THE GATHERING STORM

The sound woke me early, maybe around 5 AM, a low, prolonged rumbling. In my not-quite-awake state I thought airplane, or maybe the heavy equipment being used for the sewer project in our neighborhood. But as I gained more consciousness, I smiled...thunder, very distant thunder. 

I waited, I listened. There it was again, very low, grumbling, rolling and prolonged thunder in the distance. I finally managed to roll out of bed at about 6:00 and go to the open window. More thunder, a bit closer, and finally a few rain drops on the roof outside our window. I splashed my face with water, shrugged on a T-shirt and shorts, turned off the alarm and went out on the front porch to be in it.

Last night, late, we watched the local news to discover that our city, like many others, had demonstrators in the streets. A peaceful vigil had turned into a roving demonstration with the usual, unfortunately, vandalism of buildings - graffiti and broken windows and fires in trash cans. But this time it was different as a small group broke into the Justice Center and could be seen trashing the office cubicles. Suddenly flames appeared; they had set the building on fire. There were no police present, yet. 

The scene then devolved into what we’d been watching in other cities; roving bands of protestors, lines of armored police using tear gas and flash-bangs to push the protestors away and break them into smaller groups. People running, throwing objects, shouting, waving hand-lettered placards, shouting into the news cameras. 

Earlier in the week, a white police officer had killed a black man in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This was a public execution, one commentator called it a public lynching, as the cop leaned on the prostrate and handcuffed man’s throat with his knee for almost 9 minutes, as the victim, George Floyd, begged for help and to be able to breathe. A witnesses cell phone video has gone viral, and it is chilling. The cop looks directly at the camera with a smug smile on his face as he slowly chokes the life out of Mr. Floyd. A public execution by someone who was sworn to serve and protect. Last night people took to the streets and American cities burned. 

Oh America, what has happened to you? There is nothing new, unfortunately and shamefully, about bad cops killing people of color, usually with impunity. To be very clear, these are bad people who happen to be cops, and do not represent the vast majority of police officers. But a number of factors are different in this moment. Everyone carries a cell phone that has a video camera, and the bad cops can no longer lie about the reality of their crime. We are in the middle of a global pandemic, and the United States is number one in the world for the number of cases and deaths from this virus. This pandemic has ripped the veneer off the deep fissures in American society, and many millions of people are in deep trouble. And the President of the United States, Donald J. Trump, is totally incompetent, incapable, and uninterested in being the leader we so desperately need in this time of crisis. We are in a culture war, cheered on by Trump, in which many people have chosen sides: left vs. right, white vs. non-white, native born vs. immigrant, Christian vs. everyone else, capitalist vs. socialist; and the divide has widened to a point where it might not be bridged easily. 

The strange thing about the storm that rolled in this morning was it’s stillness. There was absolutely no air movement; I watched the trees intently and saw no leaf as much as quiver. I stared at the sky and noted the position of the clouds against a fixed point of our building; nothing moved. And yet, the storm rolled in. The lightning was faint and the thunder delayed, meaning the center of the storm was somewhere in the distance. By 6:30 it was raining under a dark sky, and it was eerily quiet. A fitting mood following a disturbing night.

As I write this, savoring the last swallow of coffee from my mug, the sun suddenly breaks through a small hole in the clouds and momentarily blinds me. I still hear rain falling on the deck outside, and our wind chimes are now singing in a breeze. Muffled voices let me know that the radio is on upstairs in our bedroom. Raindrops now glisten on the quivering bamboo leaves outside the kitchen window. Just another Portland morning? No, this one is different.

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WE WENT TO THE PARK TODAY AND HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE TRIED TO KILL US

We are still in the grip of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic; however, people are now getting out and about. Oregon took the precautionary steps of issuing a stay at home order and closing all non-essential businesses. Now we are cautiously, supposedly, emerging in a planned Phase 1 opening. But there are signs of danger.

Today is a warm, sunny spring Sunday, and here in Portland, Oregon that means people get out. We needed a walk, so we drove to a nearby park, put on our masks, and started down a paved path. There were hundreds of people in the park, many walking, biking, lounging on blankets on the grass, and walking dogs. We estimated that more than 95% of these people were not wearing masks. I think it is OK for people on blankets that are spaced more than 6 ft apart to be mask-less, but it is not OK for people to be walking and cycling and jogging on the paths when there are a lot of other people using them. People like us. 

People like us are the most vulnerable during this pandemic because we are older than 60, and/or have underlying health issues, such as asthma. We were wearing our home-made cotton masks, which protect those around us more than they protect us. We did not feel safe walking in the park on a beautiful day, so we left for the safety of our home. 

Here is the bottom line for me: people need to be more thoughtful and considerate of others. It’s fine if you want to walk around without a mask because you know you will never get this virus (fool that you are); but why do you have so little regard for those around you? You might feel fine, but you can be a carrier of the virus, and you are spewing it in the air space the rest of us share with you. You’re killing us. 

The response in the United States to the novel coronavirus has been dismal and inadequate, which is why we are number one in the world in number of cases and deaths from COvID-19, the disease caused by this virus. Many of the experts keep telling us that we are actually in the early stages of this pandemic, that the virus is not going away any time soon, that we will not have a vaccine any time soon, and that there will be, and already are, increasing outbreaks as we “open up.” We shouldn’t drop our guard, especially now, and we should look out for everyone in our communities. If we had a national strategy that was based on building herd immunity to the virus, and we did it in an intelligent and highly organized way, things would be different. But we don’t have any such strategy. 

Getting ill with COVID-19 is not a walk in the park, but a walk in the park can result in being sick or dying from COVID-19. 

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AND THE DARWIN AWARD GOES TO...THE REPUBLICANS

The Darwin Awards salute the improvement of the human genome by honoring those who accidentally remove themselves from it in a spectacular manner!   https://darwinawards.com/

The Darwin Award is, of course, a tongue-in-cheek honor that many of us laugh about. Usually the award involves someone who does something really stupid and dies because of it, thus removing themselves from the gene pool of humans. But I couldn't help thinking about the Darwin Award as I watched the news this evening.

Elected officials who are Republicans, at every level of government, seem to be purposefully and stupidly ignoring the severity of the novel coronavirus now causing a global pandemic. I don't think they realize that one very real and statistically probable result of their actions is their own death. So I would call this "accidental" in the sense that they are only thinking about partisan politics and not the real outcomes.

Certainly everyone in this country who understands the concepts of protecting ourselves from a deadly virus has seen the President of the United States and the Vice-President of the United States flouncing around without wearing protective masks or socially distancing themselves! The POTUS appears everywhere without a mask. He refuses to wear one. VP Pence violated posted rules at the CDC when he was the only person without a mask. He again appeared without a mask delivering PPE supplies (actually, empty cartons) to a nursing home - a nursing home!  What are these idiots thinking? 

