ELECTION 2020, EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED

ELECTION 2020, EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED

I have followed politics since I was a teenager in the 1950's.  It is very much akin to being addicted to a soap opera.  It is constantly filled with battles, drama and the outcomes are never assured.  The Presidential election of 2020 will be no exception.

This election for President would seem to be pretty straight forward---a Trump-Pence ticket against a Democratic slate yet to be determined.

I don't think so.

I believe something dramatic will happen within the next year to alter the trajectory of the 2020 election for President of the United States.  There are several possibilities:

1.  Trump is impeached (Not likely.)
2.  Trump resigns because of his criminal exposure or that of his family. (More likely.)
3.  Trump dies or is incapacitated by a stroke or heart attack which 
renders him unable to continue as President.  His unhealthy diet and unhinged behavior have to be stressing his body to the point where something may give out. (Very likely.) 
4. Trump is killed by an accident, such as a plane crash. (Slim chance.)
5. Trump is assassinated. His use of the hate-speech approach to the election has made him a lightning rod. There are a lot of people in this country who are offended by Trump's behavior and as we have seen in the past some are driven to violence. George Wallace is a good example of a candidate who used racist, hateful speech while running for President who was injured, but did not die from an assassin's attack.(Worst possible outcome.)

Donald J. Trump will definitely die at some point, we all do.  It will be really interesting to see how his "base" supporters react. If he manages to live to an old age, will his religious supporters treat him as a deity when he passes? My guess is that the Trump family will put Donald's body in a mausoleum in Trump Tower and charge the public to view his remains. 

If Donald is injured or killed  by an act of violence his white supremacy supporters, who often threaten violence themselves, are not likely to take the events lightly. If he is killed or attacked by a member of a American minority or a person from another country,  violence and bloodshed will likely result.  

Trump's recent racist rants toward women of color who serve in the U. S. Congress are incendiary and will lead to more hatred and violence. He needs to govern or resign. Since he does not know how to govern a country of more than 300 million people he would do us all a big favor if he would just shut up, resign and go back to New York.

In any event, I believe Donald J. Trump will be gone from the scene by the summer of 2020 and the scenario for the Presidential election will have changed dramatically. 

With Donald gone, Mike Pence then ascends to the Presidency and the Congress has to replace Pence as Vice-President. Mitt Romney would be the most likely Republican to be elevated to this position.  So now you would have President Mike Pence and Vice-President Mitt Romney running the country until the election.

During the run-up to the Republican National Convention Mike Pence decides he does not want to run for President. The Party elevates Romney to the Presidential Nomination and Nikki Halley is selected by the Convention to be the Vice-Presidential nominee.

A ticket of Mitt Romney and Nikki Halley would provide a formidable Republican opponent to any Democratic candidate for president.

My advice to the Democrats---Expect the unexpected.

"THE OTHERS"

King Donald worries constantly about  "others" coming.  The King's friends had brought "others" into his kingdom to do jobs no one else wanted to do. The "others" brought their families and friends and soon the "others" out numbered the locals.  This made the locals anxious and fearful of these people who were a different color and spoke a strange language.  The King had assured the locals he would build a GREAT WALL to keep the "OTHERS" out, but the knights of the square table could not agree on anything, so no money was made available. The King became enraged and had his stooges declare a ban on the "others" coming into the kingdom, but the keepers of the LAW stood in the way.

Desperate. the King ordered  his chief stooge, the round-faced grinning Howdy Dew to solve the "others" problem. Howdy did not like the "others" either, so he gleefully grabbed  these "other people" and sent them out of the kingdom at a rapid rate.

UPDATE:  The King's temper tantrum over the WALL continues and he now is defying the Knights of the Square Table by having his underlings steal money from other parts of the government to pay for his ego trip on the Texas border.  Most people know the WALL is just for show---so the King can install a large mirror to use for admiration of himself.  

REPUBLICAN/WHITE NATIONALIST PARTY

For more than 30 years conservative Catholic and Protestant voters have been supporting the Republican Party.  They have supported candidates who identify with their world view and support efforts to make the United States more of a "Christian nation".  According to media reports 81% of Evangelical Christians voted for Donald Trump in the last election. They continue to support him despite his immoral and unethical behavior; and apparently believe his "Only I can take care of you" refrain. They believe his Supreme Court nominees will over turn Roe vs Wade and make abortion illegal in the U.S.  Most support the president's border wall with Mexico as a way of keeping the  "other" out of the country. Also they are very supportive of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, because they believe she will move tax dollars from public schools into private and religious schools which they support.

