Category Archives: Blogs' Archive

Time zones.  I guess it’s my own fault, I shouldn’t be so obsessed about American politics.  It’s not as if I live there.  One the other hand, I count on my  social security check, so I don’t want to screw that up, and we only have 12 years left to save the planet and the U.S. is one of the countries that could do the most to make that happen, or the reverse.  It actually looks like the president of Brazil  is determined to destroy the world all by  himself, but China, and some other countries, are doing some pretty  cool stuff.  But, I’m getting off topic.
All day on Facebook,  people  have been  talking about Trump’s speech tonight, but it’s midnight now and I’m going to  bed and it  still isn’t going to happen for  a couple of hours, so I will read all about it in the morning, and I guess that’s good enough.  Maybe better.  There will have been time for everybody  to  sift through it and make the obvious jokes, there will  have been an ‘official’ Democratic rebuttal, which will probably be lame (they should let Rashida Tlaib give the rebuttal – sparks would fly) and Bernie Sanders will have had time to give his rebuttal, which will be heartfelt and logical.
I don’t think there will be any surprises.  I don’t think he will declare martial law, or try to appoint himself dictator for life.  I also don’t think  he will use the speech to announce his resignation. That would be awesome, but it would be totally out of character.  No, he’ll talk about how much we need the wall, and blame the shutdown on the Democrats, and  lie a lot and say some things that are incoherent.
It has all  become very predictable.

Games have preceded overall computer development, rather in the way that games precede human development. We learn as children how to compete, how to play fair, how to work with a team – a lot of basic skills we need as adults. You see it with lion and bear cubs, their banter prepares them for the life and death struggle of the permanent hunt.
Our computer games are preparing us for  that world which is to come,  that point where we evolve and become something more than human, the day when we reach our childhood’s end.  What that will be, we don’t  know, but the games are preparing us  for it.

Perhaps, some day  in the not so distant future, in some Sims like, civilization building game, someone will design a society in which the infrastructure of man works in perfect co-ordination and harmony with nature to give everybody  fresh water everywhere and the food will grow to provide  all humans with  sustenance and pleasure, as much as we need in  the times and places we need it, and everybody will have a nice home, or two, and the schools will be temples of brilliance and the march of science will continue to move forward at a nice, steady pace, and there will  be no need for war because there is no  want, and no borders, and we can move out to  explore the  stars with  a clear conscience, as the Earth will  be a paradise.
Meantime, I have  another book of poetry out: Quest for Enlightenment and Stuff, which was supposed to be The Quest for Enlightenment and Stuff and I can’t believe I proofread the whole thing and screwed up on the title, but if you buy it now (very reasonably priced on Amazon and Kindle) and I  change it later,  you will have a collector’s item.  On the other hand I might  just leave it alone and consider it  a fortuitous accident.

Disclosure:  I haven’t always been anti-Israel.  I’m half Jewish (the half that  counts) and in my youth I was quite the little Zionist.  I spent quite a bit of time in Israel, learned a bit of the language, and from some time in 1977 until February of 1979, I served in the IDF, that organization which is now committing crimes against humanity every day.

So, I am horrified at what  is happening now.  Soldiers harassing and abusing small children, soldiers shooting at journalists and medics, soldiers shooting unarmed civilians, settlers stealing Palestinian’s homes, bulldozing them to the ground while soldiers watch, settlers uprooting olive trees which have been  on the  land for  centuries (once upon  a time, planting trees and greening the landscape was a big part of the Zionist ethic), settlers sitting on  a hillside with snacks  and soft drinks, cheering as they watch bombs falling on Gaza, cheering for death.
There is absolutely no doubt  these are bad things, and there is little doubt among objective observers that the onus for this lies entirely on Israel.
And yet, Chuck Schumer (D-supposedly) and Marco Rubio (R) are co-sponsoring legislation which will punish people for speaking out against Israel, or for supporting the BDS movement by, for instance, refusing to buy Israeli products.  I don’t know if it mentioned jail time or fines, but government employees -teachers, cops, firemen, etc… could lose their jobs.  Some states already have laws like this and a teacher in Texas was recently fired for refusing to sign a loyalty pledge to Israel.