A Republican member of Congress, Steve Scalese, was in a video committee meeting snd launched into a rant about how ridiculous it is that the members of Congress are not in D.C. He touted the fact that he was there, and he was on the video conference from a small conference room at the Capitol. He gleefully walked his laptop around to show the room, a rather small, windowless room, with numerous staff people working in it - and nobody was wearing a mask! "Our entire committee could be meeting in this room right now" Scalese stated, "and everyone would be fine, just like we are." Time will tell how many of those folks end up in the hospital with COVID-19. 

And so I nominate Republicans, including everyone in the Trump administration, members of Congress, governors who are opening their states even though they have not met the CDC criteria, to be the recipients of the 2020 Darwin Award. Homo sapiens will be genetically stronger for it.  

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ET TU, YOUTUBE?

I have been listening to a new podcast titled "Rabbit Hole" by Kevin Roose of the NY Times (see an introduction to the podcast here). To date there are 4 episodes, and I find it very interesting and thought-provoking. Kevin and his team are exploring how the internet changes us, and so far the focus has been on YouTube, using the experience of a single YouTube addict named Caleb. 

I was an early user of YouTube, mostly as a place to put home and work videos and make them available for family, friends and colleagues. After a few years, however, I began to really dislike YouTube, and started using Vimeo for my videos. My biggest issue with YouTube was the "you might like" recommendations and the immediate starting of another video as soon as the one being watched ended. This just felt very intrusive and very annoying. As I listened to Rabbit Hole, the light bulb went off and I remembered my dislike of YouTube, and it now made sense to me. 

I was an early adopter of Facebook, and then joined Twitter when it became popular. Last year I left both of those, and because I never joined Instagram or any of the other "social media" I am now a non-entity on the internet (except for my blog, which you are reading for some strange reason). I am very disappointed with the direction the internet has taken, which is all about profit. And I do not like being surveilled by these giant, obscenely profitable tech companies. I use Signal for texting, and Protonmail for email, and DuckDuckGo for web browsing. This makes me feel like a resister, even though I still have a gmail account, use Amazon, Netflix, Spotify and others that harvest my data and push it back at me as ads. But I look for the rabbit holes, and try to avoid the ones I can.

As detailed in Rabbit Hole, the early and main goal of YouTube was to constantly increase and maximize retention time of users. In other words, capture eyeballs and try not to let them leave the site. It didn't matter what the users were watching, YouTube didn't care about the content, only the retention time. The algorithms build by YouTube pushed content at users based on the prior viewing of each user. It turns out that very large numbers of people are ensnared by this mesmerizing barrage of suggested content and, like Caleb, become addicted. In his case, Caleb at one time spent 12 to 15 hours per day on YouTube. And the algorithm, over time, dragged him to and into a rabbit hole that, in his case, turned him into a far-right extremist white supremacist. Caleb managed to climb back out after a long time down the rabbit hole, but many are not so fortunate.

 

One of the interesting segments of Rabbit Hole is the interviews with Susan Wojcicki, the YouTube CEO. Ms. Wojcicki talked about the early days of YouTube when it's purpose was entertainment, mostly home videos people made of themselves, their pets, and other mostly inane subjects. But YouTube now considers itself to be a media platform that hosts music, gaming, DIY and educational videos in the form of podcasts, informational videos and a variety of other formats.  She talked about recent efforts of YouTube to find and expel the most extreme providers on the platform after YouTube realized that a lot of the platform content was being used for nefarious purposes.  I am happy to learn that YouTube is finally trying to clean up the platform, a very daunting task when you consider the millions of users. 

I still have a problem with YouTube, and I take issue with Ms. Wojcicki about the core of her business; it is still harvesting user data and pushing recommendations made by an algorithm. In my internet searches, I am very often led to YouTube and go there with great trepidation. My basic response is: I do not want your recommendations; I do not want another video to start as the one I'm watching ends; I do not want you to know what I am watching and also harvesting every bit of data from my computer and internet habits that you can glean from my visit. I just want to see the information or entertainment I was looking for. 

The internet is a fabulous technological development, with many positive attributes and uses. That being said, the internet has also become a dangerous place and a technology that giant corporations use to commodify users in order to reap obscene profits. Privacy and security seem not to matter much, only profit. In that regard, we are all down a rabbit hole. 

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WHAT IS A CORONAVIRUS?

It is amazing, from a strictly objective viewpoint, that something as small as a virus can create such havoc in human populations. And from a strictly scientific viewpoint, viruses are fascinating, amazing things. As the 2019-2020 coronavirus pandemic spread across the globe, I began to ask myself numerous questions. What exactly is a virus? Where did they come from and how long have they been around?  What can I learn about their biology? And how is it possible that they can bring human civilization to it's knees?

I’ve taken a very shallow dive into the pool of knowledge about viruses, and this post will be my attempt to provide a hopefully simple summary of what I've learned. A bit wonky, perhaps, but hopefully helpful for those who like wonk. And keep in mind that I am in no way an expert, or even someone with more than a beginning understanding of this science. So take this blog post with a grain of caution that it might not be exactly correct.

As an aside, I had the thought that my quest to understand the viral world is akin to trying to understand the physics of the universe, and that there would be a lot of stuff to read that I would not comprehend. I was correct!

A virus is not a plant or animal or bacterium; in fact, they are not living things, so my wondering about the “biology” of virus is a misnomer. They cannot self-replicate and cannot produce their own energy. So they are things, or agents, and the study of them is chemistry. (Perhaps this is an over-simplification, but I’ll go with it.)

So, let's look at a coronavirus. Basically, it is a tiny bit of genetic material, RNA, inside a capsule. It is called a varian. This particular varian is about 100 nanometers (nm) diameter. A nanometer is one one-billionth of a meter. For scale, the diameter of a human hair is about 70,000 nm, so about 700 of these varians laid side by side would equal the diameter of a human hair. Tiny.

(Figure:https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0065352706660053#fig0005)

Proteins and lipids and RNA; seems quite simple. The spikes, which make the varian resemble a crown, hence “corona,” interact with receptor proteins in the outer membrane of very specific animal cells. In the case of humans, the spikes activate when they contact cells of the respiratory system, in the throat and lungs; however, recent evidence suggests that this corona virus also attacks other cells, such as kidney, intestine, and maybe others.* Once attached, the varian combines with the human cell, either through fusion or invasion. It then uses the mechanisms of the human cell to replicate the varian RNA and expel new varians. The process is open to mutation, wherein parts of the human RNA get recombined with the varian RNA. The vast majority of these mutations appear to be very minor and harmless, in the context of human disease; however, there are exceptions. This process is shown in the next figure, and if you understand all the notations, explain them to me! Basically, the figure shows a varian attached to a human cell, top left, the processes that occur within the cytoplasm of the cell that replicate the varian RNA, and a new varian being expelled from the cell, top right. 

