Passing Over

Passover, many Jews celebrate tonight, for me is a ritual of rebirth. Easter, often occurring at a similar time as Passover, is the story of the resurrection of Christ.  It symbolizes to me a victory over the slavish fear of death we must all face.  Both stories are liberating with an emphasis of renewal.  The Passover story of the Exodus in the Hebrew Bible tells of the escape of the Jews from slavery to freedom.  That story rings true for many around the world even in our time.  It did so in our nation for persons of color who knew the veracity of the genuine tortures of slavery, their person brought to this nation by ship in hellish conditions, against their will and in chains to be owned by another person who through accident of birth was born white.  The faith persons of color adopted in their new land suffering the gravest injustices gave hope as the story of the Exodus did for Jews that they would be liberated from slavery to freedom overcoming it, as the song dictates, some day they will.  The veracity of these stories matters not.  There is no hard evidence that Jews were enslaved in Egypt for 400 years nor is there hard evidence that Christ rose from the dead.  They are accepted on faith and by tradition.  What matters is that these stories bestow to people who need it the precious commodity of hope to choose life despite the vicissitudes of it and to go on to live another day.  Faith is the hope that the arc will, in fact, bend toward justice.

Today, however, in this land the freedom fought for so assiduously over 150 years ago is threatened by an entire major political Party which has morphed.  It has changed from the Republican Party of Lincoln standing for uniting the union with freedom for all to a Trumpian Republican Party devoted, in large part, to the top 2% richest, to white supremacy, hatred of the other, a denial of the vote to them, to others who believe differently from them and to do so by any nefarious means necessary.  It is a noxious effort by those who have lost the meaning of the Declaration of Independence essence:

We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness ...

Those who fought to keep the union together and free knew the essence of the nation's principles, that all men are created equal was its pledge and to liberate those who did not enjoy its promise.  The historicity of Passover retold in the sedar tonight may not be literally true, as the Charleton Heston film version of the Exodus would like you to believe it is, but it is a story worth retelling if it can be retold with a sense of the promise of national and global justice.  The link of a new sedar book below shows how one can keep this tradition of the retelling of the Exodus in the most equitable and justice-infused way possible never forgetting those who still are not free.  It is entitled "Next Year in a Just World -- A Global Justice Haggadah."   Happy Passover and Easter to all!

https://ajws.org/who-we-are/resources/holiday-resources/passover/global-justice-haggadah/#download

Schindler's List Soundtrack -- John Williams and Itzhak Perlman

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Asyba9Qtcw8

Schindler's List Soundtrack - John Williams and Itzhak Perlman

The Holocaust is the seminal historical occurrence of my life; shaped who I am, the politics for which I advocate and the empathetic human being to the poor, the oppressed and the downtrodden I must be.

Click on the link to view the list of the magnificent musical pieces that will be played.

Thousands Of Teens To Descend On Washington For Historic March Against Gun Violence

This march is beyond inspirational it is magnificence in motion. (See link below) My heart is with them all.  Second Amendment bah humbug.  Our forefathers who crafted it had NO idea assault weapons and bump stocks with semi automatic powers would be available to millions including teenagers.   These weapons are used to kill massive amounts of human beings.  That is all

they are for.  Make these guns illegal throughout the land available solely to the military and police who would need them

as part of their job.

The NRA does not give one rat's petuti about saving lives.  They and the politicians who take their millions care about one

thing -- MONEY!  Is money in these Cretan's pockets worth one of your children or grandchildren's lives?   I think not.

Massachusetts is one state that has strict gun laws and curiously enough has the lowest gun deaths.

It does not take a rocket scientist to see what must be done:  Assault weapons like the AR 15 and bump stocks should be ILLEGAL, mandatory deep background checks on all those who purchase guns.  The gun shows where weapons to kill sell so easily without checks should be made to conform to ALL gun laws across the nation which should be federally uniformly mandated.

Government sponsored mental health help should be available to all who need it.

Go to Huffington Post or MSNBC and see the goodness that does exist in our beloved country.  This is for what our nation stands!!

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/  -- TEENS DESCEND ON D.C. 
 

"Three big obstacles to Trump firing Mueller and why he may do it anyway"-- By Richard Painter, Chief White House Ethics Lawyer for G.W. Bush -- Boston Globe + My Comment

My Comment: I believe we are in the most perilous times since any of the nation's most dangerous periods.  I believe we are on the brink of a nuclear Armageddon against North Korea and Iran with the addition of the hawk's hawk John Bolton to replace Trump's National Security Advisor, H.R. McMaster and the elimination of Trump's attorney John Dowd the last of the quasi rational legal voices restraining Trump from his emotional outbursts. 

