Muir Redwood National Monument, I had hiked into the surrounding hills with my wife. Suddenly, an overwhelming need arose: If there is a God, I need to know. Without warning, everything disappeared from around me, and I was in an abyss that was everything and nothing at the same time. I knew it was what we came from and that to which we return. All else about the experience was beyond mind or language, and so completely unrelatable to others. As I came back, which was slow but brought with it a sense of time, I discovered I was on the ground, laughing as tears spouted from my eyes. I was never the same.
I am now, and have been for some time, a spiritual counselor with healing abilities. I do not advertise, but accept those who find me, and I accept them without prejudice, which means I have a number of Republican clients. Inevitably, they will try to convert me, or make fun of my naturally liberal inclination. I always reply with the truth - I cannot do otherwise. It disturbs all of them. Some retaliate with rage, and I hold up my hand to say stop and warn them that it's best not continue or it will hurt even more. Amazingly, these people eventually look to me as their teacher, at least spiritually, and yet persist in their Republican conditioning. And yet, I consider that they not only tolerate me, but actively seek regular sessions and are upset if I fall ill or go on vacation, so I do feel that something is taking place in them that is good. Others become frightened because of the damage to their belief system and I do not pursue, yet they too continue to solicit my company with friendly offerings and little mention of their beliefs. So here, too, it seems that something is going on inside that may yet take root and grow.
In short, I find that the best thing I can do to turn aside the threat that lies before us is to simply be myself and teach by example, and to do it not by reaching out, but working only with those who brush up against me.
The "they" whom we should hold most accountable, at this moment of greatest "Peril" (another Bob Woodward must-read), comes down, really, to just one little man: DONALD JOHN TRUMP. He is certainly not the only despicable bastard -- God, there are so many! -- who deserves the modern-day equivalent of the medieval pillory and public-square-humiliation "remedy" (within the law), but he is certainly the de facto figurehead and primary inspiration for the true enemies of America -- fanatical domestic fascists -- and it would be a significant and necessary blow not only to their perverse personal psychology but also to their perverse political ideology to hold him personally accountable.
The "moral arc of the universe bends toward justice" ...mostly by giving it a mighty shove now and then. Taking down the whitest and most sacred symbol of authoritarianism -- the man himself -- will go a long way in educating future generations of small-d democrats on the correct response to an insurrection. Think of the iconic Nazi emblem blown to pieces on the roof of the Reichstag. Don't worry about the usual refrain about making Trump, the sad-mad-crazy clown that he is, a martyr for their "lost cause" and the champion of their pathetic resistance; let them wallow in their defeat.
Our laws absolutely MUST spell out a bright red line that cannot EVER be crossed no matter the circumstance or perpetrator! Let democracy's detractors fume and spit all they want; let them show their true colors for all to witness. The ugly truth of the Republican Party must be fully recognized and confronted head-on -- no more wishful thinking and happy talk about some bygone world of bipartisanship that no longer exists.
We're in the middle of a new civil war started by one-party, evangelical, white-nationalist, REPUBLICAN insurgents -- i.e., "the base" (al-Qaeda in Arabic). It is way past the time for every single citizen in this dying democracy who cares about their children to wake up, face the truth, and act responsibly.
And it is also way past the time for our justice system to step up to the plate and act responsibly -- NOW! -- before the timing of the next election season once again makes going after a front-runner legally and politically unviable. Rinse-and-repeat, kicking-the-can never solves a damn thing. How many times must DC politicos prove that axiom to the American people, Charlie Brown?
The phenomenon described so well in this piece is what has become known as “The banality of Evil”, which most of the readers and viewers here will recognize as the book by Hanna Arendt who also examined how the German people were lulled, lured, and progressively guided into accepting the unacceptable.
In a spectacular speech on “Our Greatest Antidote to Evil” Joseph Brodsky said in 1987,
“What we regard as Evil is capable of a fairly ubiquitous presence if only because it tends to appear in the guise of good.”