(Figure source: ibid)

The illness caused by the invasion of this coronavirus is COVID-19 (COrona VIrus Disease 2019). It is typically manifested in three stages in those individuals who get critically ill. It is important to note that, epidemiologically, a large proportion of people who are infected with this virus do not exhibit symptoms and, if they do get ill, have a mild case of the disease.

In Stage 1 of COVID-19, the virus kills the cells it has invaded, and these dead cells slough off and start to clog the lung airways, causing pneumonia. In Stage 2, the body’s immune system rallies to attack the virus and becomes over-active due to the severity of the invasion, and the result is that the immune system starts to kill lung cells. More dead cells are sloughed off, worsening the pneumonia, and as this progresses, it basically eats holes in the lung tissue and scar tissue forms, which stiffens the lungs; this is Stage 3. The result can be respiratory failure, which is why so many critical patients are intubated and put on a ventilator. Changes to lung cell membrane permeability cause the lungs to fill with fluid. As a result of all the above, the lungs can fail to infuse enough oxygen into the patient’s blood, resulting in death.

Sounds pretty gruesome, because it is. 

Where did viruses come from, and when? My surface scratch research suggests that there are several theories about the origins of viruses. One theory is that viruses appeared prior to single-cell life forms, and may or may not be linked to the evolution of living organisms. Another theory posits that viruses appeared within the same time frame as living cells. 

In my simple view, however they originated, viruses developed to take advantage of living organisms by using the organism’s cells to do the work of replication, thereby keeping the varian more “simple” by not needing feeding, reproductive and other systems. I do not think that viruses are simple; they are very complex chemical packets.

Health experts expect this virus to be cycling through the population for more than this cycle. There are some estimates that outbreaks will occur next fall/winter that could be as bad as the current outbreak. In other words, this is not a short-term event. 

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(This post was modified on May 11, 2020 by adding the footnote.)

* There are a lot of unknowns concerning this particular coronavirus, and new information about it is coming out of research labs and groups almost daily. Recent cases have indicated that COVID-19 might be related to strokes in otherwise healthy people in their 30's and 40's. In New York, a number of children who were infected but asymptomatic have developed a mysterious illness, and at least one child has died. 

WHO’S THE IDIOT WITHOUT A MASK ON?

What does everyone in this video know that VP Mike Pence doesn’t? Well, nothing. Prior to his visit to the Mayo Clinic, the clinic let his staff know that they have a mandatory policy that everyone needs to wear a mask. Pence declined to wear one. And Pence is the Administration lead for the pandemic response!

(Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/28/us/coronavirus-updates.html?referringSource=article)

According to the article:

During the tour, Stephen Hahn, the Food and Drug Administration commissioner, and other administration officials wore masks; all employees around Mr. Pence were wearing face masks, and a patient wore a mask. Mr. Pence stood out as the only person with his face uncovered as he toured the virology laboratory’s labeling area, thanking employees and then participating in a round table with local officials and Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota.

After the visit, the Mayo Clinic tweeted that it had “informed @VP of the masking policy prior to his arrival today.” The clinic then deleted the tweet.

Mr. Pence defended his own behavior. “As vice president of the United States, I’m tested for the coronavirus on a regular basis, and everyone who is around me is tested for the coronavirus,” he told reporters.

He said he was following Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines that indicated that masks were good for preventing the spread of the virus by those who had it.

Public health experts said his argument for not wearing a mask in public settings was faulty.

Vice President Pence was demonstrating, once again, that the White House policy for the coronavirus pandemic is to say, as well as do, the things that health experts warn should not be said or done. In other words, as Trump has basically demonstrated since the beginning of this crisis, this thing is not a big deal, we don’t really need to take it seriously, everything will be fine, blah-blah-blah-blah.

Meanwhile, in the United States as of today, at least 1,008,000 COVID-19 cases have been confirmed, and 57,966 Americans have died of the disease. 

Thank you, Vice President Pence, for directly contributing to so many illnesses and deaths! I’ll bet you don’t even wash your hands. Well, the American people can’t wait to wash our hands of you and your boss! 

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IT IS TRULY TIME TO TEAR THIS F**KER DOWN!!

First: peruse this:The Tax-Break Bonanza Inside the Economic Rescue Package https://nyti.ms/2VzfL4X

As small businesses and individuals struggle to obtain federal aid, the wealthiest are poised to reap tens of billions of dollars in tax savings.

Does it surprise you? Of course not, it is the proverbial "business as usual" in the United States of America. No matter how outraged I get, I just can't get outraged enough! Every. Single. Day.

How does this end? A dystopian world of the very. very wealthy few and the very, very poor many? Oh, that's right, we already live there! It's called America.

Trump is not, contrary to popular belief on the left, the problem. Trump is the symptom, the messenger, the open, running, oozing sore that we were always too repulsed to look at but that we now have become oblivious to. Trump is the buffoon, puppet string-pulled by the super rich and the big corporations that don't really give a rat's crap about anyone who isn't them. Did you know that the wealthiest neighborhoods in Manhattan are ghost towns because all the rich folk have moved to their country homes, or yachts, or French Riviera villas, or...anywhere but where there are sick and dying people in the lower classes?

Yeah, I know, there are some very wealthy folks who are trying to do good things - they are the ones we know, not the ones we don't know.

And so here we are, in the midst of a pandemic that has killed 196,000 people and counting in the world, including 51,192 dead in the USA - as of today. Congress is scrambling to keep pace with this disaster by passing relief bills as fast as they can. Notice I said "keep pace," they are actually running behind the pandemic curve, but not catching up to it. Piecemeal relief, instead of a comprehensive package that looks forward as well as at the present/past.

And the very wealthy and their corporations? Special provisions in these relief bills to shovel even more of our money to them! Shameful is a very mild word. Criminal is getting better. Reprehensible - maybe there isn't a word strong enough to describe these bloated blood-sucking leeches.

America - wake the eff up, stop scrolling through Facebook and Twitter and Instagram, and get pissed. And do something. Number 1, do not re-elect Donald Effing Trump. Number 2, tell Joe Biden and every Democratic politician you can that enough is enough. It stops here; it stops now. Change it. We demand it.

I'm finished.

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LESSONS WE NEED TO LEARN FROM THE PANDEMIC OF 2020

I truly hope that, once this pandemic is behind us and we are trying to return to some sense of normalcy, that we and our elected officials pause to think about what we've learned in this trial by fire. The lessons are many. Here are just a few:

• every person in the United States should have health care, without having to worry about how to pay for it; 
• every working person should receive a living wage, paid sick leave, affordable child care, and paid vacation;
• ​every person in America should live in a clean environment, including air and water - think about what cities look like during the pandemic;
• ​the United States should have a modern, efficient and fast system of commuter and long-distance rail service in and between urban areas, and also serving rural communities;
• ​the fossil fuel economy must end and be replaced by one based on sustainable energy sources;
• the wealth gap in America needs to be drastically narrowed and the standard of living raised for all Americans
• a college education would be available for free, or affordable, and existing student debt  should be cancelled;
• the United States should have a reasonable and comprehensive immigration program, and undocumented people now in the country, as well as the "Dreamers," should have a clear path to citizenship.