John Bolton was nominated by George W. Bush for United Nations Ambassador.  He sits on the most right wing extremist position of the political spectrum.  Bolton hated the UN, wanted to see its demise, and eliminate it from our nation's quiver of diplomatic weaponry.  Bolton's verbiage against the UN was so indicting that he would not be confirmed by the Senate at that time.  Despite that Bush gave him a recess appointment as ambassador to it.  Moreover, Bolton never met a war he did not like and advocated for a preemptive even nuclear strikes against N. Korea and Iran with zero care about the devastating deaths and injury it would cause to 28,000 US military troops stationed in S. Korea and to the millions of S. Korean people as well.  

The following are cogent and informed reasons put forth by Richard Painter, former White House ethics lawyer for President George W. Bush as to why Trump's firing Mueller would be very difficult.  He is a fierce critic of Trump and an advocate for his impeachment.  

NB: The Stock Market was down 700 points yesterday and circa 400 points the day before.  It is poised for a repeat performance today.  Does Trump care? Absolutely he does not care.  The ONLY one Donald J. Trump cares about is himself and does not even care about the fate of his so called "illustrious" family.  Yes, we are indeed in perilous times!

Globe:  Richard W. Painter is a professor of law at the University of Minnesota. He was chief White House ethics lawyer for President George W. Bush.

Painter's view: There are three big reasons why any rational president in Donald Trump’s position would not even think of firing special counsel Robert Mueller in the middle of the Russia investigation.

First: It would technically be hard to do. Trump cannot directly fire Mueller, because he is not an appointee of the president. Trump could try to persuade Attorney General Jeff Sessions to fire Mueller, but this is not happening, because Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation after being caught in untruthful testimony about Russia by former senator Al Franken. Trump could try to persuade Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who appointed Mueller, to fire him, but Rosenstein will refuse. This leaves only one option — to fire Sessions and/or Rosenstein, and replace them with someone who will fire Mueller.

Apart from the difficulties of finding anyone willing to fire Mueller, Trump runs into serious difficulties if he goes outside the Justice Department: for example, tapping EPA administrator Scott Pruitt as acting attorney general. The Vacancies Act most likely allows the president to fill a vacancy inside an agency with only another person already inside the agency, not from another department. Appointing Pruitt as acting attorney general might not be valid, and if so, a court would strike down any official acts he takes in that office, including firing Mueller. Such an appointment from outside the Justice Department is an invitation to litigation over this issue, on top of all of the other controversy that would ensue.

Trump could avoid this problem by finding someone inside the department to take Sessions’ or Rosenstein’s job and then fire Mueller. But because firing Mueller would likely be an obstruction of justice, it could be difficult to find a Justice Department lawyer willing to do that. Robert Bork did it for Richard Nixon in 1973 (Nixon had to fire two attorneys general on the same Saturday night before he got to Bork), and that did not go over so well for Bork (the issue was raised at his unsuccessful 1988 confirmation hearings for the Supreme Court). Given the fact that the present investigation, unlike Watergate, involves Russian espionage, and Trump has already fired FBI Director James Comey in an effort to stop the probe, the blowback for any DOJ lawyer who fires Mueller could be much worse than what Bork experienced. It is not at all certain there is someone at the Department of Justice reckless enough to put at risk their career and their bar license, and perhaps their liberty, to do it.

Second: A Mueller firing probably would be obstruction of justice. Because of the Comey firing, this would be a second strike against Trump, compounded by his Twitter feed and public statements, as well as television interviews with the Russian ambassador that make the president’s motives crystal clear. As several Republican senators have warned, a Mueller firing could mean the end of his presidency. Given the mounting evidence of obstruction of justice by the president, it could be just what prosecutors need to try and convict him. He cannot pardon himself under the Constitution, and Vice President Pence need only observe how well Gerald Ford did in the 1976 election after he pardoned Richard Nixon to realize that a pardon of a predecessor is not a good idea. Trump is already at risk of prosecution for obstruction of justice, and a Mueller firing might land him in prison.

