Author: admin

A Covid-19 vaccine cannot come soon enough.

The misery around the world caused by this pandemic has only just begun. Some countries simply do not have the necessary resources to control the spread of the virus, others lack the political will to do so. Pakistan, Brazil, the Philippines, India – their slums will run rampant with sickness and death. Everyone will be infected, and only the strong will survive.

Even in countries that initially controlled the virus, such as South Korea and China, once the basics of control such as wearing masks and social distancing are relaxed, the virus returns.

People everywhere become tired of social isolation and rebel against social responsibility. They reach a point where memories of their old life become too strong. There is a longing to return to what once was, and eventually self-control gives way to selfishness and desperation. So people justify their actions by claiming “it’s God’s will” or “constitutional rights” or “I’m too young to die” or “I just want to have fun.”

We’ve already seen enough to know what a disaster social stupidity will lead to. Now is the time for us all to focus on acting smart and for the common good. Running around without masks, crowding together in bars and restaurants and rodeos – this is just stupid and selfish behavior. It is understood that there are parts of our country that have very little virus presence, but making the assumption that this will be the case forever is just asking for trouble. Sooner or later some asymptomatic or symptomatic person will join in the fun, and then the virus will be there too.

Our medical experts have laid out a reasonable course of action to open up our economy in a way that will minimize the uncontrolled spread of the virus. We need to listen to them and follow their advice. This is what they are good at.

We owe it to ourselves and our families and our neighbors to accept that there will be a “new normal” and to begin to act accordingly.

We cannot rely on government direction alone to dictate what we can and cannot do. Government direction that does not consider the needs and desires of the people cannot work much longer. We the American people have to decide for ourselves what our “new normal” will be, and then act accordingly.

Mask wearing and social distancing seems like a small price to pay in exchange for enjoying most of our freedoms. But we need to collectively agree that we will avoid social stupidity like the plague that it is if this “new normal” is going to work. We need to agree to hold each other accountable for acting stupid as well.

We should thank God that we live in this country where we have the space and the resources and the wealth to create our own “new normal”. We have the power to define what this country will be – let’s forget about all of this divisive red vs. blue nonsense, start thinking for ourselves, and start acting smart for a change.

There exists, within the world of Star Trek, a race of beings that behave as one entity – the Borg Collective. The Borg has one purpose – to assimilate every other race, to add their biological and technological distinctiveness to its own. “Existence, as you know it, is over. Resistance is futile.”

China is very much like the Borg – a single-minded collective that rejects individualism unless it is to the benefit of the Communist Party. The expression of alternative thought is met with the harshest of corrective action. Little by little, the Chinese, like the Borg, are spreading out and extending their single-minded collective control over more and more of the world.

If only this were a science fiction story, we could close the book and be done with it, but this is a real threat, a strategic attack that has been happening for decades. The Chinese, like the Borg, must be opposed. We must take the offensive instead of letting the Chinese dictate the terms of engagement. The world can now see China for what it is – an existential threat that strikes in many ways on many fronts, without mercy, without compassion, without fear.

What does China do?

Currency Manipulation – It is understood that China has repeatedly engaged in manipulation of its currency so that the cost of goods made in China will be so low that companies will have no alternative but to move all of their production of goods to China in order to remain competitive.

Monopolization of Supply Chains – As a consequence of its currency manipulation, China has effectively monopolized the production of many industrial chemicals, semi-finished goods, pharmaceuticals, consumer products, etc., to the point that this allows China to exert undue influence on the world’s economy, and has created a dependency that threatens the ability of corporations and countries alike to act in their own long-term best interests.

Territorial Expansion – China has extended its territorial claim to include essentially the entire South China Sea, far beyond the accepted 200 mile limit. China is ignoring the treaty limitations under which Hong Kong rule was transferred to China by England, effectively assimilating Hong Kong into Communist rule. China controls Mongolia, Tibet, and to a more limited extent, North Korea. China is beginning to exert control into Russia.

