One Science Crisis After Another!

 

There are a lot of different kinds of science fiction. It represents a broad playground for the human imagination and a wide range of structures and plotlines.

One of the most often used frames, particularly in hard SF, is the framing of one scientific crisis after another. A seemingly insurmountable problem faces the protagonists, and they must use quick scientific ingenuity to resolve it. Only to find that after that crisis is solved, they are soon faced by another one!

The book, Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, and the subsequent movie use this to great effect. Every time it looks like science teacher Ryland Grace and his alien friend have figured out a solution to deliver a much-needed microbe to save both their planets, something new and unanticipated will pop up to throw them off course. But together they solve each problem that comes up.

Another example of this is the 1966 film, Fantastic Voyage. I recently watched this as part of the 100 Best Science Fiction Movies of the 20th Century series I have been blogging*. It's not in the same league as Project Hail Mary (especially in terms of compelling characters and deeper emotional resonance). A team is miniaturized and sent into a man's body to eliminate a tumor that is affecting the man's ability to remember vital information. More far-fetched than Project Hail Mary, it nevertheless faces one unexpected problem after another. They are also under time pressure - 60 minutes and they start enlarging again.

One Science Crisis After Another!

What if we were faced with these in real life?

The record of our ability to handle it is mixed, at best.

We really should not have enough food to feed the many billions of people on the planet. But thanks to the Green Revolution of the mid-twentieth century, we were able to feed far more people than we otherwise would have.

The ozone layer in our atmosphere was developing holes. It was in danger of disappearing, but through international efforts, we were able to reduce the emissions of ozone-depleting chemicals, and the problem has been checked and reversed.

Through the efforts of Dr. Fauci and many others, we were able to develop a vaccine to greatly reduce COVID-19's harm in record time.

But science can't solve everything.

It can't solve how incredibly stupid some of us are.

Many science-based efforts to reduce COVID-19 were rejected by a stubborn and ignorant populace, particularly here in the USA. There were many, many, many unnecessary deaths because people refused to mask up, socially distance, or take the vaccine.

The biggest example is our reaction to global warming/climate change. Climate scientists know many ways we can mitigate the greatest harms caused by man-made climate change. But the most important nation on Earth has leaders who refuse to acknowledge this. Instead, they are galloping in the opposite direction.

Many in this country are more disturbed when the price of gas rises a dime than when the use of fossil fuels accelerates global temperature rise.

Scientists can come up with all the solutions in the world, but they mean nothing if we choose to ignore them.

Imagine if MAGA had been in charge of Project Hail Mary, or the micronauts inside a man's body. There would have been no solar system-saving microbe brought back, and that man's body in Fantastic Voyage would have just exploded.

Our one sience crisis after another is TRUMPed by our one MAGA crisis after another.

Our best minds are being silenced by our worst minds.

Until next time,

T. M. Strait

AOC '28

*please see my blog series Top 100 Sci-Fi Movies of the 20th Century. labeled Top 100 SciFi. Fantastic Voyage is No. 42. I am currently stuck on No. 40 - the 1966 movie Fahrenheit 451. I'm having a lot of trouble accessing it. It's like it just burned up or something.

Opening Doors

 

I can't figure it out.

I can't see where we're going.

Every door I try to open only leads to more misery.

There is a way through this maze.  I swear it.  But they are like the eye of the needle, and no one let go of enough greed to allow them to pass.

Every citizen should be able to vote, but we only make it harder.

We should be able to mitigate and reverse climate change, but instead, we only go through the doors that accelerate it.

We should be able to increase our life expectancy, but instead we shrink it by rejecting science - vaccines, food inspections, universal healthcare -those paths they want closed.

I try and try to open the doors to a more beautiful existence, to bring the Kingdom of God closer to Earth, but I can't get them open.  They require more strength than just my own.

Help me open the right doors.

Please.

While we still have enough light to see.

Say My Name!

 

 Many children go through a phase where they like to write their name on EVERYTHING.

With all due apologies to my sister for calling her out, she went through a phase where she did it. CAROL on her toys, CAROL written down on all her papers and books, CAROL on her clothes, CAROL written on paper in different forms and styles, CAROL inked on her body (not permanently, of course, - this was the 60s, and she was early elementary).

I didn't go through that. I looked at what she was doing and thought it was silly, borderline obsessive, and a bit narcissistic. But, heck, she was just a child. I was probably the weird one for not doing it.

And, yes, she did grow out of it.

Once in a while, however, we do run across someone who never grows out of it. Someone who insists on slapping their name on everything. 

Guess who that is?

They have 'branding' as their number one asset.

And it's getting as obnoxious as all get out.

Can there be anything more narcissistic and borderline evil than wanting to slap your name alongside a beloved assassinated president's on a performing arts center that you really have nothing to do with?

Imagine wanting to change the planned renaming of an aircraft carrier from black Naval World War II hero Doris Miller to Trump.

Sticking your face on money, passports, airports. Is there anyone who doesn't think the ballroom will be called the Trump Ballroom? The Trump Arch?  

He hates Obamacare. If he could eliminate that program, and recreate it exactly as it was, but call it Trumpcare, he would be the happiest camper on Earth.

Trump Accounts. Trump tariffs. Trump Steaks. Trump casinos. Trump University. Trump Tower. Trump, Trump, Trump.

He honestly thinks the more he sees his name, the more popular he is. The longer his legacy will endure.

But he's just a child. An 80-year-old man-baby.

There is very little left from my sister's name-writing stage. The toys and notebooks are gone. The name on her skin has washed away. But that is okay. Because that phase has long been over, and she knows who she is, and doesn't have to have her name everywhere for those who love her to know what a special woman, mother, and grandmother she is.