Third: Firing Mueller won’t make the investigation go away. Congress will insist on a successor independent prosecutor, just as Congress did in 1973 when Archibald Cox was quickly succeeded by Leon Jaworski, who was at least as vigorous in going after Nixon and his aides. Mueller is a great prosecutor, but he is not the only game in town. Furthermore, a Mueller firing would likely accelerate investigations in both houses of Congress, which would demand access to all of Mueller’s records. Not to mention the New York attorney general, who likely already has a lot of those records and the power to prosecute some of the crimes being investigated, such as money laundering. And, unlike federal crimes, crimes prosecuted by the State of New York cannot be pardoned by the president. Shifting the center of gravity of this investigation to New York is a good way to land a lot of people on Riker’s Island.
But all of this does not necessarily mean that Trump won’t try to fire Mueller. He is a reckless president. He is emotional and unpredictable. He obsesses about this investigation. He detests Mueller, a symbol of what used to be right with the Republican Party before Trump destroyed it. He may fire Mueller or try to fire him. And if Trump does, we must all be ready to do our part to defend our Constitution and the Republic.

A Time of Madness

I was sickened during Trump's latest dive into the swamp of immoral depravity as he instructed the reptilian Attorney General Sessions to fire FBI Deputy Director McCabe on Friday night two days before McCabe was to receive his pension.  At 1:45 a.m. I had to turn the endless talking heads off as the country braces for more 24/7 Trumpmania broadcasts.  Could Sessions at the instruction of Trump have waited the two lousy days for McCabe to receive his pension for 20 years of service to his country?  Of course they could but that is not how the sadist Trump operates.  His goal is always to inflict the most humiliation possible to his perceived political enemies and to do it in as cruel a Hitlerian way as possible. Solid news reporting about his scandalous activities from the Russian scandals to the numerous sex scandals he automatically calls "fake news."  We know the news to which we listen is true news not Fox lies.  Some say the apolitical IG (Inspector General) objectively determined McCabe's flaws within his FBI service and that the firing was not influenced by the Beast aka Trump.  I think that is ludicrous.  Nothing is done without the sanction of Trump.  He is now one step closer toward ending the Mueller probe if he dares.  

Add to that the salacious Stormy Daniels litigation involving a $130,000 payoff to her allegedly for her silence about an affair she had with Trump years before the election while he was married to Melania and after the birth of his son Barron.  The cad's name, David Dennison (Trump's alias) is on the Non-Disclosure Agreement but not signed.  Stormy is suing Trump for the rights to speak of the affair.  Trump's attorney moved the Stormy litigation from state court to federal court hoping the US Court would send it to closed-door arbitration where he might offer a larger payment to silence her.  It may not work for a variety of reasons one of which is Stormy Daniels has the sharpest attorney in the pencil box who knows his client is speaking the truth. Much of the electorate surmises there is one, two or maybe three whoppers in her head that just may cook his proverbial smarmy goose.  Her attorney admitted on Morning Joe that Trump, in fact, surprise, physically abused her.  One can hope, ironically, it may be his adulterous sex with this woman of pornographic adult film who could bring him down.  Why else would he try so hard to suppress her speech when he boasts continuously about his prowess with women even on Howard Stern's sex talk radio.  No, there surely is something or some many things else.  Watch 60 Minutes on Sunday March 25th to find out the prurient details of the most classless and corrupt president in United States history. 

From the first day the Beast stepped off the Trump Tower escalator to announce his candidacy for president his essence has been about two things abhorrent to me:  Lies and injustice.  I cannot stand either but injustice tops the list and that is all the porcine flotilla of ugliness, Trump, is about.  Our nation has survived because it is a democracy where a moral wrong can be made right through institutions that allow for correction of past national moral wrongs.  It may seemingly take forever but as Martin Luther King said "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice."  Today, in our time, with this moral sewer worst-of-all presidents I wonder if it still will.

I have never experienced the social evils of slavery, I did not experience the immorality of the Dred Scott Decision or the Civil War, I did not experience the evil of Jim Crow laws of southern whites keeping persons of color from voting or sitting at a lunch counter, nor did I, thankfully, experience the strange fruit hanging from the poplar tree visited upon persons of color by KKK racist thugs. Under Trump's reign I have, though, experienced a reactionary right wingnut return to those immoral and unjust times.  Trump has carved out a place in the Republican Party for anti-Semites, Nazis and the KKK.  How much longer will it be before a new dawn of justice and truth prevails and we turn away from this time of madness?

