A 'STEALTH' CAMPAIGN AS INSURANCE

A week or so ago, I wrote a semi-serious post about launching a ‘stealth’ campaign for president. As I watch Biden’s campaign find its footing and contemplate the immense war chest of Bloomberg, I wonder if my ‘campaign’ ought not to be a good deal more serious.

Because of how too much of the press is far too bedazzled by anything resembling Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, I still think it necessary for my campaign to be a ‘stealth’ one — on social media and person-to-person. It will be up to those who agree with me to collect the signatures for me to be on the ballot and so forth. This is still a job about which, for myself, I’m dubious, but I also feel it more necessary than ever to at least step forward and say, as did Isaiah, “Here I am. Send me!”

And why should I think myself at all qualified? Three things with which I start: I agree with most of the progressive Left about what urgently needs to be done. I don’t know if Malcolm Nance or David Cay Johnston consider themselves progressives but I mostly agree with them too.
Second, I know just how ignorant I am about how we get from point A to point B. Third, I know whose help I will want and need in order to get us from one point to the other. Leaders on that list are Malcolm Nance, Robert Reich, David Cay Johnston, Charles Eisenstein, Esther Dubos (what’s her name again? She and her hubby just won the Nobel Prize for Economics)Laurence Tribe, Naomi Klein, Bill McKibben, Nina Turner and, yes, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders as well. Fourth, I have watched politics since I was just short of twelve, which is just over half a century ago. And let me ask my readers this: who sees the most of any competitive game? Isn’t it the spectators and the cameras that put the pieces together?
If either Warren or Sanders wins the Democratic nomination, that will render this campaign unnecessary and I can happily retreat back into the woodwork of the progressive resurgence. But if we wind up handing the nomination to one of the Tammany Bourbons, I suggest that renders a campaign like mine all the more urgently necessary. We must, repeat MUST, have a candidate who is 1) not an oligarch nor a servant of theirs, 2) a strong anti-racist with some understanding of the roles race, sex, etc., still play in our society coupled with a determination to do all s/he can to transcend that and 3) really does love democracy, the earth, and the rule of law as written in the Constitution and interpreted in such a way as to expand the voices of ALL the people.
Bloomberg said recently he expects Trump will wipe the floor with anyone but himself. I guess that’s what too much wealth and power does to any individual; they believe in their hoard much more than they believe in people at the grassroots. When I heard him say this, I thought, “What a Bourbon!”

A bas toutes les Bourbons, mes freres et mes soeurs! C’est l’heure!
(Down with ALL Bourbons, brothers and sisters! The time is NOW!)
I might recommend the ‘stealth’ approach for campaigns for lesser offices as well. It depends on how much the ‘mainstream’ press is watching. If the campaign is already absent from their radar, make the most of that. If they are watching, then a ‘stealth’ approach may well be necessary.

And one thing is certain about any such campaign: if the candidate(s) who launch them wind up winning on Election Night, the people who voted for them and did the hard work to put them on the ballot and spread the word will be able to say, more than ever, “We did it ourselves.”
And isn’t having the people say that of any great collective task point out the truly great leaders among us? Think about that! So, come and ask your questions of me, one and all!

TO PRESERVE, RENEW AND EXPAND DEMOCRACY

What I now write is not new. Nor am I anywhere near the only one saying it, thanks be to God. Indeed, more and more voices are saying basically the same thing as I am (for which I’m also thankful). However, I haven’t seen anyone say it in this particular way, and here it is.

If we want our governments and our societies around the globe to gain and/or retain more of democracy than is currently the case, private stores of wealth (which are always privately held political and economic power) can be tolerated only up to a point. There has to be a ceiling for private wealth as well as a floor below which we allow no one to sink. Private wealth can never be allowed to the point that one fortune, or a few fortunes, can effectively ‘buy out’ the voices of those of middling and/or little or no means from the government by blatant or ‘legal’ bribery — that is to say, such ‘bribes’ as campaign contributions and/or a ‘revolving door’ whereby the paymasters keep the money flowing to their present or former political slaves!

This is what has happened in the USA over the last forty years or so and it must be reversed if we are to save not only our democracy but, indeed, the very planet itself! It is a ‘given’ that there will be rich, middle and lower in any human society but the rich should not be so wealthy as to be able to both ‘opt out’ of the common wealth and/or privatize it for their own benefit. Nor is there any need for the ‘poor’ to be abjectly so. The market is not doing the job for either; we, through our elected representatives and/or directly as citizens, must do this.

As I said before, many have said much the same thing at greater length and with more particularity than before. I believe my gift to be more like taking in the big picture and paring it down to its essentials. I hope I do that effectively in this post and in others as well.

I hope and pray we can start to put more than one Green New Deal in place even as we renew democracy to include more different voices than ever before, as democracy will always be a work in progress. And we badly need some serious progress on that work right now!

A SORT OF A CAMPAIGN

Today I re-state my unofficial and highly unorthodox campaign for President of the United States. This is not something I particularly want to do, but I think someone needs to have a campaign this out of the ordinary and be as ‘unbound’ by political orthodoxy as I like to think I am.

First, let me clarify something. ‘Politically unorthodox’, for me, includes serious respect for our Constitution, the rule of law and even, where it’s not being used to stifle voting rights, the right to protest or other guaranteed-to-all Constitutional rights, political precedents. The unorthodoxy kicks in with this particular way of sort-of campaigning which is geared in part to those with wisdom enough to realize that the persons most worth electing to political office can often be the ones who want it the least. P. J., I’d say you have a serious point there.
It also kicks in with more realization that what has become custom or precedent should not be allowed to forestall the urgent needs of both the present and the future, such as racial justice coupled with a far-reaching Green New Deal. Finally (and in some circles, this is actually pretty orthodox) the realization that a lot of necessary things need to be built, rebuilt or refurbished from the ground up, not from the top down! Although putting in honest government may have to be top down; many of us still remember the saying ‘a fish rots from the head down’. Get it?
Bernie has the right idea when he says, “It’s not about me. It’s about us.”
I couldn’t agree more. Indeed, this sort-of campaign takes his ideas a couple more steps further as follows: I do not intend to do any traditional campaigning (at least while primary season lasts and maybe even thereafter).
No speeches, no rallies and above all, no constant begging for money for TV and radio spots. I figure if my platform https://nopartyline.blogspot.com/2011/06/to-all-my-fellow-americans-especially.html gets you moving in the right direction, then you can 1) share it with everyone you think will be receptive and even some who may not be and 2) collect signatures to put me on the ballot in your state.
In any case, as I’m not at all sure I really want this nutty job, it will be up to you, my readers and the people at large, to put me there. And let me say that my mixed feelings about having the job does not mean in the least that I won’t do my level best for all of us and the planet itself. I will do my best as God strengthens me. And I have no private interests for which I would or even could use the office, unless getting my songs recorded and produced is involved somewhere in this.
Finally and most importantly, I was always be open to questions about my platform and about other political matters and some personal ones too. If I think something’s no one’s business but my own, I’ll say so and say why I think that. If I’m asked what I consider a downright loony question, the questioner can expect a ROFL, but I’ll try and say why the question comes across to me as pretty wacko. That’s mostly how I mean to campaign: answering your questions about what I would do as POTUS and how I would push it along!
I hope this gets more people going, especially considering how many of us are pretty tired of politics as currently practiced. I’m pioneering what looks to me like a new way of doing that. Let’s hope it at least takes off.

THE 'WHITE HEAT' EPOCH?

“Look Ma — top o’ the world!!”