Monopolization of Raw Materials – By means of its Belt and Road lending to under-developed countries, in many instances resulting in a crippling debt that may never be repaid, China is now able to extend its control to include vital raw materials within these countries, which will eventually allow China to further control the world’s economy.

Technology Transfer and Intellectual Theft – China’s trade policies regarding access to their internal markets has resulted in the forced transfer of advanced technology to China from companies eager to gain access to 1.3 billion Chinese consumers. Chinese students are sent to U.S. universities to gain access to our most advanced research, which they then brought back to China. U.S. universities welcome Chinese money and share research without limitation under the guise of “intellectual freedom”. Chinese spies are sent to the U.S. and other countries to serve as employees in strategic industries where they have been able to steal vital information, which is then brought back to China.

Propaganda Through Confucius Institutes – China has established nearly 1,000 Confucius Institutes in universities throughout the world. It is understood that these institutes are intended to provide an understanding of Chinese history and culture, and to teach the Chinese language. However, these institutes are directed by the Chinese government, and are an effective means of influencing the opinions of college students so that Chinese aggression and human rights abuses can be explained away and ultimately accepted.

Fentanyl Exports – China has historically been the source of Fentanyl, an opoid-like drug that has resulted in one of the worst drug epidemics in the history of the U.S. China has stated their intention to actively block Fentanyl exports to the U.S. However, it remains to be seen if China will actually follow through on their commitment, as Fentanyl abuse has proven to be an effective means of undermining U.S. society. It is understood that much of the Chinese Fentanyl production is now being rerouted through India and Mexico.

Biological Warfare – COVID-19 is only the latest example of Chinese aggression that has caused severe damage to the world economy. Now that it is clear that a virus pandemic can weaken even the strongest country, it is likely that biological warfare will become a strategic weapon in China’s quest for world domination. The source of COVID-19 may have been due to wet market activity or from a laboratory, but it is clear that China made a deliberate decision to isolate itself internally to minimize the spread of COVID-19 within its borders, and at the same time to allow transmission of COVID-19 to the rest of the world.

Cyber Warfare – China has actively pursued cyber warfare to infiltrate the computer systems of companies and countries. Most recently, a new cyberattack tool called Aria-body has been identified, which is reported to be virtually non-detectable. Aria-body allows the Chinese military to infiltrate computer networks in real time, download data, and ultimately take down computer networks as well as whatever the networks control. We can only hope that our military has capabilities to counteract this aggression, and that we are quietly hardening our infrastructure to isolate critical systems such as our electrical grid, defense strategies, government records, etc.

It is difficult to think about developing a China strategy in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, but this is what we must do. As we develop our strategy, we should learn from the Chinese – to smile, to be respectful, to be agreeable, but to never feel obligated to keep our commitments to them. And, above all, to never forget that individual freedom and expression, a democratic form of government, and a world at peace with shared prosperity are ideas and values that are diametrically opposed by the Chinese Communist Party.

The anticipation that Michael Bloomberg could become the leader of the Democratic Party and a viable candidate to compete against President Trump was thoroughly dashed during the Democratic debates by his clear inability to articulate a vision for the future, his complete lack of empathy for and understanding of average Americans, and his embarrassing level of unpreparedness for the debate stage. Regardless of what others have said, he earned his opportunity to be heard and to be seen. He was heard, he was seen, and he was found wanting.

Now it appears that the Democratic ticket will be Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren. This ticket represents decades of political experience on a national and international level, and an apparent balance between the moderate and progressive wings of the Democratic Party.

However, electoral failure is all but assured by the Democratic Party’s inability to move the discussion past the present and towards the future.

For better or worse, President Trump is going to lead this country out of the COVID-19 recession and reopen our economy during the next few months. By the time of the election in November, COVID-19 deaths will probably have tripled from their current levels, but most people who still have jobs will be back to work and a new normal will have been established.

Complaining about what President Trump and his administration says and does, stating without any factual basis that a Biden/Warren administration would have done a better job in protecting the country – this is all a waste of time and a clear demonstration that there is no Democratic vision for the future.

The Democratic Party seems to be lost.

