What Health Insurance

Sharp, stabbing chest pains, stomach ulcers, cancer have been my lot in life. As well, I have been unable to avoid severe clinical depression, erectile dysfunction and, on occasion, bloody ejaculate. But I am a survivor.

For the past 18 years I've been a Standardized Patient in the Greater Kansas City area, having been involved in the training of hundreds of medical students. I play the role of a patient with some real or imaginary concerns.

Patient-centered medical care is today the overarching mantra in the majority of medical schools throughout the country. Medical schools are training students to make the patient a participant in his or her medical care. The patient needs to feel in charge. It is the patient's decision. It's so obvious isn't it?

Well the not so good news is that health care in the United States has more to do with revenue streams, bottom lines and marketing, rather than something seemingly as abstract as actual patient care. Just possibly it's not about the patient making any decision.

Elizabeth Rosenthal, physician and editor in chief of Kaiser Health News, has stated that, "There is no free choice. Patients are stuck, and they're stuck buying American." And Atul Gawande, surgeon and writer, has said that, "It's not that we make all the money. It's that we order all the money."

I have worked in several health care institutions, from large teaching hospitals to junior colleges with nursing programs. Among other things, in addition to having played numerous standardized patient roles from first year medical students to residents, I have taught exam skills to medical students and trained standardized patients.

Health care, if divided into its broad components, would include insurance, hospitals, physicians, pharmaceuticals and medical devises. If you wander into the weeds you can learn about billing, coding and collections. Then of course there is research and consolidations. Finally there is the Affordable Care Act or ACC, or simply Obamacare.

While the Democrats have tried their best not to upset powerful vested interests, the Republican health plan has been a constant attempt to destroy the ACA from the very beginning, but with seemingly no idea what to replace it with. Last but not least is Medicare and Medicaid, subjects unto themselves.

I've often told medical students to go to the main foyer and watch who comes in the door. Those are your patients. You'll be greeted, for example, by obesity, diabetes, hypertension and those who have no insurance or what they have is inadequate. You will also notice how young some of these people are.

Self-help websites are exploding on the internet. I recently came across one offering 20 tips on how to prevent or slow down the onset of dementia: Don't smoke, control blood pressure, watch your weight, healthy diet, exercise and so forth. It's essentially preventive medicine, what a healthcare professional ought to be speaking to a patient about, and which every American should have access to ... but doesn't, unlike most of the developed countries.

The problem  is that health care is not the same as selling cereal or deciding which deodorant works the best.

I don't even play a doctor on television but i have worked in the healthcare field for close to 20 years, training those future doctors whom we patients sincerely want to put our trust in, rely upon and feel confident that our needs will be met. Hoping for the best is not a health care system nor is "I got mine."

An Alien Probe

Oumuamua (O-mua-mua) is the name it was given. It's a Hawaiian word which means “messenger sent from the distant past to reach out to us.” It was some 33 million kilometers (20 million miles) from us when first discovered in October 2017, the first known interstellar object to visit our solar system.

Certainly an exciting discovery for astronomers but it has also encouraged speculations from both scientists and the general public, especially when Avi Loeb, chairman of Harvard's astronomy department, speculated that a “hypothetical propulsion devise” could explain its, er, strange trajectory. Propulsion devise? Was he suggesting something artificial in origin? Loeb has not wavered in his original opinion.

It turns out that this cigar-shaped object, slightly less than a half-a-mile long, is an unusual shape for a naturally occurring asteroid. Well, could it have been a comet, as some have suggested. But others responded that it had no “out gas,” which comets have. Most curiously, Oumuamua accelerated ever so slightly as it left our solar system. Why would it have accelerated—and how? Endless questions for astronomers to ponder.

The reality is that our solar system is not isolated. Why couldn't we have been visited without anyone knowing it? It was only in 1925, not quite a hundred years ago, that half of all homes in the United States had electrical power. The first commercial airline flight in the U.S. took place in 1914 from St. Petersburg, Florida to Tampa, Florida, which is a 25 minutes automobile ride today.

In the U.S. alone, imagine all the scientific discoveries and technological advancements that have occurred in the last 100 years, which would have been unimaginable to Americans at the end of the First World War in 1918. Now consider the changes that have taken place on planet Earth in 500 years or a 1,000 years or the beginning of the Neolithic era 10,000 years ago, when we humans settled down, developed agriculture, built cities and created our cultures.

Is it conceivable, in spite of vast distances, that civilizations far more technologically advanced than ours could have visited our solar system in person without being detected or managed to do so with a very sophisticated satellite of some kind? Well, we can speculate. Now imagine a civilization 150,000 years older than ours, roughly the time we humans might have been able to recognize our own ancestors in Africa.

What might our first encounter be like? Well the track record for us humans is not especially positive in so many ways. On the other hand, our alien visitors who manage space travel could regard us as curiosities, nothing more, and decide they have more important things to do. This strikes me as the best outcome in the long run. I wouldn't want our space visitors to be searching for a new food source and we're it.

But, the more likely outcome is probably not so interesting. Our technology has far outstripped our evolutionary development. We may now have the means to turn Earth into an unlivable planet because we haven't developed the cognitive skills to avoid such total stupidity. Imagine our alien probe reporting back that Earth is merely another dead planet of no interest to anyone. Sort of like we never existed in the first place.

The Seduction of Mein Kampf

People who shut their eyes to reality simple invite their own destruction, and anyone who insists on remaining in a state of innocence long after that innocence is dead turns himself into a monster.

(James Baldwin)

Adolf Hitler and Mein Kampf? Haven't these subjects been analyzed over the years ad nauseam? Well yes, but....

The Dublin Review of Books recently published an essay by Albrecht Koschorke entitled On Hitler's Mein Kampf: The Poetics of National Socialism. Koschorke himself almost offers a timid apology for bringing up the subject and even mentions “Godwin's Law,” which states, according to the Urban Dictionary, that the longer an online argument goes on and becomes more and more heated, the more likely someone will bring up Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. The person invoking these names effectively forfeits the argument..

But Koschorke, a German literary critic, offers a compelling examination of the subject because of what he calls the “mounting radicalization” in our own time.