Donald Trump is the most inhumane, mendacious unconscionable cat on a hot tin roof who has occupied the presidency and is being carried on the shoulders of Republican hypocrites.  They choose to place their bets with him.  I suspect they will lose that bet come November, 2018.  At long last, Donald Trump, have you no shame for the ruination of innocent lives while you and your minions unconstitutionally soak in a pot of American taxpayer gold?   I suspect the answer is "no" he has no shame.  Well, there is a remedy for this time of madness one can find in Article I, Section 2 Clause 5 of the United States Constitution entitled Articles of Impeachment.  Use it.

https://www.dailykos.com/story/2018/3/16/1749674/-Just-Read-Andrew-McCabe-s-Statement-Regarding-His-Firing-By-Donald-Trump-Just-Read-it

March comes in like a lion and in part is going out like a Lamb

Conor Lamb's win of a House seat in the Pennsylvania 18th District, a heretofore completely Republican blood red district, was thrilling!  He was a perfect candidate for that deeply conservative district reminding me of Gene McCarthy for whom I stumped in the NH primary in the late 60's. The anti Vietnam War student movement of that era propelling Gene McCarthy to come in a strong second in the NH Democratic primary sent a message that the government could not play with and send young lives to their deaths by the thousands in a futile foreign policy never ending adventure without being held accountable.  To my chagrin, the protest movement that birthed Gene McCarthy turned violent presenting a ruffian image the electorate hated.  It saw, as Connecticut Sen. Abraham Ribicoff said from the Chicago Democratic presidential convention podium, "Gestapo tactics in the streets of Chicago" to put it down.

Those in our student movement protested the wrong candidate as Vice-President Humphrey may have stopped the Vietnam war he hated. Instead, Richard Nixon capitalized on the cultural divide that ensued.  He won the presidency and prolonged the war even expanding it into Cambodia.  Before he was through thousands more died handing a defeat to this nation from which it has never recovered.  The Vietnam War took 50,000 American lives and a million Vietnamese lives.  Worse it lead to the formation of the so called "Moral Majority" allowing the Republican Richard Nixon the presidential win.  The modern day Republican Party with its Tea Party sidecar, has morphed from it into a mostly white supremacist, gun-loving group with a penchant for right wing extremist violence egged on by a mendacious, conflict-of-interest ridden, treasonous Russian Manchurian president who encourages the madness.

The student movement gathering blistering steam today following a brutal high school assault rifle killing of 17 innocent students in Parkland, Florida presents, unlike its late 1960's forebears, a gentle, non-violent but strong, articulate and well groomed image appealing to many in its attempt to gain political power to change policy and ultimately dethrone a con man clown from a presidency he won with Russian assistance and support of his Republican Congressional lackeys blinded by Citizens United boundless coffers of cash.  Trump is using the presidency as a cash cow and Republicans do not have the fortitude to reject the money and take their Party back from crackpot crazies.  We will lend an assist.

Most of America rejects crass, crude, mendacious and violent politics as they rejected the same in the 1960's.  Conor Lamb's victory gave the Democratic Party a kind, smart, articulate, impeccably dressed and nicely coiffed candidate with a sterling Marine Corps and federal prosecutorial history.  Democrats should take note from Lamb and from the new non-violent and articulate student protest of 2018 over insane gun NRA owned policy to wrest Republican seats in the House and perhaps even the Senate from their flypaper grip on gerrymandered seats that should be earmarked for Democrats.

We as Democrats bide our time until we take Congressional power to impeach this embarrassing excuse for a president and neuter his administration.  Eric Schneiderman Attorney General of NY is waiting in the wings to prosecute them in New York state with no chance of presidential pardons to negate their horrific crimes.  They will face prison.  Huge congrats to Conor Lamb for his impressive Democratic victory and for giving Trump with his hair netted son a reminder that they are not kings!  Conor Lamb came in as a lamb and left as a lion.  May we all benefit from the example his win taught.

Today Is The National School Walkout To End Gun Violence. Read Live Updates Here. Thousands of students are expected to participate in the protest.

The Future Fights back!!  Go to Huffington Post to see the thousands!  Link here https://www.huffingtonpost.com/


Go to this link to see the story    https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/national-school-walkout-live-updates_us_5aa8379ee4b001c8bf14a365

Would you believe some crackpot right wing crazies want to punish their students for going to the protest in Washington DC

RESIST!!