To illustrate this point, let’s characterize their major players:

• Tom Perez – inauthentic and ineffective.
• Nancy Pelosi – power-hungry and tone-deaf.
• Chuck Schumer – powerless and visionless.
• “The Squad” – angry and undisciplined.
• Hillary Clinton – unindicted and unlikable.
• Bernie Sanders – extreme and unelectable.
• Elizabeth Warren – intense and misdirected.
• Joe Biden – unfocused and underwhelming.

It is certainly possible, and without too much effort, to make the case that Donald Trump has exacerbated the division between rich and poor, squandered more of our nation’s wealth than any president before him, fermented a civil war within our nation, and turned this country into a second-rate soap opera with him typecast as the brilliant, opportunistic, but ultimately psychotic “Great Leader”.

But there does not seem to be anyone in the Democratic Party who can make this case.

Nor does there seem to be anyone in the Democratic Party who can provide a vision of a wiser and fairer future for this country.

This COVID-19 experience has clearly shown that a great many Americans make starvation wages, have no access to health insurance, and live within a paycheck or two of economic disaster.

This COVID-19 experience has clearly shown that large corporations and retailers had no problem in selling out American workers and the security of the country by moving the production of everything to China in order to maximize stockholder profits, upper management bonuses, and political graft.

This COVID-19 experience has clearly shown that a significant percentage of Americans mistake civic duty for a violation of their constitutional rights, do not understand that American exceptionalism is based upon the collective actions of each and every one of us, and that patriotism has nothing to do with waving the American flag in one hand and a gun in the other.

These are the types of issues that the Democratic Party should be addressing now, not wasting precious time with ineffective critiques of President Trump’s words and actions.

Like a rosebush budding in the spring, President Bloomberg is beginning to smell sweet.

Whether or not Michael Bloomberg actually receives the Democratic nomination for President, his candidacy is a welcome and true contribution to the race. At least we now have an independent, rational, balanced candidate that can provide a moderate, centrist point of view without political posturing or promoting positions and programs that can never be.

Michael Bloomberg is that multi-billionaire, that successful businessman that President Trump likes to portray himself as but is really not. Michael Bloomberg has been mayor of New York City for two terms. He created a very large and successful business news-focused enterprise. He has proven credentials as a leader, a politician, and a chief executive, none of which President Trump had when he became president.

Michael Bloomberg is introducing himself to America by means of millions of dollars worth of political commercials, so he is able to control his image and message without question or contradiction. This appears to be highly effective, as he is already polling above many Democratic candidates who have been actively campaigning for nearly a year. Sad to say, but if these other candidates had a message that resonated with Democratic voters then they would have been much more successful by now.

Michael Bloomberg’s true test will come when he appears on a debate stage with other Democratic candidates and we can judge for ourselves as to whether or not he is truly presidential material. Can he provide a clear vision for this country? Can he think on his feet and defend his beliefs when directly questioned and verbally attacked by the other Democratic candidates? Can he be consistent, logical, and show resolve and focus, while at the same time being personable enough to have a personal appeal to Democratic voters?

I certainly hope so, as I am very concerned that our current Democratic candidates don’t have what it takes to lead this country, let alone defeat President Trump. I am tired of the windmill-tilter, the boy mayor, the Indian princess, the earnest snow queen, and the old pro. As much as I don’t care for many aspects of the Trump presidency, Donald Trump has become presidential like no other and commands the Republican party like no other. He shows resolve and focus and a toughness that a successful president must have.

My impression of Michael Bloomberg is that he also shows equal resolve and focus and toughness, but obviously in a more low-key manner. In addition, he exhibits the reasonableness and the intelligence to make decisions that would improve the lives of the average American, at the same time being able to promote and defend our interests abroad in a manner that would also benefit the rest of the world. He appears to have the strength to confront our adversaries and stand firm instead of offering appeasement or bluster and threats.

As the primaries approach and the stakes continue to rise, I look forward to finding out more about Michael Bloomberg. I believe that he could do very well in a debate with President Trump, much better than any of the other Democratic candidates. However, it is time for him to enter the fray and prove his worth to the American people.

