What can be done about a defendant who doesn’t seem to care about a judge’s threat to make every negative inference when arriving at a verdict, because this gigantic ego refuses to cooperate, refuses to answer the questions posed him as he sits in the witness stand and tries to turn a court session into a political rally?

What do we do when a defendant appears to be daring a judge to find him in contempt?

His supporters, no doubt, are cheering Trump on. They love that he’s acting out, succeeding, in their eyes, in getting the judge to lose his cool, to lose control, though apparently oblivious to the potential outcome of Trump’s boorish behavior: he could end up in jail, if the judge has the courage to pursue that option.

How much more can the judge take before he goes there? Before he does what I hope most of the country would love to see—Trump being handcuffed and escorted from the courtroom to a jail cell?

Here we have a narcissistic windbag who continues to feast on any press, good or bad, riding the coattails of once being POTUS, bleeding that stint dry, acting as if none of what’s happening is real or has any basis in fact. Of course he’s going to do whatever he can to keep from incriminating himself, but his bloviating and bluster and disrespect, his neverending rants about victimhood and total disregard for decorum are wearing thin. Who does he think he is?

Is it as predictable or karmic as “what goes around comes around?” Why is it that we as a nation still find it difficult to swear off of this dunce cap in a suit? He’s been a distraction for at least eight years now. It’s time for him to face a reckoning. And to shut the hell up.

He has reacquainted us with the periodic tendency to forget who we are, though. I’ll give him that much.

They’ll get their memorials and statues. Candles and other flames will burn in perpetuity, a Foundation might be started, because that’s all we can do for them. Sort of like “thoughts and prayers” after a classroom’s worth of first graders is mowed down by an evil crazy person.

Our soldiers who go off to war and don’t come back will be remembered as fallen heroes who answered the call to duty, who died too young, too soon. Those left behind will ask “Why?” and there will be no good answer. There will never be a good answer, except to admit to the same old story– that we are slow to learn, and are as yet unable to move beyond pettiness and the relentless need to prevail.

Well, that and believing that the fight is all about God’s will. No one dare forget what God ordains in the midst of all this tragedy and bloodshed and squandered promise.  

If there are words that suffice to capture the violence and depravity and selfishness we see all around us, I want to know what they are. I want to capture the essence of this moment in human history, a moment that in some ways is like others that have preceded it, yet is somehow emerging as a watershed moment for me, because I’ve come to realize that the human race is just a more sophisticated animal that is evolving too slowly—assuming that evolution moves us toward some kinder, gentler, and wiser version of ourselves.

Maybe it won’t do that. Maybe it’s the opposite. Maybe we won’t get in on any of the improvements that’ll be hardwired into our future relatives. Or maybe that’s just not how any of this works.

We awaken every morning to news that disappoints, that frightens, that angers, that chips away at hope and has us rolling our eyes. We are made to feel that we’re on a path to inevitable ruin, but that, somehow, we still have time to make things right, to change course. It’s just a matter of will…

But of course it’s more than that. It’s a matter of leadership and courage, of rational behavior, of making better choices. A matter of enough people being both satisfied and unsatisfied with how life is going, freed from the curse of pride and self-indulgence, from the draining rigors of basic survival, and energized by the possibilities of an honorable cause, a vision enough of us can agree is worth pursuing.

Man, I am rambling. Lots of words but not much being said.

And it’s November. We turn the clocks back this weekend, which begs the question: Why are we still doing this? I don’t get it, have stopped trying. I guess because we’ve done it for so long that we just keep doing it?

Is this the last time? Does anyone know? Personally speaking, I’d be good with staying on Standard Time all year. I don’t need sunlight at 5am or until 9pm in the summer, when it’s 150 degrees out.

I guess Ben Franklin mentioned it way back when, and it went into limited practice in Europe during WWI, then it benefited farmers with more daylight in which to farm. But let’s just go with the way we kept time before the changeover was officially sanctioned in 1966.

Let’s go back to just plain old Standard Time, because that’s the most “natural,” considering that timekeeping is a human construct, anyway.

Or, is there a more beneficial, sensible way of organizing our 24 hours? If there is, let’s legislate the hell out of it and stick with it, chalk one up for bipartisanship.

The trouble with hiding behind biblical inerrancy is that eventually one paints oneself into a corner.

I understand that the Bible reflects certain truths, but I also get my information and guidance from other sources. I acknowledge that the Christian Bible is comprised of two Testaments—Old, and New. My observation of certain people in positions of power is that they—whether for reasons of convenience or motivated by fear—seem to want to linger in the Old Testament, where one can more easily find the language of law and prohibition and a God who rains down judgment on anyone who “disobeys.”

The world as we know it, as it comes at us each day, is more complicated than these people would like it to be. They would benefit from guidance found in the New Testament, but they don’t like going there, because there they will find guidance and admonition from Jesus, who had much to say about loving one another. It is in the New Testament that we’ll find numerous accounts of Jesus’ confrontations with authorities who preferred a narrow reading of who’s in and who’s out.