These same people try to deny minorities their constitution rights by supporting "religious freedom" bills.  Evangelical and fundamental Christians teach that being gay is a sin, so they do not accept the position that LGBT citizens should enjoy civil rights such as the right to marry, or that gay couples should be able to adopt children or have they same legal status as  heterosexual couples enjoy. In areas of the US controlled by the Republicans, there has been a concerted effort to undermine any move toward a more liberal/progressive position on social issues.  The leadership of this movement believes the only way to stop the move toward a more progressive society is to elect public officials who agreed with them---thus we get a President Trump.  It appears a lot of conservative Christians support Trump, because they think he is  their best hope to move the nation toward a more "Christian society".

What about Trump's love affair with Russia?  The conservative Christians have no problem with his cozy relationship with Putin because he supports the Russian Orthodox Church and as far as they are concerned he is the leader of a predominately "white" Christian country in the same battle with Islam as the US.  They see no problem with Trump's defending Putin and believe he will be able to improve relations with the Russians and to them that would be a good thing.

White conservative Christians have been trying to limit the rights of minorities for a long time. They used their interpretation of the Bible to justify slavery, segregation and the separation of peoples of different colors ever since the nation was founded.  It is not an accident that the Christian church is the most segregated institution in America. Some of it is cultural, but conservative white Christians especially in the South still hang on to the prejudices that they have carried with them for generations.    

Republican/Conservative Christians oppose any efforts to solve the problems associated  with human caused climate change.  People who join a church by  "accepting Jesus as their savior" believe they are saved and going to heaven.  Thus they do not worry about what happens on Earth because they believe they are destined for paradise when they pass from the scene. They just do not care about anyone but themselves.

Speaking as a Progressive,  I believe it is our duty as human beings to continue to point out  the activities of others who are working to diminish the lives of our fellow citizens and expose the inequities that exist.

CAN THE HUMAN SPECIES SURVIVE?

The BIOSPHERE encompasses all live forms on planet Earth. From the extremely tiny viruses to the giant Redwoods of California, every living thing is part of the BIOSPHERE.  It is the life force created more than 3.8 billion years and passed on to us over millions of years.  Its creation is a mystery to us and I believe we have received this life force as a sacred trust, to be understood, preserved and passed on to future generations.

As hunters and gathers 20,000 years ago we lived within the resources available to us and our impact on the BIOSPHERE was 
very limited. The plants and animals used for food at the time  sustained their populations despite human predation. The ecosystems remained in balance.

Since ancient times we humans have long used our large brains to  make tools to improve success in finding and acquiring food, providing shelter and protecting our families.  The same devices used to kill animals for food became weapons to threaten and eventually kill other humans.  In the twenty-first century this has evolved into ballistic missiles and nuclear bombs. 

Currently humans are exploiting Earth's resources at rates that are not sustainable; leading to severe changes in the BIOSPHERE. Fossil fuels have made modern civilization possible, but at a high cost in air, water and land pollution. The exploitation of animals, forests, the waters of lakes, rivers and oceans and the rich soils of the Earth have provided us with an existence our forefathers could never have imagined.  

Yes, this same brain has also given us smart phones and electric cars; and this ingenuity has given us a fantastic array of "stuff" that make our lives more comfortable and worthwhile.  We marvel at drones, robots, computers, digital cameras, etc. that now seem commonplace

The human population on planet Earth is about 7.7 billion persons.  Each of these individuals needs food, water, clothing, shelter and health care. Can the resources of this planet be stretched to meet the needs of future billions of people?

The ANSWER is NO. 

WHY?

The resources of this planet are limited.  

Over the last 10,000 years humans have moved from small villages of a couple hundred people to huge cities of millions; from stone tools to Electric cars and smart phones; from small family farms of a few sheep and cows to huge industrial agriculture with thousands of animals on a single farm; from bows and arrows to missiles and nuclear bombs.  This is what we like to call PROGRESS.

During this time the number of humans has increased from about 1 Million people in 8000 BC to 7.7 Billion today; a seven thousand six hundred per cent increase in 10,000 years. Safety in cities; control of disease vectors; cleaner water and air; and modern medicine have all contributed to this dramatic increase.  People are just not dying any more. Humans who in the past would have died because of birth defects, accidents, war or disease continue to live.  We are using modern medicine to keep everybody alive, leading to this dramatic increase in the number of human inhabitants of the planet.

This is NOT SUSTAINABLE.  

Religions and cultures the world over have worked to make people's lives better, but these same entities have used their power to prevent the use of birth control, abortion and other family planning activities to control human population growth.  No one wants to see their children die, but the lack of political will to recognize the need to limit the the number babies born is the basic cause of the increase.