It has become all too easy for us to demonize one another, to label others as cruel, evil, destructive people, different from ourselves, virtual monsters to be feared and destroyed. But aren’t the real demons those who are the accusers?

This ongoing demonization within our society should be antithetical to all of us, but so many of us seem to revel in it and find it entertaining, not realizing the harm that it does. Bigotry and intolerance grows among us like a cancer, fed by the fearful and the ignorant and the uncaring, the smug and the self-righteous and the selfish.

There has always been a dark undercurrent within our American society, this willingness to identify and marginalize by race or religion or ethnicity, but now it has transformed itself into a mainstream bigotry based upon political affiliation.

Through the power of repetitive lies and accusations, many of us now believe that the Democratic Party is anti-American, anti-traditional values, anti-police, anti-military, anti-freedom, anti-heartland, anti-sovereignty, anti-capitalism, and therefore evil – to be feared and hated, and ultimately destroyed. So too, many of us now believe that our established newspapers and cable/network news organizations purposefully lie to us every day and cannot be trusted.

This is bigoted, hateful speech and should be reviled by all of us. Those people who first coined and then promoted the renaming of one of our major political parties into the Demoncrats should be congratulated for their cleverness, and then publicly and loudly exposed for the cynical, manipulative, self-serving and unpatriotic individuals that they are. Their efforts to foster distrust of our independent free press is another example of bigoted and hateful speech, and the degree to which they have been successful in demonizing the mainstream media should be alarming and frightening.

We should all appreciate the checks and balances that having two healthy political parties provide just as much as we should appreciate the checks and balances that having three separate and independent branches of government provide. We should also appreciate that having a free press that is allowed to investigate and report on the actions of our government is necessary for us to continue to be a free people.

We should all stop for a moment and realize that a totalitarian state has a single party, with a ruling body, a judiciary, and a propaganda system that exist to control thought and behavior and eliminate dissent, typically in support of a single leader and close associates. Is this really what we want our country and society to devolve to?

Those Americans who have decided to hate the Democrats and the mainstream media need to re-evaluate their decision. There is little that could be more fundamentally in opposition to the principles of our democracy and the vision of our founding fathers than this demonizing of our fellow citizens and our established institutions.

This is a very unsettled time, with great anxiety throughout the world and within our own country as we address the effects of climate change, the increase in threats to peace, economic inequality between rich and poor, employment uncertainty brought about by robotics and automation, widespread mental health issues, and many other very significant concerns.

This is not the time to let ourselves continue to be led astray by the voices of those politicians and media talking heads that see profit in hate speech and the demonizing of the foundations of our country. Free thought, and open and honest discussion must be appreciated and protected by us all.

On the eve of the President’s impeachment, it is a little too late to have second thoughts. Everyone from the politicians to the media are caught up in the drama of the moment and seem eager to commence the battle. But to what end?

The best that can be said is that the Democrats will be able to present the facts of the Ukrainian coercion/extortion/”perfect call” to the American people, and perhaps expand the discussion to include other aspects of the President’s behavior that have been unethical/unconstitutional/”like no other” so that the American people will have a fact-based understanding of what type of man the President is.

The best that can be said is that the Republicans will be able to prevent the political and one-sided removal of the President from office and allow the American people to decide for themselves whether or not the President is deserving of a second term.

The worst that can be said is that this entire process will consume the attention of our country to the exclusion of any and all matters that affect us and the rest of humanity, exacerbate the 50-50 division within our country, and give our main competitors – namely Russia and China – continued free reign to exploit our preoccupation.

Beyond the best and the worst lies the end of days, which I hope means the end of our collective anger/resentment/distrust/stupidity, and a return to our collective positivity/acceptance/appreciation/sanity. Unfortunately, the end of days could also mean the end of the American story as we like to imagine it, the shared hopes/dreams/ideals/energy of a people who once made a nation.

It is time for all of us to confront ourselves – our biases, our closed mindlessness, our selfishness, our sense of superiority towards those who are not like us. We have to remember what it is like to rise together if we are to bind our wounds and become strong again.

