I was thinking about the march we are on toward autocratic rule and dominance of oligarchies with a diminishment of the institutions of government, the scattering to the winds of the free press, and the pending attack on others as we move from stated isolationist objectives to imperial expansion…

Sure, Americans voted to move away from the status quo… we expressed a “need” to shake things up.   We voted against bloated institutions and the expressed wisdom of those more educated than ourselves, we decided that we are the Americans of the 1950s, with our I exceptionalism in tact, our conservative values preserved… and yet I wonder how the resulting diminished government, failing free press, tariffs, and conflicts with nearly everyone will square the circle for Americans?

I have no doubt, that Trump and his minions, as they celebrate their presumed mandate, will think they have the support to change our system of government, to change information flow, to muck with our reputation in the world, and ultimately impinge upon the ideals we have long held of ourselves.   As they overplay their hand, how will this set with Americans who have known a working government, no matter its flaws, have known the freedom of vote, and representative government, who have relished fair play and equal opportunity?

Americans believe their country has been a force for good in the world, no matter our mistakes.  As a nation of immigrants we have always had a warm heart for those in need and the downtrodden (well not always and not so much),

I think there will be a backlash.  I don’t believe we are like the beaten down and weak Germans of 1934, or the Hungarians of 2010, when Orban won his second, “for life” round in the role of Prime Minister, or for that matter we are unlike the Russians of the 2000’s ready for Putin’s strongman rule.  No, we have a vibrant economy, regardless of the price of eggs.  We have a long tradition of freedom.  We remain unconquered and are not vulnerable as other societies were… no, we will not allow our institutions, our free press and our voting rights to be trampled upon.

We will wake up and realize we are going in the wrong direction and the disruptor in chief will be disrupted.  The midterm elections will be a chance to say, hey wait a minute, this is not going as we expected.  Then the battle for years 3 and 4 will be a battle for our future.  Americans will win, must win.  The pendulum will swing back toward the middle… the far right satiated they won the imagined war against wokeness (whatever the heck that is) and the far left will be satisfied with the survival of democracy.

I imagine we will be nostalgic for George W… Bush that is.

Count on overplayed hands to bring us back to the middle.  I choose optimism as the second Trump administration begins this week.  I choose optimism that the extremists will go too far causing a backlash.  I choose optimism that Americans will start seeing they really did mean what they were saying.  Americans will bring us back to the sensible middle.  I am choosing optimism… for the alternative is freaking ugly.

God Bless America!
… please!

His observation, is right on, the only difference between Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, and Trump’s musing that he wouldn’t rule out force taking over Greenland is if it were to happen it would be the same, but over a lot quicker…

Some say they were better off under Trump than Biden, they say that the test “were you better off four years ago?”  favors Trump because of the price of eggs… REALLY??   But do you remember the mismanaged COVID response which lead to more than 1.1 million deaths of Americans?

Do you realize COVID was worse than it needed to be because of Trump?  In fact, with similar cultures and population our death rate per 100,000 population was 2.5x that of Canada?  (Source- John Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center)

Do you realize the US economy today has 2.1% Inflation, Wage growth is 4.1% and GDP is 4.95% year over year… easily the strongest economy in the world?

Do you realize how women’s rights have been degraded by Trump’s three Supreme Court picks?   There are 21 states where woman cannot get life-saving reproductive care, due to the overturning of Roe v. Wade.  How many bleed-out deaths of young women are needed to reach you?

Do you realize a much needed conservative bill was put forward to fund dramatic improvements in border security this year and Trump had it killed because it would undermine the wedge issue he needed?

If this is not enough, consider character – A serial liar, convicted felon, a sexual molester, a fraudster and failed businessman (6 bankruptcies) who appeals to white nationalist vs. a successful prosecutor and state attorney general who spent her entire career in service to the people.  Who would you prefer?

And what of the future based on what both are saying…

If you think that autocracies are dangerous and they take freedom from their citizens, then Harris is your only choice.   If you are the preferred candidate by fascists, maybe it is because they can relate to you, and Trump is a fascist (definition: a populist political philosophy, movement, or regime that exalts nation and often race above the individual, is associated with a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, and is characterized by severe economic and social regimentation and by forcible suppression of opposition – The Enemy Within, remember?)

If you think the DOJ should operate independent of the Administration, then Harris is your choice.

If you know that Jan 6. 2021 was an attempt at a violent insurrection with the purpose of keeping Trump in office, your only patriotic choice is Harris.

If you believe a growing opportunity-based economy is better than an Oligarchy then Harris is your choice.  If a Harris’ growth economy is good for America (and the world) then you must know that wide use of tariffs and the costs of detaining and deporting 11 Million people will put our economy in a severe depression.  Your only logical choice is Harris.

What more is there to talk about?  Were you really better 4 years ago??? Will you have a chance of being better in 4 more years???