This is blatantly unconstitutional.  It is downright un-American.  Freedom of speech means you can complain, or protest against, or refuse to buy products from anybody you damned well please.  People criticized the hell out of Miley Cyrus because she made a couple of slutty videos.  Right wing loons have been boycotting Jane Fonda for decades.  People will  boycott food  products at the drop of a hat over the use of one  wrong ingredient.

Can you imagine the U.S. government saying you weren’t allowed to protest  against Canada, or Japan?
No, it’s just Israel, and it’s so blatantly unconstitutional and unAmerican that you have to wonder what is motivating Schumer and Rubio. (and I’m sure they’re not the only ones – this bill actually has a chance of passing)  Could it be that Israel knows something they do  not want revealed – maybe about 9/11, maybe about the June, 1967 attack on the U.S.S. Liberty?  Could it be that  Israel has been  financing lots of political campaigns in the U.S., filling our congress with moles?  Could the crazy ‘Zionists control  the world economy’ people actually be right?  Could they be trying to bring about Armageddon, believing  themselves to be among the righteous?
It almost has to be something huge like that, and I wish I knew  what it was.

The other day, while I was browsing through my old blogs, because I’m planning a ‘best of’ book, I came across a poem I’d posted, as a blog entry for  the day, some time in the spring of 2010.  The thing is, I didn’t remember the poem, and couldn’t remember what book it was in.  I’ll have to check a bit more thoroughly, but it doesn’t seem to be in The Alchemist’s Notebook, The Guru Kalehuru and Other Poems, or The This of the That, and all of the others would be far enough away from the 2010 date to have been contenders.  And, it was a good poem.  So, I’ll check deeper, but I think I’ve just found a nine year old poem which will go in my next book.
While I was searching for it in past books, I came across a poem written on a ripped off piece of notecard.  Just a couple of lines, but again, I didn’t remember writing them (my handwriting, though, and definitely mine), so it could be I just intended to expand them into a full poem and forgot about them.
I guess that’s an inevitable byproduct of writing poems all the time, and I’m happy about it.
Then, I wrote one this morning about a very specific story, and posted it as a comment, and it got completely ignored, the way they do, and that one’s probably lost forever, because of it’s over specific application, but that’s O.K., too.  Folk poetry.  Much of the art, and music, of human history, has been in live performances in living rooms, improvisations around campfires, and doodles on napkins.
There was one poem that I posted the other day on a workshop site.  Not because I pay  too  much attention  to the criticism I get, but at least it’s evidence that somebody’s reading the stuff.  Anyway, this was one I was  very pleased with and will  read at the next poetry  gathering.  Someone wrote “I like your rhymes very much.  Keep working at it and some day you’ll  be good.”
I’m sure she  meant well.

A few comments on the incoming congress.  I  hate to totally give up all hope on them on the first day, but only 3 -Tulsi Gabbard, Ro Khanna, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez- voted against Paygo, Nancy Pelosi’s fucked up plan to hobble any plans which might improve the environment or advance health care.
Rashida Tlaib did make a very  impassioned speech about impeaching President Bush, in which she took the Beto O’Rourke thing  one  step further “We’re gonna impeach the motherfucker,” which is exactly the kind of speech we need to hear and I love her for it, but she voted for Paygo.
It was AOC’s response to the passage of Paygo that gives me the most hope.  What Paygo says is if a program is going to cost money, they have to show how they’re going to pay for it.  It doesn’t sound like such a bad idea, except the government passes shit all the time they can’t pay  for, like wars.  And then  there are unexpected  things, like natural  disasters.  Sure, there’s  a  clause in there that there might be exceptions, but why pass something if youu’re going to have to make exceptions to it  all over the place.
It’s as if Nancy Pelosi has never even heard of MMT.  It is perfectly clear she’s trying to  stop progressive legislation.  But, back to AOC’s response.
She said, “Well, O.K. then, we need to raise taxes on the rich.”  It was a much more nuanced statement than that, she said 60 to 70% and didn’t say at what income exactly that would kick in, but she mentioned people ‘who have more than $10 million,’ which is pretty darned rich and a 70% tax rate won’t hurt them a bit, because they can easily invest enough money to keep below that level, even as they keep  getting richer.
It was over 90% during FDR’s presidency, and stayed that way up until the 60s, so this isn’t all that radical.
But, if you’re going to insist that everything gets paid for, by golly, that’s the way to do it.