To those who support this President :

It is understood that President Trump is your champion. Many of you feel forgotten and left out, taken advantage of by a system and society that does not listen to you or respect your beliefs. President Trump has given you a voice. However, see him for who he is. Citizen Trump has brought his imperious and self-aggrandizing approach to business to the Presidency. His ability to insult, demean, and intimidate those who oppose him is unmatched – entertaining perhaps, but vulgar and cruel, and beneath the office that he holds. He prides himself on his openness, yet has refused to let us see where his business ties/obligations lie, refused to honor constitutionally mandated requests for information regarding his actions and commitments made, and keeps secret his discussions with our country’s enemies. He prides himself on his ability to be a unifying leader, but has steadfastly slandered all those who disagree with him, effectively questioning the patriotism of 50% of the country and the opposition political party. He has rewarded himself, his family, and his business with huge tax cuts, and promoted his real estate holdings for political and monetary gain, while the rest of us have received the leftover crumbs. He has let his hatred of President Obama define many of his actions that have not been in the best interests of the country. He refuses to take the counsel of his more experienced advisers, preferring to follow his own counsel that is based upon his personal prejudices and limited understanding, and then turns against his own advisers on a moment’s notice. He may be your champion, but he is not the country’s champion. Surely you can do better than this.

To those who oppose this President:

You have brought this upon yourselves by your arrogant attitude towards 50% of the country and your inability to listen to views other than your own. The candidate for President that you selected for the last election was a reflection of these character flaws, and in the end you took too many people’s support for granted and lost the election. You are making a similar mistake now, promoting candidates whose ideas do not acknowledge or address the concerns of the other 50% of the country, ideas that include social programs that are unaffordable and poorly thought out. Our President is our President, yet you refuse to work with him constructively on issues of the day such as infrastructure modernization and reduction of prescription drug prices – and there are many other issues that you ignore as well – that could benefit all of us. It is your obligation to reach out to those who support the President and show them that you have a different and better way forward, but all you seem to want to do is force your ideas down their throats. You spend all of your time attacking or complaining about the President instead of developing a coherent message and vision of your own. There is so much that you could speak of, from economic inequality to the need for our country to reaffirm our moral and ethical global leadership, but all we hear is white noise. When the President gets re-elected you will whine and cry and blame everyone else but yourselves. Surely you can do better than this.

In the end, we always get the government that we deserve. Surely we can all do better than this.

There is too much anger and animosity in politics these days. Everyone acknowledges this, and then everyone blames the opposition for causing it. This empty righteousness further exasperates the problem, resulting in an ongoing cycle that leads us around and around, a Mobius strip of posturing and one-sided commentating that goes nowhere.

Hopefully someone will break this cycle so that we can come together as a unified country and start solving some of our outstanding problems with a combination of fairmindedness and common sense. This business of demonizing those who may have a different idea or approach has to stop if we are to regain our focus and direction. Someone has to successfully appeal to the opposition in order to establish a consensus so that decisions can be reached that will be supported by more than a bare majority.

President Trump was going to bring the country together like no other, but his approach has only further alienated those who disagree with him. It is doubtful that his approach will change, so we can look forward to an additional four years of anger, animosity and distrust dividing our country if and probably when he is re-elected in 2020. This means that we will have wasted the last 30 years or so in this partisan tit-for-tat governance while China has emerged as the world’s dominant power, extending its single-minded influence globally.

We have as opposition to President Trump a slate of Democratic candidates that pander to their base just as much as President Trump panders to his. From a senior statesman who seems to have too many senior moments, to candidates that propose expensive programs that cannot be paid for, to candidates who spend all their time and energy disparaging President Trump instead of offering an alternative direction, to candidates that show promise but have insufficient experience – when they are taken together as a group one must conclude that the future for reasoned, fact-based governance is bleak.

It is inevitable and unavoidable that someone will become the Democratic nominee. If this person is to successfully beat President Trump, they must be reasonable in their vision, presidential in their behaviour, and inclusive of all Americans, even the so-called Trump deplorables.