There is also much to be commended in the writings of Paul, in whom, New Testament scripture tells us, Jesus worked a miraculous 180, and from whom we get passages like 1 Corinthians 13 and Romans 12. It seems more often than not that certain leaders on the right ignore such passages because of their exhortations to, as Jesus teaches in Matthew 7, pay attention to the log in our own eye before worrying about the speck in someone else’s.

Life is easier when it’s clear who can be blamed, who’s doing life “wrong.” This is why, when I learned that the new Speaker of the House is a biblical literalist, I cringed. Because experience should tell us, by now, that such a person is operating heavy machinery with insufficient training. Flying blind, maybe by choice. And he should know better.

Just what we need.

A Speaker with hard right views. A biblical literalist, which probably means he also believes that the Bible is the inerrant word of God and that there were dinosaurs on the Ark, which, by the way, is reproduced cubit for cubit in Kentucky. Fun for the whole family!

The days and months ahead are going to be the kind of interesting that many have had enough of, made even moreso by the presence of a person who needs look no further than the Bible for his inspiration and guidance.

Uh oh.

Mr. Johnson’s unpacking of what Jefferson intended by separation of church and state is nothing more than a wrong-headed extraction of convenient conclusions. He apparently isn’t familiar with the function of a wall—it separates two spaces. It is not porous, nor does it allow easy access from one direction.

It’s a fucking solid wall- with studs and drywall. And insulation.

And we were worried about Jim Jordan.

It’s as if the rest of the world can’t comment on what’s going on in the Middle East. We can’t possibly know the trouble Jews have seen in their long, tortured history. So, for the rest of the world, it’s hands off– we best keep our opinions to ourselves. Sometimes it feels like we’re not allowed to understand.

There’s no getting up to speed. The rest of us need have nothing to say about Israel’s single-minded response to the events of October 7, even as thousands of Gazans suffer beyond imagining.

Of course it’s difficult to show restraint when your citizens are butchered and the perpetrators react as if God is pleased by the ruthlessness and bloodshed! Israel has responded with understandable, unapologetic, determined, even disciplined rage. But the collateral damage is a weight Israel must bear. How can it not consider the welfare of those who are caught in the middle?

It must be difficult to pick your fight, or take the time to be careful, when things are this raw and messed up. War is war. There’s nothing fair about it. And yet, restraint must be shown.

Israel seems to have given up on restraint. But it’s hard to know for sure, because no one can walk a mile in their shoes.

As much as it sounds like just another wack-a-doodle conspiracy theory, as much as people would vehemently take exception to it, I can’t help wonder if Netanyahu and others had the intelligence about the October 7 invasion and purposely sat on it, dismissing Hamas’ convictions and intent, and considering it instead to be a timely diversion from all his troubles.

Nah, how could he ever consider such a thing? But then he could swing into action, talk tough, and look like a leader.

Doesn’t seem to be working, if that’s how it went down (and it’s probably not).

The headline this morning is that people don’t trust Bibi. He’s damaged goods, caught in a maelstrom. But what is Israel to do if, in the midst of a war, they have to think about picking another Prime Minister?

Maybe such a step is called for, even needed, before more lives are needlessly sacrificed in the name of… what? Prolonging the agony on all sides and creating even more ill will and hardened feelings?

Mike Johnson is still a bit of an unknown quantity, but what I’ve seen so far is another sickeningly slick, buttoned up politician wound tighter than a cow’s ass in fly season who spouts the party line. He’s a Christian conservative who’ll have trouble admitting that human beings are more complicated than he wants them to be. And the Bible doesn’t have as much to offer in the way of guidance on certain issues as he probably thinks it does.

Johnson reminds me of Henry Gibson’s character in The Blues Brothers movie. I’m sure any resemblance is purely coincidental.

People don’t really know what talent is. They’ve grown accustomed to cookie-cutter mediocrity. They just respond to things that “move” them– a pretty face, lyrics that touch a chord, or a rumbling base line. That’s always been the case, I guess, but it’s the musicianship part that gets under my skin. Or maybe authenticity.

With few exceptions, today’s mainstream “artists” are a dime a dozen to me, less organic. Any dreamer with a decent voice can be made a star. It’s mostly manufactured, formulaic, auto-tuned sameness. Seems tough to argue against Top 40 or whatever the metric is today being full of so-called music that sounds basically bland and contrived—whether pop or country or rap. Hip-hop does sound all the same, with an occasional catchy melodic hook, so that has to be about the words and the anger and rawness.

There was no better time for originality and substance— regarding musicianship, lyrics, and melody—than the 60s and 70s. And of course my argument is just one more subjective rant, another tired, generational complaint. But I bet there are many others who feel the same way. And they’re not all as old as I am.