Give it time.

All this coloring his name on everything will quickly wash away once he is gone. Because, unlike my sister, he has not built a mature legacy- very few will love or remember him. And no matter how much he tries to scrawl his name over everything, that fact won't change.

I can't wait.

Until next time,

T. M. Strait

AOC '28

Disregard the Obsessed Sycophant Behind the Curtain!

 I don't care bout Natalie Harp.

As a Christian, I care about her as a person. But as to whatever's happening between her and the orange clown, I don't much care.

Yes, it's a concern because she is close enough to the Narcissist-in-chief to be filtering what he sees and bases his impulsive decisions on. Yes, for all I know, she may be a foreign spy of some sort, especially since she resisted having a security check for so long. Yes, that bag may be full of diapers. I don't know, and I don't much care.

Is this affecting his purchased relationship with Melania?  I doubt it.  But in the words on the back of Melania's jacket - "I REALLY DON'T CARE - DO U?"

Is anyone surprised by this? Does anything not fit the profile of this serial adulterer and someone who wants to be surrounded by sycophantic loyalists?

She is a symptom of what is rotten in Trump World, but she is not central to what is happening in the everyday lives of American citizens and, really, people all around the world.

We're concerned about the soaring cost of goods and services - groceries, gas, housing, education, medical care. We're smart enough to see that a candidate who ran on affordability is now disavowing the word and calling it a 'Dumbocrat Hoax'.

We can see with our own eyes and brains that the 'no new wars' candidate has charged America into a new forever war, one that is stupid, purposeless, and unwinnable. We've destabilized the entire planet because our moronic leader was led by the nose into a conflict all other presidents were smart enough to tell Netanyahu NO,

Global warming leading to dangerous climate change is ruining our future faster than ever before, and what does our fear-filled nincompoop do? Doubles and triples down on fossil fuels, slaughters wild horses, opens our national parks to destructive development, and deregulates the EPA, gleefully turning his back on reason and science. What does he care what happens as long as he and his family accumulate billions and live like royalty?

Americans are quickly learning the dark side of deregulation as more and more products once considered safe are now dangerous. Our food supply is contaminated, AI Data Centers are stripping us of water and power, and diseases once defeated are surging back.  

The right to vote is being challenged, unless you're white and live in the right area. ICE, surveillance, and Flock cameras are coming for you all, noncitizen and citizen alike.

Our media is increasingly in fewer and fewer hands, and those billionaire hands are streaked with the fecalness of the Trump administration. 

Separation of church and state is now a fiction, as the reich-wing Chrustians are intruding into public schools and destroying/neutering public libraries. We're a Christian nation? Really? Which version of Christianity are we? Because the version that is taking hold is about as far away from anything I recognize as Christianity as you can get.

So, do I care about Natalie Harp?

Not really, no.

Maybe she'll help take him down. But I doubt it.

We have to stop counting on other people. It has to be you and me. Especially if you've supported him in the past. His popularity needs to tumble further. The candidates he endorses must lose, and lose badly. 

Toto is pulling back the curtain. You must see what's really happening.

Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain? PAY EVERY ATTENTION TO HIM, and don't overthink the obsessed sycophantic nursemaid standing back there with him.

Until next time,

T. M. Strait

AOC '28

Skating Near the Abyss

 

We are skating on the abyss. Every day seems like one where it could crack, and we get dragged under.

Some things happen that make one hope that we will avoid the freezing abyss, where democracy ends, where our fragile hold on this planet erodes, where love and charity and hope are dragged under and drowned by hate, intolerance, and fascism. 

No one can listen to a speech from Senator Jon Ossoff and not hope there is a way out. His rhetoric crushes the illusion of Trumpism, and we most clearly see the petty narcissist behind the curtain.

Many times our beleaguered court system holds as a bulwark against some of the most egregious edicts of Trump. Not always. Judge shopping is a favorite Trump sport. Sometimes, though, they put a stop to or slow some truly heinous stuff. I am very impressed by a Judge who halted the disastrous ballroom by the most common-sense ruling - the White House is OUR house, not his. He is merely a short-term tenant, and only Congress can approve these idiotic projects.

And it continues that anything he touches turns to crap, like the National Mall's State Fair disaster, the brutally stupid and nonsensical Trump Hunger Games, and the destruction of the Reflecting Pool.

His popularity is in the low 30s. Should it be lower? Absolutely! But our media is dominated by reich-wing voices, and that is a hard filter to get through.

It has been inspiring to see so many progressives emerge from the Democratic Party primaries. It is a process, though. Some of those candidates will win. Some will lose. But I am convinced that if we have any hope of surviving, they represent the future.

But many other things are occurring that make me fear we will not make it off the ice.

The Iran War dribbles on, rudderless and purposeless, destroying our standing in the world and only increasing Iran's power. The conditions aboard a navy vessel, the USS Abraham Lincoln, are pooh-pooed and denied, coldly saying that their extended mission is not too long yet, not nearly long enough.

Inflation persists due to the war and to his tariffs.

Deregulation and vaccine-deniers have destabilized the medical system and caused a noticeable uptick in diseases once defeated, like measles, and in uninspected foods, leading to things like an avalanche of explosive diarrhea. 

Many are harassed and endangered by ICE, undocumented immigrants and documented immigrants alike, and also include citizens as well. No one is safe from their reign of terror.

He continues to dance with the devil (dictators throughout the world). Just yesterday, he proclaimed his love for North Korea over South Korea. I cannot even fathom that, and what it might lead to.