Stormy -- the Firing of Rex Tillerson

I am the least supportive of Trump and most in his administration. Today, however, Secretary Tillerson showed me that a few have dignity, humanity and compassion. Too bad Trump did not show Secretary Tillerson the same but rather, in classless form, Secretary Tillerson had to find out that he was fired through the most classless way -- in a tweet. Shame on you Mr. Trump for being the nastiest, classless, most inhumane person that ever held the presidency and graced the oval office. You are an embarrassment to your Party, your people and most importantly to your country. May you suffer the embarrassment you have caused so many others through your incessant lying, profane speech and ugly behavior.

Stormy, your porn star alleged sex liaison, is a Dickensian name that tells the truth behind who you are. Your administration and all you represent are the tornadic forces that god forbid could sink a nation. May you leave in disgrace as you have disgraced the office. You are a mean, mendacious, crude, rude, profane and disgusting human being!

CONGRATULATIONS: My email to Texas Democrat Beto O'Rourke!!

Beto, so happy to hear of your primary win for the Democratic national Senate seat of Texas!!  Now it's on to the general and let's win there against Ted Cruz!!  I am a strong Democrat from Massachusetts who is committed to ensuring Democrats win across the board -- in state senates, in state houses, in the governorships and with special wishes for a win in the Congressional Senate wrenching Ted Cruz's ruinous extremist right hand from its ugly grip on power; ruining policy for most especially the middle class. 

After what Trump called Cruz's wife Cruz has the immoral gall to keep supporting this Henry Hill charlatan, womanizer and alleged woman abuser, not to mention adulterer mendacious evil man many times over.  It is a shame for the world, a shame for your state, a shame for those in our country who want desperately to support ethical government dedicated not to the 2% billionaires but to us, the middle class.  Who was Trump/Cruz kidding?  Tax cuts sound so good but they really meant permanent tax cuts for his billionaires and smaller temporary ones for everyone else. 

He and those who give him support are con men and the fact that Cruz with his holier-than-thou Christianity is still a supporter of our liar and thief-in-chief, Trump, is an immoral outrage.  Both Trump and Cruz are vile, Trump's "presidency" is vile, and the Republican Party who could have, if they wanted to, stopped him cold but chose rather to support him giving him ebullient praise. Some may have even known of an alleged $130,000 payoff to a porn star to keep her quiet -- immoral and unethical by anyone's standards.  Republicans knew and gave Trump the penultimate praise even though there is more than a hint of treasonous collusion with an adversarial power Russia and its immoral authoritarian leader, Putin, to swing the 2016 election to Manchurian candidate Trump.  He has defiled the Constitutional Emoluments Clause with business conflicts in Washington and around the world subjecting Trump and his merry men to blackmail. 

Trump has spat on our Constitutional balance of power, has kicked dirt in the fact of the Fourth Amendment due process clause and paid homage to cruel and abusive treatment, a Constitutional prohibition.  He has paid deference to Nazi nationalists calling some of them "very fine people" after they killed an opposition supporter.  American Nazis are not ever "very fine people".

Your victory in November will be one of the most joyful I could watch almost as joyful as watching Barack Obama taking the presidency in 2008.  You have a supporter in me and I will to the best of my ability offer support to you and ask my friends to do so as well if they can as so many of us try with all our heart to change this nation from red to blue to work for the people and not the 2% richest.  Good luck!!

THINK -- MY NOTE TO MSNBC'S JOE SCARBOROUGH AND MIKA

The question Joe presented is why did liberals in 1996 support Bill Clinton in view of his sexual improprieties. If you and Mika would think about it one should not make general statements indicting an entire group like that. It is not true that all liberals supported Clinton's indiscretions. I did not support his behavior then even though his policies for the most part with some exceptions I did support. I thought his misdeeds were unfortunate because he would have a Republican Party that would pounce on it and they did.

Beyond that is the important issue that Republicans base their very politics, courting religion, courting Evangelicals, being the strict moral -- especially sexually moral -- Party that was supposed to bring that social culture into the political realm. They caught Dixicrats in their political net for among other things of a racial nature, their hatred of libertine sexual mores that the late 60's generation they thought provoked. 