The Democratic nominee must acknowledge and appreciate that people who voted for President Trump had valid reasons for doing so. Trump supporters cannot be categorized as being ignorant of facts, fearful of immigrants, under the spell of a cult-like leader, or any of the other insulting things that have been said about them. Their voices and opinions need to be heard and understood just as much as anyone else’s. Their support is even more important for the success of a Democratic president than is the support of the Democratic base.

A moderate, inclusive approach has the potential to appeal to a majority of Democrats, a majority of Independents, and a significant number of Republicans as well.

Making sure that Trump supporters are acknowledged in the Democratic debates as well as on the Democratic campaign trail would go a long way to beginning to heal the divisions in our nation, and could prove to be the deciding factor in a successful challenge to the re-election of President Trump.

Some people are addicted to food. Some people are addicted to sex. Some people are addicted to drugs and cigarettes. And some people are addicted to guns – and their addiction is killing us.

Most gun owners that I know of are not addicted to guns and don’t want to be. Their use and ownership of guns is grounded in our heritage as a free and independent people. They hunt, shoot skeet, belong to gun ranges, and protect their livestock. They are concerned for their personal safety and the safety of those they love. They are our family, friends, and neighbors with a healthy interest in, and healthy use of, guns. This is how Americans have used guns throughout our history. This is an extremely important point that needs to be understood and acknowledged by gun control advocates if there is to be any hope in achieving a consensus in our national gun discussion.

And then there are the gun addicts, nearly always men who exist in some sort of warped fantasy world of private militias and private arsenals, full of imagined threats and misplaced anger, doomsday survivalists and socially disconnected individuals. Gun addicts are obsessed with guns and the destructive power that they promise.  

Many addictions are signs of mental illness, and an addiction to guns is no different. Gun addicts are nuts.

Here is a brief list of some typical characteristics of gun nuts:

• They own many, many, many weapons, usually assault-type rifles and semi-automatic handguns capable of extreme human carnage in very little time.
• They build their own weapons, usually assault-type rifles, and do so repeatedly, often building multiples of the same weapon for no discernable reason.
• They modify their weapons with military-style scopes, bump stocks, extended magazines, grenade launchers, special ammunition, and other accessories intended to magnify human killing power.
• They avoid registering their weapons whenever possible, taking advantage of loopholes in our laws involving gun shows, private sales, out-of-state and mail-order purchases.
• They constantly talk about the Second Amendment as if it was the eleventh commandment – “Thou shalt be armed”.
• They harbor such a distrust of governmental authority that they profess a willingness to engage in a violent confrontation in order to keep their weapons.
• They believe that more and more weapons carried by themselves and others will somehow protect us from gun violence.
• They believe that carry permits, either open or concealed, should be universally honored across state lines without restriction or limitation.
• They blame crazy people for all the mass shootings, but don’t recognize crazy in the mirror.

Thank God that gun nuts make up a small minority of gun owners. The problem is that – unlike people who are nuts about cats for instance, or orchids, or being a strict vegan, the type of people who can bore you half to death talking about their passion – gun nuts can actually kill you with their obsession, and do so with a frightening and increasing frequency.

These are truly unbalanced, socially irresponsible people. Some hide it well, some not so well. Among other things, they can be self-absorbed, paranoid, insecure, delusional, and lonely. What they have in common is that each is only one bad day away from becoming front page news. They all have a trigger, and who knows what will ultimately pull it. And they live all around us.

These mass murders by gun nuts are horrible and terrifying. The fact that we are being expected to accept these tragedies as the price we have to pay to preserve our freedom as Americans is a disgusting perversion of patriotism, not to mention a stark example of the worst aspects of corporate greed at the expense of an entire society.

This is why we need to continue to be vigilant when it comes to our family and friends and neighbors. This is why we need to continue to respect and acknowledge gun owners who are not obsessed with the power of guns to maim and kill. This is why we need to continue to advocate for gun controls that will make us all safer.