Here, in the United States for example, we could draw up a list of worrisome changes that are taking hold of American society. Some might include:

1. Politicization of everyday life
2. A disregard for the importance of 'truth”
3. Devaluing of intellectual excellence
4. Knowingly accepting outright lies from our leaders
5. Vulgarization of society in general
6. Scapegoating, immigrants for example, and Muslims in particular.
7. Tribalism

You could argue that many of these conditions have reared their head in the United States before, It's true. You could also say that some of these conditions have been with us from the very beginnings of the country, which Alexis de Tocqueville, among others, pointed out in the early 19^th century. True enough.

Yet it is also true that they are collectively growing and spreading across America in 2017 and they are reasons to be concerned if we are at all interested in equity and a viable democratic republic (recognizing that some people aren't remotely interested). The intriguing—and important question—is always why did it happen and why does it continue to happen.

Koschorke states that it is important to understand 'the confluence of circumstances” that made national socialism in Germany possible in the 1930s.

Mein Kampf was published in 1924. Academic readers at the time considered it unoriginal, ludicrous, poorly written and simply rabid. It is all of these things and more. In college I managed to get through about 50 pages or so before tossing it into the wastebasket. The point, however, is that Hitler's intended audience was never academics. This was not his constituency.

Koschorke says of the book, “A menacing vacuum emanates from Mein Kampf—a license for adherents to react with a 'Just you wait' that bristles with lustful sadism.” For Koschorke, it is not that most people didn't read Mein Kampf or finished it, but that those who chose to wade though it entered into a kind of “secret society.” Perhaps most important in this closed circle was the nature of power. It was power that was contemptuous of any engagement with its opponents. Ultimately it was irrelevant whether one believed in Hitler's “literary” rants or more important in his far more mesmerizing public ranting and ravings. His followers knew what they wanted.

But who was Hitler's constituency according to Koschorke? Well, it wasn't the “scarcely literate or lower order of society.” For Hitler it was those with limited education and those who could be called the “failed” or “faltering.” Koschorke defines Hitler's constituency as those people who lived in a condition of existence “without predictability or security,” which in turn affected material or psychological well being. It was easier as time went by to blame the Jewish “conspiracy” and the Social Democrats for the failure of democratic institutions in Germany. By the mid-1930s it mattered little what anyone thought.

Numerous books have been written on the the rise of Fascism and Nazism, along with the assorted dictators that took power in the 1920s and 1930s. But certainly a loss of confidence in democratic institutions was a factor, a factor that can be seen spreading across the globe today.

Once you get beyond nationalism and making “holy mother Russia” great again, it's by in large a thug state, a kleptocracy. China, supposedly the new superpower is, as someone once described it, “capitalism in a Leninist cage.” Dismal as one can imagine. You can today go across the globe from India and Turkey to right wing nationalism in Europe and realize that democratic institutions and beliefs are under assault, exactly what occurred in Europe more than 80 years ago.

Here in the United States the slow unraveling leading to inequality and authoritarianism has been going on for a good thirty years. There is no guarantee this time for a “happy” ending.

Dare We Must: Yeah We Must Call It Treason

Some may remember a Stephen Schwarzman back in 2010. He was and is the billionaire CEO of perhaps the largest private equity firm in the country. He became hysterical over Obama's attempt to make some “very slight” changes to the carried interest charges. He compared it to “Hitler invading Poland in 1939.” Just more nonsense from the privileged class.

No, carried interest charges is not something that most of us need to worry about. It was devised by and for the very rich, sort of like the tax havens across the globe that have been in the news lately. It also remains in the “tax overhaul” plan the Republican cult wants to get passed as fast as possible this week. Of course, if we actually closed all these assorted welfare programs for our pampered parasite class we probably wouldn't have to screw the vast majority of Americans ... or at least as badly as what might very well happen.

While we have been distracted by the degenerate, half-bright sociopath in the White House, the Republican Congress has been crawling frantically through their own swamp desperate to appease their overseers. After all, they have been told in no uncertain terms—no 19^th century, no more campaign contributions, from us, the kleptocracy.

No, no, possible collusion with a foreign power, conflict of interests, failure to disclose income tax returns, environmental degradation, unqualified nominees, health and safety, growing inequality, gutting of health insurance, third world U.S. infrastructure repairs, corporate personhood etc, etc and etc is not the priority. The Republican Congress is counting on an electorate unable to tear itself away from the latest distraction on social media, television and talk radio.

The Republicans will give the one-percent over one-fifth of the tax cuts, while the top 5-percent will get just under half of the tax cuts. Oh and they will have to be paid for, not by some fanciful economic expansion or trickle down nonsense, but by all the rest of us. The holy grail for the parasite class is of course Social Security and Medicare. But the millennials have not been forgotten. Well, they actually have, been forgotten, actually.

There will be no American dream for the overwhelming majority. For that 40 to 60 year old group, well, work is good for you. Stay healthy. Don't waste time on vacations. You may even win the lottery. That's the definition of Libertarianism: FREEDOM to be unemployed, under educated, sick and powerless to do anything about it. Oh, and we haven't even talked about net neutrality. But it's too complicated for most Americans anyway. The Democratic Party? Well, we don't have time right now. They're still deciding on who they are.

Oh, speaking of Libertarians, at least the rich ones. Many of them don't believe in a lot of the childlike nonsense they yap about. They just don't give a damn about the “democracy” thing. Regardless, at this point we have only a fig leaf of a democratic republic anyway. Yeah, I'm inclined to think we're dealing with treason; we have been betrayed. Sorry, I forgot to mention the “chained CPI tax hike.” Look it up.

The "Unmelanated" Myth of America

Many of us would probably be better fishermen if we did not spend so much time watching and waiting for the world to become perfect.

(Norman Maclean, “A River Runs Through It and Other Stories”)

I returned recently from Montana and Wyoming, where I hiked in Glacier National Park and Yellowstone, two national treasures I'd not seen before and which represents the very best in public policy legislation in the United States ... at least for the majority of Americans I suspect.

But there was something else besides the state's natural beauty and its wildlife that caught my attention, as my son and I drove from Bozeman, Montana to Glacier National Park near the Canadian border. It was both something seen and something sensed as we traveled toward our destination. It was to me the Caucasian myth (my words) of the discovery of America writ large.

