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O.K., Trump holding up a bible for a photo op, a book he has never read (almost nobody has ever actually READ it, like all the way through, but Trump has probably never even read it in the sense most Christian people say they have read it, which is a bit of sampling here and there, and having bits of it read to them in church) is getting a lot of press, and I’m not sure why.
It’s not the first time he has pandered blatantly to the evangelical community, and it probably won’t be the last. It might be the first time he had to tear gas a crowd of protesters to get to the church and do it, it might be the first time the pastor of that church has denounced him, and objected to their church being used that way, but just holding up a bible and saying ‘vote for me!’ has been a staple of American politics for a very long time.
Why are Americans such a bunch of religious wackadoodles? First, it’s not everybody. It’s approximately 30% of the population. Every poll that touches on the subject: whether on not Noah’s Ark was literal, whether or not evolution is a real thing, will gay marriage bring down God’s wrath on America, there are always between 25 and 35% of American people who choose the crazy answer. And that 25 to 35% of Americans love Donald Trump more than peanut butter.
So, why such a high number in the U.S.? You have your born again Christian types, a little bit, everywhere in the world, but nowhere outside the U.S. does it even come close to 30%
The reason is clear, when you look at history. Despite the great American narrative, that the U.S. is filled with the descendants of noble explorers, heroic individuals who braved the high seas to make a better life for themselves and their families, a whole lot of people didn’t emigrate to America to get to America, but to get the hell out of where they were. Many were fleeing war and oppression, some (naval hero John Paul Jones is a great example) were fleeing the law, and some were flat out deported. Such was the case with the Puritans. We are taught in American schools that they were fleeing religious persecution, but the reality is they kicked them out of England, and they went to Holland, and they kicked them out, too. Because they always wore black, and went around telling everybody they shouldn’t drink, or gamble, or have sex with anybody outside of their boring marriages, and the vast majority of people, even in early 17th century Europe, just weren’t going to put up with that shit.
So, they sent them off to America. Where they have bred like fucking rabbits, because that’s part of their religion, too.
And here we are.

Police (and soldiers – for the sake of the argument I’m about to make, they are in the same category) beating the hell out of protesters is nothing new in our history. People were killed in mining strikes. Roman soldiers beat the hell out of Palestinian protesters (at that time, Jews counted as Palestinians, too) all the time, and tortured them horribly. Jesus was just one among many, as George Floyd is just one among many.
It goes as far back in human history as there is human history, and farther. We can see from observing other primates that the biggest, strongest male is usually the leader of the tribe, because he can kill anybody who messes with him. This is deeply embedded in our DNA, and it explains America perfectly.
It doesn’t justify. It explains.
We have, of course, the technology, the manpower and the natural resources to create a world where all people (up to 10 or 12 billion or so, there is an upper limit because of limited space and resources) could have a nice home, everybody could have plenty to eat, water to drink, to bathe in, to swim in, to irrigate crops, to spray heavenward in beautiful fountains, enriching the oxygen and forming rainbows, and to give everybody brilliant, cradle to grave educational opportunities. There would be no need for war, or social discontent. We have a worldwide communication system, we have smart people, we have robots, we could do this without even breaking a sweat.
But some people don’t want to, and they rule the world, and they pay people to beat the hell out of anybody who objects, and so the cycle continues.
We need to evolve, and we need to do it before we destroy the entire planet. Apparently, it’s not going to be easy.