Of course we need full registration of all privately-owned guns. Of course we need to have much more control over gun shows, private sales, out-of-state and mail-order purchases. Of course we need limits on ammunition purchases and magazine capacities. Of course our local police departments should know who the gun nuts are who live in our neighborhoods. Of course we need a nationwide gun policy that doesn’t stop at the state line. Of course we need a ban on private ownership of assault-type rifles whose sole purpose is to kill as many people as efficiently as possible.

The gun owners among us who are not gun nuts need to become much more active in order to preserve their legitimate Second Amendment right. Renouncing membership in the NRA would be a welcome first step towards reducing the NRA’s ability to intimidate our politicians and to frame our national discussion about guns by wrapping assault-type rifles in the American flag.

The personal affirmation of knowing that you could slaughter 30 people in 30 seconds if you were to choose to do so is a troubling form of inner peace, to say the least. We are not going to be invaded by another country or enslaved by our own government. There will be no zombie apocalypse. None of these thoughts are those of a well-balanced person.

Which leads to another possibility. Progressive psychology recognizes that there can be injury to, or malformation of the brain that affects behavior. Every gun nut should have their brain CAT scanned to see if there is a pattern of injury or other anomaly that can explain and therefore predict their behavior. One never knows.

Rather than spending so much time after the fact trying to understand why gun nuts did what they did, and figuring out whether we should blame the parents, teachers, friends, or police – we should be proactively addressing every possible means of eliminating these tragic events.

The United States of America is not being well-represented or well-guided by the gun nuts among us. Owning an assault-type rifle should not be a litmus test of our patriotism. We should not be protecting our gun nuts as if their self-proclaimed right to bear a weapon of mass murder transcends the right of the rest of us to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, in this case the focus being on life.

It has been a week since the second Democratic Party’s introductory debate, and a week since Kamala Harris made a name for herself at the expense of Joe Biden.

My initial response was that Kamala Harris really showed Joe Biden as the old out-of-touch deal-making politician that many of us suspected was the case, unable to think on his feet, unfit to lead, a man whose time had come and gone many years ago.

Also, I was initially impressed with the ferocious energy that Kamala Harris showed in her premeditated and very personal attack on Joe Biden, the tough prosecutorial flair that made it seem that she could be the people’s champion in the Democratic effort to unseat President Trump.

As a woman of color, Kamala Harris checks off two important presidential criteria of the progressive part of the Democratic party – if only she were gay or disabled she would satisfy just about everyone, but one has to settle for what one can get, I suppose.

Over the past week Kamala Harris has ascended in the polls and raised a great deal of money, all on the strength of her performance.

But I have been thinking a bit more about her actions, and I have come to the conclusion that she basically sucker-punched Joe Biden with the race card. Her premeditated attack had nothing to do with the issue at hand, whatever that was. This was a made-for-TV kangaroo court at its finest – Kamala Harris as judge, jury and executioner. At least if this had been an actual trial Joe Biden would have been given an opportunity to prepare a defense. Anyone who has been sucker-punched knows that it can be difficult to keep your bearings and focus after you have been hit. Looked at from this perspective, Joe Biden was able to survive to the end of the round, and now he is back in the fight.

Kamala Harris did an excellent job of relating the race card to her own life as a young girl, fighting back her crocodile tears in a manner befitting the finest of soap opera actors. She and her team certainly deserve an Emmy for this production and scripted performance.

We all know what Joe Biden has done in his career in public service, Senator and Vice President. He has a long record, most of which should be acceptable to the progressives within the Democratic Party, but some aspects of which don’t look so good in hindsight. That is to be expected considering how much the country has changed over the past 45 years. Where he stands today and what he believes today  is infinitely more important.

To be fair, we don’t really know where Joe Biden wants to lead this country, and he needs to tell us sooner than later. Having years of experience and disagreeing with President Trump is not enough. He needs to show us his vision of something better as well as his endurance and energy if he is to deserve another shot at the presidency.