Then, ka-BOOM! A deafening and blinding explosion at the top of an oil derrick in Los Angeles back when there were working oil wells within the city limits!
That scene from the film White Heat has been on my mind for a while. I’ve been asking myself, how much might the current rulers of today’s politics and economics (especially the fossil-fuel barons and all their boughten political and media slaves) have in common with Cody Jarrett? The answer coming through to me right now is, too dam’ much!
I’m serious. Just think about it.
Where are the fossil-fuel barons who are ready to turn their coats to a ‘greener’ side, start to divorce their companies, either quietly or with more publicity, from their original functions and begin to seriously power a ‘greening’ of the energy and agricultural spheres of the world’s economy?
There are commercials on TV which show them doing just that, true, but how much is really behind those ads? Considering these corporations’ abysmal record in doing the right thing (remember, they knew what was going on as early as the early 1970s!) give me leave to doubt that there’s really that much change!
One political party is officially denying the existence of climate change at the behest of its fossil-fuel masters. But those masters know the reality of what’s happening; I’m willing to bet few know that reality better than they! Which means, the subtext bears a very uncomfortable resemblance to Cody Jarrett’s death scene from White Heat. These obscenely greedy, and mentally lazy, 21st century barons mean to go on pumping until either they are stopped by the preponderance of humans who actually want to live (how dare they!)on an actually living planet or until it’s literally impossible to maintain any semblance of civilized life and both the human and animal population plunge off an apocalyptic cliff at whose base will be a barely livable planet, if at all.
It’s up to all of us to STOP this death-march before we reach that cliff! People like the Extinction Rebellion are working towards this end and we need to join in and/or support those efforts however we can. First thing is, don’t let the fossil-fuel media deceive you further: there is a climate crisis and the news of natural disasters the world over is making that clearer all. the . time!
Second, get news from organizations such as the Union of Concerned Scientists, EcoWatch, the Rocky Mountain Institute and other ‘greener’ sources of news. These are also good organizations to contact when you’re not sure what you can do in your situation. Third, join up with politically ‘green’ organizations and don’t vote for anyone who tries to pretend that there is either no crisis or that we still have plenty of time. WE DON”T!!!! Fourth, and maybe most important, connect with other local groups and form regional ‘hubs’ and keep organizing and educating. Both Bernie and Elizabeth are doing this; join with either campaign depending on what you feel the market/utility balance needs to be.
To return to the White Heat analogy, we — yes, we — are the cops in hot pursuit of this psychopath with a ‘mother’ fixation, and we need to move fast! So — let’s roll! Now!

OPEN LETTER TO THE TRUMPOLATERS

I understand that many, and perhaps all, of you are Trumpolaters because he makes you feel OK with the manifold hatreds on which it seems you live.
Like anyone who doesn't bow down to your white 'Aryan' maleness or, in the case of women, to your white 'Aryan' menfolk. Anyone who doesn't see and treat you as, essentially, a hereditary noble.
I may have black (black and grey now) hair and brown eyes, but I'm still one of y'all and I know what a fantastical lie that is! We are about as noble as cockroaches and quite possibly worse!
Another thing you worship about Trumpelthinskin is his addytood, as we say around Philly Town. And that he makes you think y'all 'own' us liberals because you so-o-o-o wou-ou-ou-ound us! Wrong. Quite wrong. One thing y'all don't get about us, in much the same way darkness cannot comprehend light, is that our hearts almost never bleed (those hearts that do bleed; not every liberal heart does) for ourselves. Our hearts go out to others outside ourselves. Other people, some of whom look like us and many more that don't; some who live here and others that don't. To animals who don't know what we're causing to happen to their previously stable environment but they know it sure isn't good, to other living things we put in danger. And for the generations of our children and grandchildren (whether we actually have them or not) who will have to, willy-nilly, clean up the mess we're leaving them--or lose civilization, and maybe life itself, altogether.
And our hearts bleed and rage for what Trump and all you who are his minions are making of our country: an openly hypocritical laughingstock of a pariah nation. A country which is now hated and derided around the globe except by other pariah nations, nearly all of whom are dictatorships of one kind or another.
You may notice I say 'our' country. That's another thing about us. We try to use 'mine' less often and 'ours' more often. I guess 'mine' marks the limit of what y'all understand because it seems none of y'all care what happens to anything, or anyone, else until and unless it hits you between the eyes! And then you howl like nobody's business and as if y'all are the only ones to whom such misfortune, deserved or not, ever happened! Now just who are the real 'snowflakes' here, I 'wondah'!
Yes indeed. I guess 'mine, mine, MIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINE!!!' is indeed the outer limit of your understanding! Well, let me tell you something. There are many more of us than there are of you and we care for what is ours. We're waking up, getting organized and we. will. win the next big election. And we will go on winning elections. If I have anything to do with what happens, I will do everything I can to break your hearts of stone until they are utterly pulverized, which means, reduced to dust!
Then I will pray to the real God (not the god of Franklin, Junior, Jeffress and other phony 'religious' charlatans) of nations and generations that He give you all hearts of flesh for your destroyed stony hearts. It may hurt to have hearts of flesh for a time, but that is the only way that any of us grow spiritually and otherwise. We will lay your patriarchy in the dust and go on to assail other patriarchies such as the Islamist one! And if need be we will meet you at a Reims schoolhouse where you will 'sign' something like an Unconditional Surrender.
When it's all over, I'll be glad to kick in a bit so that former 'nobles' can have good booze on the bar shelves as they mangle Wae's Me For Prince Chairlie any number of times as they get drunker. But they'll get home. After all, there'll be no more military-grade weapons in private hands!

THE COLD SPOT IN TOO MANY HEARTS

"In the warmest of hearts, too often there is a cold spot for the Jews."
Irving Howe

How many among my gentile readers of Abrahamian background (whatever beliefs they may have or have discarded at this point) will spout vehement and violent negatives to this statement?
True, some among these deniers are also ones who, with equal vehemence, deny any racism in them whatsoever. And we all know what such denials often indicate, don't we?
On the other hand, there are those who, while they will vehemently argue with Irving Howe's observation, will also patiently nod when they are told how deep racism and/or racist structures are within themselves and how much work, both external and internal, needs to be done before they, and the rest of us, are free of such pernicious tropes.
How now?
I could hardly agree more heartily with the urgent necessity for such work to proceed with each and all of us, but tell me this: isn't at least an equal amount of work necessary to rid ourselves of tropes which have been with us for not four or five, but fifteen or sixteen, centuries concerning the Jews?
Are so many of us that deceived by 1) Israel's current military strength, all of which is still necessary to prevent a second Shoah and/or 2) the purportedly high socioeconomic standing of most Western, especially North American, Jews today and 3) the rate at which the latter have been intermarrying with Gentiles? Be not deceived: the Jews of Germany were starting to intermarry and many Christian clerics (there were Nuremberg Laws aimed at them, so there were more than a handful) had some Jewish ancestry. And not only those Jews, but the Jews of Spain in 1492 were also thought to be better off than their hosts. Remember what happened to them? Just about everyone conscious of Jewish DNA in their family tree knows these facts and will never, never forget them.
Allow me to ask a potentially highly explosive question, especially to those who see themselves as 'enlightened'. Are you sure your mind and heart are free of ancient anti-Jewish tropes? How many of you feel seriously uncomfortable knowing that Jews have their state again and that it is a prosperous and militarily powerful state--but one with potentially mortal enemies close at hand?
Let me say here that I've no great liking, or indeed much liking at all, for Bibi and his governments. On the other hand, so long as an Arab plurality dreams of finishing the Shoah, the 'two-state solution' is and will remain unrealizable. And to those who will say with vehemence that they don't dream so, at least not anymore, I say: read the records of what they tell each other when they know, or believe, that no liberal Westerners are listening. (If neo-Nazis are listening, they won't care.) Once you do, I think most of you will be appalled and ashamed.
Jews and other peoples of color--remember, the Shoah gave the lie to any 'whiteness' Jews or others might claim for Jews--need to do a lot of honest airing (which I hope can stay reasonably civil; that's important) of feelings about each other and histories both shared and different. And to look at the Middle East through 'American' lenses is to turn things upside down; remember Arabs have been, and mostly still are, the 'whites' of the Middle East.
Wealth, prestige and non-military power did not protect the Jews of Iberia in 1492 nor those of Germany in the 1930s. If anyone thinks those things will protect Jews in the Diaspora this time, tell me why you think that. I'll probably tell you why you're mistaken, but I'll ask the question anyway and I will expect an answer!
Finally, to all who really do want peace in the Holy Land. The best thing you can do is help those organizations which seek to build real peace from the ground up. Especially those who encourage Jews and Arabs to work together and are doing God's work of giving hearts of flesh for those of stone for both sides. But id we are to be serious about ending racism in ourselves, our society and in our world, I think we'd better start with attacking the very oldest bigotry and the racist tropes that prop it up. I say we're all better off without that cold spot in too many hearts.