And more....

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THE 50TH EARTH DAY

It has been 50 years today since the first Earth Day; are environmental conditions better now?  

That's me, above, 50 years ago on the first Earth Day, April 22, 1970. The location was the relatively new* University of California campus at Irvine (UCI). (Note: if you watch the first Planet of the Apes movie, you will recognize the building in the background.) I was standing next to Trashman, a sculpture my wife, Sherry, and I (maybe others) made out of, you guessed it, trash.

Sherry and I were co-chairs of the UCI Environmental Teach-In Committee that organized and facilitated the first Earth Day, on the UCI campus. We were graduate students; I was in the Population and Environmental Biology program, working on a Ph.D. that I didn't complete (I got as far as being advanced to Candidacy, then got derailed by the anti-war movement - more on that another time).

I still have a copy of the UCI Earth Day program listing the events and participants in multiple panel discussions, presentations, break-out sessions and speeches.  Here is a list of those events:

Panels:
Land Use and Development: Functions and Priorities
Water
Air
Workshop Discussion Groups:
Population
Newport Bay
Pollution Strategy
What Is A Scenic Coast Freeway?
Films:
Project Survival
The San Joaquin Marsh - A Recent Acquisition of the University of California
- keynote address: Environment and the Total Society. Congressman George Brown, Jr.
- Nature Sensitivity Awareness Sessions
- exhibits

As evidenced above, the big environmental concerns of the day were air and water quality, urban development, and human population growth. A few local issues were also included. We did not imagine then that 50 years in the future we would be facing the global crisis of human-induced climate change; or did we? Looking back, we were envisioning the future, but without the terminology of the 21st century. After all, what were the outcomes of unbridled air and water pollution, urban growth and development, and human population growth? An altered climate, among other results. Did we imagine a half-century ago that human activities could actually alter the climate in ways that would change everything? Some forward-thinkers must have; most of us probably not.

Earth Day solidified the burgeoning environmental movement of the 1960's and moved it forward. Great strides were made in environmental regulation, and the United States became a global leader in environmental protection. A new industry developed, the environmental industry, in which I built a career as a consulting ecologist. Air and water quality improved overall, greater amounts of fish and wildlife habitat were protected and conserved, the Endangered Species Act placed protections on plant and animal species that were at risk of disappearing. And yet...and yet.

Here we are, in the year 2020, witnessing dramatic climatic events wreak havoc around the world; events linked to the enormous levels of carbon compound emissions to the atmosphere from human activity. It is ironic that fossil fuels, formed from the remains of plants over millions of years, have become the thing that now threatens human populations. These fuels are the foundation of most human societies on Earth; every aspect of modern societies is intimately connected to fossil fuels.

Could human societies have developed and modernized without fossil fuels? I don't see how. Could we have recognized earlier that our fossil fuel use trajectory was going to result in climate change, and find ways to avoid the crisis in which we now find ourselves? Yes, most certainly; in fact, there have been scientists and others ringing alarm bells for many decades. So why didn't we heed these warnings?

It is truly amazing that, even as the reality of climate change became widely recognized over the past decade or more, we (human societies) have found new ways to extract even more fossil fuels from underground and under sea, and actually increase the carbon loading to the atmosphere. Yes, the efforts to reduce emissions have grown considerably, with governments signing climate accords, setting goals for reduced emissions, the energy sector rapidly increasing the proportion of wind, solar and other alternative energy sources. And yet...and yet.

Turn on the television and watch for awhile How many advertisements do you see for electric vehicles (EVs)? How many do you see for large SUV's and big pickup trucks? People who notice things have noted that there were 3 ads for EVs during the last Super Bowl, an amazing thing. True; however, the ads were for the EV Hummer, EV Porsche sports car, and the EV Audi - all very expensive big or fast vehicles (and they were advertised that way). When will we see ads for regular vehicles that are electric, with the point of the ad being that it is good for the environment and public health, and besides, why do you need a very fast car or monster pickup truck? Yes, I've seen a few of those ads, but they are rare.

I am encouraged by the new environmentalism of the younger generations. Our environmentalism in the 1970's was, to a great extent, born out of understanding new concepts, based on the fairly young science of ecology, and a growing realization that human societies were doing things that would not turn out well. The environmentalism of youth in the year 2020 is born more out of anger and fear; anger at those in charge who let it get to this point (capitalists, politicians, etc.), and fear of a future world so dreadful that many young people do not want to bring children into it. One result of this new environmentalism is policy proposals such as the Green New Deal, and that is positive.

I've saved Trump for the end of this post. Trump, in my view, is a symptom, not the problem. He and his enablers have wrought great havoc on the world, including the environment. These selfish people deny science, deny climate change, scale back environmental regulation, maximize profit for industry, including fossil fuel companies, and do everything that is counter-productive for reducing environmental risk. They will be directly responsible for many millions of deaths, and a future of more human suffering. They are, in my view, criminals. And yet...and yet.

The Earth is not in peril, and climate change is not an existential threat to the human species. The planet will be just fine, thank you, no matter what. And humans will be around for a long time. The climate will be different, resulting in changes to human activities, as well as plant and animal species. Human populations will move around based on rising sea levels and changing weather patterns. These will very likely be huge disruptions of human societies, and future wars based on access to water or farmland; but the human species will adapt and survive. These words are not meant to be comforting; they are not, especially for my grandchildren and the generations after theirs. We humans have made choices throughout our history, and we always have to live with the results.

And so, to the question: are environmental conditions better today than 50 years ago? Was/is Earth Day meaningful? I look up from my computer, sitting in our kitchen on day 43 of sheltering at home during the novel coronavirus pandemic of 2020. I am amazed that 50 years have passed - a half century!! - since we so optimistically planned and participated in thousands of teach-ins called Earth Day. I have to say that, in my humble opinion, the present and future impacts of global climate change vastly outweigh many, if not most of the environmental advances made over the past 50 years. To a large degree, things like air and water quality and urban development can be worked on at more local or regional scales with measurable results, and many good things have been accomplished. But climate change is in a different ball park, the entire planet, and the solutions have to be at a planetary scale. Time will tell, and there is almost no time left before we pass the tipping points (some think we are already beyond those). I am not very hopeful, but I'm trying to be.

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* The UCI campus was dedicated in 1964 by President Lyndon B. Johnson.

DONALD TRUMP IS A MASS MURDERER (AND SO ARE HIS ENABLERS)

I have written many things over the years of this blog; some serious, some humorous, many sarcastic or cynical. It's been OK, because few people read this thing. But sometimes I wish lots of people read my blog.