I believe the Earth's BIOSPHERE will react to human destruction of the environment, by treating the  human species as a disease; as a cancer on the life force of the planet; as an organism whose behavior is destroying the living space for all other life forms.  The immune system of the BIOSPHERE will respond and we humans will not appreciate the result.

If the political climate continues as it exists today with little or no support for controlling population for religious and cultural reasons, the result will be catastrophic for the human species.  Modern civilization has created conditions for its own demise.

Diseases have always been part of the biosphere and they affect all living organisms.  They are what we call limiting factors in an ecosystem. Their effect on a particular species is to control its population by eliminating those who are not fit to continue its existence.

Crowded cities with millions of people, modern worldwide travel, millions of poor people with limited health care; and unsanitary conditions in many underdeveloped countries; will likely contribute to a worldwide pandemic in the future.  A deadly virus spread by casual contact could easily travel across the planet and put all humans in peril.  Is this our destiny?  Can we act in time to prevent such a thing from happening? 

The BIOSPHERE may very well discard the human species as just another creature bound for extinction and that would be a damn shame.  

 Do you care? Then do something.

APRIL 2020---50 YEARS OF EARTH DAY

In 2020 the world will celebrate the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. I was involved as an educator in the first Earth Day in April  of 1970 and it is fitting that there has been a rebirth of the concern about our world and its environmental future.  The recent introduction of legislation called THE GREEN NEW DEAL in the United States Congress can and should be used to focus our country as well as the whole world on the future of this planet.  Earth Day was a starting point, but with issues facing the planet including continued industrial expansion, increased human population and human caused climate change, we as the most influential creatures on Earth must recognize that WE ARE THE PROBLEM. 

Our creativity and ingenuity have allowed us to see into the depths of space in search of answers about the origins of the universe; as well as probing into the life force that all living things on this planet carry. We humans must now face the question---Can the human species survive its intelligence?



  

DONALD IS DESTROYING HIMSELF

DONALD IS DESTROYING HIMSELF

Donald J. Trump is the first person I have encountered that I truly believe is rotten to the core. He is a dysfunctional 13 year-old living in a 72 year-old adult body who suffers from a narcissistic disorder that is described as "excessive admiration of oneself".

This condition prevents him from showing any empathy or concern for others. He does cruel and nasty things to people; and makes terrible, hurtful comments to others; and has no
regrets. His inability to apologize for mistakes or ask for forgiveness are sad reminders of a man trapped in a mind devoid of true emotions of love, empathy, admiration for others, etc.  Donald does not care because his mind will not let him; he sees only himself.  He is a bully who lacks the capacity to understand or feel the pain of persons being bullied. He is a cold, empty shell of a human being and should be removed from the presidency as soon as possible.

But how?
Impeachment? Not likely.
25th Amendment? Not a chance.
Suicide? Not competent to get it done.
Resignation? We can only hope.

Our current situations reminds me of  the Star Trek episode in the 1960's original television series that featured an evil spirit  that took over the spaceship Enterprise. This evil controlled the ship and crew by making them angry, agitated and aggressive toward each other to such an extent that they could not perform their duties.  Our hero, Captain Kirk, discovered that by laughing, joking and showing a happy disposition the angry spirit lost its power. Evil was literally laughed off the ship.

How do we defeat Trump? The country is already doing it---making fun of him and the absurd behavior of his administration. Make jokes about him, laugh a lot, smile, do good deeds, hug the "other"; speak with folks you do not know; go to places frequented by people different from  yourself. Attacking evil only magnifies it, so pointing out the aberrant behavior of this administration with humor and irony is an effective way to move us to a better future.

Donald is destined to destroy himself and will eventually  disappear from the scene.  In the mean time  just  keep smiling, and laughing at the absurdity of it all.

THE TAX BILL IS INSANITY

THE TAX BILL INSANITY

I oppose the current tax bill being pushed in Congress.

Yes, you will feed a tiny tax cut to the masses with the hope no one will notice that it is temporary and just a pittance compared to what the wealthy will receive.  You are planning that people are so stupid that a tiny cut will satisfy.

This is a "SICK" piece of legislation that plays into the tribalism spreading over the country.  

This bill will make the trend to an AUTOCRATIC REGIME much easier. The RICH will get richer and the POOR will get poorer---the divide and polarization will grow worse and allow the top 1% to rule the country.

We all know what you are doing.  You are running up the debt so you will have an excuse to destroy Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

The Republican Party is rotten to the core and you may well destroy yourselves with this terrible piece of legislation---good riddance.