He continues to threaten that IMPERIAL America will take over and subsume vast swaths of the planet - Canada, Cuba, Greenland, Mexico, the Straits of Hormuz. It never ends.

We are no longer trying to stop or mitigate global warming*, and instead accelerating it. The rise in average temperature is undeniable, and its effects are already felt. All life on Earth will be negatively affected. We are running out of time.

He is making it clear that he will dismantle and RIG our electoral system, and if that doesn't work, he will void the elections and declare martial law. We still have some who think he won't go that far. I'm not one of them.

We continue to see his health deteriorate, both physical and mental. Impeachment and the 25th Amendment should have been used months ago. But the Republican Party, the same Party that forced out Nixon, continues its shameful, cowardly dissent into subservience to fascism.

The ice we are skating on is getting increasingly fragile. We are at risk of falling in and never coming back out.

I have no magic answers as to how we get out of this.  

We can only hold on to everything we can, and pray and hope that a better time will come.

Until next time,

T. M. Strait

AOC '28

* I know that many are using the alternative term climate change in the hopes it may placate some deniers. I do recognize climate change as a threat, but it stems from global warming - as the Earth warms, it leads to more and more destabilization of climate and weather - increasingly violent storms, including changes in precipitation, leading to drought in some places and deluges of rain and/or snow in other places. And yes, this is primarily a man-made phenomenon.

MAGA in the Upside Down: Saturday Political Soap Box 306

 

First, we had to read the book. Alison read it. Then I finished it a few days ago. So, last night, we finally watched it.

Project Hail Mary.

It was excellent. Very worth the wait. Yes, it was slightly different than the book, but not in any way that took away from it.

A recent Academy Winner (which I am pretty sure Project Hail Mary will be joining that rank) was One Battle After Another. Thinking of that title made me realize that Project Hail Mary is...One Scientific Crisis After Another!

And that's true to the way science is. It's not a straight line. It's discovery and exploration, trial and error, solving and evolving. Every discovery leads to a new set of questions to resolve.

Our handling of COVID-19 was like that. As we gained more experience with what we were dealing with, the advice to handle it became more precise and refined.

Compared to other pandemics, the science progressed fairly rapidly. And that was in large part due to a man who had devoted his life to analyzing infectious diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Millions of lives were saved because of the hard work of Dr. Fauci and many scientists and health care workers.

But we can't leave that alone, can we?

History has to be revised by fools like Senator Rand Paul, the orange conman, and an army of misled MAGidiots.

It was masking, social distancing, and eventually the vaccine that mitigated the extent of the Pandemic. As new information and discoveries emerged, scientists would refine their advice (e.g., how the virus spread less effectively outdoors).

America had a higher casualty number than virtually all other nations, but it DEFINITELY wasn't because of Dr. Fauci. It was MAGA didn't want to mask up. They didn't want to social distance. They refused to vaccinate. They didn't care who else they infected, because it impinged their own rights. Personal "freedoms" mattered more than human life.

This is evidenced by the fact that MAGA red counties had the highest death rates, especially during the time that the vaccine was available.

Last week Senator Paul led a committee whose sole purpose was to denigrate Dr. Fauci and use an unearthed PRIVATE diary to catch Dr. Fauci in a contradiction that could be used to accuse og him of perjury and send him to jail.

MAGA and Paul were trying to put us in the Upside Down. They were trying to turn the heroes into villains and the villains into heroes.

Disgusting.

We are now living in a time when diseases that were under control, like measles, are now roaring back, when lettuce has become feared because it may contain cyclosporiasis, when the corporations' right to pollute supercedes our right to be safe, when the Depatrment of Health and Human Services is led by an anti-vaxxer who swims in raw sewage, eats road kill, and drinks raw milk.

And what happens if the next pandemic hits while this parade of fools reigns?

God help us all.

We are so far from the cooperative, inquisitive, evolving science of Dr. Fauci and Project Hail Mary that it makes me weep.

T. M. Strait

AOC '28

NepoOcracy

 

0

Everybody is loved by somebody  (hopefully). Even Lindsey Graham was loved by his sister. He helped raise her, and they remained close all of his life.

Darline Graham Nordone appears to be a nice person.  Her experience has focused on working with the South Carolina Rehabilitation Department and as Commissioner for the South Carolina Commission for the Blind. She spent her career helping people with disabilities.

This doesn't make her highly qualified to be the Senator of South Carolina, but I don't know what to say about that. We have a narcissistic game show host running the country - one who has been duly elected (more or less).

But we have to be clear on why she was selected to fill Senator Graham's seat.

Nepotism.

Plain and simple.

As much as America has supposedly been formed in opposition to royalty, we keep creeping back to it.

In his recommendation, Trump immediately leaped to a dynastic legacy.  He has the same desires for his own family. Trump is big on superior genes.  Some genetic lines are just meant to lead.

Many nepos obtain their position in transition.  Their parent/spouse/close relative dies while in office, and the nepo becomes the chosen replacement.  Then, they often run in the next election, and since they already hold the office, they have a huge leg up.

Some run on their own, but still parlay off the name recognition of their previously serving family member.  Jim Kingston is running in my congressional district, a district his father, Jack Kingston, served in for many years.  Sometimes that doesn't work out, but more often than not, IT DOES.

But, hey! It's not just Republicans.  

It's also Democrats.

In 1933, John Dingell Sr. won his congressional district. 

In 1955, John Dingell, Jr. succeeded his father.

In 2015, he was succeeded by his wife Debbie Dingell (her husband was born in 1926, she was born in 1953).

Today, in 2026, she is still serving. 

That represents 93 years under the same family!