We can thank President Theodore Roosevelt at the turn of the 20^th century for the national park system, but we can also begin with the naturalist John Muir who, in the 1870s, realized that European-Americans (and others) would likely slaughter all the wildlife and possibly harm the region's natural beauty in what is now Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming if an area was not set aside as a “preserve” for every Americans to enjoy in perpetuity.

This—make no mistake about it—is a bone of contention for some Americans, especially among many folks that live in the western states. Even when John Muir raised the issue more than 150 years ago about setting aside wilderness for “public” use (I prefer “Public Trust”), a number of Americans claimed it was, well, sort of un-American. This manifested itself two years ago when Bundy and his white terrorist supporters occupied and trashed the Mahleur Bird Sanctuary in Oregon because the government had “no right” to own the land.

The state of Montana is breath taking in its natural landscape and sheer immensity. It is the 4^th largest state in terms of square miles. At the same time, with approximately one million people, it is the 44^th most populous state. (Wyoming is the second most sparsely populated state). Montana is also the least “black” state in the country.

It is as well the home of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, some 1.5 million acres located east of Glacier National Park. Montana contains a number of Indian reservations, including the Crow, the Cheyenne, as well as the Little Big Horn Battlefield where General Armstrong Custer, an example of military incompetence and arrogance, met his fate.

Bozeman, Montana, a college town, has a population of some 45,000 people, It is the fourth largest city in the state, upscale, prosperous, diverse—and it's “blue,” at least compared to the very, very conservative state that surrounds it, a not unfamiliar picture in much of what we call “red state” America, the stereotypical city-rural divide and growing wider.

It is when you leave a place like Bozeman that you begin to sense a very different world and perhaps a different time. It is a land of few people but vast space along with a great many cattle, Black Angus being a breed that I saw a lot of. Supposedly there are three head of cattle for every human in

Montana.

There is also poverty, a lot of it from what I could tell. Not the 19^th century “sod buster's” house or the lonely log cabin but a small, rusty looking trailer parked on the side of a hill and perhaps a couple of “ne'er-do-well” vehicles near by. I suspect opiod addiction has also struck rural Montana hard. We passed one broken down shed along the side of the road where on the roof was the word “OPIOD.” On the other side of the roof, which you could see coming from the opposite direction, was the word “DO NOT.”

You see this man? His name is One Stab. He's a venerated elder of the Cree nation. He's counted coup in hundreds of his enemies. He is our friend, and he is thirsty.

(Tristen, in the movie “Legends of the Fall”)

We unmelanated * Americans have been fortunate, in the sense that the United States has not been occupied since the war of 1812 and then only briefly. We have never really been forced to question our essential beliefs, our history or the myths that have guided us for so long. This has now, however, in the present day, become a festering sore that won't go away anytime soon.

The actual Caucasian history of the United States is a story of European genocide, slavery and predatory capitalism. Possibly it was destined to implode all along, at some point. It obviously did not begin with cowboys in Montana, nor the likes of Richard Spencer, a “white” nationalist and apologist for neo-nazis, who happens to be from Montana, a state with perhaps the largest known number of militia groups in the country.

As good a beginning as any would be Christopher Columbus, the European who had the blessing of the Spanish court. We learned in grade school that “Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492.” He actually landed in Hispaniola in what is now Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

Columbus met the Taino people in Hispaniola and was impressed by their peacefulness and generosity. But in letters to the king and queen of Spain he remarked about how easy it would be the make them all slaves. “With fifty men, we could subjugate them and make them do whatever we want,” Columbus informed the Spanish court.

Less one think that this attitude was universal at the time, the Chinese in 1405, almost a hundred years before, with an immense armada and traveling in ships far larger than anything the Europeans possessed, began their exploration that lasted some three decades, spanning areas in Africa, the Indian ocean and Southeast Asia.

China did not leave behind the predation, destruction and genocidal intent like the Europeans did. The question is why? This is a story unto itself, but one well worth thinking about, especially in this day and age. For a good beginning read The Patterning Instinct: A Cultural History for Humanity's Search for Meaning by Jeremy Lent. The rest is as they say European history and later European-American history.

The earth is the mother of all people, and all people should have equal rights upon it.

(Chief Joseph, 1879)

The recent Las Vegas shooting where some 59 people were murdered was horrible and the most recent mass gun atrocity in the United States. It has been called the worst mass shooting in American history. It is not by any means, but it says a great deal about our collective historical amnesia and historical literacy.

A few examples: In 1864 the U.S. Cavalry massacred over 500 Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians who were living on their own land in Colorado. In 1873 at least 150 African-Americans were murdered by white supremacists in Colfax, Louisiana. In 1890 300 Lakota Indians were murdered by the U.S. 7^th cavalry at Wounded Knee in South Dakota. There are more examples, including those massacres that occurred in the 20^th century.

The winning of the West, as I have written about before, is one of the greatest unmelanated fairy tales we have. The reality is not all about some goofy“libertarianism,” subduing empty spaces, respecting the land, the wildlife and, oh yeah, the native folks. It is not about doing “without government” or the endless tales of “little house” on the prairie and the survival of all those devout immigrants arriving from Scandinavia. What is most often left out in the usual and insipid Chamber of Commerce speeches is the actual uncensored truth.

Once more:

I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country.... Corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow....

(President Abraham Lincoln, 1864)

All eyes turned westward at the end of the Civil War. Time to get rich, save souls and civilize the West. Certainly, an especially egregious brand of Christian evangelism proclaimed that “their book” told then they had dominion over damn near everything, which included the land, the wildlife and of course the “savages.”

What was called the Gilded Age was the beginning of government and corporate collusion on a massive scale. It was about scratching each others back, getting rich any way one could and where the ends always justified the means and where nothing was especially sacred except making more money.

It was an era of imperialism, white supremacy, racism, and the collapse of promises of equality after the Civil War. It was about the deliberate removal and murder of the Indians; it was about the slaughter of wildlife; it was about the disrespect and destruction of the land. It set the stage for the twentieth and twenty-first century and where we have arrived at the present time.