I usually, mostly, think about the words I use here. For this post, I considered words very carefully. I decided that the words in my title are good words, and truthful words; Donald Trump is a mass murderer.

The novel coronavirus that causes the illness labeled COVID-19 is a serious and dangerous disease. Donald Trump and some of his enablers (Rush Limbaugh comes to mind) have said that the COVID-19 coronavirus is just like the annual, seasonal flu, and no big deal. Trump said initially that the coronavirus is a big hoax perpetrated by the Chinese and supported by the Democrats. Wrong. The seasonal flu has a lethality rate of under 1%; COVID-19 has a lethality rate of somewhere between 2% and 5% (the determination is difficult), and that is a huge difference. The U.S. has, as of today, more than 24,000 confirmed new cases per day, and more than 2,000 deaths per day. To date, there have been almost 800,000 confirmed cases in the U.S., and almost 42,000 deaths.

Donald Trump did not cause the coronavirus pandemic, but a great many of his actions, inactions and comments have resulted in the U.S. response to the pandemic being greatly delayed and seriously flawed. Here is a good article documenting my conclusion. Trump has politicized the federal government response to the pandemic; he has also failed to provide the leadership and resources needed to minimize the pandemic effect. Trump likes to tout the United States as being Number One. Well, we are number one in the world in the number of COVID-19 cases and the number of COVID-19 deaths. The best responses in the U.S. to the pandemic are at the state level, with a number of governors providing the kind of leadership and resources needed, in spite of federal efforts to undermine them.

As if the above isn't bad enough, the past few days have seen demonstrations in several states against the "shelter at home" and business closing orders. These demonstrations have been organized by conservative right-wing groups that have ties to the Trump campaign, and are taking place in states with Democratic governors. In addition to carrying signs about the social distancing orders, the demonstrators carry signs and wear hats for the Trump presidential campaign, some carry guns and 2nd amendment signs. In other words, these are political campaign demonstrations by Trump supporters. Tragically, most of these demonstrators do not wear masks or maintain a safe distance from each other, with the certain result that the coronavirus is being spread through the crowds and is then carried back into the communities where these idiots live.

Trump not only supports these demonstrations, he encourages them on Twitter, on Fox News, and in his daily statements. "LIBERATE MINNESOTA" he tweets."LIBERATE VIRGINIA, and save your great 2nd Amendment. It is under siege!" The tweet about Virginia was interpreted by extremists as a call to arms! 

It is neither "fake news" nor hyperbole to state that Donald Trump is directly responsible for the deaths of thousands of Americans by COVID-19. And so are his many enablers, from Republicans in Congress to hosts on Fox News to the people who throng to these dangerous demonstrations. Trump is an extremely dangerous madman who needs to be removed from office as soon as possible. Unfortunately, our best chance to remove him will be the 2020 elections, and he will continue to murder people and cause other great harms to America and the world until then. 

I mourn the victims of Trump's evil. 

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WHEN LEADERS FAIL US

There are many, many lessons to be learned from the coronavirus pandemic of 2019-2020. It remains to be seen if any of these will actually be learned in meaningful ways. I am not optimistic.

Primary among these lessons is that of leadership, specifically when it fails. The United States has a President who has demonstrated time and again over the past three years that his leadership leaves much to be desired. No, this post is not just about Donald Trump; so much has already been said and written about him that repetition would be wasteful here.  However, the major point regarding Donald Trump is that, in this time of a national and global crisis, he has not just failed as a leader, but failed spectacularly. Trump is uninterested and incapable of being the leader needed in a time of crisis. His basic message is "you are on your own, stop whining, and I'm upset because you don't appreciate me. And how am I going to profit from this?"

We are witnessing other leaders failing spectacularly. A large number of governors waited too long before ordering people to stay home and socially distance. Some of them have yet to fully implement these pandemic mitigation measures, and some have even overruled preventive measures implemented by local governments in their states. 

These spectacular failures of leadership are not just notable, they are responsible for people dying. They are, in my opinion, criminal acts perpetrated by men in positions of power. How many COVID-19 deaths in the United States would have been prevented had these men stepped up and provided the leadership needed to slow the pandemic, equip front-line medical workers with the tools and equipment needed, inspired people to do the right thing, and put in place mandatory rules applicable nationwide? This is a number that could be estimated, and it would be a very large number.

Leadership is both an innate personality quality as well as a learned skill. To lead means to inspire others to follow; in other words, a leader cannot be a single person without followers. And the direction being lead towards is important; there have been many leaders in history who have led their followers towards darkness and evil. As followers, we have choices; who do we choose to follow?

Our system of electing political leaders often results in the election of people into leadership positions who are not the leaders we need. Trump is a prime example of this. And once in power, ineffective leaders like Trump put people into lower positions of leadership who are not good leaders, and who do not threaten the poor leadership of the top dog. This might all seem fine for awhile, until a crisis strikes and the extent and dangers of poor leadership are exposed. The coronavirus pandemic we are now in is such a crisis. 

I truly hope the majority of Americans understands the lessons to be learned from this pandemic once it is behind us. I hope Americans understand the spectacular failure of leadership exhibited by Donald Trump, a number of governors, some federal agency directors and others. And I hope Americans use this understanding to make decisions at the ballot box (or the virtual ballot box). As I said at the beginning, I am not hopeful. I hope I'll be surprised.

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A STARTUP IDEA

There is Instagram.
There is Instacart.
I hope to soon start a new company that will deliver big reptiles that live in swamps:

INSTAGATOR

for people who want to start something

(obviously, I have a lot of time on my hands....)

ANYONE WHO VOTES FOR DONALD TRUMP IN 2020 IS A F-ING IDIOT!!!!!

(Editor's note: the author of this post has been socially isolated in his home for 12 days, and has already had 2 quarantinis. Just saying.)

I can't help reading and watching the news, here in the age of pandemic. Things are not good in the world. People are sick; people are dying. Businesses are closed and many will not survive. Governments at every level are working hard to contain the outbreaks and flatten the typical exponential infection curve.

And then there is the United States of America. Donald Trump, the man I call the Dick in the Oval, is doing everything he can, every day, to contradict the experts. The U.S. government response to the pandemic is, to be kind, very screwed up. Trump and his minions, since taking power, have decimated the agencies and departments and working groups that would/should be dealing with this global crisis. Trump, in his typical me-me-me narcissistic way, holds a daily press briefing, surrounded by cabinet members and agency experts who are required to praise Mr. President on the Great Job He Is Doing, and then try to - gently - correct his lies. Trump is an unhinged madman. He rules over a country that is the wealthiest in the world, and yet doctors and nurses treating COVID-19 patients have to reuse PPE (personal protection equipment) as often as possible - things such as masks, gowns, gloves that truly should only be used once. Starting with his "Oh gee, this will be over in a few days; we have 15 cases today, tomorrow it will be 5, then it will be zero - like a miracle, and besides, this is a huge hoax by the Chinese that the Fake News and the Democrats are using to try to get me, but too bad for them, I'm building a big, beautiful WALL and LOCK HER UP!!!"