But, hey! It's not just Democrats and Republicans.

It's also me!

When I was younger, I wanted there to be a Kennedy dynasty.  I was a huge Bobby Kennedy fan.

But I changed over the years.  I thought Hillary was competent and skilled, maybe more so than her husband.  But the idea that the 2016 election might be between Hillary and Jeb Bush made me more nauseous.  Of course, what we got instead has made me vomitous and depressed.

And RFK, Jr. cleared me of any nostalgia for the Kennedy clan.

We have so many exciting non-dynastic alternatives.  In the past, of course, we had Barack Obama and Joe Biden.  In the present, we have AOC, Mamdani, Malcolm Frost, and many others.  New faces that bring energy, new ideas, and fresh connections to everyday people.

I'm done with dynasties.  I have no royal impulses left in me.

Until next time,

T. M. Strait

AOC '28

Trump Ruins Everything

 

Trump ruins everything.

Yes, the red card against the American soccer star seemed iffy at best. 

But sports are full of decisions fans don't like.

The refs called it.  The VAR (video review) confirmed it.  It was deemed a red card.

And by virtue of that decision,  Folarin Balogun was banned from playing in the next game.  That seems weird for those who don't usually follow soccer, but that's just the way it is.

But then, Trump intervened.

FIFA, the syncophants that they are, reversed the suspension.  NOT THE RED CARD.  Just the suspension of one game.

Trump is bragging his heart out that he put his thumb on the game, altered the rules, and restored Balogun's ability to play against Belgium in the next game, the Round of 16.

Rules don't matter to Trump.  He feels like he can get away with anything.

Belgium is furious. So is most of the rest of the international football community.

It has deligitimazed the rest of the USMT's run at the cup.  Everything that happens after this is tainted.

Hopefully, the US coach will not play Balogun to minimize the controversy.  But it will not make it go away entirely.  FIFA has once again shown how craven and corrupt they are.*

The topper is that Balogun is presumably the type of American that Trump hates the most - an anchor baby.  Under Trump's proposed ban on birthright citizenship, Balogun wouldn't even be eligible to play for the USA.

Trump ruins everything.  America's deacde long descent down the escalator of decency continues unabated.

*The history is long and disgusting, and would require a very long post to detail.  Please feel free to Google for more details.

America's Aborted 250: Saturday Political Soap Box 305

Like it or not, it's hard to celebrate right now.  American-style democracy is under serious attack today. 

Much of what I love most about America is under serious challenge by a malevolent wannabe dictator, a weak and compliant Congress, and a Supreme Court determined to strip away our hard-fought rights.

His projects in DC are not to show a shining nation.  It is to glorify and profit himself.

The reflecting pool is emblematic of that toxic makeover, and of his complete incompetence and buffoonery.

 

His takeover of the America 250 event, turning it from a celebration of the nation into a glorification of all things Tumpy, has resulted in the biggest failure of an event of this scale EVER.  Melted ice cream, power outages, unattended musical acts, pitiful state booths, the dominance of Christian Nationalists, a cheesy, crumbling, Arch Du Drumpf, parts of the stage falling on performers, crippling heat with little air conditioning.  The Great American State Fair is not just a failure; it is a complete and utter embarrassment.

And there is more to come.  They plan on upping the fireworks from 20,000 to 850,000.  That is a dangerous increase, environmentally and health-wise. If I had dogs there, I would be taking a trip to Williamsburg.  

He is planning to give a speech on a day when the temperature could hit 107.  He wants to impress people with how long he can go. I'll bet the stage will be fanned/air-conditioned. The audience watching it? Eh, not so much. Better have a giant fleet of ambulances ready.

The increase in democracy and equal representation/opportunity has never been a straight line in this country.  The Civil War, the constitutional amendments, and Reconstruction were followed by Jim Crow and segregation.  Civil rights movements in the 60s were followed by decades of backlash, encouraged by Reagan.  The promise of Obama and "Yes, You Can" was followed by Trump and "No, You Can't."

American Democracy

July 4, 1766 - January 20, 2025

I'm sorry. That's the way I feel right now.

Change my mind.

Maybe it's too late.

But I hope not.

Find a way to celebrate what's best in this country.

And be sure to vote for people who will restore the American promise for ALL of its people.

Until next time,

T. M. Strait

AOC '28

Quickie Georgia Primary Update

 

Just a quickie review of last night's Georgia Primary.

Governor

Keisha Lance Bottoms was the decisive winner in the Georgia Democratic primary for Governor.  She won 56% of the vote in a crowded field, with the next-closest candidate mustering only 19%. This means she can hit the ground running, while the Republicans...

have a very divisive runoff ahead of them.  Burt Jones, the Trump-endorsed lackey, receiving 38% of the vote, while the most racist candidate I've seen in this state since Lester Maddox, Rick Jackson, finished with 33% of the vote.  The best news is that my congressman, Buddy Carter, finished third and is now out of politics, at least until 2028.

Speaking of good news, the Democratic candidates for Governor received 54% of the vote, while the Republican candidates received only 46%.  Yes, more Democrats voted than Republicans!

Unfortunately for me, the bad news is that the county I live in continues to be MAGA SOAKED REPUBLICANS, with 91% voting for the Republican Governor candidates, and only 9% voting for Democratic Governor candidates.  This godawful percentage has held true for a decade or more. 

US Senate

Incumbent Democrat Jon Ossoff was unopposed.  I would still love to know his total vote count, but I have not yet found a site reporting it.