A few of my friends online, intelligent people whose opinions I respect even if I sometimes disagree with them, have offered up the thought that the current wave of protests, and violence, sweeping the nation in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, may have been made worse by the fact that people were cooped up in quarantine for so long.
I doubt that’s a major factor, because lots of countries had (and some still have) stronger quarantine measures than the U.S. Also, it’s pretty easy to point to the murder itself as the cause, so we could stop right there.
But, they might have a point. Not that it’s a cause, but a contributing factor. A match is what starts a forest fire, but a long time without rain definitely sets the stage. And, the U.S. is different in some ways from most other countries. More prone to violence, for sure.
I have another theory I’m going to throw out there, and this is not so much a theory (certainly not in the scientific sense, it’s not even much of a hypotheses) as just a gut feeling.
When Bernie Sanders dropped out of the race, all feeling of hope disappeared and there’s nothing left but despair, desperation and rage. When he was in the race there was a feeling that the upcoming election might make things better. Of course Bernie supporters believed it, but Warren supporters were kind of jazzed at the thought of a female president, the Yang Gang had UBI as their pie in the sky, and all of the candidates were talking about health care, and saving the environment, and making things more equitable, even if some meant it less than others. There was hope in the air.
Now that Bernie is out, nobody is talking about health care and there is no chance of making real headway on it, no matter who is elected. If you are uninsured now, chances are you will be uninsured four years from now. Ditto with the environment. Ditto with ending economic inequality, legalizing marijuana, eliminating student debt, ending private prisons and mass incarcerations, ending the endless militarization of the police and their intrusion into people’s day to day lives.
All hope is dead. It’s not so surprising a couple of cop shops have been burned down.

Well, this is good news. The charge against Derek Chauvin has been bumped up from 3rd degree murder (which is basically manslaughter) to second degree, and the other three officers have been charged with aiding and abetting.
Will it be enough to curb the protests? I don’t know. If they had done it a week ago, it probably would have. Maybe it still will. There’s a fatigue factor to demonstrating, and there’s only so long the public attention will remain riveted on one issue.
But, I don’t know if it will. The demonstrations/riots (depends on who you ask, and when, and where) have already grown to a point where they are no longer just about George Floyd. They are about all the other black people who’ve been murdered by police. They are about Ahmed Aubry and Filando Castile and Eric Garner and Sandra Bland and Tamir Rice and John Crawford and so, so many more.
And they have spread to cities across the U.S. and abroad. Abroad. The U.S. is now the country that people are protesting against because of our repression of our own citizens. The U.S. is like South Africa under apartheid.
Will this new development ease tensions a bit, make a truce possible? I hope so.
One thing’s for sure, though. They wouldn’t have upped the charges without the demonstrations. So, this is a win.

Over the last two or three days, I have seen 5 dystopian science fiction movies. If I focus on news from the United States, instead of on the lovely green view outside my window in this serene, park like Prague neighborhood, it seems like picking up a few pointers on how to survive the apocalypse might come in handy. Anyway, for my blog this morning, here are some thoughts on those films.
Waterworld was actually a darned good film and all the jokes about it being a financial disaster have long ago faded into irrelevance. Also, since that particular apocalyptic vision is appearing more and more likely, perhaps Kevin Costner will someday be viewed as visionary.
Children of Men had some interesting characters (Michael Caine was awesome as the old hippie dude), but I was sort of confused as to why a lack of children led to that particularly insane kind of society, and how they had no theories at all as to what was causing it, nor any plausible reason why there was suddenly an exception. Nonetheless, an outrageous battle scene near the end, where all of the dispensable characters are killed, and a happy, hopeful ending. So, weak on the science, good on the action, and acting.
Venom was really a piece of garbage, but I found it quite enjoyable garbage and most of the people who had their heads bitten off really deserved to have their heads bitten off. I wouldn’t discourage anybody from watching it.
Mars Attacks, of course, was a great film. This is completely irrelevant but, similar to in Venom, the aliens’ weakness was a particular sound. That’s definitely a line of defense we need to try if the Earth is ever invaded. Also, Pierce Brosnan has never been funnier than he was as a disembodied head.
Elysium, with Matt Damon, was the most interesting to me. That’s not to say ‘the best’ because it was fairly standard future horror world, an overcrowded future like Soylent Green, where a job meant working in slave like conditions but still, anybody with a job was considered lucky. I liked it because, at the heart of this dystopian future, there was also a utopian vision. That was Elysium, a Stanford Torus space station where all the rich people lived with neatly manicured parks, swimming pools, and elegant white mansions with curving staircases, marble floors, and medical beds that could cure anything from a broken leg to leukemia.
Utopia is as possible, technologically, as dystopia. We could have it. We’re not heading in that direction, but we could.