Anyone...ANYONE...who votes for this ignoranus, narcissistic, mean, evil.....oh hell, there aren't enough words to describe the a**hole; any person who votes for this man is a total...f-ing...idiot. Full Stop.
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THE TOILET PAPER SHORTAGE

First of all...why? There is no valid reason for people to be buying and hoarding toilet paper during the coronavirus pandemic. TP does not kill virus, and does not cure COVID-19. This is simply bizarre.

What will happen if this TP crisis is not abated in the very near future? There could be mass rioting, burning and looting by wipe-deprived mobs seeking out the secret stashes of TP kept in dark caverns by the Deep State. People will be hurt by bands of TP zombies roaming the streets.

Why hasn't Donald Trump done anything about this? Why has he not opened the Federal Toilet Paper Reserve rumored to be deep below ground in the mountains of Utah? What is he keeping it for, after all? Perhaps he plans to TP the homes of liberals, Democrats and Sanctuary City residents!

Do we have alternatives? What about DIY toilet paper alternatives? How about:

• Sears catalogues (oh, they went out of business)
• photos of Trump clipped out of newspapers
• political lawn signs from last year that still have not been picked up for recycling
• miracle cloths (hey....it's a miracle)
• the carpet where your dog drags it's rear when it itches
• photos of Trump clipped out of newspapers (I know I already used this one, but I like it)
• a DIY bidet using the garden hose
• all the U.S. currency that will soon be worthless
• just let it dry in place
• _________________ (you fill in the blank)

Perhaps the best idea is this one: The DOTUS (The Donald of the United States) declares a National Emergency and requires the U.S. Printing Office to convert all the printed copies of Congressional Republican-sponsored bills into rolls of tush wipe. He then flies around the country on Air Force One to all the COVID-19 outbreaks where huge crowds will gather, and he will toss rolls of TP into the crowd, while proclaiming how great he is and how Crooked Hillary should be locked up. The beauty of this plan is that The DOTUS will be doing something he enjoys and is capable of doing, away from D.C. so the handful of competent people in government left over from previous administrations can actually tell the truth and work on solving the pandemic.

I'm not sure which will wipe us out first, the virus or The DOTUS!
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WHAT BERNIE AND HIS SUPPORTERS NEED TO DO NOW, IMHO

I think it is game over for Bernie in the primaries; Joe Biden's delegate lead is insurmountable in the real world. What he needs to do now is drop out of the race, put his full support behind Joe Biden, something he has repeatedly said he will do, and urge - no, command - his supporters to do the same.

This is not what die-hard Bernie supporters want to hear. I am a Bernie supporter, but will easily slide over to the Biden camp for a number of reasons. What bothers me a lot is hearing that some young voters will choose to not vote at all rather than vote for Joe Biden in the general election (déjà vu 2016?).  This is absolutely the wrong thing to do! Let me explain why.

 I understand the passion of young Bernie-supporting voters (and, actually, all Bernie supporters) for a political revolution. I have written about that in this blog. I was young and radical a half century ago (now I'm old and radical). In my younger years, the existential threat to human and other life on Earth was nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union. It didn't happen; we're still here. My wife and I were co-chairs of the first Earth Day teach-in in 1970 at University of California, Irvine. I look at the schedule of talks and panels from that event 50 years ago, and I wonder if much has changed since then. Some things are better, some are worse, and climate change has become the existential threat for the present and future generations. 

We protested the Viet Nam war, and we felt responsible for the decision of President Lyndon Johnson not to run for re-election. We were activists for civil rights, women's rights, labor unions and other "radical" causes. More recently we supported LGBTQ rights and freedom of marriage. 

The point is, I understand the passion of Bernie supporters to make fundamental changes to the American system in the name of justice and equality. But what I want to say to young people is that, because of my age and experience, I also understand politics better than I did as a young activist. Unfortunately, no young person wants to hear that from an old man! 

I know now that change is usually incremental, even though it sometimes can be faster. I now know that we need to be careful what we ask for. For example, we got rid of Lyndon Johnson, but what we got was Richard Nixon. And in retrospect, most of us realized that Johnson, for all his warts, was one of the best political operators in our nations history; in other words, he knew how to get things done, and he got a lot of important things passed.

At this very moment in time in America, the man who occupies the presidency is an existential threat to American democracy. We certainly can all agree that Donald Trump needs to lose the 2020 election. If the Democratic Party, and all no-Trump voters are divided in November, if a significant number of no-Trump voters decide to not vote instead of vote for Biden, Trump has a better chance of being re-elected, and the damage to America and the world will be worse than anything we have seen since 2016 under Trump and the Trump Republicans. 

Joe Biden is a good person and a very experienced politician. He has the potential to be a good President. He is not a Democratic Socialist like Bernie Sanders; however, he is a liberal who has been tugged to the left on a number of issues by Bernie and Elizabeth Warren. 

Here is the best game plan for Bernie supporters after Bernie drops out of the race:

1. Actively support the campaign of Joe Biden in ways that are comfortable for you. 
2. Vote in the 2020 election, and vote for Joe Biden.
3. Encourage everyone you know to vote, for Biden. 
4. (This is critical) Don't stop being politically active. The advance of Democratic Socialist ideas and policies has never been as recognized and popular in America as they are right now, thanks to Bernie and all of you. Don't squander that progress; build on it. Put pressure on a Biden administration to do the right things. Elect more progressives and socialists to Congress. Continue to build the movement - don't turn your backs on it. 

Nobody said political change would be easy. Every generation of activists has to work hard to keep the gains made by those before them, and to pave the way for change by those who follow. We have seen tremendous steps backwards by the Trumpsters, who have as a primary goal undoing everything accomplished by Barak Obama and other Democrats. We cannot allow them to win; you cannot allow them to win.  

Joe Biden is not the candidate you want, I get it. But dropping out of the political system by shirking your responsibility to vote is a cop-out. How would you react if the players on your favorite sports team stopped playing in the middle of a game and walked out because they were losing? 

Bernie Sanders has accomplished amazing things as a candidate in 2016 and 2020. He has set a very critical policy agenda for the political revolution that is desperately needed in this country. I hope he stays in the game of politics as a leader in the progressive, Democratic Socialist movement. I think President Joe Biden will have to pay attention to Bernie and his base. His voice will be your voice in the Senate and party politics for awhile; however, at some point in the near future, Bernie will retire. Who will pick up his mantle? Your voice needs to be heard. The power of your vote is needed. 

Don't give up. Don't lose the gains made by the Bernie-led movement. Keep your head, and your vote, in the game. You can do this (and you don't have to tell anyone that you heard it from an old man!). 