For anyone interested in a detailed account of the age, Railroaded by the historian Richard White is excellent. It is full of facts about the part the railroad played in shaping the West for both good and for bad. It also discusses the cattle barons and the depth of corruption and thuggery they wallowed in and how they still have considerable influence today.

Another excellent book, perhaps less academic than White's book, is Age of Betrayal: The Triumph of Money in America, 1865-1900 by Jack Beatty. To know and understand America today it's important to understand the history of the late 19^th century.

Who currently resides in the White House is for me a national disgrace and represents a seriously dysfunctional country. The president's cabinet with few exceptions are a collection of rich mediocrities and political hacks, including Ryan Zinke the Interior Secretary (now under investigation) and former congressman from Montana. He is no true friend of national parks and wildlife. But so much is at stake and so much to protect and preserve ... text book conservatism I know. Forget your self pity, depression and disillusionment.

In my ideal world I would like to see more land in many western states set aside as national preserves. Sure, I would be happy to have the livestock industry shrink considerably, both for the sake of the environment and the animals being killed, domestic and well as those in the wild. For that matter, I would like to see the Second Amendment amended in order to reflect the reality of the 21^st century, not the 18^th. Oh yes, if Montana gets two senators why can't California get maybe four senators. The difference between 1 million and 39 million is a lot. Yet, what would be the consequences for a state like Montana?

No, the above is not going to happen anytime soon and that is why we have to work with the reality we currently have for the benefit of all of us—like it or not.

Sell a country! Why not sell the air, the great sea, as well as the earth?

(Tecumseh, 1768-1813)

While in Bozeman I bought a book entitled Conservation Heroes of the American Heartland: Rancher, Farmer, Fisherman, by Miriam Horn. It tells the story of five individuals in different parts of the United States, including a rancher near Choteau, Montana where Glacier National Park is located, who have made a commitment to preserve a way of life yet intend to respect and protect an environment challenged by a twenty-first century world.

These are stories about people willing to engage in different points of view, sometimes radically different. It's about a willingness to listen, to learn how to preserve as well as how to live in a rapidly changing world and ultimately have the patience to gather people in small groups to find common ground. No one is claiming it is remotely easy but it is the one thing we all must do.

This is the lesson: We can not wait for some “other” to do it. We can not just “hope” it will get better. It is not as exciting as waving a banner or shouting out slogans. It requires that we ourselves become thoroughly informed or know where to go when we aren't.

Finally, while knowing the past is critical, dwelling in it will keep us there forever. This is the lesson. I want my children and my grandchildren to blink several times when they stare up at the mountain, watch a pack of wolves saunter across the land or see a grizzly stand up on its hind legs....

We reached the old wolf in time to watch a fierce green fire dying in her eyes. I realized then, and have known ever since, that there was something new to me in those eyes—something known only to her and to the mountains.

(Thinking Like a Mountain, by Aldo Leopold)

*NOTE: The word “unmelanated” is not mine, I came across it in an essay by Michael Harriot, a writer for the online magazine The Root. I wish I could say that I had invented it. Melanin is of course dark brown to black pigment occurring in the hair, skin and iris.

Unmanaged pain

A caricature is putting the face of a joke on the body of a truth.

(Victory, by Joseph Conrad)

What is most important for democracy is not that great fortunes should not exist, but that great fortunes should not remain in the same hands, In that way there are rich men, but they do not form a class.

(Alexis de Tocqueville, author of Democracy in America, 1835)

2016

I can't say I'm unhappy about seeing the end of 2016 even though 2017 holds promises of being much worse. In October of 2016 my dearest friend was murdered in her home. It was brutal and violent and has changed my life forever.

In December of 2016 I was diagnosed with moderate osteoarthritis in my right knee, hardly earth shaking, uncommon nor remotely unexpected. It has, however, become a permanent and irritating reminder of my physical self. But “irritating” is the operating word, not chronic, debilitating pain that can control a person's life in so many ways.

Increasing the pain in America

Angus Deaton, the 2015 winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, published a study along with his wife Anne Case, about a segment of white America, which has proven to be eye opening and startling in its conclusions.

The two economists analyzed various information on working class whites, 45 to 54 years of age, with less than a college education. They discovered a 22% rise in death rates from 1999 to 2013, largely due to alcohol, drug abuse and suicide. (See white America). Deaton and Case concluded that this was a community engulfed by pain, which is both chronic and persistent physical and emotional pain. The researchers have suggested that possibly one-half million people are dead who should not be.

A people's dream died at the Battle of Wounded Knee.

(Black Elk, Lakota holy man)

A pain perspective

Frantz Fanon, the French psychiatrist, achieved near cult status in the 1960s among the global Left. Fanon, the author of Black Skin, White Masks and The Wretched of the Earth, explored the relationship between racism, colonialism, mental illness and freedom while serving as a psychiatrist during the Algerian War of Independence against France. Fanon himself was born in the Caribbean island of Martinique to descendants of free black cocoa farmers.

Frantz Fanon was most interested in the psychological injuries, particularly the “shame and self contempt” it spreads among its victims. He also noted that both the oppressed and the oppressors were locked together and the chains could not be broken until those that were oppressed chose to struggle for their own independence.

Today, the American Psychological Association states that “pain has biological, psychological and emotional factors.” It is not purely a physical sensation. We know now that chronic pain can certainly cause feelings such as hopelessness, sadness, anxiety and most definitely anger.

An American dystopia

No, the death rates in general among African-Americans is still greater than rates for white Americans, but for a particular segment of white America—in the millions—there is a backward trend, unlike any other group in the developed world at the present time. It likely began in the early 1980s.

Yes, it is an oftentimes unspoken belief and feeling that this is the group that has provided the racist ground troops, the neo-Nazis, the xenophobia and the bottomless ignorance that has allowed the American kleptocracy to manipulate and exploit the so called white working class.

After all, wasn't it “Johnny Reb” in 1860, barefoot and penniless, that marched off to defend a vile, racist plantocracy? And yes, is this not the group that is about to put Donald Trump in the White House?

Of course the element of truth is there. But the pain, physical and psychological is real. And who is the oppressed and who is the oppressor? Can it sometimes be one and the same?