The Republicans have two awful candidates in their runoff: Mike Collins, a Trump-backed extremist with 41%, and Derek Dooley, a nepo baby with 30%.  His father, Vince Dooley, was the much-loved Georgia football coach.  This apple, however, is very far from that tree. Georgia Republicans have a tradition of foisting sports-related names on a distracted populace (re: Herschel Walker).

US Congressperson 1st District

Speaking of nepo babies, Jack Kingston's son, Jim Kingston, snagged 52% and thus avoids a runoff.  I don't know much about him, except that he was endorsed by the orange conman, and he's not Buddy Carter.

The Democratic runoff will be between Joyce Marie Griggs (35%) and Amanda Holloerll (25%).  The person I voted for, Patrick Wilver, finished a distant 5th with 7% of the vote.  I'm not ashamed.  I will ALWAYS choose the candidate that I think will move us most quickly to true universal healthcare.

I lean against Joyce Marie Griggs.  She is in the moderate/conservative wing of the Democratic Party. I will likely vote for Amanda Hollowell, but I need to do a bit more research about her positions.

Georgia Supreme Court

I am sad to report that both pro-civil and human rights candidates lost to far-right Christian Nationalists. This was non-partisan, with no party labels, and not enough Democrats did the research to figure this out.  Had they followed the Governor's voting pattern, we would not be looking at such a disaster.

Well, I said I would be brief, and I have failed to do that.  I will try to address other races in subsequent posts. There are a number of Democratic runoffs, so Democrats need to show up in large numbers!  Let's keep outvoting the Republicans!

Until next time,

T. M. Strait

AOC '28

In The Land of Fairy Tales

 

Many of us thought it wouldn't happen.

No matter how much we shouted, the Emperor had no clothes; we thought that those who could or would not see it would remain blind to the truth forever.

I mean, it worked with Reagan, didn't it? No matter how much I tried to communicate this to others, no one would listen.

Time and time again, the boy would cry wolf, and no wolf was coming. It got to the point where no one would listen to him. When the wolf finally arrived, the warning was ignored because the villagers no longer believed the boy.

But, lo and behold, things are starting to change.

I'm not precisely sure of the exact trigger. Maybe it was different things for different people. But the end result is that many who used to think he was clothed realize now he is a naked charlatan. Many who were Pavlovian in their response to his wolfy warnings no longer believe him.

Maybe it's because they now see the Emperor lying about things they can easily see are not true. It's one thing to lie about an election he lost; it's another to lie about the prices that people can see are clearly going up, not down. All it takes is a trip to the gas station or to the grocery store, and you can see he's lying. All it takes is seeing your health insurance premium rise and your 401(k) wobble.

Maybe it's the sudden realization that he's not going to truly open the Epstein Files, because lo and behold, it's not a Democratic Party hoax. It's not just filled with Bill Clinton and other Democrats. It's filled with billionaires and elites, people that Donald Trump wants to protect. And the dawning realization that the Number One person he wants to protect is...himself.

Maybe it's the "No New Wars" peacenik America First isolationist, suddenly plunging into an unnecessary and brutal conflict with a large nation of 90 million people. The reasons shift, but the biggest one is the wolf warning cry that they were two weeks away from a nuclear weapon, and we wouldn't want an unbalanced, mentally deranged leader to have a nuclear weapon, would we? These are the same potential weapons that the Emperor had declared just a few months ago that we had completely obliterated in Operation Midnight Hammer.

Now, those who had supported him are beginning to question other things. I was surprised to see the Butler assassination attempt re-emerge recently on social media. And it wasn't because of left-wing accounts. The suspicions were coming from MAGA!

The suspicions had grown so great that the recent incident at the White House Correspondents' Dinner was largely disbelieved. The immediate response by many was that it was also staged. The credibility of dear leader has declined so badly that a significant swath of his own supporters no longer believe him.

Were these assassination attempts staged? I have no idea. Many open questions surround both incidents. I really miss effective independent journalism, and I really wish that some modern-day Woodward & Bernstein would get to the bottom of it.

The deterioration is finally affecting his poll numbers. His approval rating has plummeted to the low to mid-thirties. Personally, I feel like his popularity should never have risen above one percent, but I have always recognized that he has no clothes and that he CONSTANTLY cries wolf.

For those of you who are finally waking up to this and are finally absorbing the lessons of these fairy tales, I welcome you aboard. I'm sorry you didn't wake up until democracy was in the ICU, but I'm glad you're here now.

Now we have to emulate Hungary and vote in numbers that are too big to ignore, with a single voice that no amount of gerrymandering and voter suppression can silence.

Please join me in voting out every Trump-loving Republican in the midterms this Fall.

The Most Fiery Consequence of Who is now President

 The blog article just before this answered the question Does it Matter Who the President Is?

It listed many consequences to the Trump Presidency, but I inadvertently left off the biggest one of all.

That's climate change. Global warming. It's not a myth. It's a scientific fact. And it's rapidly changing the viability and livability of our planet.

It's not happening as fast as originally projected. It's happening faster. Scientists are constantly having to accelerate the timetable for the deterioration of our climate.  

Extreme weather is becoming more and more common. Global average temperatures continue to soar. And, in the near future, climate refugees will even dwarf political refugees.

Our time to effect this is dwindling. Even if we had the right leadership, at this point, we can only mitigate rather than achieve a complete reversal.

The Orange Conman and his billionaire cronies are putting in policies that put us at the very top of this temperature pathway chart. Rather than embrace new technologies, they firmly embrace fossil fuels and all the devastation that their continued use will cause.

We are galloping, GALLOPING in the complete opposite direction we need to go.

The only way we could bring a quicker demise is if Trump's warmongering leads to nuclear war. Sadly, I can't rule that out.