WHAT CAN ANYONE 'TELL' ISRAEL?

What can any state tell Israel what to do or how to live? To give credit where it's due,  it looks as if none of the Far Eastern countries would think of giving such advice, including India. But for India, the realization that it and Israel face something of a common foe seems to be eclipsing any Gandhian moralizing streak it might have had.
In any case, Israel has more to concern itself in this respect from other Abrahamian countries, in many of which at least a sizable chunk, if not always an outright majority, of their peoples believe that God has forsaken the Jews and has chosen them. Even many Christian minorities in an otherwise Muslim part of the world seem to believe that. Assyrians and Copts, I'm looking straight at you.
Apart from that, the status of Muslim nations toward Israel need hardly be discussed at the moment as the best relations Israel now has with any of them is either a cold peace (Egypt and Jordan) or an under-the-table-but-generally-known entente with other countries who fear Iran. (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Oman and Bahrain).
As to Christian-majority countries, their case is considerably more complicated as, at least according to a Dane who Caroline Glick debated, they now claim Israel as 'one of us'.
Excuse me?
Well, maybe Denmark can make such a claim in light of their heroic measures to save the Jews of Denmark from the Nazis during the Shoah. But in light not only of nearly all the 'Christian' countries shutting their doors to Jews before the war but also in light of the readiness of too many of their peoples to 'take water and wash their hands' in the lead-up to the Six-Day War in 1967, I can't see any other 'Christian' country that can legitimately lay claim to such a role.
When Jews needed help and had neither a state of their own to protect them nor any other state willing to do so, the 'civilized' world treated them as outsiders, as 'non-whites'. In the West, Jewish 'whiteness' is and remains quite conditional. And no Abrahamian country should expect Israel and indeed Jews worldwide to forget this. Not for centuries; perhaps not even for a thousand years.
Between the general hostility of the Muslim world, Christendom's pathetic lack of moral authority where Israel's concerned and general slanting of on-the-ground reporting, none of these have any business lecturing Israel. The only communities which can speak with Israel with some moral authority are those communities which have historically been oppressed themselves and have been forcibly removed from part or all of their homelands and have been in effective exile such as the African-American (referring to the whole Western Hemisphere here) communities. But they need to speak as one community of exiles (or occupied people) to a returned and self-liberated community of former exiles.
When it had the most consequence, Jews were mostly not seen as 'white'. Quite the contrary. And Jews themselves should treat being called 'white' as an insult. From anyone of any skin tone. And I would ask other occupied indigenous communities, and other communities of exiles, to bear this in mind when speaking of or to Israel or Jewish people over the world.
However, it is worth noting that, so far as I can discern from the news and 6500 miles' distance, that most of the Israelis who concern themselves with preventing what being 'in occupation' over another people does to the occupier from happening to Israel are either from long-established sabra families or have returned from Europe or North America. I'm very sorry to say I don't see many Mizrahis or former residents of Russia among them, although that too could be due to a news-slant.
But it cannot be stated often enough that, from the beginning of this return almost 140 years ago (before modern Zionism even) Jews have been, and still are (for the moment--how much longer?) much more willing to share the land, its fruits and power over it. The Arab majority has not been willing to share to date as have the Jews. This is not a characteristic of most indigenous peoples; it is a trait of colonial settlers. Indigenous peoples are usually much more willing to share the land while they and the newcomers can both live comfortably. Colonists cannot live with anyone but themselves holding all, or nearly all, the land and all the power.
I wouldn't be too surprised to learn the Mizrahim in Israel have been affected by that colonist mentality 'on both sides'. Meaning, while they're resolved to have no other people over them again but how much they grasp of freedom's principle is open to question.  And until and unless the Arabs show, on a continual and persistent basis, a willingness to share the land on an individually equal basis, it's all too likely to remain so. While the Arabs persist in mimicking the behavior patterns of a formerly dominant majority still smarting over being reduced to equality and lower, they'll never get anywhere except to deserved oblivion. And no one, with the exceptions enumerated above, has any business lecturing Israel about what it needs to do to continue to live and flourish. Certainly no current or former imperial power has any such right.

CHIMING WITH OSWALD ON SPIRITUALITY

“Spiritual selfishness always wants repeated moments on the mount. We feel we could talk and live like angels if only we could stay on the mount.” Oswald Chambers

I don’t know about anyone else, but those lines make plenty of sense to me. Indeed, one thing about which I’ve been pondering this week is about the sacralizing of everyday life. Which is also to say, spirituality cannot stay in the clouds. It must descend into our everyday business in our particular valley. But this is never to say that spirituality will make all our acts, still less our thoughts, Weighty and Powerful.
No. The closest this mortal can come to describing how we need to take hold of spirituality (however we do so; my handle is Jesus Christ but you won’t catch me using Him as a club) is to see the special quality in each and every line of our world, including the healthy things we do day by day.
That’s not an easy thing to do, nor is such special quality an easy thing to handle, to ‘digest’ if you will, for we who move in mortal flesh. And Chambers realizes this; he continues thus:

“We are built for the valley, for the ordinary stuff we are in, and that is where we have to prove our mettle.”

Again, I couldn’t agree more: spirituality rolls up its sleeves and gets its hands dirty in the everyday muck which it sanctifies thereby. But the process requires work on our part. One of, and debatably, the most primary point about doing so, is to always remember that, when we try to gussy things up we usually show ourselves on one of error’s paths. This is why we are called to be open-hearted. Not simple-minded, but open-hearted.
“Do justly; love mercy, walk humbly with your God.” “Treat others as you would want them to treat you.” And so forth. The ramifications of these commands can become difficult to figure out but, once that’s done, they look pretty plain so long as one’s heart is open and doesn’t draw lines between ‘us’ and ‘THEM’. Unfortunately, there’s always been, and still is, too much of that going on!
“There is a great snare in asking — What is the use of it? In spiritual matters we can never calculate on that line.”
Chambers was on the mark when he wrote that too. And, as anyone who knows more than a smidge or two of history knows well, when we try to so calculate, too often we get the sum horrifically wrong. Another reason why the Almighty seems to keep actual commands simple and minimal. We humans are the ones adding, literally, God-knows-what-all to them in the forms of footnotes, asterisks, codicils, sub-sub-clauses, canon laws, congregational bylaws and He only knows what else.

“The mount is not meant to teach us anything [although that’s always possible], it is meant to make us something.”