That quote, along with a lengthy discussion are included in my book. I will copy a short section here:
Hannah Arendt wrote the book entitled, “The Banality of Evil” in which she describes the creeping and unobtrusive nature of inchoate, innocent appearing, and incubating evil. This was brought home by Dr. Edna Friedberg, a speaker on a recent C-SPAN panel on combatting the increasing rate of hate crimes in the US. (Edna S. Friedberg is a historian at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. I failed to record the date of the C-SPAN panel).
Dr. Friedberg stated that studies of the Germany prior to the Holocaust reveal that racial hatred was NOT the most prominent reason for the conditions which ultimately allowed the Nazi party to undermine social values and norms and to virtually obliterate all conscience and tolerance for cultural differences. Long before there were crimes against the people who were considered the out group, there were more subtle ‘crimes against nature’ within the social order. There was an unmistakable erosion of spirit and of connections to others in the larger group, for example, which inexorably weakened the moral fiber of the populace. Obsequiousness and blind obedience had been drilled into the students, workers, and military personnel for decades prior to the ultimate rise of fascism. (End of excerpt).
While I am not one to quibble over semantics and do not disagree with the premise of this rant, I would highly recommend, as I have previously, that ‘trickle-up authoritarianism’ is no less a part of this equation than trickle-down authoritarianism. The most efficient and effective way to predispose and precondition a society and a nation for either good or evil is to assemble youth into scheduled, organized, and ordained groups for “socialization”, “training”, “education”, “preparation”, or indoctrination.
I have been over-zealous in this if the response is any indication. Therefore, I will take time to give some essential background. The truth is that this is all very personal for me for a variety of reasons. The most significant reason is outlined in my chapter on school phobia in the second book, and in the dedication of both of my books. (The following is an excerpt from page 97).
There is a hint of cruelty in the rush to push children who are clearly not emotionally prepared for immersion into this foreign environment. It is only because of attendance law that parents are forced to ignore or minimize the anxiety and dread these children face. The same dynamic is operating with students who have found the courage to go to school but who also have the bravery to signal that they want no part of the place.
For this author, this is a personal issue. I am ashamed to admit that I physically carried my son to the car in his underwear and drove him to the school parking lot where I made him get dressed and took him into the school. I was a single parent with a full-time job and classes and felt that I had no better choice. He had not been diagnosed as phobic, but after losing his mother at age four, he avoided school anytime he could and had refused to go or had skipped. Bradley was about nine at the time. I cannot apologize to him now. He died in a tragic accident on September 23, 1981, at the age of 13 after skipping school that day (exactly forty years ago tomorrow). This book is dedicated to his memory. (End of excerpt).
Fifty years ago, everyone told us, “Be positive. Don’t discourage the people working for change.” They said, “Forget about changing the laws and work within the system”. They warned, “Don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater”.
Yet the “system” is not in the least systematic and never has been. It is at best controlled chaos. Change did not come unless it was for the worse. The baby, referring to compulsory attendance laws, was stillborn. It was never a viable entity. And, not to be vulgar, but that was not bathwater.
Now. optimists in the field of “education”, otherwise known as Polly Annas, have adapted Malcolm Gladwell’s “Tipping Point” theory to their domain. It is tempting to apply it in politics, as well.
I confess that, while I have seen Gladwell speak many times and greatly admire him, and while I do not doubt that his theory has a high degree of relevance in various technological, economic, or even social realms, it definitely does not apply in education, and probably does not apply to politics, either. Critical mass cannot be reached when fully half of the citizenry still labors under the illusion that “original sin” or some variation on that cynical theme is somehow valid and that schoolwork is just bad tasting medicine that will effect a cure (of what? Native intelligence?).