It Makes No Difference Who Is President? Are You Serious?

 

The following is a Facebook post I posted on February 28th:

Shortly after Trump was announced the winner of the 24 election, someone told me not to worry. It really didn't matter who the President was. After one year of this madman, and especially this morning when the "Peace Presdient" has taken us to an unecessary war that will very likely result in the loss of lives of ourr sons and daughters (and the slauglter of countless Iranian citizens), I have to ask him, "Do you still think it makes no difference who is President of the United States?" But I can't. It might cause a rift in the organization we both attend.

He thinks himself neutral. He is not. He is very conservative, but with so much extremism around here, relative silence stands out as middle of the road.

For the last ten years, I have felt pent up and angry. It has been everything I can do to hold my temper in check.

I had an opportunity to ask him this about a week ago. I passed. Call me a coward if you want. But I have to constantly measure the collateral damage a remark can cause. And I decided it wasn't worth it.

But the question remains. Do you still think it doesn't matter who the President is?

Would we be currently engulfing the world in flames due to a war of choice? Would a school filled with young girls still be with us? Would any other President be stupid enough to be sucked in by Netanyahu's idea of obliterating Iran? The answer is no. No other president would have done this, especially without explanation or preparation. Bush and Cheney propagandized for a year or more before invading Iraq.

Would any other President been stupid enough to think that blanket-level tariffs were good economic policy? All that it has done has raised prices for average Americans and turned many of our allies against us. The big lesson for other countries is to build up their markets by excluding the United States. And hey, let's give 40 billion dollars to newly fascist Argentina, and prop up their beeef market over the Uniyted States! And hey, American farmers, don't worry! We'll bail you out with billionsmore of US taxpayer money!

Would Renee Good and Alex Pretti still be alive if we had a different President? Of course they would! And countless others who have been killed and/or dragged away by ICE. They're not going after the worst of the worst. They're dragging off and kidnapping US citizens, and that's bad. But they're not targeting the worst of the worst - those undocumented who have committed violent felonies. No, they're persecuting even those playing by the rules, people showing up for immigration hearings, trying to follow procedure. They're arresting people at workplaces - going after individuals - not the businesses that hire and exploit them. People are going to detention centers and then disappearing - no one knows where they've gone -deported, moved to another camp, murdered? We just don't know.* There is no exemption in Christianity where you get to treat people like they're less than human.

Would we have a President who, along with his cronies, is making billions off of corruption? No, there has never been anything like it. This is at a level we have never seen before and would never see with any other President.

Would the lgbtq+ community be made to feel less safe with any other President? I don't think so. The trans community, less than 1% of us, is being scapegoated and villainized. This is a trend in Republican politics, to attack and persecute minority communities, but the focus on trans people has been vicious and dangerous. Of course, hatred is not just reserved for them; they are just the most vulnerable. Somalis, Mexicans, Muslims - anything to make the blood boil in reich-wing America.

We elected someone who WEKNEW was a close associate of Jeffrey Epstein, the most notorious pedophile of modern times, who appears in the Epstein files more often than God and Jesus do in the bible. We have those in this country who close their eyes and pretend Trump wasn't involved. Trump wasn't a client. Trump was IN on it, part of the small inner circle planning and perpetuating this monstrosity. He owned teen beauty pageants and "modeling" agencies. He bragged about how his celebrity allowed him to get away with sexually assaulting women. They have tried to censor his name from what is released, but enough has slipped through that you have to know in your heart that he is every bit the monster that Epstein was.

I could go on and on. There are some things that are only happening, or happening at such an intense level, because we have a narcissistic, adjudicated sexual assaulter, adjudicated fraudster, convicted felon, racist, dementia-riddled, body-disintegrating, mad conman as President of the United States.

Of course, it matters who is President of the United States. Sometimes the differences are subtle. And sometimes they are apocalyptically crushing.

Guess which one Trump is?

Ice Hits Close to Home

 

Linda Davis, beloved teacher.

As terrible as some things are, we fool ourselves into thinking that they are too distant from us to impact us. Minneapolis is many hours and states away from where I live. They are mainly targeting Democratic cities, and I live in one of the reddest counties on the planet. Nothing has happened to jar loose any of the 90% who voted for Trump and pals in elections here.

But a terrible tragedy has struck close to home. The madness that is ICE struck in Savannah.   Rather than me stumbling trying to describe what happened, I will let this news story written by Margaret Coker in The Current Ga outline it for you.

"A Chatham County elementary school teacher en route to work early Monday was killed after a man trying to flee federal immigration agents rammed her vehicle on Whitefield Avenue near the Truman Parkway, according to county police.

Linda Davis, a longtime teacher at Herman W. Hesse K-8 School was pulled from her crushed Lexus sedan by emergency personnel but later pronounced dead at the hospital. The driver who allegedly hit her, 38-year-old Oscar Vasquez-Lopez, was arrested by Chatham County Police and charged with homicide and reckless driving, police said.  

The fatal collision occurred around 7:20 a.m. less than a half mile from Hesse after agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) tried to pull over the vehicle driven by Vasquez-Lopez, according to police and eyewitnesses. 

Although Monday was a school holiday, Davis was due to attend teacher training that morning at the elementary school that serves a large number of Spanish-speaking children. Vasquez-Lopez appears to have driven through the red light on Whitefield on the east side of the Truman at such speed that the front and side of Davis' vehicle was crushed, witnesses told The Current GA. 

Around 7:30 a.m., before emergency workers arrived at the scene, two masked immigration agents dressed in tactical gear detained one person and ushered him to one of their two vehicles parked along Whitefield Avenue, according to two eyewitnesses. It is unclear if that person was Vasquez-Lopez or someone else. 