That being said, do we really want someone as president who doesn’t fight fair and will use the worst of our history to win at all costs? Kamala Harris needs to show us that this is not who she is. She needs to tell us what she stands for, what she believes, and where she wants to lead this country. Successfully prosecuting President Trump is not going to be enough for the country. And not to make a big deal of it, but she has only been a Senator for two years. What has she accomplished in this time? What is her record?

I am not convinced that Kamala Harris has the vision, the experience, or the leadership ability to be an effective president. She has a lot to prove, at least to me.

 

There was a time when the discoveries of science were seen as the glorious affirmation of God’s plan. As the secrets of chemistry, physics, biology, anatomy, astronomy, and other sciences were revealed, so was the complexity of our existence.

How could such an intricate system of life exist, if not for the presence and plan of God? Clearly, it was thought, this could not be a random act, a universe created by nothing from nothing. All that science discovered became proof of the very existence, the wonder, the glory of God.

And so the Church was not afraid of science but embraced it. And I am primarily referring to the Christian church in all of its many manifestations, but this likely applies to Judaism and Islam as well.

Nowhere is this fear and denial of science by religion so apparent as it is right now with the discussion of abortion.

The belief held by many that life begins at conception is sort of true, but not in the way that the people who hold this belief believe it to be true. The explanation of the development of a human life as revealed by science does not support the conclusion of pro-life advocates.

If it is true that human life consists of a physical body and a spiritual soul, then it stands to reason that having one but not the other does not constitute a human life. A spiritual soul must join with a physical body to create a human life.

A fetus developing in a mother’s womb is the physical body, following God’s plan as it grows from a single cell into a fully formed vessel, ready to receive a spiritual soul.

Not every fetus develops according to God’s plan. God himself in his divine wisdom determines that some fetuses will not be able to fully join with a spiritual soul, which is why we have miscarriages and stillborn births. These are sad events to those who experience them, and the explanation that this is God’s will, true as it is, does not eliminate the sadness or the memories.

For some women who become pregnant, there are other reasons to end a pregnancy before the physical vessel develops to the point of being able to join with a spiritual soul. We all know the reasons, from rape to incest to poverty to bad timing to bad partners, but also the discovery that a fetus may have issues that would result in a child being born that would be unable to realize a full human life as intended by God.

It is understandable that some people have a deeply held belief that any abortion is murder of a human being. “Thou shalt not kill” is a fundamental belief and law of virtually all societies, and one that we share in this country.

It is also understandable that some women find themselves pregnant without plan or family or means to raise a child, and to force these women to have a child under such circumstances seems cruel and without compassion or empathy.

Fortunately, science has shown us an answer that respects human life and at the time time provides women time to make a choice.

The current thinking right now is that the presence of a heartbeat signifies the beginning of a human life. Having a measurable means to mark the beginning of a human life certainly makes it easier for some to define the moment at which abortion becomes murder and a woman becomes a criminal for whom prison is insufficient punishment for her crime.

The problem is that science does not support the presence of a heartbeat as the defining moment at which human life begins.

As science has shown, and has shown for decades, the presence of active brainwave activity signifies the presence of something significant, and I would consider this to be the presence of the spiritual soul within its physical vessel.

The physical vessel may feel physical pain, but it is the spiritual soul that feels emotional pain, as well as having the capacity to feel love. It is the spiritual soul that recognizes the glory of God.

I am not a legal scholar, and I do not know upon what legal basis the end of the second trimester was determined to be the limit of a woman’s constitutional right to choose.

However, my understanding is that active brainwave activity begins to be detected in a developing fetus at around six months, which happens to correspond to the end of the second trimester.

This seems to provide irrefutable evidence that the spiritual soul joins with the developing physical vessel at around the end of the second trimester.

This is when a human life really begins – certainly not at conception or soon thereafter.

As a cautionary comment – any woman who waits until the third trimester to choose to have an abortion does so at their spiritual peril, and the position that their unborn child is not a human being becomes untenable. There needs to be a limit to pro-choice to preserve and recognize our humanity.

All this hate, all this division, all the protests, the intimidation, the violence, the punitive laws – it is all pointless when God and science have shown us the truth, and the way.