The painful cause

The truth may not always set you free but it has always been visible if you are ever so willing to actually study your surroundings. Frantz Fanon was right. It really is a matter of the oppressed finally deciding to be free.

Right now a significant percentage of the rich and the powerful in the United States is gleefully ready to gut American health care (among so many other things), which includes critically important mental health services. No one will be arriving in the nick of time to save us.

For an interesting example of our “free market” health care system go to Inside the WestVirginia prescription painkiller epidemic.

Secret desires and nocturnal emissions

In America, anyone can become president. That's the problem.

(George Carlin)

White House home shopping network

I thought a colleague of mine was putting me on recently when he told me that the Trump family had been peddling products and advertising their family businesses on a dot gov web site. Ivanka herself was marketing her $10,000 bracelet. I discovered it was true. The site came down after a few days. I guess someone realized it was not a subtle way to begin the four year scam.

This is a family of rich grifters … and that's why they're liked by so many Americans. It doesn't matter if the Donald is a billionaire (thanks to daddy) along with numerous conflicts of interest, deadbeat morality and totally unqualified to be town dog catcher let alone the President of the United States.

America he's ours—certainly for a large percentage of white people--and we want to believe he's revenge on the “ruling class,” which ruling class of course depends on your point of view. Donald is going to make America “great again.” I may be wrong but did anyone among our corporate info-entertainers over this past dismal year ask him “when” America was great? But hell, who cares. Right?

The rational worldview

People I know have told me I need to be patient. After all, Trump did win the presidency fair and square. Let's wait and see what he does before we react. We need to bring the country together in order to move forward. The opposition needs to accept this fact. Unless you have demonstrable proof that the election was “stolen” get it line and support America. Forget the blather about Hillary having more of the popular vote than Trump; Mr. Trump clearly won within the current system.

I refuse to participate in this process of organized amnesia, to cooperate in normalizing a man who stands for everything America should not.

(Leonard Pitts Jr., journalist)

The Lord of Mordor

I've been following a particular social media site very much in opposition to Donald Trump. I've read with interest a lengthy thread dealing with trolls, insulting remarks and how best to handle individuals who do this.

What struck me while reading many of the comments was the naivete of so many, well meaning and committed individuals who are against Trump. Nasty individuals, however, mocking liberals is the least of our worries. Steve Bannon, the Donald's Rasputin in the new White House, has little interest in what you think about damn near anything. It will likely get so much worse and we have no time for a lengthy learning curve or being shocked or upset by troglodytes.

Less we forget, the Cult controls Congress. The list is long. Characters like Paul Ryan think their libertarian college boy dream can soon become a reality. You gonna stop it? In addition to the ACA they're coming after Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, the environment, which includes national parks and wildlife. Women your place is in the kitchen barefoot and pregnant. Hell, some 53% of white women voted for Donald. What happened to the last forty years or so? Trickle down economics is back with a vengeance. Oh yes, tax cuts for the parasite class is the wave of the future. After all, they're clearly your betters and struggle is good for you. Serfdom has some good aspects because you'll know what to do day after day after day. You just do what you're told. First amendment, well, we may have to cut back a bit in order to make America great. Now the “other” people, you know who you are. You've got to understand who runs this country, and realize who is on top of the dung heap, sort of like the natural order of things. Best of all we're going to have guns and more guns everywhere—hospitals, schools, churches and conveniently you'll be able to buy them in a Quick Trip or maybe a 7Eleven, hell, Hobby Lobby possibly, who knows and no waiting time. An educated citizenry? Well, there is too much thinking going on in this country. A well run country can't really have educated citizens. And there is so much more. I bet Russia could be our closest ally because we'll have so much in common. Imagine, we could give a select group of angry white people brown and black shirts and they could earn merit badges and move up in the ranks. I know, it's an old idea, but we could reduce unemployment to zero and have a lot of torchlight parades and be proud Americans again. Be happy, don't worry citizens, you're not in a dream....

I'm going to a restaurant tonight. It's owned by Muslims. Last week white nationalist Orcs smashed some windows and wrote graffiti on the walls. This approaching Kristallnacht we better not ignore or worry that we might upset the Cult. We can apologize profusely and promise to work together if Trump and company do not turn out to be a collection of ignorant, undemocratic thugs that want to turn the clock back to some mythical and exclusive white boy paradise.

This is not going to be a gentle struggle or a weekend beating of drums, chants and inspiring folk music. The thread for how we got here goes back to the very beginning of this country founded on slavery, racism, genocide, predatory capitalism, Social Darwinism, total disrespect for the natural world and “I got mine.” Now the monsters have been unleashed. Be grateful for what you have and realize and understand what and why you have it and be clear that you're not alone or powerless. Make this Thanksgiving a time to commit to a much better country.

And suddenly the mirror went altogether dark, as dark as if a hole had opened in the world of sight, and Frodo looked into emptiness....

(Frodo seeing Sauron, in the Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien)

You're getting Tired

Let us come together ... uh, huh

Democracy is beautiful in theory, in practice it is a fallacy. You in America will see that some day.

(Benito Mussolini, leader of National Fascist Party, 1922-1943)

I love the old days—you know what they used to do to guys like that when they were in a place like this? They'd be carried out on a stretcher folks … I'd like to punch him in the face.

(Donald Trump, discussing a protester this past February being dragged out of a Trump rally)

The 60's redux

I remember in graduate school writing a paper on the late Mario Savio, the leader of the Berkeley Free Speech Movement in 1964. My professor, an Englishman who had fought the Nazis at Dunkirk, thought the paper was “well written” but its premise naive. It was certainly naive, in the sense that soaring rhetoric, lofty idealism and mere protests would quickly cause the “establishment”-any establishment—to crumble before our eyes. Of course, positive change did eventually occur in a great many areas, but over time through a lot of hard work, a lot of creative thinking, a lot of sacrifice ... and a lot of pain.

The victor will never be asked if he told the truth.

(Adolf Hitler)

What it is for the moment

It was by definition Populism, a mixed picture in American history. (See The globalboneyard.) Whether or not Donald Trump has the slightest idea what Populism is, he talked about change, creating jobs and “throwing out the rascals.” These slogans have worked in America for over 200 years.