It is unclear whether federal agents offered any emergency assistance to the special needs teacher. Three eyewitnesses told The Current that they did not see anyone attending the mangled black Lexus before Chatham emergency services arrived at 7:45 a.m. and pried Davis from her vehicle.

Chatham County police said that they had not been aware of any planned immigration enforcement operations on Monday and were not involved in any when the collision occurred."

END Article inclusion

ICE, looking for suspects, apparently decided to harass around an elementary school, began a car chase in an area where they put others at risk. This led to a crash that took Linda Davis's life. The so-called criminal, Vasquez-Lopez, had NO criminal record.* The chase was dangerous and unwarranted.

But this hits even closer to home for us than even Savannah. Two of the witnesses were people we know. I haven't seen their names in print, so I won't name them. One is a lifelong friend of Alison's who grew up in Pierce County. The other is a close friend of one of our church family, and I believe grew up in Ware County. They are both good friends and good people, ones we still see several times a year. They escorted us around Savannah a few years ago and were great hosts, hitting up a lot of the foodie spots.

One of them worked at the school system with Linda Davis. Both of them adored her. Both of them were horrified by what ICE had done.

No one is safe. The horrors of the Trump administration will affect us all.

Even if you think the undocumented are a problem that needs to be dealt with, I think you have to agree that this is not the way to go about it. Too many innocents are being killed or wounded, many others are having their lives and families disrupted, and some are just disappearing to God knows where.

Remember, being undocumented is a civil offense, not a criminal one. THE UNDOCUMENTED ARE NOT CRIMINALS.

If you live in Southeast Georgia, you should be looking at The Current GA. Please search for it or link it to your social media. There are few truly independent, investigative news sources left. We should cherish those that we can find.

Until next time.

T. M. Strait

AOC '28

The Appearance of Resistance

 

January started out rough.

The invasion of Venezuela. 

The ICE-engineered violence in Minneapolis.

The sabre-rattling over Greenland threatens to destabilize the entire world.

Not to mention the illegal noncompliance over releasing the Epstein files.

Our slow roll to fascism was picking up a tremendous head of steam.

But then, unexpected checks came into play.

In Venezuela, the gush of cheap oil became questionable.  The big oil companies proved reluctant to invest billions in something they were unsure would justify the results.  There is no surge of democracy or freedom, as the President seems satisfied to leave the country inthe hands of Maduro's subordinates - as long as the President gets to dip his beak into their riches.  He seems reluctant to take the next steps, so this great colonial exploitation remains frozen.

We were rescued from an invasion/takeover of Greenland, not because of a burst of conscience from Trump or MAGA, but by the reaction of Wall Street.  A slumping market reaction caused TACO to retreat. Good? Yes, I guess so.  But it is rather frightening to think the moral compass of the US is now the stock market.  The same group that rises in delirium when unemployment goes up? Boy, are we in trouble!

I don't know what's going on with the Epstein files.  But despite all the noise, people still want them to come out, even many MAGA supporters.

The hopes with the ICE invasion of Minneapolis was to rile up the citizens enough to justify a martial law takevoer of Minnesota.  It was a test to see how Trump's Gestapo could shut down a state and its elections.

They failed to achieve this.  Instead, the good people of Minneapolis took to their whistles and phones and recorded the insanity and violence that ICE was bringing. The resulting tragedies that occurred were recorded, and the lies the Trump administration tried to impose on them made it impossible for people to believe them.  All but the most MAGA-infused could see, undeniably, the federal government was lying to them.

They are not out of Minneapolis yet, but they are in retreat.  They are like a snake that has not yet realized that its head has been cut off.

The battle against fascism is far from over.  But we have gained a foothold against the avalanche of evil and suppression they have hurled at the American people and the world at large.

Resistance is not futile, but itain't easy.

God bless Renae Good. God bless Alex Pretti, and the minimum seven others who were killed by ICE so far this year. God bless the people of Minneapolis and the countless others across the world who are standing strong.

May the force of goodness, decency, and hope be with you all.

We're Running Out of Time

 

For the first time, I am doing the reverse of what I usually do - instead of first posting this as a blog entry, I wrote directly on Facebook. Yes, it received much more reaction than when I try to post my blog directly onto Facebook.

I am putting it here now for my handful of readers who go directly to the blog. You will always be first in my heart!

We're running out of time.

We may have a week to ten days, and it will be too late by then.

We're not going to make it three years. We may not even make it this month.

Things are accelerating far too fast.

Minneapolis is under attack RIGHT NOW. People are dying RIGHT NOW. What happened to Renae Good is, tragically, just the beginning.

The Venezuelan takeover was not just horrible; it made no sense whatsoever. The oil is not wanted, not at the cost of developing it. It is the beginning of an evil dream to dominate and exploit ALL the people in the Western hemisphere, not for the benefit of the American people, but for Trump and a handful of his billionaire buddies.

The biggest nightmare right now is Greenland, and how Trump wants to take it over. For the same reasons as Venezuela, for the exploitation of resources to benefit the few. If he does this, it will trigger World War III. And this time, we'll be the bad guys. We'll be fighting our own alliance - NATO.

He is marching towards this. I wish it were a joke, just his usual bluster. But we can't count on that. Too much is at stake. I have already read that many children in Greenland are terrified and have trouble sleeping at night. Trump supporters - THIS IS WHAT YOU HAVE LED US TO.

We may have a week or two before we are on a course that we cannot reverse.

Impeachment is too slow. The 25th Amendment is not likely. And JD Vance waits in the wings.