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THINGS WE COULD - SHOULD - LEARN FROM THIS PANDEMIC

This post is not about the things we should learn regarding how to respond to and deal with the novel coronavirus pandemic in terms of the medical system and staying healthy; there is already a lot of that in the media.

I have been thinking about lessons we could, and IMHO should learn from this experience. My wife and I are "social distancing;" in other words, we are staying home and laying low until the worst part is over. There are many benefits to this, and we are seeing examples from around the world. Cities are less noisy, less congested, and the pace of life is slower. People in Chinese cities have written about how they are suddenly aware that they can hear birds singing instead of traffic noise, the air is cleaner and, therefore, the sky more blue. People everywhere are paying more attention to those around them, their neighbors, and finding ways to help those who need it. We seem to be more tuned in to community.

Large numbers of people are working from home. Many large events have been cancelled. Fewer people are going out to eat and recreate. There is a serious downside to this regarding the economy and the ability of people to make a living. On the other hand, people are spending more family time and having to find ways to entertain themselves and their children at home. There are numerous benefits from this.

We have had a few virtual happy hours and nightcaps (OK, alcohol involved) with friends and family using video call services like Skype, Facetime and Zoom. I think many people are rediscovering the telephone part of smartphone. In other words, people might be communicating more face-to-face (online) and voice-to-voice, instead of texting and emailing and facebooking. I find this type of communication more satisfying that writing and reading back and forth.

So what I am feeling and writing about is, in a sense, a return to what some might call the old-fashioned ways of life. By this I mean more personal interactions, more time to think and read and create and discuss.

The down side to this, of course, is that many people will get ill, and some people will die. And for too many people in our society, staying home from work, or having your kids out of school raises a whole set of serious issues.

There are major political lessons we could and should learn from this pandemic. Because America is the only wealthy nation that does not provide health care for everyone, not everyone will get health care. People who are ill and have no insurance, or are undocumented, will not seek the health care they need. This will not only be bad for them, it will be bad for all of us. Yes, this underscores the great need for something like Medicare for All.

Very many working people, especially those in low wage jobs and those in the gig economy, do not get paid sick leave, and will have no income if they are too ill to work, or are laid off or furloughed because businesses are slowing or closing. Once again, the United States, unlike most wealthy nations, does not mandate paid sick leave. Some states have recently mandated paid sick leave, but there is no over-arching law or standard. Recent research has shown that paid sick leave costs employers very little, increases productivity, and actually reduces the spread of flu outbreaks.

I could go on and talk about education, poverty, transportation and many other aspects of our society that are impacted by the pandemic in ways that they would not if we had different systems in place.  And these different systems are what detractors would call socialism!

I hope huge numbers of people in America think about these lessons and also think about how we can move forward after the pandemic, and not just go back to business as usual. Certainly during this election season we will hopefully also think about politics, how we are governed, and how we can make the changes that are very much needed. If this were a political post, I would now say "Vote for Bernie," but it isn't, so I won't say it. (Oh, I did....)

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BERNIE - BIDEN: TRYING TO RECONCILE MY GLAD AND MY SAD

I couldn't understand why I had an overwhelming sense of sadness recently as the results of the latest primary voting came in, and Joe Biden was the big winner. As I plumbed this feeling, I realized that it was mixed with gladness, and so I need to write about that.

I jotted some notes - yes, pencil on paper:

Glad -

• the Democrats are coalescing around one candidate
• Joe Biden would be a good President
• Biden is day to the Trump night, light to dark, hope to despair
• Democratic Socialism is out of the shadows and discussed openly, even if to attempt to repudiate it

Sad:

• a Biden presidency means that the Sanders agenda (Democratic Socialism) has no chance of being implemented
• the "revolution" America desperately needs will have to wait
• going back to the way things were before Trump (the Biden agenda) is going in the wrong direction
• at age 76, I might never see another Democratic Socialist candidate for President.

The remarkable ascendency of Joe Biden from a runner-up to the leading candidate is easily explained: Bernie Sanders scares the poop out of moderates and establishment Democrats.  Revolution - really? 

In 2005 I wrote a post here asking if it was time for a revolution, and I used this definition: "a drastic and far-reaching change in ways of thinking and behaving." At that time, I was reacting to the G. W. Bush administration, and the effect it was having on what America is. Too many people forget the damage the Cheney/Bush folks did to this country and the world. And here we are, the age of Trump, and dealing with the Trump/Republican Party revolution. 

If Bernie Sanders scares you, find and watch the March 4 interview by Rachel Maddow, MSNBC. It's too bad that, based on the so-called debates, Bernie is often seen as a red-faced, shouting and pointing old man. In the interview, Bernie is seen as he is, a thoughtful, intelligent, experienced politician who has spent his career trying to move a progressive agenda forward in a world of complacency and corruption. Everything in Bernie's menu of policies is common sense and, quite frankly, desperately needed in this country and the world. 

So what is it that scares the establishment and moderates?  We don't need a revolution, and just the thought is too scary? That opinion demonstrates the immaturity of Americans. Most people understand and can articulate the very large, serious issues we have in America, and yet doing what needs to be done about them (revolution of thought and behavior) is way too scary to think about. 

What does the future of America look like? If the Trump Republicans stay in control, it will be very grim, indeed. If Joe Biden becomes President, the Trump agenda will be dismantled and we will be...where? Back to the future? The same old same old? America needs to move forward, not backwards, and not treading water. We have major institutional problems that can be solved, but not by incremental moderation. The power of corporations and their associations - military/industrial, drug companies, financial firms, insurance companies, big tech/internet, and others is too much for incrementalism to overcome. Only revolution, the kind defined above, by a majority of citizens, has a chance to change the system, and it's not a certainty by any stretch of the imagination.

Can Bernie, or a Bernie-like President make the needed changes? Not easily, and very likely not. But we will never know if someone doesn't try. And given the state of the nation and the world, the time to try is now.

The sad and the glad. I was not happy that Bernie Sanders ran for President again; I would have rather seen someone like Elizabeth Warren carry the Democratic Socialism (or similar) banner forward. I was also not happy that Joe Biden jumped in. But here we are, and it's down to Bernie - Biden. So let's get on with it and see what we can do. On a "glad" note, Bernie has dragged the Democratic Party a long way to the left, and his ideas have been aired and debated. I truly hope that progressive Democrats continue to build a movement and continue to fight for the revolutionary changes desperately needed in America. 

Hope springs eternal.

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THE STOCK MARKET AND THE DONALD

It is no surprise that Donald Trump is more concerned about his re-election than he is about the people of the United States. One reason he has acted so cavalierly about the coronavirus epidemic is that he wants to minimize it’s effect on the stock market. He sees his re-election tied to the condition of the U.S. economy. It is an historic fact that incumbent POTUS’ in a strong economy get re-elected. And so The Donald cannot admit, in public at least, that the epidemic is serious and we should all be concerned about it. 