Indeed yes. It’s part of what makes us into clean prisms through which God may illumine the world. It can also clean us after what’s been some hard labor in those vineyards in which we all must work from time to time. May God save each and all of us from selfishness, spiritual and otherwise, but especially spiritual. I hope what I write here may prove nourishing and strengthening to those who read and share it, with God’s help.

FELLOW BOOMERS, OUR RECKONING IS UPON US!

This post is especially for all my fellow-Boomers so enduringly proud at calling out the sins of our elders in the days of our youth. Payback time for us is now here. It started to take shape in the wake of the Parkland shooting when students at the Stoneman Douglas High School roared, “Enough!” and started to organize for an actual state of sanity where firearms are concerned. They are still organizing to that end and this aging Boomer cannot shower enough cheers, blessings and other aid on them rapidly enough.
Then Greta Thunberg came along and, while it’s a bit early to state this for certain, at least started to put the capstone on our time to stump up for our payback!
After being (let’s be honest here; we really didn’t do much of the heavy civil-rights lifting) a minor player in that mighty struggle for equal rights, some of us were more central players when the struggle expanded (or re-incorporated, depending on historical opinion) the fight to end discrimination based on sex and, for the first time, based on sexual orientation as well. And nearly all of us except the New Victorians (many thanks, Rene) and incels who mostly hid behind hollowly religious virtuous talk, were enthusiastic participants in the Sexual Quasi-Revolution.
And many of us were honestly opposed to the war in Indochina because some of us saw whence this had come and where it could lead. But I won’t give up on brutal honesty here, so let’s admit that many opponents of that war really only wanted to save their precious skins. I’m looking straight at you, P.J.!
And some of the war’s opponents also ‘greened’ into the Earth Day/Ecology movement, now needed more than ever by all of us. Then, three years later, in the wake of the Yom Kippur war, came Energy Crisis I.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t recall that crisis giving the great push to the ‘Greens’ then that might have been expected. When I look back, I sort of wonder why not and I have to shake my head over what might be a large lost opportunity.
Mind y’all, I was only a high school senior then even if I was one of my school’s current events/political wonks. Apart from the fossil fuel companies already knowing what was going on and their part in it, I don’t know a whole lot about how much was scientifically known then that we know now. I remember Watergate was also in full swing and ol’ Milhous actually tried to take that ball and run with it! Anyone remember his speech on ‘energy independence by 1980’? Carter tried to push that program forward and was greeted mostly by Congressional snores, as I recall. At least until Energy Crisis II which came in the wake of the Iranian revolution. And there was much more ‘grab the oil!’ talk among those who would become the ‘neocons’. As a neocon and a Boomer I do blame Elliott Abrams for his part in this, not to mention a bloodthirsty trench-dodger. Bad back, Elliott? Yeah, right!
While I can’t blame the rest of us for that mess, what I can and do blame most of us for is: when, the next year, we were faced with a choice between 1) politics as usual, which Carter was not making look very good, 2) a truth-teller in the person of John Anderson who said honestly that this would be a long, possibly hard, slog but it would prove worth the effort and 3) a Grade B actor essentially selling us Dr. Feelgood’s narcotic, most of us chose the third choice. And with that choice the chance to catch climate change while it was still early on evaporated for the most part.

I will never forget my dismay when, on the night of November 4. 1980, I saw which way the country was going. A TV had been set up in what was then the main room of the Christian Association on Penn campus.
And so much for what I thought about how informed a citizenry we had. I had actually believed that we Boomers might have a longer-term view and choose a way other than the GOP’s lying promise to take us to, yea that we could all live in….Disneyland!

The current usurper of the Oval Office is (I certainly hope so, anyhow) the culmination of that lie with the added virtue (I’m serious here; bear with me) of not lying about who will be allowed to live in that Disneyland. In the end, no one is welcome there aside from straight and propertied white males and all their slaves and helpers — but only as slaves and help! And we Boomers owe that to ourselves.
I admit that part of the climate change problem is the vastness of it and the difficulty of ‘getting a handle’ on it, but I can’t get away from that, when faced with the choice between something difficult and fruitful and something which allowed our adolescence to continue, most of us opted for the latter. And now our children and, in some cases, our grandchildren, are present and telling us where and how we’ve fallen short. So be prepared for it, and let us not be ‘wise in our own eyes’, to use a Scriptural admonition.

CHAPTER ONE

At last. An impeachment inquiry is beginning. The crucial ‘straws’ appear to be Trump’s attempt to strong-arm a phony scandal our of the Ukrainian president concerning Joe Biden, generally conducting foreign policy like a racketeer — and, perhaps, that Biden is a figure venerated among the establishment. He represents those who either actually believe (God help them!) all was well before Trump and if we can only get back there, all will be well again, or those who know that all was not well for most of us, but since they were doing so well, want those days back again.
But a possible phony scandal involving such a Respected Figure such as Biden and the blatant quality of Trump’s misfeasance seem to be the two factors which seem to have tipped the fence-sitters and Blue Dogs over the line with Speaker Pelosi leading from the rear. Some of us think that it’s the coverup that was the last straw (and to paraphrase Billy Joel, they may be right). After all, that’s what brought ol’ Milhous down. When I mull that over, it seems to me that the coverup is the maraschino on this toxic sundae, true, but I’m not sure if the sundae itself, if it was less toxic to this particular aspect of government and person long involved in it, would have had the crashing weight of the actual scandal to those who now see the need to impeach.
Make no mistake here: for the sake of any future for the rule of law, democracy and our Constitution as a living document, Trump’s impeachment is (and has been almost since day one) an absolute necessity! It must be made crystal clear that no one, not even a sitting POTUS, is ever above the law!

But the above is only chapter one. I do not expect the formerly ‘Republican’ party to purge itself of the probably (and, to me, hopefully) terminal degree to which Trump has brought corruption already long festering in that particular party.
Trump is not the bringer of corruption; he is the culmination of such corruption which is bigoted against just about anyone who is not a property-owning white, straight, nominally Christian (and, probably, the more nominal his Christianity is, the better they like it!) male with plenty of money with which to buy political slaves who offer themselves with sickening eagerness. This disease is present in the Democrats too but, praise be, nowhere near terminal as the Democrats have antigens to such corruption. They are known as progressives.
So much for the former GOP. The Executive Branch, if not the whole federal government (not to mention many a state government) will also need a thorough cleansing. And that will be up to you and I to see to. It’s our government, folks; it’s up to us to give it the cleaning-out it badly needs. That will be chapter two. Subsequent chapters will deal with the necessity of making an ‘eco-nomy’ that works for as close to everyone as we can get on this planet and for as many species as we may still have with us once the great Anthropocene extinction is over. Such a system is will be far less consumption-driven than is currently the case.

But those chapters are for another time. While we press forward with impeachment as the absolutely necessary first chapter, let’s just remember that it is only that. Other chapters must and will follow.

AM YISRAEL CHAI!!

I hope the title hasn’t already turned anyone off, because I’m using that beautiful battle cry in a rather different way here. It begins with mulling over the meaning of the name ‘Israel’ as described in Genesis.

