Absurd

I have been paying attention to US elections since the 1950s, having actually voted in 1956.  And my candidates won some (Ike, Kennedy, Johnson, Carter, Clinton, Obama, Biden) and lost some (Nixon, Reagan, Bush, Trump). I actually voted once for a republican – Ike. How could you not vote for Ike, even though his opponent, Adlai Stevenson was pretty good? Republicans, on average, have been crappy presidents and, on average, not the brightest lights on the planet, although many would argue the reverse.  I was working in government, when Reagan beat out Carter. Reagan brought in as my political boss, the dumbest man I had ever worked with or for. I was running a program evaluation office, and this dude knew almost literally nothing about the subject. Nixon was not dumb, but he bordered on being evil. Given the times, dumb or evil could have resulted in missiles flying and the world ending. I well remember retreating with some frequency, with my Tech buddies at Lockheed to a local pub and discussing where we should go when the missiles began flying—the coast or the mountains?

And then it all calmed down, and we all began growing old.

So, now I’m pushing up against 90, and we face the prospect of Donald Trump.  How did I get here for God’s sake? Well, we survived four years of Donald Trump—an inept Presidential administration such as I have never witnessed.  Happily, before he was able to destroy us, he ran out of time, and was replaced by Joe Biden.  Now, he helped to organize the January 6^th insurrection which led to the deaths of several – “According to the bipartisan House select committee that investigated the incident, the attack was the culmination of a seven-part plan by Trump to overturn the election. Within 36 hours, six people died: one was shot by Capitol Police, another died of a drug overdose, three died of natural causes, and a police officer died after being assaulted by rioters. Many people were injured, including 174 police officers. Four officers who responded to the attack died by suicide within seven months. Damage caused by attackers exceeded $2.7 million.”

So we know for a fact that Trump is capable and willing to sow disorder and even destruction leading to deaths. But if one is paying attention, especially over the past 3-4 months, Trump seems to be sinking into both a world of senile dementia (he is 78 after all) and a world of 1930s Nazi Fascism. And that latter is not an exaggeration.  His normal brain seems to drift into the world of Fascism with some frequency. He talks about gathering crowds of immigrants and either locking them up or kicking them out.  But he also talks about killing his enemies, who include his political opponents, Harris, Pelosi, et al.

Maybe it is the increasing dementia, but he seems to be sinking into some world of 1930s evil.  Partly, he has a manual of almost pure evil, in the form of that Project 2025.  Common Cause outlines the document thusly:

“The extremist “Project 2025” is a blueprint for dismantling democracy on day one of a Trump presidency. It’s a nearly 1,000-page scheme that spells out the end of democracy as we know it:

·         Criminalizing voters: cracking down on simple voting mistakes using a so-called “Election Crimes Branch” – which has never been done by any president from any political party.

·         Installing partisan loyalists: Immediately firing thousands of qualified civil servants at every level of government and replacing them with ideologues willing to push a political agenda.

·         Stripping away our rights: Deploying the National Guard to crack down on protests, robbing us of fair representation by rigging the U.S. Census, and dramatically increasing the President’s power to act without Congressional oversight.

And this isn’t just talk. It’s an organized, coordinated plot concocted by the Heritage Foundation, and backed by over 80 extremist groups and hundreds of millions of dollars – much of it coming from donors who are giving this money in total secrecy.”

So, this Trump is in almost every way, different from any past presidential candidate we have ever seen in America. He resembles fascist dictators, and it is not an exaggeration to see some resemblance to Hitler, I realize that is extreme, but Trump is definitely heading in that direction.

In short, having voted in every election since 1956, and paying attention to our array of presidents and presidential hopefuls, I have never even seen anyone remotely close to Trump.  Whatever you thought of folks like Nixon, Reagan, or Bush, they were all at least American in their thinking. Trump seems some form of demented-fascist. And yet . . . and yet, the election seems close. How could that be? Why is the race not 90-10 in favor of Harris-Walz? This is what I do not understand. Americans, even undereducated Americans, want Trump as their President? Seriously?  I realize that Harris is both a woman and a woman of color. Oh, and she seems to have some Asian heritage also. But she is bright, ethical, and well educated. She is also experienced in the world of American presidential political government.  But people, you want instead this ignorant, stupid racist as your president? Surely Americans are not this stupid. Surely. Folks, Surely VOTE Harris-Walz. PLEASE!. Otherwise, America, literally, may not survive.

Climate Changing

With this last storm that battered the NC mountains, especially Asheville, I now think maybe we have passed a point of no return on Cataclysmic Climate Change. So maybe we are all looking at the end of our earthly existence. Humankind could be at its end, mainly because 50+ years ago, we ignored the signs of global climate change. And having ignored those warning signs, as Humans are wont to do, we now may be out of options to fix anything. 

I know, I know, this Administration and others past and present continue to pretend that we can still act so as to preserve the Earth. But I wonder if that moment is past.  I am not sure how close to that precipice we are, or whether we are, in fact, already over the cliff and now sailing towards our last crash. I also have no information on what steps other Nations are taking to work on this issue. This is not, after all, an American problem. It is a Global Earthly problem, and every human on the planet is or will be affected. Therefore, all Humans are involved in any solutions, to the extent any remain.

Perhaps we now need an examination of our Global status, and the probability of any solutions fixing the problem. Are we in fact, beyond solving the problem? If so, what should we be doing to ease the coming increased deaths from Climate Catastrophes?

I think maybe this topic should be Number One in any political discussion, and Number One on any upcoming United Nations summit discussions.  If this world is heading into cataclysm, then this goes well beyond America, Canada and the European advanced nations.  We need all nations participating, because all nations are affected.

And maybe this climate mess in which we find ourselves might lead the Humans of this World to at least stop killing one another in Wars of one kind or another. Thinking back to my earliest memories, when I was maybe 5 or 6, War and humans killing humans for whatever reasons seems to dominate my memories.  Maybe we should stop killing one another in order to gain some territory. Instead, we need to put our guns aside and begin thinking about our Global welfare. How can we best keep one another alive, regardless of what language we speak, or what color is our skin?  We are all Earthlings, under attack from within our own planet, but not by other Humans. We --ALL HUMANS--need to make peace with one another, and begin working seriously on solving, to the extent we can, this Global catastrophe. 

Please folks. Stop shooting one another. We need to get together and begin working in common to resolve this issue, before IT resolves us.

We are almost out of time.