According to the polls (for all that means), the voters had pretty much made up their minds by September and Trump had a very, very good chance of becoming president, although Clinton and the Democratic strategists, in hindsight, remained largely clueless, in itself a reason to gut the Democratic party or turn it inside out.

At the moment the Democrats control virtually nothing. We know what has happened at the national level but how many of us know that the majority of state legislatures and governorships are controlled by the Cult. We are knee deep in the effluent—meaning “crap.” It matters a great deal ultimately what we end up doing, from the town council on up to the presidency. What we do have are many of the cities and that matters a great deal, an article unto itself.

You got 9 weeks

For the time being we have to take the Donald mostly at his word. No, I don't think all the nonsense that Trump uttered during the campaign is going to get implemented and become law, but in the short-term America is going to become coarser, uglier, less democratic and increasingly unpleasant for perhaps a majority of Americans.

For many Americans, their real education is about to begin. Presidents have significant power in issuing Executive Orders, requiring no advice and consent of Congress. As well, they have the power to undo Executive Orders implemented by their predecessor, in this case President Obama. But there is so much more being talked about already in the Cult-controlled Congress.

Make no mistake; they are going for everything as fast as possible. The unspoken belief is that the Cult really can take us back to the “good old days.” Best be aware and best be prepared for what is to come. Wisdom, intelligence, discipline and awareness will, in a few weeks, be worth all the money in the U.S. Treasury. Pull up your bootstraps America and get ready to listen to your “betters.”

We have basically nine weeks to create the beginning of an organization, at the national level as well as at the state and local level. A good place to start is learning how government works at all levels and how ideas become laws. We could begin by talking to those politicians that actually make the laws. It is much more than anger and righteous indignation that will bring about the changes we want.

The good news is that the wailing and gnashing of teeth appears to be short lived; therefore, we can get on with the business at hand. Some 59 million people voted for Trump. We have millions of potential customers if we learn how to close the deal. How much incentive do you need?

Economic America: A delusion wrapped in an illusion

For my granddaughters

Dumpster Diving in America

An American Fencepost

 While stitching a cut on the hand of a 75 year old farmer, the doctor struck up a conversation with the old man. Eventually the topic got around to Donald Trump... and his role as the Republican Nominee for President. The old farmer said, " Well, as I see it, Donald Trump is like a 'Post Tortoise'.'' Not being familiar with the term, the doctor asked him what a 'post tortoise' was. The old farmer said, "When you're driving down a country road and you come across a fence post with a tortoise balanced on top, that's a post tortoise." The old farmer saw the puzzled look on the doctor's face so he continued to explain. "You know he didn't get up there by himself, he doesn't belong up there, he doesn't know what to do while he's up there, he's elevated beyond his ability to function, and you just wonder what kind of dumb ass put him up there to begin with."

How to suck the oxygen out of everything

A silent prologue

Last week I attended a seminar on urban heat islands, the speaker being a staff scientist with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Mitigation strategies to lower temperatures in urban regions will become increasingly important as half the world's population now lives in cities of one size or another and climate change is raising global temperatures. This is what we call facts. We can verify these facts, anyone can for that matter.

Can't catch my breath

Even though 2016 is not unique, it does seem that we have a higher collection of world leaders at the present time that run the gamut from sociopath, to gangster to merely authoritarian. Democratic values are not winning the popularity contest at the moment.

You would have to be half mad to dream me up.

(Mad Hatter, Alice in Wonderland)

In the United States Donald Trump, the profoundly ignorant, deeply narcissistic and repulsive man-child, for the past year or so, has overwhelmed our political and cultural lives, which in and of itself says something about our present (ideally short-lived) dysfunction.

In a sort of “best of all possible worlds,” the Donald will vanish into the trash can of history along with the White People's Cult, formerly known as the Republican party. But you would have to be “half mad” to believe it's going to be that easy.

Now, to resume our discussion on urban heat islands.... but first make sure you vote and overwhelm ignorance.

Who runs the tribe

The current clown scare is a result of two rising forces in the U.S: social media, and a fear of otherness, whether it arrives in a white Mercedes or a refugee boat.

(Robert Bartholomew, sociologist, Botany College, New Zealand)

I was about to write something on capitalism and “geocide” but a colleague emailed me an interesting article and survey on climate change, not about the science of global warming but about how we “think” about it—or not. Then I came across a video, both disturbing and depressing, but tied indirectly to climate change.

The political spectacle

Reporters for the NYT followed Donald Trump for a year at his various presidential rallies throughout the United States. While this video is about the 2016 election, it could be a rally of a particular kind you might attend in far to many countries today. In fact, it conjures up scenes from the early 1930s in Europe.

Making America Really, Really Not So Great Again

Climate and beliefs

The survey shows that (1) overall opinions about climate are split along (not surprisingly to many) partisan lines and have hardly changed at all, (2) scientific knowledge does not change the opinions of climate deniers, (3) the increase of scientific “literacy” appears to change the views of Democrats but not Republicans, (4) climate beliefs are more about “tribal” beliefs, (5) most people have no organized ideology and firm opinion on issues, (6) elite views are the most important operator on public opinion, (7) tribal attachment is the most important influence not issue attachment and (8) BUT, regardless of where one falls on the political spectrum, everyone likes renewable energy such as wind and solar. Go to Climate Survey to read the details.

Nature, nurture and genopolitics

Two to three years ago the word Genopolitics appeared with increasing frequency. Did genes influence political behavior? Could genetics tell us whether or not we would be on the Left or Right politically? Would it be easier to gauge if we were inclined to be Liberal or Conservative?

There was some interesting scientific research going on. Neuroscience had made some remarkable breakthrough in the last ten years or so and several tantalizing ideas spread beyond brain research. Certainly some political scientists thought they could be nearing the point where predictable patterns of behavior might be understood in light of what neuro-science had uncovered.

We know a good deal, for example, about how hormones and neurotransmitters in our bodies influence behavior. The levels of serotonin in our system might affect our self confidence and sense of worth and intensity of aggression. Some researchers believe that the release of oxytocin, the “cuddle hormone,” might have something to do with increases in generosity and trust.