If you and Mika gave two substantive thoughts about the issue you would realize that Democrats do not run on a strict platform of sexual mandates. They do run on a strict platform of not abusing women sexually or otherwise. Liberal Democrats, of which I am proudly one, emerged from the late 1960's culture that threw much (not all) sexual morality over for a culturally freer milieu. That is the difference. Democrats did not demand Clinton fess up because many did not think his behavior then an egregious sin. Republicans are all about religion, sin, sexual sin and Trump surely is the antithesis of that!  That makes him and them hypocrites!

Give things some thought why doncha instead of simply reading from a teleprompter where Mika says thank you more times than a ticket taker and more than she certainly emotes well thought out ideological analysis. I could read from a teleprompter and make the millions I assume you make.

Use your big brains for analysis of issues, analyze them and think!

Regrets

Facebook has its problems of that there can be no doubt but the purpose for which it was born few I think would say better that Facebook never existed.

I search every now and then for names of youth who may have meant something to me for good or not-so-good. I found an old boyfriend of mine from 1970. I had some regrets as to how I treated a very intelligent and nice man who ended up being a philosophy professor. We met on the MBTA when I was reading the NYT. I think he was impressed at the time for a woman to be reading that paper. He came over to me and we chatted.

He was a lefty of that era as I was but I suppose as time went on I was not interested in him and was less than my usual sweet (I jest) self. I regret that now as Facebook told me of his death. Damn! The moral of the story I suppose is life is shorter than one thinks and yes, to treat others as you would want to be treated yourself even if you do not want to marry them.

DACA Expired today by John Delaney + My Comment:

My comment:  What does it take to employ one's empathy gene if one has an empathy gene? Walk in the other guy's shoes, try them on and see how they feel. Please read the pertinent quotes from wise men and then sign the petition below. 

“Centuries ago, Rabbi Hillel allegedly was asked by a skeptic if he could succinctly define his religion, all while standing on one foot. 

His answer was: ‘What is evil unto you, do not to unto others. The rest is commentary."

Kennedy quoted an American proverb: Don't judge a man until you've walked a mile in his shoes.

 

Presidential candidate John Mahoney -- Congressman John Delaney was elected in 2012 to serve Maryland’s Sixth District:

"DACA Expired today: When President Trump mistakenly endangered the DACA program in September, he set up an artificial six-month deadline. Well, it’s now six months later, and DACA expired today with no indication from the White House that they actually want to restore the program. It is important to note that despite this deadline passing, DREAMers will NOT be deported starting today. Several federal judges have ruled that the Trump administration’s legal justification for ending DACA was shaky at best, and the Supreme Court has said that it will not get involved. For the time being, DREAMers will be allowed to renew their status. Despite this good news, DREAMers are still in limbo and deserve a permanent fix that provides them with stability and a path to citizenship.

The most frustrating part of this process is that 90 percent of Americans support a legislative solution on this topic, yet a clean DACA bill has not come to the floor for a vote. The GOP and Trump have demanded that any solution for DACA be tied to funding for a border wall. DREAMers should not be a bargaining chip and held hostage over a pointless wall. 

We have a real opportunity to change the course of immigration policy for the better, yet are letting it pass us by. DREAMers embody what it means to be American, and it’s time they are treated as such. DREAMers deserve better, let’s find a permanent solution for them."

Sign my petition and tell Trump that we demand a DACA fix now!

Pale Blue Dot -- By Carl Sagan

Pale Blue Dot

---

When the Voyager 1 probe was 3.7 billion miles from Earth, Carl Sagan made a request. 

He asked NASA to turn it around to snap a quick photograph. The result was a faint image of Earth surrounded by the vastness of space. The late astronomer would then use this picture to share his own reflections on what it meant and why it was important for us to capture.

“Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there–on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.”1

The Scales of Perspective

There isn’t much that needs to be added to that. It beautifully captures a delicate part of reality that is neglected by the majority of us as we go about our day to day concerns.

It puts into context many of the things that we see and do and their relative importance in the scheme of things. It’s a reminder that there is a very distinct world that exists beyond the daily lens through which we impose our own agenda and centrality on our surroundings.

The human ego is a survival mechanism. If we didn’t see the world around us as if we were at its center, very soon, we’d lose the incentive to do things that would allow us to endure.
At the same time, however, this ego is also programmed to prefer conflict over cooperation. 

It competes even when there is no reason to compete, it shields itself from feedback even if  feedback is necessary for growth, and it closes itself off even if opening up is the answer.
There are different scales of perspective that we are all capable of applying if we are aware enough to do so. Sometimes, the scale that matters is the one that gives you confidence about your place in the world and whatever it is you need to do to get by in your daily routine.