My calendar told me today that tomorrow is “Indigenous Peoples Day”… so I looked up a definition of Indigenous Peoples.  Of course I know the intention, however,  I found the United Nations has no specific definition, but rather a multi-page paper to describe the apparently undefinable.  I guess, as I see it, they are peoples who descended from peoples who arrived before the peoples who arrived later.  And then view themselves as natives, as we then view ourselves as civil members of the society for which we claim ownership.   Because we defined it as so, and those others coming after us are immigrants which  most of us were at one time, and which are distinguishable, I suppose, from most recent migrants… at least for the purpose of conserving some cultural heritage which we supplanted over the top of some previous peoples and their heritage.

There does seem to be some truth to the notion that the winners of conflict and migration and supplantion write the history, and define thus the place for all of us.  So tomorrow, cheers to the peoples who came before the peoples before us… and their culture which we continue to supplant… I guess they deserve a day!

Maybe those defined as migrants and refugees will get a day sometime in the future?

As Emily Dickinson  said there is “no frigate like a book which could take us away” … A writer writes from their imagination, something from the soul which is ever in motion, and can take a reader to faraway places and different times, and expose us to experiences and truths we might not otherwise fathom… and the words live-on, once they are written.  We can experience these words, and truths a thousand years later, we can understand the wisdom and morality from Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo, written a hundred and eighty years ago, or experience the transcendent oneness with Rumi from the thirteenth century…

Oneness 
by Rumi

There are many languages in the world —
but all with one meaning.

Water becomes one
when you break the jars.

The soul will send news to all
possessed of spiritual vision,
when you break
the heart
from words.

The words, the ideas, the poetry never ends as long as someone still finds the truth and beauty of such works.  Author’s can find a form of immortality through such virtuous creations.

But words are not restricted to the domain of truth tellers, they are also the tools of those who would deceive and lie for their own entertainment.  And even worse, are the unvirtuous who would lie and manufacture facts for some devious purpose, or self-aggrandizement.   Sadly, lies can live long healthy lives, as well as, beautiful poetry or virtuous books.  Generally, the authors are and often desire to remain hidden, for they know they are lying.

Conspiracy theories today seem to have a life of their own, they may have been born in satire and humor,  but when promoted by those who know better,  they begin to find favor and instead of taking us smoothly to new places, they create turbulence, and to those willing to believe, they promulgate dangerous beliefs… and worse they leave a legacy which allows the weak to trust no truths, to believe nothing.  Regardless the facts, they will choose to believe the wildest conspiracy theories.

I met someone a couple weeks ago, a young man who thought the moon landing was a fake, that it never happened… I think with all the real stories to be read, for all the truths to be understood, what a waste of intellect, imagination, of soul to believe such nonsense…  This was a conspiracy born in the 1970’s which should have been long-disabused and died, and yet it survives.  I told him I worked in the space business for 40 plus years and I knew Apollo astronauts and I understand what it takes to go to space, and I answered some of his questions and tried to write over a wrong in his heart, but who knows if truth can take root in such salted soil?   He said, well “at least I’m not a flat-Earther” as if this was some level of virtue.
Imagine now, the lost souls who will believe and pass to their children and beyond the stories of immigrants stealing pets to eat them?   Lies may live long lives… words are fragile things, which should be treated with care by responsible truth tellers, and those who would abuse these words should be banished to the hells they seek to create.

I’m continuously amazed, at such a time as ours, with untold riches of information available, millions and millions of worthy books, poetry, history, and legitimate fact-based news we are a society which produces millions of people who will keep the words which should die alive. They will believe, regardless of the truths available, the most outlandish lies, because they want to…  I imagine they would even be willing to believe the  Grimm’s Fairy Tales are really history.

I’ve been reading about the genius of Abraham Lincoln* and in particular his political style which included a great deal of empathy, a great deal of understanding of diverse viewpoints from which he would make arguments which were based upon the moral-ethical values of our nation, while grounded in the realities of the times.  He used homespun stories, and analogies to help people understand his points of views, but never denigrated or demeaned others, knowing that “In order to win a man to your cause” Lincoln explained you must first reach his heart “the great high road to reason” … even in the political fight against slavery, he knew slavery was evil and horrible injustices were being done, but he would not assign evilness to slave holders, as abolishment was challenging their way of life and income… he proposed to meet them where they are and help to move them with reason and compassion, but do so with relentless persuasion, and eventually war for this purpose and to maintain the American experiment and ideals of the Declaration of Independence, that all are created equal.

We today, face challenging times, with threats to our nation not dissimilar to those of the 1850s… for a “house divided against itself cannot stand” as Lincoln said.  Today we are divided.  Today we denigrate and demean instead of understand and communicate.  We must understand that for many of our fellow Americans don’t care if democratic institutions were to be replaced by autocracy or an oligarchy for they have lost faith in our institutions.  Our form of government just doesn’t seem to work for them.  Furthermore the entertainment news and social media is laced with misinformation masquerading as news.  Their fears and mistrust are being used to push them down a path of compliance to powers which would in turn exploit them.  I warned of this coming storm with a book I published 4 years ago this month called Trump, Power & the Lessons of Orwell’s 1984: Democracy is Being Threatened … and my message remains true.  Disinformation, distrust of institutions and fears are still being used to move people toward the darkness of power and autocracy, and this is not a problem which is going away any time soon.  