The problem is that human behavior is complicated and not easy to describe on a flow chart. Some people have a genetic predisposition to alcoholism but never become alcoholics because of environmental factors. A psychiatrist and well respected authority on serial killers, in the course of his research, discovered he himself had the genetic makeup of a sociopath but it was the environmental factor (home life, family) that triggered a full blown monster. At some point there is a good chance we will get beyond merely uncovering “interesting” connections in human behavior and be able to identify cause and effect and replicate it over and over again.

Nevertheless, understanding human behavior, it seems to me, cannot be merely left to brain researchers and various policy wonks but all of us … if we want to succeed. If as this particular climate survey indicates, the one thing we all seem to agree upon is the value of renewable energy. Then what ought we to be doing, if fifty percent of us believe climate change is an existential threat to all of us? Who is thwarting the effort?

While Clinton's emails and Trumps' behavior may be the current American distraction (along with scary clowns), on November 9, 2016, we will be back to dealing with human behavior, which needs some serious hormonal alteration and rewiring.

Coal miners of the world unite and take back the 20th century

Critical thinking still breathing

The most recent issue of Nature Conservancy magazine is devoted to climate change in the U.S. One of the articles discusses the varied strategies taking place across the United States, which often reflects the makeup of the state be it politically, economically, socially and so forth. For example, in Iowa more than one-quarter of greenhouse gas emissions comes from agriculture. The focus here is educating farmers on soil management and fertilizer reduction and working closely with the state's “decision makers.”

In New York state the emphasis is on overhauling the electrical grid system, decentralizing power generation and encouraging more solar and wind energy. In Louisiana reforestation is seen as an important goal, while in Libertarian-inclined New Hampshire energy independence, self-sufficiency and clean energy is attractive across the political spectrum.

The point of all these examples is that there are many different KNOWN strategies to confront climate change, the overriding goal being to keep global temperatures under 2 degrees Celsius. Something like one-third of greenhouse gas emission reductions can be accomplished by the protection and restoration of nature. Ultimately, the strategy for global success is both mitigation and adaptation to climate change and a lot of creative thinking.

What ought not to be considered in the U.S. and across the globe is the increase of fossil fuel production, coal in particular. In the recent vice-presidential “debate,” nominee Mike Pence spoke about the unemployed coal miners and that his party would restore coal production and presumably put the miners back to work.

It's almost irrelevant whether it is ignorance or merely electioneering blather, but coal production needs to vanish, much, much sooner than later. Mountain top restoration of coal mines, among other things, is a better acknowledgment of 21^st century reality.

What coal miners and others need is the unvarnished truth about economic change, along with programs that actually provide serious retraining, financial support and a first world education system for their children. Once again, the electorate has considerable responsibility in making this happen, and not merely complaining about what is not happening. Yes, the automobile put the buggy whip manufacturers out of business.

Cigarettes don't cause cancer

A lot of folks remember the iconic photograph of cigarette executives in 1994 raising their hands before a Congressional committee promising to tell the truth about their product. Well, that “truth” proved elusive back then, but in the minds of many people the cigarette industry is nothing more than a criminal enterprise, which is apparently still thriving today in many third world countries.

In 2016 we have the fossil fuel industry, which will potentially have a far greater impact than the tobacco industry ever had. EXXON, in particular, has spent some $31 million dollars funding climate denial campaigns, yet at the same time—unlike the tobacco industry—has conducted genuine climate change studies undertaken by real climate scientists, who clearly state that human caused climate change is very real. It is well worth reading, Two-Faced Exxon: the Misinformation Campaign Against its OwnScientists and Sir Robert Watson, British Climate Expert.

An existential threat is a terrific reason to become involved and become informed about how to make changes that matter to more than merely the comfortable.

Additional reading:

Politicians Protecting Exxon

Pence Whines About War OnCoal

P.S.

Yes I too watched the presidential “debate” last night. Clearly Donald Trump and depressingly a large number of his supporters prefer the dankness of the sewer rather than fresh air and blue skies. Hillary Clinton managed to utter the words Climate Change at the very end of the evening when an audience member asked a question about energy. While my heart is well to the left of Clinton my head says more than ever she deserves my support. That's where the organizing can take place, in a world where climate change must take center stage.

NEXT: Does Capitalism and “Geocide” Go Together?

Ha, just keep 'em watching the bouncing ball

Climate change is happening now and much faster than anticipated.

(Sir Robert Watson, former chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change)

The Arctic is a principal, global driver of the climate system and is undergoing an unprecedented rate of change with consequences far beyond its boundaries.

(David Grimes, President of World Meteorological Organization)

So the American voter wants change?

Possibly one of the world's largest ice avalanches, which contained some 100 million cubic meters of ice and rock, occurred in western Tibet this past July. Glaciologists are not yet certain why an entire “glacier tongue” would collapse so quickly and violently. The glaciers of Central and South Asia, including Tibet, have the largest reserves of glacier ice outside of Antarctica, Greenland and Canada.

As mentioned previously, an international climate goal is to keep temperature rise under 2 degrees Celsius. The current reality is, however, that the Arctic, which makes up 4 percent of the earth's surface has already risen some 4 degrees Celsius. Climate scientists believe that if we don't take far more serious measures, temperatures will certainly rise to 1.5 degrees C by 2030 and quite conceivably 2 degrees C by 2050.

Yes, stuff could happen—in our lifetime. Permafrost could melt in the tundra (where it used to be cold all the time) releasing more carbon dioxide—and methane—making what we call feedback loops an unpleasant reality. Ocean currents could change and weather patterns might begin to vary a lot, with extreme weather events becoming the new reality.

This time you might want to stop living in flood plains and do not expect the government to bail you out citizen. Massive die offs of plant and animal life could occur, along with water wars, forced migration of millions of people across the globe, famines and no more exotic vacations for the privileged and the wealthy … get the idea?

My fellow Americans, ignorance is not bliss, right here in “River City”

Watching the recent presidential debate, I was surprised by the amount of revulsion I felt toward Donald Trump, in my opinion the most unqualified presidential candidate in modern history, but I do not consider him merely an ignorant, narcissistic carnival barker. History offers far too many examples of seeming buffoons and charlatans seducing the citizenry, taking power and then wreaking havoc.