When Yaakov (Jacob), which means ‘the supplanter’, came to the ford of the Jabbok river, the story says he wrestled with an angel through the night until shortly before the sun rose. And the last thing this ‘angel’ told him was, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome.” (Genesis 33:28, NIV)
Full stop right here, everybody.
The name ‘Yisro-el’, or Israel, apparently means ‘s/he who has struggled with God and other humans, and has prevailed.
Say what?! Someone has striven with God…and prevailed??!!
Anyone can say that the idea of ‘prevailing’ in a struggle with God is like a little boy who imagines he really has knocked down and bested his father in one of those mock-fights good fathers give their sons when they’re small — and they’d be right to say so.
But let those same parties answer this question: how secure does a man’s sense of being a man need to be to let his small son(s) think that he has, or they have, bested Dad in such a fun tussle? Could an adult male insecure in his manhood do that? Allow me to doubt that, and deeply too.
Another aspect of this story is: nowhere in the ancient Middle East, or around the eastern Mediterranean, is there such a god that allows a human being to even imagine that s/he has prevailed in a struggle with the god.
By way of contrast, look at ancient Greece’s stories of the gods: Zeus was so outraged at Prometheus giving fire to humans that he chained him on Mt. Caucasus and had a vulture eat his liver daily. And then the liver grew back to be eaten again the next day. And this happened for a few hundred years, until Prometheus told Zeus something which secured his throne.

And note further the story of Arachne, in which Arachne thinks she can weave at least as well as the goddess Athene — who, of course, is there in no time to prove herself. Athene weaves a tapestry showing all the mightay-mightay deeds of the gods, while Arachne weaves a pattern showing all the gods’ abuses of power over mortals. The story relates that Athene ‘could not forbear to admire, yet her indignation over Arachne’s insult mastered her’ and she destroyed Arachne’s tapestry and, in a manner of speaking, turned Arachne into the first spider.
And gods like that were what prevailed all over the ancient eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East, except for the God of Israel, who did not (and still does not) destroy those who struggled, and who struggle yet, with Him, but Who, rather, acknowledges those who strive with Him and with other humans by renaming them according to that very struggle!
Again — everybody stop…and just let the implications of this sink in!

Most scholars of the Tanakh (which most of my fellow Christians call the Old Testament) will agree that the children of Israel as led by Moshe were almost anything but the best material for making and building a nation. Hence they roamed for forty years, until a generation with no memory of Egyptian slavery came of age.
And most of them will (at least the ones I appreciate) follow that observation up with, their being almost anything but ideal material is an important point of the whole story. But there were enough among them willing to first trust, and then to struggle, with YHWH to keep the ball rolling. Sometimes, Scripture tells us, it was only one person as in the time of Elijah.
The only other place I remember hearing about such a god was in a Native American story where humans were endeavoring to climb into Heaven and the Great Spirit was pleased by their spirit. If anyone knows more details (including which nation or nations tell it) about this story, please share them with me.
The basic point here is, such struggling is not only normal but what God Himself wants us to do with Him! He does ask us to trust him, yes, but trust can be conditional and/or wary and God can and does deal with that in such people.

But He doesn’t ask, indeed might well refuse, the absolute submission which too many faux-spiritual megaphones claim He requires. Not so; it is they who demand absolute submission from their ‘sheep’ who they first fleece and too often, sooner or later, send to slaughter while being quite safely behind the battle lines themselves!! This goes for any label, be it ‘Christian’ or ‘Muslim’ or anything else!

I know this firsthand: many was the time I asked God what I should do and heard no answer. It took me years to see that I was being asked to develop my own judgment with God’s help. Can there be a way to incorporate all of any nation who struggle so with God into Israel? Were, or are, Christianity and Islam supposed to be such a way or ways? Think about this and let’s see some serious feedback on that question and others which I hope this post raises.

Finally, only God can say when all the purposes of His pilot group (aka Am Yisrael, aka the Jews and other Hebrews) are fulfilled. For Christians, Muslims or any other mortals to make such a pronouncement is both ridiculous and sacrilegious — yes, you read that second word quite rightly!

We can speculate on what God might have in mind for them, but that’s as far as it should go. I personally believe Israel has such glory ahead of it beside which the ancient kingdom of Solomon will be like a flickering single candle beside a thousand-watt floodlight!
So yes, indeed, and in more ways than occur to us at the moment — AM YISRAEL CHAI!

MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL

I'm pretty sure I haven't mentioned this before, but I have a Youtube channel with the name of Proudscalawag and a growing number of songs written and sung by your obedient servant. I hope before y'all cringe, you'll visit it and check out some songs. Here are some links to some in particular. This first one is dedicated to ammosexuals: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=np5KQWQ_uDk&t=2s
And this next one is dedicated to the avatar of ammosexuals and their allies,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fcywnO89zE&t=2s
This is a cheerier tune. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSO3yXSEbAU
And two songs with more spiritual material:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbiRSBLZvHc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2FypUx5IXc

Hope you enjoy at least some of what's here and others on my channel. If you do, please share them round.

SELF-VINDICATION v. TRUST

Today, two sentences in (Oswald) Chambers’s meditation strike me with exceptional strength: first, “No [person] ever receives a word from God without instantly being put to the test over it.” If my spiritual journey is anything to go by, I can testify to that from both firsthand experience and — well, I’m not sure how ‘secondhand’ it might be, since I’ve seen both my late first wife and my current wife tested that way. In any case, I’ve been so tested myself and have seen both my wives so tested.
The second sentence is, “The Spirit of God unearths the spirit of self-vindication; he makes us sensitive to things we never thought of before.”
Ye who deride the sensitivities of others (usually while nursing remarkably snowflaky sensitivities of your own!), beware of this; know ye have chastising judgment in store for you! It is to you I say, if you’re trained to be obedient, here is One to Whom you must be obedient above all, and if Jesus renders us sensitive to things of which we never thought before, maybe an expansion of your snowflake sensitivities toward others who don’t necessarily look or speak or worship as you do is in order! Maybe even an extension of your sensitivities towards other creatures as well!
I have a stern word or two also for those who are prepared to have their sensitivities so expanded or who have had them expanded already: I think this is a time for compassion, not for triumphant mockery. Believe me when I say I know how sorely tempting such mockery is now; I confess I’m not immune to that temptation by any means except Deo Gratias. It is you who seem to better understand what Chambers means in the next and final paragraph: “When Jesus brings a thing home by His word, don’t shirk it. If you do, you will become a religious humbug. Watch the things over which you shrug your shoulders, and you will know why you do not go on spiritually.”
Oh, how tempting it is to gloat over those words! Am I not right about that?
This is why standing at least 90 degrees from some things in the culture with which we grew up is so important. It is important because we all need to draw a line between our culture and God’s commands: it is far too easy, as we see today, to conclude that “The code of [fill in the blank] holds everywhere!” to borrow a phrase from an old TV show. It’s also too easy to conclude that God wants us to take out some anxiety (usually involving worries about masculinity) on the rest of the world. Expansion of feelings for other breathing creatures, I suggest, especially those who are less ‘like us’, is an important key to whether it is God or his rebel working on us in this and other ways. That is also an important way that our faith and trust in God expands. Think about it.

BE LIBERAL — LOOK AT BEHAVIOR PATTERNS, NOT (REAL OR IMAGINED) SKIN TONES!!

Our Mr. Brooks (David Brooks) has caught me by a large thought today. He muses on how many of my fellow ‘white’ liberals and progressives now wear ‘lenses’ through which they see many more things in this country in racial terms. I also see many things in this country through those lenses; those lenses are often necessary in this country. But in terms of looking at other places around this slowly-cooking globe, their utility can be and often is quite limited. In some other places, such as Latin America and the Arab/Muslim world, they are also necessary, all the more so since too many people in both regions will tell you that such lenses are Completely Unnecessary Here! Istagfarallah, we are Far Too Enlightened for that — as you pass a market where African men are being sold. That’s right, sold. The slave trade liveth yet in Libya and in other very carefully out-of-the-way spots in North Africa and the rest of the Muslim world. That slave trade has been going on for fourteen centuries and has been, to date, between eight and twelve times as lethal as the transatlantic slave trade!