Some of the most prominent critics of schooling and alternative education/school boosters have for a very long time blithely assumed that progressive and liberal ideas for school reform will become irresistible in their success and appeal because they are superior in every imaginable way. Great ideas and successful experimental programs inevitably inspire and are bound to spread like wildfire, ostensibly. Their “movement” has grown in certain places, and they have exciting networks, TED Talks, conferences, homeschooling, Unschooling, and De-schooling groups in the US and around the globe. Yet, the mirage is not turning into the oasis that they have so enthusiastically awaited. The clock ticks. Children sit in the same desks, languishing by the millions.
One will have to read my books to learn why the ground has not shifted, the waters have not parted, and the miracles are on hold for another century. The cliff notes version is, as I have so often stated, that attendance laws are an impermeable barrier to change. Deeply held beliefs and conceptions, much more unconscious than conscious are not amenable to change via word of mouth and popular opinion metrics. (The following items are also excerpted from my book).
Banality IS the Evil (Chapter heading)
The essence of totalitarian government, and perhaps the nature of every bureaucracy, is to make functionaries and mere cogs in the administrative machinery out of men, and thus to dehumanize them.
Hannah Arendt
…But the Prussian military style academies for children from the earlier German history are famous for their egregious abuses and an iron fist in disciplining and programming students from a very tender age.
Education is good, by definition, but it is ineffable. It is antithetical to force and duress. School has the potential to be a good as well, but it automatically devolves into banality and mediocrity when forced upon unwilling or unenthusiastic participants. (End of excerpts).
This is a hard pill to swallow for people who have believed so fervently in education. What must be understood, and soon, is that school not only is NOT education; it is often anti-intellectual and the exact opposite of education. The consequence is 70 million people following a fascist, authoritarian demagogue wherever he leads and believing they are doing god’s work.
Trump, as the POTUS", and with AirForceOne as his backdrop, worked for four years cultivating the lies: Climate Change is a "hoax"; the Pandemic is a "hoax"; Look at the stock market as if it were the economy; It's going to be a "middle-Class" tax cut that won't help rich; You don't have a country if you don't have a southern border wall (voiced to a Nation that had been an Empire since the end of WWII); Other forces are taking your jobs and keeping you down; the world explained in terms of scapegoats.
Besides the consolidated, corporate-owned MSM, and global corporations who benefitted from the unsustainable & irresponsible, R tax cuts that promised to 1) Only benefit the "Middle-Class"(Americans who did everything right, saved their money, and expected to live off the interest of their savings until Obama ordered low-interest rates and extinguished their hopes and dreams), 2) Produce 6% annual growth, and 3) Eliminate the "worrisome" Fed Debt and Deficits in 8 years. As the economy slowed before the Pandemic in 2019, Trump saw his lies crumble and re-election less assured. From further violating the Constitution to starting a war with Iran, Trump looked at all his options until contesting the election and being an integral part of the planning, organizing, and inciting an Insurrection were all that remained from holding on to his authoritarian power. He also played an indispensable role in his attempted coup by allowing the Insurrection to continue for hours after the death, injuries, and property damage.
Now the same relatively few billionaires who helped to put Trump in office want to continue to build upon the authoritarian foundation of their dreams: A government only responsive to them:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/08/09/the-big-money-behind-the-big-lie
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/inside-the-koch-backed-effort-to-block-the-largest-election-reform-bill-in-half-a-century
https://www.salon.com/2021/02/04/how-one-billionaire-family-bankrolled-election-lies-white-nationalism--and-the-capitol-riot/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/michelatindera/2020/10/16/at-least-23-billionaires-made-six-figure-donations-to-committees-supporting-donald-trump-since-july/?sh=aaa4e6fbbdd9
https://theintercept.com/2021/01/27/rebekah-mercer-book-capitol-riot/
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/11/capitol-hill-riot-pac-once-funded-by-trump-ally-mercer-promoted-rally-march.html
Of note, none of these sponsors have ever expressed an interest in improving or securing America's most popular policies, benefitting "blue-collar" workers, or strengthening our democratic institutions. Their Republican Party is also steadfastly against raising the Fed minimum wage.
