Wayward Landlubber

     I'm not an educated man. I was able to eke out a couple years of higher education, before THC and LSD introduced me to an even higher education. But I am not stupid, nor am I poorly informed. A lifetime of reading of all kinds has helped to hone my thinking. Exposure to intelligent, funny, and thoughtful people, through what is now called "fake media", has also shaped my thinking. A conservative would dismissively call this a recipe for liberalism. And, in this way, they would be right! Though I am viscerally contemptious of Foxnews and its kind.      I do not know too many conservatives, and those I know well, seem to lack a grounding in this cultural exposure. Those I communicate with do not seem to be able, or maybe don't care, to have a capacity to exhibit  basic spelling and word usage. They have a long history of using, perhaps unconsciously, hyperbolic speech and threats. Our current president is the end result of that hyperbole. The concept of nuance is b

For many months I felt that Trump must have thought that the novel Corona virus was a book written by Clive Cussler, or some other writer who Trump might read, if he could read.

      The 244th birthday of the United States of America passed recently. Since most of the traditional Independence Day celebrations could not be held we were forced to face probably the biggest existential threat to our existance in my lifetime. It is not a single threat, but comes from multiple directions: we have a pandemic that shows no sign of waning. This is further complicated by a president that refuses to wear a facemask, and insists on throwing his people into a petri dish of Corona virus by putting them in close places with no demand for masks. We face an economic crisis brought on by that pandemic, and the necessary closure of businesses. Additionally there is ample evidence that much of the financial relief passed by congress is going to the richest businesses. We face a climate which is warming and its concomitant ecological damage. Some 96% of climate scientists agree on this danger and that it is caused by the burning of fossil fuels. Only businesses which depend on fo