We need Republicans to pass a measure that makes it clear he can't invade any NATO country or ally. We need it NOW.

Most importantly, we need someone to make the ultimate sacrifice. Someone who knows and can do so to release the unredacted Epstein Files.

I'm open to other ideas, but it has to happen FAST.

We're running out of time.

Flash Fiction: I Read the News Today

 

I read the news today.

Well. I read some headlines on my phone. I had a choice between several sources.  Which one you picked depended mostly on which billionaire you liked best. 

They all pretty much said the same thing.  Explaining in great detail why Greenland should be a part of the United States.

One billionaire said it should be for national security.  He had many military contracts with the United States.

Another billionaire said it should be to gain the oil resources under the permafrost.  The implication was that Greenland would become more valuable as global warming melted its glaciers.

Yet another was a tech bro, and coveted the abundance of rare earth elements - once again, under the melting permafrost.

Finally, one was a real estate mogul who saw it as an opportunity for development.  It helped that he was also the son of a former President of the United States.

I wondered who lived there and what they thought.

For that, I would have to read deeper.  I wasn't going to do that. Too much time.  I had other stuff to do. I had to get to my second job. Help earn enough to keep the family afloat amid our rising bills.

I thought about stopping at Chick-fil-A for a morning biscuit.  But I didn't want to spend $12.99 to get that.  I could eat after work.  Esmerelda, my beautiful partner, was a whiz with PB & J.  If she had any time between her three jobs.

I arrived at Hobby Lobby at 6 AM, just in time for my morning shift: stocking, cleaning, and preparing sales merchandise for the store's 9 AM opening.  Today was going to feature a special on the Twin figurines - Jesus blessing his representative on Earth, President Vance.

There was also a display honoring our dedicated immigration enforcement agency, ICE.  Last year, this day was declared National ICE Recognition Day, where we celebrated their vigilant protection of our borders and saving us from the wrath of the evil and illegal aliens.

Not all the aliens were deported, of course.  Many remained in camps, and as prisoners, supplying their labor to farmers and hotel owners, and maintaining the yards and homes of our beneficiaries of the Prosperity Gospel. I had a friend tell me this was just a modern form of slavery.  We had no follow-up conversations.  He was sent to a re-education camp.  We had a lot of camps.  None that I would want to go to, though.

My two workmates, Marvin and Matilda, and I worked hard and got the store in order with fifteen minutes to spare.  We thought we could take a few minutes to relax, but the manager told us to re-clean the windows.  Again.  For the third time this morning.

The doors opened.

The crowd came in.

They were very white.

As usual.

It's another great day in the Kingdom!

All hail President Vance and his lovely spouse, Vice-President Kirk-Vance!

Taking the Wrong Fork

 

Global warming/climate change is real.  It's not a debate.  It's a reality. Even Trump knows this.  He won't tell you this.  But you can see from his behavior and actions.

With climate change advancing faster than scientists anticipated, we are at a fork in the road.  Which fork, which path will we take?

One fork leads to greater conservation efforts, a move away from the damage done by fossil fuels and towards alternative fuel sources that are less harmful to the planet. It requires science and international cooperation.  It may result in energy sources that are more universal but less profitable to the multinational corporations.

Some nations are striving that way.  But, clearly, the United States is not.

They have chosen a different fork.  This fork leads to...

Resource Wars!

In that scenario, we do not change or evolve.  We do not develop (or prioritize) energy alternatives.  We double down on the fossil fuels that are destroying us.  We use our strength and power to take what we want.  

It is not to benefit the nations we are robbing.  It really does not even benefit us.  What it does is enrich the multinational oil companies.  What it does is increase the wealth and power of the billionaire class.  It enriches the Trump family.

The damage it does to the planet is not their concern.  They see it as a problem for another generation.  Their plan is to take advantage of the planetary changes to enrich themselves.

It will take a lot of moolah to survive what's coming, and they will have it in spades.

Stripping Venezuela of its terrible dictator is one thing.  Running Venezuela is another.  The trump administration has made it clear that the priority is resource exploitation, not the democratic liberation of the Venezuelan people.  The Nobel Prize winner, Machado, whose opposition candidate won the last election (but was denied victory), has been deemed "too unpopular" to be allowed to take control.  This is by the man whose popularity in this country is hovering around 35%, and will most likely rocket further downward.

It's not just the oil; it will take a lot of time and investment to have any impact on world oil supply or price.  It's the rare-earth elements that the billionaire tech bros drool over. This AI revolution comes at a high cost, in its incredible consumption of water and electricity, and rare earth elements.

Speaking of water, the resource wars over fuel will seem minuscule compared to the fight over dwindling supplies of fresh water.  Oh, Lord, I would not want to be living in Phoenix, Arizona.

A super reveal of how much the Trump administration accepts climate change is the incredible lust for Greenland.  As the glaciers and permafrost melt, more and more resources will be discovered.  Greenland will be a vast treasure trove for the wealthy elite.

There can be no doubt that we have taken the wrong fork in the climate change road.  In a contest between a dangerously altered Earth and an all-out cooperative mitigation effort, it is incredible how much the scent of money can steer people away from decency.

Nothing is going to get the US off this path for the next three years.  Even if Trump is replaced, they'll still control everything.  Vance is a billionaire bro B-boy.  Midterms won't matter.  They don't need Congress to do what they want.

I'm sorry, this isn't a feel-good post.  Even if Americans wake up, it is much too late. At some point, we can reverse course, back up, and get on the right fork in the road, one that leads to conservation and science-based solutions.

I'm not optimistic.