In the past, Nazi comparisons infuriated me, and I thought it disrespectful. My policy was, if you are going to talk Holocaust, talk about the real deal. Thom just did. Today's circumstances track as a kind of genocide: people dead due to prejudice, gun violence, and now covid. The numbers just keep growing.
I was stationed in Frankfurt, Germany in the mid-eighties, before the wall came down and the Cold War was in full swing. A bit of hot war too with terrorism and bombings. A fellow MP went to Dachau, and later she went on and on about how she "felt the presence" of the victims. I traveled there; that wasn't my experience. What hit me full in the face was how close the concentration camp was to Munich---18 miles (currently). That's exactly like the full awareness we have today.
Absolutely hold the perpetrators accountable. The world tried them then, and created the ICJ in The Hague because it never stops.
If you do not have time to read the book Thom mentioned, there is an excellent documentary called "FINAL ACCOUNT"; it's interviews with aged Germans. They fully explain how they were "groomed" by Hitler. I hope someone from the Hartmann Report watches it and posts it. You can get it on Netflix and Amazon Prime.
So much is labored in pursuit of our Potemkin villages. Maintaining vacant "forms" is paramount in lulling a society desperate for familiarity into identifying with something as solid as smoke.
It only takes a slight shift in the wind to clear the air and reveal an absence of actual conviction. And in this absence there emerge the prevalence of something far more substantial in its unforgiving consequence - truth.
They are willing to risk the lives of unvaccinated children in my County by fighting a Mask Mandate (for children) by the health Department. We are sliding back into mask mandates for all in Colorado as 2 counties recently re-mandated masks in all indoor locations.
The Covid facts that are not mentioned enough is Trumps scuttling all the labs and agencies here and overseas that Obama, and even Bush, set up to detect possible pandemic signs and act to prevent the next one. My brother, who was building schools, hospitals, health clinics, water systems, etc. in Vietnam, had a friend who was doing the actual building of many of these research/lookout installations in south east Asia. They were not a fantasy whose importance is now being ignored along with the Trump abolished white house pandemic prevention office. This alone should earn Trump a lifetime in Siberia breaking rock......
I am going to begin this comment by saying something that will sound like it is about myself, but in truth is about my relationship with the world and with people. At the age of 22, I was a naïve young man from Nebraska who was very confused about God and religion. I had never tried pot, let alone psychedelics, and had only heard the word Zen once. I had no idea what it was. Then after a long walk in the John Muir Redwood National Monument, I had hiked into the surrounding hills with my wife. Suddenly, an overwhelming need arose: If there is a God, I need to know. Without warning, everything disappeared from around me, and I was in an abyss that was everything and nothing at the same time. I knew it was what we came from and that to which we return. All else about the experience was beyond mind or language, and so completely unrelatable to others. As I came back, which was slow but brought with it a sense of time, I discovered I was on the ground, laughing as tears spouted from my eyes. I was never the same.
I am now, and have been for some time, a spiritual counselor with healing abilities. I do not advertise, but accept those who find me, and I accept them without prejudice, which means I have a number of Republican clients. Inevitably, they will try to convert me, or make fun of my naturally liberal inclination. I always reply with the truth - I cannot do otherwise. It disturbs all of them. Some retaliate with rage, and I hold up my hand to say stop and warn them that it's best not continue or it will hurt even more. Amazingly, these people eventually look to me as their teacher, at least spiritually, and yet persist in their Republican conditioning. And yet, I consider that they not only tolerate me, but actively seek regular sessions and are upset if I fall ill or go on vacation, so I do feel that something is taking place in them that is good. Others become frightened because of the damage to their belief system and I do not pursue, yet they too continue to solicit my company with friendly offerings and little mention of their beliefs. So here, too, it seems that something is going on inside that may yet take root and grow.
In short, I find that the best thing I can do to turn aside the threat that lies before us is to simply be myself and teach by example, and to do it not by reaching out, but working only with those who brush up against me.
Is that Obama in the picture?