Much of the time, however, we would all be better off if we learned how to zoom out. This may not solve every internal conflict in our mind or external battle that plagues the world, but it can give us the tools to treat ourselves and the people around us just a little bit better. 

To some degree, the world adapts to the perspective you employ in seeing it. Choose wisely.

The Wealth of Connection

There is a partial melancholy in the recognition of our insignificance. To some, it reinforces feelings of inferiority. It takes away from the pride they take in their identity and sacrifices.
If the universe is so large, and if we aren’t at its center, and if nothing we do matters in some objective sense, then what is the point? Why go on concerning ourselves with small matters?
Carl Sagan would likely tell you that the shared reality we all live in with each other still matters. In fact, it’s the only thing that matters, and all that the vastness of the universe does is remind us to keep this shared reality organized in a way that makes it more bearable.

If there’s anything we have learned studying the sciences, it’s not just that everything around us is deeply connected, but it’s that these connections are why things work in the first place.

The networks and ideologies we have created are responsible for allowing us to leapfrog beyond our individual genetic potential to shape and influence the world as we have.

The underlying chemical elements that create planets, stars, and solar systems are precisely the same ones that have created our bodies, brains, and everything else that we observe.

For you to feel threatened by the size of the universe, you have to treat it as if it’s something that exists independently of yourself. As far as we know, that’s just not the case. It may be vast, uncertain, and contain parts that we may not understand, but it isn’t at all separate.

There is something fundamentally sublime about the fact that we are essentially a dance of molecules in an ever-expanding line of molecules. That there is more going on around us.
You can either choose to contribute to this process or just let it take the pressure off.

All You Need to Know

Few people have added more to the scientific education of the public than Carl Sagan.

Outside of his own research, he brought us a list of books and television series that spoke a language that we actually understood. In many ways, he was science’s very own poet.

The Pale Blue Dot was captured on February 14th in 1990. Since then, along with Sagan’s moving tribute, it’s inspired generations of people to look differently at their place in the universe. It gave an illustration of something we had all suspected, but never fully verbalized.

It was a reminder to view our seemingly large and complex planet on a scale that showed a different side of things. It gave us the courage to accept and utilize our insignificance.

While not all aspects of our lives demand that we see the world through this lens, it is critical to have it be a part of our mental toolkit. The human ego may be a mechanism to ensure survival, but it isn’t what pushes progress, and nor is it what drives prosperity.
What really makes the world move forward is interconnectedness. It’s the ability to interact with our shared reality in a way that ensures our individual efforts add rather than detract. 

There is a far larger process going on out there, and we are all a part of it. The degree of responsibility we want to take in that process is up to us, but the beauty of it can’t be denied.
That faint speck of dust we live on is all we have ever known. Let’s start treating it that way.

The Last Word

What a global climate change n'oreaster we endured that stretched from Maine to Virginia! I had been saying the northeast was lucky. I changed my mind. Everything was out.

Dependent on electricity much? Yes, we depend on it for everything and fossil fuels are necessary for it. One takes it for granted power will be there but when it isn't one sees how much we are at the mercy of nature and the forces beyond anyone's control that will not be tamed if human beings do not change our energy ways.

Climate change is here and the window is closing as to how much we can roll it back especially if there is in the American presidency a crackpot who refuses to understand the science of it even though 98% of scientists agree it is upon us. Trump astoundingly pulls out of the Paris climate change agreement. Maybe he and Congressional Republicans know its truth as weather-related events like fire and drought become more fierce but they do not care because gas and oil profits mean more to their campaigns than their children's well being!

Trump and the Republicans would rather take the path tobacco of old did and deny its murderous effects because the 1 or 2% of scientists who questioned it worked for big tobacco and the 1 or 2% of scientists who question climate change work for the oil and gas companies that have a vested interest in keeping the electorate dumb! This is not hard to do in a part of the nation that voted for Trump who thinks it is wonderful to be ignorant.

Deny science at everyone's peril. Science will have the last word.

Market Drops 530 points: Trump to Impose Stiff Tariffs on Steel and Aluminum

What do I know about tariffs? Not much.  The drop in the market today of 530 points so far seems to be a reaction to the latest Trump not thought out well policy of stiff tariffs on aluminum and steel.