How bad is the market slump over the past week or so? Well, it is a serious decline, and it has the potential to get worse. Some analysts are saying that the market was in trouble before the epidemic, and this has simply hastened the inevitable. 

I generally don’t look at our retirement portfolio very often. I learned years ago that the short-term volatility of the market is normal, and being concerned about declines in portfolio value is an exercise in futility in most cases. This time, however, I had to take a look. Here is what our portfolio value looks like over the past 1 year (I cropped out the dollar values along the left side; there were no deposits and some withdrawals over this time period):

The point of this is that the market was amazing over the past year, and so far, the decline is relatively small compared to the 12-month gain. Yes, this kind of rapid decline is not good, but I feel no need to panic or be too concerned. Put another way, I’m OK losing paper value if it keeps Trump from being re-elected. (By the way, changes in the stock market are generally not easy to tie to the actions, or inactions, of a President. The market was gaining value for a number of years before Trump was in office, yes, under Obama.)

As usual, Trump only thinks about his own image, brand, wealth, and re-election, and the rest of us be damned. If you have not seen it yet, find on-line the video of Trump at the CDC yesterday, a brief stop on his way to play golf at Mar-a-Lago. He not only looks like a buffoon, he acts like one, too. In fact, he is a buffoon. If the reason for his visit were not so very serious, a major viral epidemic, we would laugh ourselves to tears. Instead, we look on in horror as a maniacal clown tells lies and minimizes the seriousness of the situation. 

Sometimes, clowns just aren’t funny. 

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COVID-19: BLAME TRUMP (and for everything else, too!)

OK, the title is misleading; The DOTUS (The Donald of the United States) did not cause the COVID-19 coronavirus. The blame does fall on him, however, for lack of preparedness of the federal government to have a coherent plan for an epidemic or pandemic. 

To understand this, we need to look at the Donald Trump playbook, "The Art of the Con." Fortunately for you, dear readers, I have secured photos of every page in the book, and have compiled them below:

You might think this is a joke, but it isn't. Since taking office, The DOTUS has systematically cancelled, revoked, reversed and otherwise nullified almost everything accomplished by the Obama Administration in the areas of environment, education, public land conservation, public health, worker health and safety, food safety, drug safety and prices, housing, and more. 

And now we have the coronavirus, COVID-19. It turns out that in February, 2018, the CDCP (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) announced that it was cutting back by 80% on a program established under Obama to prevent global disease outbreaks. The funding for the program was initially authorized during the Ebola crisis, and the Trump administration, in early 2018, appeared not to continue the program. 

Also in 2018, the Trump administration axed the executive branch team responsible for coordinating a response to a pandemic, the health security team within the National Security Council, and did not replace it (Snopes). 

If it has seemed that the federal government has been scrambling to deal with the coronavirus epidemic, it has been, because of the cuts made by Trump and his team in the White House. 

So much for national security concerns by The DOTUS regarding epidemics/pandemics. The only epidemic Trump is concerned with is all those "killers and rapists" streaming north from Mexico. We don't need a pandemic response team, all we need is a big, beautiful WALL!! 

Should I hope The DOTUS doesn't wash his hands and touches his face?

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THE UNITED STATES OF OMG

Why do I let this crap bother me so much? Maybe it's because it stinks so bad? OK, here we go.

God - a christian one - is alive and well in the Trump administration. The White House Bible Study Group includes numerous members of the Trump Cabinet, including Betsy DeVoss, Mike Pompeo, Mike Pence and others. Donald Trump does not attend; however, he does scribble some "atta boy" comments with his black Sharpie on some of the weekly bible study papers that are sent his way (he certainly doesn't read them). 

I don't have a problem with bible study groups in general, but I am leery of one in the White House with this particular cast of characters. A BBC article about the group from 2018 is worth reading. A few choice statements from the guy in charge, Ralph Drollinger, pastor of Capitol Ministries: 

On why no women can lead the bible study group: "But there is a prohibition of female leadership in marriage, and female leadership in the church. And those are clear in scripture… it doesn't mean, in an egalitarian sense, that a woman is of lesser importance. It's just that they have different roles."

On same-sex marriage, he writes: "Homosexuality and same-sex ceremonies are illegitimate in God's eyes. His word is repetitive, perspicuous [clearly expressed], and staid on the subject."

On capitalism, he writes: "The right to personal property, also known as free enterprise or capitalism, is the governmental economic system supported by scripture. Scripture does not support communism."

And speaking of Mike Pence, as the coronavirus COVID-19 spreads across the world (reported in 45 countries as of today), our Dear Leader has put the Vice-Dear Leader, the pale zombie always seen standing motionless and emotionless behind the Dear Leader, in charge of the US response to the COVID-19 epidemic. That's right, Mike Pence, devout christian, science-denier and homophobe will protect us! All I can say is that LGBTQ folks and women should be very afraid of any epidemic response plan overseen by this jerk.

And then there's this. William Barr, U.S. Attorney General, and Betsy DeVoss, U.S. Secretary of Education, both spoke at the National Religious Broadcasters convention. As reported by the AP, Barr said that without religious morality, a country needs tyranny to control people. His speech appears to have pointed to a conclusion that secularism, and the liberal courts, are taking religion out of American lives, and this is not a good thing. (He did not say it, but there seems to be a direct line from his reasoning to his unflagging support of Donald Trump's tyranny.) 

From the AP: Barr also asserted that progressives want to use public benefits to create a permanent and dependent political constituency. "The tacit goal of this project [progressivism] is to convert all of us into 25-year-olds living in the government's basement, focusing our energies on obtaining a larger allowance rather than getting a job, and moving out and taking responsibility for ourselves."  (And BTW, what is it with the Trumpsters and people living in basements?)

Barr's speech was sponsored by Save the Persecuted Christians (really), a non-profit group. The leader of the group, Frank Gaffney, claims that the Muslim Brotherhood is infiltrating the U.S. government so they can overthrow it and institute Islamic law. (!!!) And oh, btw, Gaffney was a foreign policy advisor to Trump. 

In her remarks, DeVoss expressed her belief that private religious schools should receive government funding like public schools and other non-religious institutions. The audience cheered when she claimed that too many children were not being allowed to express their religious faith in school. 

Mike Pompeo, first Trump's Director of the CIA and now Secretary of State, is tight with Frank Gaffney. Pompeo is a known Islamophobe who sees "radical Islamists" under every bed in America. He appears to view politics as "a never ending struggle...until the rapture." A 2017 piece by Michelle Goldberg is a quick, but a bit dated, read-up on Mike.

So here we are. Donald Trump, our Dear Leader, who has built a Cabinet of devout, really out there christian zealots who he has loosed on America and the world. The evangelicals in America mostly love the Dear Leader, in spite of his warts. Their god is alive and well and taking firm control of the government through these servants. 

Believe it or not, there are many people who are more afraid of a Democratic Socialist than they are of the Trump God Squad. Heaven help us! (That's a joke, of course.)
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