When we look at Israel and the local Arabs through an American racial lens, white liberals (along with too many people of color) tend to place those lenses upside down. They would do far better to ask themselves: from when Jews began returning to Eretz Israel in the 1880s (before modern Zionism was born), who has been more willing to share land and power — Jews or Arabs? The answer will always be, and still is, Jews.
Colonists do not want to share; they insist on all the power for themselves and crumbs for anyone else. This is the mindset of our unreconstructed peckerwoodies here (and probably in Australia) and it is also the mindset of the ‘Palestinians’ and their useful idiots. Who wants their state to be Judenrein? Israel is not, and never intends to be, Arab-rein. An indigenous population is, almost always, much readier to share than colonists ever have been, are, or ever will be.
Civil rights was, and still is, indicative of a desire to share power, not take it all away. It was, and still is, the White Power structure which insists on all for itself and virtually nothing for anyone else. Ditto for the ‘Pals’. Look at Israel’s situation through a lens of behavior patterns, my fellow libs and progs, and your outlook will change radically! And get rid of the preoccupation with your own Purity and Innocence! Our enemies on the Right share that obsession and, indeed, allow it to drive them mad! Thankfully, we’re not that far gone just yet, but, in seeking to do justice and right past and present wrongs, remember it’s what we do and its results that matters most, not some illusory Charlie-Brown’s-losing-baseball-team’s Sincerity, or Goodness, of ours! I don’t know about y’all but that is way down my list of what matters!
For people of color: read what brother Eldridge (Cleaver) had to say about Arab racism as opposed to any Israeli racism after living eight years in Algeria. Then think again in light of the above information. Also, remember that, before 1948, Jews were looked at by Arabs the way peckerwoodies, North and South, looked at those they called ‘common n***ers’. Then imagine how peckerwoodies feel when those ‘common n***ers’ prove themselves more than equal to to the ‘whites’! Need I write a jot or tittle more than that?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjsLmv1N7i4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJhSejBDTPI&t=4s
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/25/opinion/white-liberal-democrats.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

OSWALD AND ME

Sixteen days ago, I recommenced reading Oswald Chambers’s book, My Utmost For His Highest. It seems to be one of those books that, while it may be tough reading the first time, improves considerably with subsequent ones. It’s one of those books you can have on the shelf for years and then, dipping back into it, discover many treasures in it which you didn’t see years before.
Today, the first sentence which really struck home with me was, “For instance, the Beatitudes seem merely mild and beautiful precepts for all unworldly and useless people, but of very little practical use in the stern workaday world in which we live.”
‘Unworldly and useless people’. Is there anyone reading this post who hasn’t, at least intermittently, felt that way about themselves? I know that’s how I feel about myself too often for comfort. How many of us feel like real worldly success stories, really? Then again, God seems to have a habit of picking up those who are seen and/or see themselves as worldly failures and teaching them to ‘aim’ for Him and His Heaven as opposed to earth. C.S. Lewis made the observation that, “Aim at Heaven and you’ll have Earth ‘thrown in’; aim at Earth and you will get neither.” He uses caring for one’s health as an analogy on page 104 of Mere Christianity, ISBN 0–02–086940–1.
Allow me to add a caveat here: we do need to stay focused on Heaven; there is always the danger of making the winning of Earth the end rather than a side matter.
Chambers’s devotion touches on this with the next sentences. “We soon find, however, that the Beatitudes contain the dynamite of the Holy Ghost. They explode….when the circumstances of our lives cause them to do so. When the Holy Spirit brings to our remembrance one of these Beatitudes…..we have to decide whether we will accept the tremendous spiritual upheaval that will be produced in our circumstances if we obey His words. That is how the Spirit of God works.”
For some reason, this passage reminds me that, for all of us, our spiritual lives — that is, what we believe in and act on — is both backdrop to, and the ultimate aspiration of, our lives. If anyone thinks otherwise, feel free to say so, but include the ‘why’ of your belief, always. According to St. John, Jesus said the same thing: “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.”
This is what God does, always. He takes the washouts, the failures, the smallest and the most peripheral among us and infuses them with the dynamite of His Holy Spirit. Does not the very Statue of Liberty have a poem identifying all of us, or our ancestors, as having been just that once on a time? When peoples and countries who begin in that way forget such beginnings, they forget who they really are and they also forget God. Nothing I can think of testifies to how many of us have forgotten both God and our abject startings with more eloquence than what we are doing right now on our southern border. There are other such testimonies, to be sure, but that particular one sounds loudest in my ears right now.
To shut a door against genocidal killers is not the same as to bar the door against abject refuge-seekers, so no comparison of this to Israel’s wall is warranted. In this country, the latter is what we now permit our government to do and which we’d better change right smartly if we want to avoid the fate of forgetful and declining empires. Before a people, or peoples, who we see as inconsequential prove themselves very much otherwise.

ANOTHER BAD TIME IN OUR HISTORY (WITH SOME PROLOGUE)

The 1890s were an awful time quite a lot like now.
The prologue to the 1890s can be said to begin in 1877. Three things happened in 1877 that cast a long shadow over the subsequent years, even unto this very day. First, an election commission declared Rutherford Hayes, the Republican, the presidential victor of the 1876 election--by a single electoral vote. And he was so declared with the understanding that the last Federal troops would be withdrawn from the remaining ex-Confederate states that allowed their votes to go for Hayes. And, indeed, shortly after Hayes's inauguration, those troops were withdrawn, leaving the freedmen to their own devices to fight their disenfranchisement, and the terror unleashed upon them by the white peckerwoods as best they could. In 1896, after nearly two decades of lynchings and other terroristic methods (and stout resistance from African-Americans and a few white allies), Plessy v. Ferguson allowed the states to make Jim Crow (and the disenfranchisement of people of color) law in all the old slave states, Union and Traitor (yes, including Delaware). I am ashamed to say such a noteworthy jurist as Oliver Wendell Holmes, a member of the G.A.R. himself, actually wrote, "If the majority of the population is determined to disenfranchise the Negroes among them, there is nothing this Court can do about it." There were three dissenters, led by John Harlan, himself a Southerner.
The third occurrence in 1877 was what became known as the Great Strikes, which began in Pittsburgh against the Pennsylvania Railroad when that company cut its workers' wages by 25 percent. When the Pittsburgh state militia refused to fire on the strikers, the bosses and their political slaves brought other militia in from Philadelphia to forcibly end that strike. The 1890s were to see both the 1892 Homestead steel strike against Carnegie Steel and another railroad strike, this time at Pullman, in 1894. That strike was the one which brought Eugene Debs, who was, according to contemporaries, as kind and generous a man as ever most of them had known, to the fore as a labor organizer. From 1877 through into the Thirties (with World War I as a sort-of interlude), much of the laboring population of the North was still trying to struggle out of semi-starvational conditions. And now a probable majority of working people are struggling not to return to that unhappy state.
An element present in the 1890s whose counterpart, if there is one, today, I cannot perceive, is the Farmers’ Alliance, Colored Farmers Alliance, and the Grange. These were small-farmer organizations which fought the railroads, banks and their boughten political slaves. Everywhere they struggled to make their voices heard against state-sponsored political terrorism and in the old slave states against state-sponsored racial terrorism as well. These organizations were the primary building block of the People’s, or Populist, party. By 1892, this party was strong enough to field a presidential ticket, which won 22 electoral votes. In 1896, they joined with the Democrats under William Jennings Bryan. Just how smart this was I’m still not sure, but the Midwestern Populists, who had made common cause with the out-of-power Midwestern Democrats, won out over the Southern Populists who had had to defend themselves against terrorism from in-power Southern Democrats.
Both the 1896 campaign and the Plessy decision fractured the biracial farmers’ coalition in the South.
This time we cannot afford to let anything fracture an all-races coalition of poor and working people, once such a coalition is fully built. And it neither can nor should be inextricably tied to any current political party! As for being the nucleus of a new progressive party….well, time will tell. In any case, we as a nation have been here before and it’s up to us to make as sure as we can that we never return to this!