So I went to the NYT blogger comments section to wade through the plethora of reaction to Trump's latest idiocy of the imposition of tariffs on aluminum and steel.  My intuitive sense says that this blogger (opinion indented) had the most cogent explanation and evaluation of Trump's moronic tariff imposition:

Obviously Washington still has its fingers in its ears and looking down at the ground. Trade is globalizing around us. Tariffs used to work when we were the economic powerhouse of the world and could produce all the steel and hard goods the developing world needed. We had the resources, manpower, and the technology that made us the most creative producers and best market for the world. We were the biggest agricultural producer for a century. Times change.

The rest of the world grew their industries and is catching up and surpassing us in capacity to produce. If the other nations of the world are forced by tariffs and elimination of trade agreements with us to work around our production and marketplace, we will become less relevant . Within a decade or two import tariffs will mean nothing because we will not be a part of the global economy.

Auto manufacturers will simply relocate out of the U.S., selling to other markets because the cost of a vehicle in the U.S. will be too expensive for most of the population. The same will go for tech and all other industries. Those that cannot simply relocate their facilities will not survive when their products/services are priced too high for most Americans.

There need be no tariff retaliation or reprisals by other nations. We will simply have nothing to offer that they cannot obtain, at a better rate, elsewhere.

Make America Great again?  No, MAD.  Make America Depressed Again!

 https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/01/business/trump-tariffs.html?emc=edit_na_20180301&nl=breaking-news&nlid=75028030&ref=headline#commentsContainer

Extreme cold snap sweeps across Europe. My comment: Climate change anyone?

Again it does not matter to our survival as a species whether some religious fanatics and others believe in climate change or not. 98 or 99% of climate scientists do. Science does what science does whether one believes in science or not.

People are dying from drought, fires, tornadoes galore, strong than normal hurricanes and ad infinitum floods. It is enough to convince me that there can be no doubt climate change is real and so is man's fossil fuel contribution the major cause of it. Man with his big brain must acquiesce to science or die swallowing mythological tripe denying it.

RESIST.  BELIEVE THE TRUTH THAT YOUR EYES SEE AND SCIENCE CONFIRMS.  VOTE DEMOCRATIC IN 2018 AND 2020 AND

SAVE THE PLANET!

Pennsylvania churchgoers bring AR-15 rifles, wear bullet crowns to commitment ceremony. My Comment: Yep I'm not kidding

Feast your eyes upon the video below and think on the famous statement of H.L. Mencken:  "You'll never go broke underestimating the intelligence of the American Public."

A good book on the subject by Charles Pierce is "Idiot America: How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free."

To think a nation of over 300 million people should be governed by the least intellectually adept among us, who know little and are not curious about much when the issues confronting us whether in foreign or domestic policy require the highest knowledge and expertise.  Being governed by an idiot allows other nations which encourage advancement know they can rise above a nation that was once among the most advanced nations in the world. Now the US lags behind some First World nations and even behind some nations in the developing world. It is imperative we have the most intelligent, rational and intellectually accomplished govern! The larger law of nature --  survival of the fittest -- rules our planet whether we choose to accept it or not. It will prevail.  Man's big brain puts him at the top of the evolutionary chain and has made him so adept at survival because he has the ability to adapt to a variety of environmental conditions. We are a species that cannot survive most especially in harsh climates but really in any climate without the ability of man to think rationally, work together and use his cerebral abilities to successfully accommodate his environment. It makes it possible for him to survive conditions that would otherwise kill him if he did not.

Each generation builds upon the knowledge of the one before it allowing homo sapiens (Latin for wise man) to reach the startling number of a population of 6 billion. It is easier for  those in power to control those who are not educationally adept to get what those in power want. Republicans are wonderful at duping and screwing everyone else to allow policies that will make them rich at the expense of everyone else.  The intellect education develops is the gift that erases ignorance and allows man to compete with others.  When government directs the inclusion of diversity into policy we all benefit.  Each has his own talent to give to the whole. 

Government should be for all and not simply for the few.  Maybe some day this nation will figure out that it is better to be educated and smart than it is to be an unquestioning fool.

RESIST THE ASSAULT OF REPUBLICANS ON RATIONAL AND ACADEMIC THOUGHT.  VOTE DEMOCRAT IN 2018 AND 2020 AS IF YOUR SURVIVAL DEPENDS UPON IT BECAUSE IT DOES!

https://www.nbcnews.com/video/pennsylvania-church-blesses-ar-15-rifles-during-commitment-ceremony-1173647939750