I believe Trump will be defeated in November, largely because he will lose the women vote as, reproductive rights will be front and center for many, and the damage done by the dark tome of Project 2025 seems to be sticking to Trump.  Therefore democracy will survive, but the seeds of this Trumpian-darkness are planted deep and the distrust by his followers will not recover without healing.  Dangerously these seeds will be harvested by another, possibly more cunning than Trump in the future.  We as a nation must address and treat the underlying issues and concerns in order to reach the heart of the matter through the hearts and minds of the disillusioned.

We must address the underlying issues with compassion and understanding, never using denigrating terms like “basket of deplorables”, as was once done, as this will only harden their resolve.  We must understand their fears and distrust are born of experience… and we must relate.  We all know the frustration with institutions, after all, who hasn’t fought with insurance companies?  We all know of family or friends and heard stories of the devastation of drugs, of homelessness, of despair, and who cannot relate to the cumulative effect of inflation?   Also, it is not a Christian conspiracy or some failure in reason to seek power through a leader like Trump, but rather a break in the faith of compromise and democracy that leads Evangelical Christians to side with someone who clearly doesn’t know the Bible and doesn’t live Christian values.  The source of these problems are not rooted in the liberal democracy which they are turning away from, these problems are pervasive and are due to human frailties and crime and corruption… and they exists in autocracies as well, the press there is just not free to report on the problems.  The problems can be fought only with understanding and the raising-up of everyone.  Especially those who have felt abandoned as liberal elites have written them off… government is not of the people for the people if it is not for all the people.

Reason and historical perspective and sourcing of information to those living in the desert-echo-chamber of MAGA requires meeting them where they are… understanding why they think the way they do?  Asking why is the only way.   Refuting the “they all do it,  all politicians are corrupt and criminal” cannot be accomplished with a wave of the  hand, or saying that’s stupid.  Rather, asking where would you rather live?  Asking, isn’t it good to have a free press and open sources of information to challenge and expose corruption?  Isn’t it good to have a justice system who will prosecute the Menendez’s as well as the Trump’s of this world equally?   Where in the world does this happen, except in countries with an open democracy with institutions like the DoJ and importantly the free press.   Sure our government can be improved, all can… but it is up to us to support it and to vote.  Encourage the widening of the information horizon, encourage questioning and build bridges through reason and understanding… for a “house divided against itself cannot stand”.

I know, I have not always lived by these words, I’ve been quick to dismiss those I believed would not understand, those who had been seduced by the idea that there is a way toward (or back) to a way of life where all problems were solved by force of authority and enforced conformity.   But I am still learning, as we all should; and for me Abraham Lincoln is a remarkable teacher through his actions and words so very many years ago.

* Team of Rivals, The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, by Doris Kearns Goodwin…. Thank you Tracy for the gift of this marvelous book.

Power of Nature…

Six million gallons a minute sourced from the upper great lakes rushing toward Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence Seaway and on to the Atlantic.  An incredible phenomenon, to see the concentrated power of so much water and gravity at work.  The energy of a closed system of water replenishment in the upper great lakes through rain and snow across a massive watershed fed into rivers feeding and replenishing the great lakes.  Nature’s concentrated force visible at this nexus of power.

Timing…

10,000 years ago a gorge created by a collapse of limestone, formed the opportunity for the falls, and as the mass of water erodes the falls at nearly a foot per year, in some 50,000 years the falls will have receded into nothing but the flow of a river.  We are fortunate to have seen it while we can. 😉

Power…

Nikola Tesla…

saw this great power of water dropping some 180 feet and realized this could be tapped to spin a turbine, to turn a shaft linked to magnetic rotors, which spinning past copper stators would produce electric energy to power industry and homes through distribution of alternating current electricity.  Together with George Westinghouse they conceived a power plant which was built on this site.  In 1905 it went into service and operated for 101 years.

The power of invention…

and thought, and massive amounts of manual labor, dynamite and machinery allowed for tapping into the power of water and gravity and transport it to where it could be used productively.  Amazing the work done and illumination accomplished.

The power plant is now a museum worth seeing.  The 2200 ft. tunnel which once was used for the outflow of water that had turned the 11 turbines of the power plant, is now a walkway which leads to a viewing platform near the base of the horseshoe falls offering another view of the power of water and gravity…

The romance of nature…

the moonrise over the falls at night as they are lit by the power of electric light, an accident of timing, human innovation and celestial power, but beautiful nonetheless.

Niagara Falls 2024