A CERTAIN KIND OF LOVE (IS IT ALL WE NEED?)

"Pride is the deadliest of the Seven Deadly Sins. Ask the Lord to humble you."
So say some clerics and others among the wise.
Now let's pause and ask, what do we generally associate with being humbled? Some great loss or series of losses that puts our pride in the dust? Tell the truth, y'all. How many of us think that's what humbling means?
Personally, my greatest humbling comes with the realization, sinking in below the neck, that I really am LOVED. My dear wife actually believes I really rock and acts accordingly. And when someone 'with skin', to use a four-year-old's expression, loves you and yet knows your imperfections--when this is truly a love between equals--I know of nothing more humbling than that to anyone with half a conscience. And God's love for us becomes all the plainer thereby as well. For many of us who are Christians, realizing the depths of God's Love in Jesus brings forth such a humbled mindset. At least I think it ought to. And this is what the breaking of patriarchy can lead to more of: love between equals.
Love between us and animals and/or children is a great and good thing too, but it's not between equals. And no reader of mine who is a parent cannot know how quickly the worshipful expression in a small child's eyes becomes the skeptical look of a pre-teen and then the mixed looks of teenagers. There's a lot to go through before THAT'S between adults more or less, not so? That is, for those who can reach that point.
I have to wonder: is this something of which patriarchy's defenders are deathly afraid? Do they disbelieve in such love to the extent that they'll die with their false prides (and likely take most of us with them) rather than open themselves to such love? Maybe this is really the heart of the question, but anyone with different ideas is more than welcome to say otherwise. Just argue civilly and to the point; that's all I ask.

NO LONGER A JOKE

A dialogue from Hamlet:

It was that very day that young Hamlet was born, he that is mad, and sent into England.

Ay, marry, why was he sent into England?

Why, because he was mad, a' shall recover his wits there, or, if a' do not, 'tis no great matter there.

Why?

'Twill not be seen in him there; there the [people] are as mad as he.

These lines used to elicit roars of laughter from English audiences. I both hope and fear that might not be the case right now.
On my dad's side of the family, I am largely of English descent. And when I say English, that is exactly what I mean. I do not use 'British' and 'English' interchangeably and if I hear any of y'all doing so, I'll put you right about that right quick.
I used to be very happy to be of English descent. I revel in our language that is, for me, both native and ancestral. I am very proud to be one of the people that taught much of the world that transitions of power need not be bloody (except perhaps verbally) and who insisted through centuries that all are under the law, even the king. Rex non debit sub homini esse, sed sub deo et lege. The king is below no one, but below God and the law. And I confess to a certain amount of guilty pride in being one of a people of empire-builders, even while I know 1) native and Celtic auxiliaries did a good chunk of that building, 2) we English have acted in ways contradicting our ideals often enough as to be a byword for hypocrisy among our Scots, French and, sometimes, our German neighbors (big whup, right?) and 3) the whole notion of empire-building is under severe, hostile, and at least partially justified scrutiny these days. But I invite the scrutinizers to ask themselves: how sincere are you? Some of you may be doing no more than virtue-signalling, or you might be Noble Savage freaks (and I have less use only for open or covert racists and other bigots than for both of you)--or you might just be sore losers or their descendants. Japan still calls itself an 'empire'; not so? Just an example to make the point.
Being a lifelong student of history has left me with, among other things, an interesting array of pictures which certain songs bring up. Images brought up by two songs in particular seem relevant here: when I hear Bennie And The Jets, my mind dredges up pictures of the 1897 Diamond Jubilee of Victoria's reign. That was in large part a celebration of Empire with which most of our newspapers heartily concurred at the time. And the long version of Light My Fire gives me a taste of how being 'part of the action' in pre-war London a little more than a century ago must have felt, when it was the center of an Empire and, at least, debatably, the center of the globe!
But I'm afraid I also need to tell at least half my cousins back across the Pond that this is 2019, not 1913. The Empire is not about to reassemble itself; even the Commonwealth shows no sign of becoming more cohesive around you. The 'good' kids (we, and maybe Ireland, might be seen as the 'bad' kids here)--Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and, debatably, South Africa and India--are all grown up with lives very much of their own. You have done your part in shrinking the globe and making it one; it is too late to repeal the history of the last seventy years or so.
Right now a serious donnybrook appears to be happening over your way over Brexit. If an heir of those onetime ragtag rebels can suggest something, please have a do-over of that--and this time, please vote to reverse it! A hard Brexit will put you at the mercy of the madman currently usurping the White House by occupying it and too many of you seem determined to bring about exactly that! Many of you who think you lost your jobs because of Brussels probably lost them because of the reeking greed of your bosses in fact but which was labelled 'Market Forces'. That is, the owners concluded they could fatten their pockets more by building elsewhere! If you're surprised, then shame on you for all the labor-struggle history many of you seem to have forgotten.
Is the EU not democratic enough for you? OK, I get that, but work within it in order to democratize it further! Put the 'exceptionalism' aside awhile and link up with French, Germans, Italians, Beneluxers and others who feel the whole thing is too top-down as opposed to bottom-up and start working to CHANGE that!! Can't that be done more effectively from within than from outside? Seems to make sense to this Sassenach, anyhow!
If you carry Brexit through, you are most likely to wind up a sorry satrap to us here. Not something I want to see anymore than you do. Rethink, re-vote--and return. If you do, the above lines might produce rollicking laughter among you again.
London was, debatably at least, once the world's effective capital. Inside the EU, it can and will still be a great European center and maybe a world center. Outside, its destiny will be a certain Jethro Tull album. Guess which one I mean. And the above lines will be a bitter joke for at least the rest of our days.

IN FAVOR OF STRIVING WITH GOD

For some time, these thoughts have been taking shape, helped by this memory, this quotation, this idea and that notion.
Within the bounds of those who are, or claim to be, 'spiritual' people there's a division which cuts across traditional religious lines. On one side are those for whom, like myself, faith is a process which works through doubt and is thereby deepened and strengthened. This is sometimes a quiet, but always a robust, faith as measured by these criteria: such a robust, living faith welcomes questions, can answer criticisms cogently, gives mockery a pitying smile and spurns any state's efforts to 'strengthen' it.
On the other side are those whose 'faith' seems to be chiefly based on the denigration of others on any basis handy, be it 'race', ethnicity, recited creed, sex or sexual orientation, not to mention economic class. This in and of itself is enough to mark such a 'faith' as dry, brittle and moribund. It seeks with desperation to squelch questions, criticisms and mockeries even to the point of begging the state to help shore up its shell. Their adherents seem to associate bliss with not having to think a whole lot--or at least are told to believe this by their clerics, whether imams or priests. This by itself flies in God's Face--the God which we are commanded to love with all our mind as well as heart, soul and strength. Switching off one's mind is the opposite of this and leads in turn to walling off one's heart to be shared only within Our Group, by whatever other name it may be called.
As a Christian myself, I am instructed to use the life of Jesus as a 'lens' through which to read Scripture. I don't know what 'lenses' Jews or Muslims may so use for theirs although I can't help reflecting that Spinoza was a lens-grinder. Maybe for them it's on more of an individual basis, but this much I do know: such lenses have to be crafted for growth of each of us with and towards God. No one ever did Islam a greater injury than the fool who said some eight centuries ago that 'The gates of ijtihad are now closed.' 'Lenses' built with the intention of blinding or bullying people into submission cannot be of God but are of the Enemy!
Those with a living faith eagerly grasp at the idea of being able to become children of, and eventually co-creators of, God's Realm. Those without such a faith usually have difficulty with this notion and wind up committing one of two mistakes. Either they conclude only We are God's True Children OR they say, 'God does not need children. We are his slaves.' Can such a God be all that Merciful and Compassionate? Seriously, Worst of all, sometimes they can say one and act out the other.
Well, it IS true that God does not need children. But with God, His needs (He has none) are not the point. But God wants us to be able to become His children and help Him create His Realm here on Earth! Is this not what a God Who is Love would want for all of us? We all need to do some serious re-examinations of our various faiths and practices and see what helps us grow in heart, mind and soul in our faiths--and what does the opposite! Get rid of what stunts such growth and nourish that which encourages it, wherever we find each item.
This is deep matter, so don't be afraid to dive into it as often as each of y'all needs to. Blessings to all of my readers!