We are being told by assorted pundits that the demographic group designated “millennials,” some 75 million souls, ages 18 to 34 dislike or are uneasy about voting for Hillary Clinton and she could lose the election if she does not get their support.

If you are a 34 year old millennial right now, in 2050 you will be 68 years old and some of you will presumably have children and grandchildren. If you are 25 years old you will be only 59 in 2050. Donald, Hillary and a great many of us will be long gone 34 years from now.

third party

You forget the Greens and the Libertarians

I'm doing my best to definitely forget about Jill Stein and Gary Johnson, the nominees for the Green Party and the Libertarian Party. It is a wasted protest vote. Jill Stein appears to live in a world of illusion and seems to have little understanding of political reality, how the political system actually works and how people actually make decisions.

Then there is Gary Johnson, a seemingly nice guy who needs to brush up on world events before running for the presidency of the United States. But perhaps even more important in a diverse, continental sized country with more than 300 million people, libertarian, free market claptrap is the last thing we need in a world with climate change, demographic increases, global trade, nuclear weapons and a host of grown up issues requiring collective action.

Wishing is hardly enough

My personal wish list includes such things as universal health care, the repeal of Citizen's United, national gun legislation that reflects a 21^st century world, criminal justice reform, reducing livestock farming (a global warming disaster), free college education, a genuine progressive income tax, intelligent cuts in the bloated defense budget, increasing funding for our national parks (one of the greatest public policy successes in our history), a large scale infrastructure program and above all, an actual commitment to fighting climate change.

I'm going to vote for Hillary Clinton without reservation, not because she ignites my passion or guarantees my wish list, but because she is capable of the “change” so many Americans claim that they want. Of course the change comes when we who profess the need for that change actually organize, educate and vote at all levels all the time over the long term.

Finally, there is the definition of what “change” means. I have a pretty good idea of what Donald Trump's most passionate supporters mean by change. 

Climate vs weather: delusion vs illusion

So far we simply have not been prepared to accept the revolutionary implications of our own findings, and even when we do we are reluctant to voice such thoughts openly … many are ultimately choosing to censor their own research.

(Kevin Anderson, Tyndall Center for Climate Change Research, Manchester, England)

Destructive children

One number in particular always stands out for me. That number is 0.00004. It represents the time we humans have existed on our planet compared to Earth's total age. Earth is 4.543 billion years old.

Modern humans have been around for approximately 200,000 years. Perhaps 6 or 7 million years ago our distant ancestors, possibly in what is present day Chad, and the chimpanzee separated from our common ancestor Sahelanthropus Tchandensis (see “Remembering uncle sah,” May 7,2013).

Only 92 elements make up ALL of life on this planet. We humans today are quite likely breathing the same air that the dinosaurs breathed 100 million years ago. Scientists believe, in a general sense, that any given species of plant and animal, vertebrate or invertebrate on average lasts around 10 million years. We Homo sapiens (sapiens) are animal vertebrates. How long do you think humankind will manage to hang on? How much misery and destruction to all life are we capable of leaving in our wake?

Brief Explanation of Weather and Climate

The numbers but which ones

The number of importance at the moment for government policy makers and climate scientist is 2 degrees Celsius.

While it may be of more significance politically than scientifically, it is a serious marker that the international community has set as a temperature standard in an attempt to avoid a global warming disaster, which in the worst case scenario could conceivably result in human extinction, possibly sooner than what was previously imagined. The objective is to keep global warming increases under 2 degrees Celsius. (A temperature of 2 degrees Celsius is 35.6 degrees Fahrenheit).

Several years ago the number 400 ppm was well known to policy makers and climate scientists. It represented parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The objective was to keep CO2 emissions in the atmosphere under 400 ppm.

The last monitoring station that crossed the threshold occurred in the Antarctic on May 23 of this year. What happens in Beijing, New York or Paris doesn't stay there. This is the first time in 4 million years that carbon emissions have risen above 400 ppm and remained there.

Since the beginning of the Neolithic era, which began some 10,000 years ago global temperatures fluctuated only about 1 degree Celsius. This is the period when human civilization got underway, beginning with human settlements, agriculture and what we call culture. We are now moving into the unknown. Since the 1800s we have warmed 1 degree Celsius.

All the truth and only the truth so help me....

Kevin Anderson, a respected climate scientist, believes many scientists are indulging in a form of self-censorship; in other words, they are producing reports that are “politically” acceptable, because the reality may be far worse than government policy makers, corporations and the public want to hear at the present time.

The first video clip is a short interview with Anderson at the climate talks in Paris in December 2015 and the second video is a lecture that Anderson gave in September 2015. It is very much about the numbers and the possible consequences.

NEXT: U.S. election, climate change and protest votes

Searching for deplorables

Credo Quia Absurdum Est

translation: I believe it because it is absurd

(Tertullian, influential early Christian author, 155-240 A.D.

I live in Kansas City, Missouri at the present time, an increasingly vibrant and diverse medium-sized city in the middle of the United States. Unfortunately, my fair city is in Missouri, a state whose heart seems to reside in the Old Confederacy and the OK Corral rather than the 21^st century.

Missouri brings to mind the line from Franz Kafka's novel The Trial published in 1925: “It's only because of their stupidity that they're able to be so sure of themselves.”

The Missouri state legislature, overriding the governor's veto, has recently approved a bill, which expands our “concealed carry” law. Now, no gun permit is required, no criminal background check needed and no firearms training deemed necessary. We're just all lusty, red-blooded yeomen, you know, like Thomas Jefferson praised in the 18^th century.

Of course Missouri is as well a major contributor to the expanding dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, because of unregulated farming pollution runoff in the Mississippi river. Welcome to Missouri. Give us your tired and your deplorables.

Speaking of those “deplorables,” Hillary Clinton supposedly made a political mistake when she spoke of the Trump's supporters. Okay, 50% might be high. Let's say it's only 45 percent that are kind of deplorable, even though some polls have claimed that something like 60 percent of the White People's Cult believe that President Obama is a Muslim or not born in the U.S. or the founder of Isis—well whatever. Time to buy my gun(s) and protect my castle.

From Missouri with love

The basket

For a glimpse of white gun culture in America, see The Guardian video