TO THE POLITICALLY DISENGAGED

This post is primarily for those who have, for whatever reason, disengaged from the political process and the corresponding functions — especially that of voting.
Now, I know that many, indeed a dangerously growing number of you, are simply too tired and otherwise taxed to take much if any notice of politics. While I, having worked as a caterer, can certainly understand this, even to you I must repeat: elections have consequences. And the consequences of the last election are at work making, or at least aiming to make, your already-difficult lives even harder. I can understand that, between worrying about your own health and the disaster a serious illness would be and the need to hold down two (more?) jobs or keep that tiny business going simply to feed the kids and make sure they stay safe at school, you feel there isn’t enough of you to be a real citizen instead of a mere subject, a helot, a serf to the criminally and obscenely wealthy. I suggest you start thinking again about politics, even if you can only do so during your commutes either in a car or on public transportation. Start with how hardly anyone — IF anyone — speaks for you. Then ponder what you might be able to do under current circumstances. It might be as small a thing as a potluck or a cookout with neighbors on a day off where you can all seriously talk about how you and many others like you might actually participate in active change for the better. Take it step by careful step; I don’t want y’all neglecting family (including pets) or anything else you cherish for ‘bigger things’. I’m all for doing ‘small things with great love’ as a recently canonized saint put it.
Now, to those who have disengaged for less urgent reasons, here come my sternest words. You, without the pressure of necessity and under the illusion that politics is extraneous to ‘real life’, have chosen to degrade yourselves from citizens to subjects. And by so doing, you may have also become a fit instrument to degrade others into subjection as well. Maybe most of you are more ‘I-do-my-thing-you-do-your-thing’ types, but if you are, tell me this: when a wannabe despot says to you, “You ain’t doing your thing no more; all of you WILL do MY thing and ONLY my thing.”, what will you do then?
 I suggest you take serious stock to see whether you’ve lost the habit of common action either for certain improvements OR, perhaps more importantly, against internal threats that come disguised — that is, they’re not dark-skinned with black berets or shades. Nothing has brought me closer to despair than to see how many breaches of rights, how much blatant and unapologetic corruption it takes to get y’all to grab the nearest pitchforks, torches or whatever else may be at hand!!
The two main parties are NOT all the same and at least one still has an active wing for real change! I wanna know, what will it take to get y’all to step up to the level of citizens and TAKE PART?! I can certainly understand it if big money and the corruption that comes with it has disgusted you; that’s the basic reason I didn’t go into politics in the 1980s — I could see where the incessant begging for money was going even then!
I’m making myself a candidate for President of the United States with an entirely different campaign. This campaign will be largely online and I won’t be asking for ANY money if I can avoid it. For this campaign, the process is a big part of the point. If you support my platform (to which there will be a link at the end of this post) and like the idea of an entirely differently-engineered campaign, you can share this post along with an earlier one titled Is This Really Such A Loony Idea? with as many others as possible. Find out when the earliest date is to begin collecting signatures to be on the 2020 ballot (and how many are necessary in your state) and then get going on collecting them! I’m conflicted whether or not to be part of a primary or go in as an independent, but time will tell.
As the great Athenian statesman Pericles said two and a half millennia ago, “You may not be interested in politics, but politics is interested in you.” Politics are a condition of human life and Jane Goodall has told us our nearest cousins the chimpanzees also practice politics. That’s right; google it for yourself. If you don’t want to be pushed round by politics then push back — now.
Here’s the link to my current platform — and don’t feel shy about suggesting additions or revisions either. Only one thing anyone needs to give up in this campaign: hate.
http://nopartyline.blogspot.com/2011/06/to-all-my-fellow-americans-especially.html

IS THIS REALLY SUCH A LOONY IDEA?

One morning last October, I read a pair of columns with which I couldn’t agree more. One was by Jim Sleeper and was basically a rant about the spinelessness of most powerful Democrats. This column and another one by Charles Blow which I read this morning have my mental wheels moving. Allow me to quote Jim Sleeper’s last paragraph immediately below and then proceed to my main topic.
“Until and unless Democrats are forced by well organized movements to challenge the regime of casino-like financing, predatory lending and consumer-bamboozling that they’ve done so much to sustain under the falsely compensatory drapery of United Colors of Benetton “diversity,” the true and urgent claims of #MeToo and Black Lives Matter will always lose to the belligerence of the Brett Kavanaughs and the bitter resentments of the less “entitled” politically incorrect.”

Maybe ‘guerrilla’ political campaigns are a way to do this. I’m thinking harder than ever about launching a ‘stealth’ campaign for president (and encouraging others to do likewise for Congress and state legislatures if and when necessary) which , I hope, can also prove to be an end run around big money. There’ll be a link to my current ‘platform’. at the bottom of this post. What I want to do is share the platform with the clear understanding that the overriding job for all of us must be ‘save the planet’. Some concerns at least appear more urgent, but none are longer range. And in order to tackle longer-range concerns than we’re generally doing now, anyone who runs for office under this platform has to have at least two, maybe three, essential traits:

1) The ability to listen without an ‘override’ style

2) A strong sense of themselves quite apart from being politically powerful persons

3) An understanding that there ARE rule-or-ruin groups and individuals (like patriarchalists, fossil-fuel billionaires and Islamists, to use three examples) and they MUST be dealt with very sternly indeed across the board!

Since I have neither the means nor the time to travel, I will ask political friends and allies in all the states if they’d circulate petitions to put me, and anyone running for other offices, on the ballot there. I’m not even sure they need to let me know; maybe I too should be surprised in November 2020.

You may think this a quite loony idea; well and good. But just let it simmer and imagine ‘stealth’ campaigns using low-cost communications and making an end run round big money by people who won’t feel themselves non-entities without more power than the rest of us! And imagine the MSM caught entirely, or almost entirely, by surprise on Election Day — but this time for something really good!

I admit to having no political experience but I have watched and studied politics for half a century (since I was almost 12). I also know a good deal of history, geography, theology and the Bible. I also itch to throw the ‘religious’ Right off the ground I see them as having usurped. In any case, my observations and knowledge dwarfs the current usurper — yeah, not like that’s too difficult, I know.

If, after mulling this over, this appeals to you, please share it with those who you know to be political allies in each state so we can get things rolling. Let’s make this a campaign where the people can say, “We did it ourselves.” Another post, more to the disengaged, will follow hard upon this.

http://nopartyline.blogspot.com/2011/06/to-all-my-fellow-americans-especially.html